Addressing hate speech

Responses to hate speech should be designed in line with the UN Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech. In line with this strategy, UNHCR has developed an action plan which sets out the response activities to hate speech below.

Social Listening of Hate Speech

• Set up systematic social listening of toxic narratives and hate speech to track developments. Continue leveraging existing and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence to monitor xenophobia, hate speech and discrimination in big data sources (e.g., social media). 

Work With Affected Communities

• Work with stateless and populations at risk of statelessness, forcibly displaced communities and the communities hosting them to identify root causes, drivers, actors of hate speech, and those most affected by them, and to strengthen community-based prevention and response mechanisms to address hate speech. 
• Continue to work with women, men, girls, boys and gender non-binary people of all backgrounds through participatory approaches that are inclusive and adapted and facilitate the collection and analysis of data disaggregated by age, gender, disability and other diversity characteristics where appropriate. 
• Establish partnerships and directly work with organizations and groups led by stateless and populations at risk of statelessness, forcibly displaced people to strengthen their capacity to identify, address and respond to protection issues affecting the community. 
• Work with affected communities to establish safe and accessible feedback and response systems, including for confidential reporting, in parallel with raising awareness on hate speech and necessary capacity building for them to be able to speak up for themselves. 
• Ensure programming is designed with communities and informed by the priorities and capacities of stateless and populations at risk of statelessness, forcibly displaced people in their AGD diversities.
• Foster partnerships with host communities for them to be able to provide support to stateless and populations at risk of statelessness, and forcibly displaced persons in responding to protection issues affecting them

Strengthen Capacity to Support Victims of Hate Speech

• Through protection referral mechanisms, refer victims of hate speech. As needed, link local-regional-global referral systems (especially in online space). If a referral mechanism that 
  includes victims of hate speech has not yet been established, it should be created in collaboration with relevant actors. 
• Ensure internal coordination between offices/ 
  countries-clarify responsibilities and referral pathways when cases are across borders or are identified through non-country specific channels. 

Convene Relevant Actors

• Engage with National Human Rights Institutions and committees/organizations led by stateless and populations at risk of statelessness, forcibly displaced communities and the communities hosting them. Consider engaging with regional structures as per relevant context. 
• Engage as well the Humanitarian Country Teams and the Protection Clusters in various field operations. Collect good practices on collaboration around addressing hate speech.

Engage With New and Traditional Media

• Leverage UNHCR’s existing work with traditional and new media. This includes leveraging and expanding existing resources (i.e. Social Media Guide for Community Based Protection). Establish organizational-wide guidelines for engaging with new and traditional media for protection. 
• Develop coordinated strategies on how to leverage existing media resources for protection outcomes. 
• Monitor hate speech in new and traditional media though data gathering and analysis. Manage media relations to maintain and advance relations with media professionals. Establish and strengthen media partnerships to address hate speech narratives, through the promotion of the rights of forcibly displaced and stateless people.  
• Strengthen capacity through training and learning programs for both media and staff to educate and empower both media and staff on working together in building healthy narratives about refugees, internally displaced and stateless people in a professional, respectful and engaging manner with strategic objective of achieving key protection asks.

Community Engagement

• Use community engagement as an education tool for addressing hate speech by working directly with communities to create sensitisation materials on human rights education and peaceful coexistence. Use participative methodologies for outreach and advocacy.

Address Root Causes

• Foster peaceful, inclusive and just societies to address the root causes and drivers of hate speech. Through community-based AGD and AAP approaches, continue to work with community structures and community-based organizations, including those among host communities, to promote peaceful co-existence and establish trust within and among communities 

Engage in Advocacy

• In parallel to the above mentioned points related to advocacy, continue to engagement with Human Rights Mechanisms. Regularly raise the issue of hate speech with all major social media companies, briefing on challenges and trends, providing examples and advocating for more action to tackle the issue.

Develop Guidance for External Communications

• Develop external communications strategies to mitigate toxic and divisive narratives about people forced to flee, recognizing the prevalence of distorted or fake news on many social media platforms. Show what refugees and host populations have in common, to challenge the “us versus them” idea and address damaging myths about refugees without legitimizing misleading rhetoric.

Leverage Partnerships

• Utilize and engage networks of partnerships to engage in initiatives aimed at inclusion and addressing xenophobia and discrimination.

Build Staff Skills

• Ensure staff training incorporates non-discrimination, anti-racism and non-stigmatization (as appropriate to the context). Ensure that available resources on hate speech are easily made available to all staff.

Support Member States

Where appropriate, collaborate with and/or offer support to States to address hate speech where it is identified as a specific issue with respect to stateless and populations at risk of statelessness, forcibly displaced communities and the communities hosting them.