Briefing on the Implementation of Resolution 2686 on Tolerance and International Peace and Security
Tomorrow morning (14 June), the Security Council will hold a briefing on the implementation of resolution 2686 of 14 June 2023 on tolerance and international peace and security, which was co-penned by the UK and former Council member the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide Alice Wairimu Nderitu is the anticipated briefer.
Resolution 2686 requested the Secretary-General to provide an oral briefing to the Council by 14 June 2024 on the resolution’s implementation “in the context of situations throughout the peace continuum which are on the agenda of the Council, utilizing information from available United Nations sources, including country teams, peacekeeping operations, and other United Nations personnel”. Nderitu is therefore expected to brief on developments related to several aspects of the resolution, which recognises that “hate speech, racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, related forms of intolerance, gender discrimination, and acts of extremism can contribute to driving the outbreak, escalation and recurrence of conflict” and urges states and international and regional organisations “to publicly condemn violence, hate speech and extremism motivated by discrimination including on the grounds of race, ethnicity, gender, religion or language, in a manner consistent with applicable international law, including the right to freedom of expression”.
Resolution 2686 was adopted following a high-level briefing on “The Values of Human Fraternity in Promoting and Sustaining Peace”, which the UAE convened on 14 June 2023 as a signature event of its presidency. The resolution was a parallel—although related—initiative to the high-level briefing. The meeting featured briefings by Secretary-General António Guterres; Sheikh Ahmed Muhammed Ahmed El-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of al-Azhar; Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States and International Organisations of the Holy See, and a civil society representative. Whereas the meeting focused more on the role of religious and community leaders in promoting co-existence as well as on religion-based discrimination, resolution 2686 had a broader focus, including by addressing such issues as racial and gender discrimination.
At tomorrow’s meeting, Nderitu—whose office serves as the global focal point for the implementation of the UN Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech, launched by the Secretary-General in June 2019—as well as many Council members are likely to focus on the harmful effects of hate speech. Speaking at the 14 June 2023 briefing, Guterres said that many situations on the Council’s agenda are affected by hate speech. He noted that the phenomenon is exacerbating tensions among communities and eroding trust in institutions in places like Bosnia and Herzegovina and Libya and warned about the proliferation of hate speech and dehumanisation of minorities such as the Rohingya in Myanmar and Yazidis in Iraq. Participants at tomorrow’s meeting may express concern about developments related to these and other country situations. Nderitu may particularly raise alarm about the situation in Sudan, as she did during her briefing at the Council’s annual open debate on the protection of civilians, held on 21 May. At that meeting, the Special Adviser warned that civilians in Darfur and El Fasher are “being attacked and killed because of the colour of their skin, their ethnicity and who they are…and are also being targeted with hate speech and direct incitement to violence”.
Nderitu and Council members may also express concern about the threats posed by misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech to the work of UN peace operations. Among other things, resolution 2686 condemned such acts and underscored the importance of strategic communications in countering mis- and disinformation. At the 14 June 2023 briefing, Guterres noted that in a survey conducted among UN peacekeepers in 2022, 75 percent of the respondents saw mis- and disinformation as a direct threat to their safety and security.
Nderitu may also describe how digital platforms have increased the challenges posed by mis- and disinformation and hate speech. She might highlight in this regard the UN’s role in combatting online incitement to discrimination and violence, and may provide an update on progress in developing a Code of Conduct for maintaining information integrity on digital platforms. This Code aims to offer a coordinated global response to information threats, grounded in human rights, including the rights to freedom of expression, opinion, and access to information. Council members previously discussed matters relating to the links between technology and the spread of hate speech in a 19 December 2023 Arria-formula meeting titled “Artificial Intelligence: Its Impact on Hate Speech, Disinformation and Misinformation”, which was organised by then-Council members Albania and the UAE and built on themes from resolution 2686.
Resolution 2686 requested UN peacekeeping and special political missions, within their mandates, to monitor hate speech, racism and acts of extremism that negatively affect peace and security, and to include these issues in their regular reporting to the Council. Nderitu may update members at tomorrow’s meeting about how UN peacekeeping and special political missions have been implementing this requirement. The resolution also asked the Secretary-General to swiftly inform the Security Council about threats to international peace and security in this regard, and expressed the Council’s intention to give its full attention to such information. To date, it does not appear that the Secretary-General has submitted such updates.
Although resolution 2686 was adopted unanimously, the negotiations on the text were difficult and several Council members expressed reservations about some aspects of the resolution. A fundamental issue for some Council members was to adequately balance language addressing the use of hate speech in the draft text with language protecting human rights, in particular freedom of expression. Several Council members also expressed concern about the use in the resolution of the term “extremism” without it being preceded by the qualifier “violent”, noting that such language could be used restrictively, including to target freedom of expression. It seems that the co-penholders maintained that a key objective of the resolution was to address extremism before it reaches the point of being violent, including through the promotion of tolerance and peaceful coexistence as preventive measures. During the negotiations, they added language contextualising references to “extremism” by, for instance, referring to “extremism driving the outbreak, escalation and recurrence of conflict”. (For more information on the negotiations, see our 14 June 2023 What’s in Blue story.)
Several Council members expressed their concerns about the resolution in their explanation of vote after its adoption. For instance, the US emphasised that the resolution should not be perceived as the Council’s granting of a license to states “to repress dissenting views under the pretext of ‘countering extremism’ or maintaining peace or societal harmony”. Switzerland expressed a similar position, while noting that it had ensured during the negotiations that the term “extremism” is sufficiently contextualised and that human rights were anchored in the text to avoid the resolution being used arbitrarily against individuals and groups exercising their freedom of expression and opinion.
At tomorrow’s meeting, Council members are likely to focus their statements on priorities that they also presented during the negotiations on resolution 2686. This includes a focus on the promotion of human rights and of freedoms such as those of belief and expression. Some may emphasise in this regard that the need to fight hate speech cannot come at the expense of freedom of expression. Some might also highlight the role of human rights in sustaining peace and argue that human rights violations can serve as an early indicator of the outbreak of conflict. Members may also highlight a range of factors that can strengthen societies’ resilience and capacity to build sustainable peace—such as education and the full, equal, and meaningful participation of women—and highlight exclusion and inequality as root causes of conflict.
