Dr Joëlle Hivonnet, Chargé d’affaires, Presents Measures Adopted by EU to Address Discrimination and Hate

11.09.2019
Seoul

conference of the Asia pacific forum of national humans rights institutions

conference of the Asia pacific forum of national humans rights institutions

On 5 September, Dr Joëlle Hivonnet, Chargé d’affaires of the European Union to the Republic of Korea spoke at the 2019 Biennial Conference of the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions - Combating Hate and Discrimination: Dignity for All. She said the protection and promotion of Human Rights is a core value that the European Union is founded upon and key to its foreign policy. On hate speech and hate crime, Dr Hivonnet said they are specific phenomena that are clearly linked to discrimination and as such, they require specific action, explaining the laws against hate speech, hate crime and support services for the victims introduced by the EU and its Member States. In 2008, the EU adopted the Framework Decision on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law, which requires the EU member States to provide for criminal penalties for hate speech.