3 - The Difficult Birth of the Right to Protection from Incitement to Hatred in International Human Rights Law

Summary

This chapter analyses in detail the travaux préparatoires of Article 20(2) of the ICCPR. The Article’s drafting history reveals that efforts to address advocacy of hatred within the ICCPR were, to a large extent, triggered by the bitter experiences caused by Nazi and fascist hate propaganda before and during the Second World War. The highly-charged and ideologically-polarized geopolitical environment of the cold war in the 1950s and 1960s significantly influenced the Article’s negotiations. The travaux préparatoires reveal that inclusion of the norm prohibiting incitement to discrimination, hostility, or violence within the ICCPR was highly controversial. The issues that caused profound controversies between the supporters and opponents of Article 20(2) relate directly to the five internal features of the norm identified in this book, which can be regarded as key thematic threads running through the debates.