About the United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech.

In 2019, the United Nations Secretary-General launched the United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech with two overriding objectives:

• to enhance UN efforts to address the root causes and drivers of hate speech in a coordinated way, with a focus on education as a preventive tool to raise awareness and build unity.
• to focus on the United Nations response to The impact of hate speech on societies, with an emphasis on engaging with relevant actors, strengthening advocacy, and developing guidance for counternarratives.

The Strategy recognizes that hate speech is a precursor to atrocity crimes, including genocide. This was the case in the Holocaust as well as in Rwanda, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Cambodia. The United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect is the focal point for the Strategy and supports its implementation across the United Nations system and with other relevant actors.