The dissertation of Tegan Snyman presents a human rights dilemma, as States must navigate between ensuring the right to free religious expression and the right to non-discrimination. Most domestic laws which regulate speech were drafted in line with specific standards set out in international human rights law (‘IHRL’), particularly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (‘ICCPR’) and the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (‘ICERD’). Whilst these standards contain a clear prohibition on speech which incites violence against others, other forms of hate speech which do not meet this threshold are not as clearly dealt within IHRL. Specifically, none of the treaties clearly indicate whether the religious nature of hate speech makes a difference when considering regulation, nor do they explicitly include ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ (‘SOGI’) as protected characteristics. Whilst the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of religion are fundamental, protected in treaty and custom alike, there does exist the possibility of the restriction, and sometimes even the prohibition, of expression – including religious expression. Further, ‘Hate speech’ in and of itself, is not regulated in international human rights law. This research analyses the possible obligations for States to regulate religiously motivated hate speech against queer people and aims to identify the resulting implications for the right to free religious speech. Combining doctrinal legal analysis with critical theories, this dissertation seeks to unpack speech regulation and anti-discrimination measures within international human rights law in order to understand if firstly, such speech may be regulated as well as, secondly, whether ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ are universally protected grounds against discrimination. Overall this research resolves the question regarding whether IHRL enables the protection of queer people from religiously motivated hate speech.
Snyman defended her thesis June 5th at Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam.
Promotors: Jeroen Temperman and Wibren van der Burg
Tegan Snyman
Religiously Motivated Hate Speech Targeting Queer People: An international human rights law analysis
Accessible via open access