Distinguished panelists, participants and partners from around the world,

Warm welcome to all. Today’s discussion is about addressing online hate speech through collective efforts by parliamentary institutions, peacebuilders, civil society and media.

Allow me to begin by thanking SIPRI and the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs for giving UNDP the opportunity to hold this discussion. Also, a sincere thank you to our distinguished panelists for joining today to share your insights.

The UN recognizes the growing complexities and trends of online hate speech and how it promotes and glorifies violence and conflict. Hate speech is undermining inclusive governance efforts by discouraging women and other groups from being publicly and politically active.

We recognize that the spread of online hate speech is a whole-of-society problem and requires a whole-of-society responses in which representative institutions play an important role.

Urgent action of parliamentary institutions and parliamentarians is required to address the disenfranchisement both on the individual and collective level caused by online hate speech. Political parties need to take this into account when developing policies, as well as in promoting and supporting women candidates for elected office. Recognizing that women, LGBTQI and MPs of other minority groups are disproportionately targeted by online hate speech, political parties need to be resourced and supported institutionally to reverse this trend and offer alternative positive messaging and communication.

With your support as partners and under the UN Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech, UNDP is addressing online and offline hate speech, as well as misinformation and disinformation in 72 countries worldwide. Our programmes focus on online engagement by:

• First, building digital literacy by providing support to educational processes that help young people navigate a polarized and deceptive information environment online;
• Second, improving the capacity of electoral authorities to use digital media and fight against disinformation and hate speech during elections; and
• Third, offering alternative and positive narratives to counter online hate speech and prevent violent extremism embedded in better understanding of behavioral science.

To share some specific examples, UNDP supports several parliaments, among others, in Georgia, Trinidad and Tobago, Moldova and Fiji, in developing effective and responsible communication and public engagement strategies, including on the use of social media. Additionally, with support from the EU, UNDP developed an online curriculum for parliamentarians on effective and responsible use of information and communications technology, including for online public engagement.

Legislation is an important means of curbing hate speech, and UNDP also supports the reviews and reforms of legislation, policies and institutional practices that perpetuate stigma, discrimination and incitement to violence against many groups.

However, legislative legal measures alone are not the answer. Fostering and protecting an open, inclusive and diverse civic space is critical to the participation of all groups in the political, economic, social and cultural life of their societies without fear. Supporting systematic, sustained partnerships between representative institutions, citizens and civil society is at the heart of UNDP’s governance and prevention offers.

Moving forward, UNDP will continue to support our Member States and their parliaments in not only addressing hate speech at the institutional, collective and individual level, but also through leveraging partnerships. With support from the Government of Norway, we are leading on research to build a better understanding of the relationship between parliaments and hate speech and will soon provide training opportunities for parliaments on effective responses and partnerships to address this growing threat.

I look forward to today’s discussion to further promote these critical partnerships for more peaceful and inclusive societies across the world.

Thank you.