Liberation War Museum and GAAMAC jointly organise workshop on the Hate Speech Country Report

On May 3, 2023, the Liberation War Museum (LWM) and the Global Action Against Mass Atrocity Crimes (GAAMAC) co-organised a hybrid workshop to disseminate the Asia-Pacific Working Group (APWG) country report on hate speech in the South Asia region. The workshop was jointly coordinated by Mofidul Hoque, Director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Justice (CSGJ) and one of the founding trustees of the Liberation War Museum (LWM), and Babloo Loitongbam, Executive Director of Human Rights Alert (HRA), India. The event commenced through the welcome speech of Mofidul Hoque. Afterwards, a brief discussion on the background of the study by Cecilia Jacob, a fellow at the Australian National University and Co-Chair of APWG, was followed by online presentation of the country reports by six panelists.

While discussing the background of the report, Cecilia Jacob opined that hate speech and incitement constitute the early signs of atrocity crimes which is why understanding its dynamics is crucial to intervene earlier for the prevention of atrocities.

Regarding hate speech and incitement in the Philippines, Gani Abunda from Initiatives for International Dialogue remarked that although hate speech against the Bangsamoro people existed in the past, the rise of social media use has made the situation worse, as evidenced by the large-scale online hate campaigns that happened during and after the two incidents studied in the report, namely the January 2015 Mamasapano incident, and the May 2017 Marawi siege.

Similarly, during his presentation, Alif Satria from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Jakarta, highlighted his key findings from three case studies where he identified several enabling contexts and common phases that are generally involved in hate speech campaigns in Indonesia. 

Speaking about hate speech campaigns in Malaysia, Ruji Auethavornpipat, a senior research fellow at Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, noted how two interrelated incidents triggered hate speech campaigns in Malaysia. In his opinion, the government of Malaysia must play a central role in tackling hate speech campaigns in the country.

Highlighting upon the case of Myanmar, Dr. Noel M. Morada, Director (Regional Diplomacy and Capacity Building) at the Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) at the University of Queensland, and Co-Chair of APGW, stated that hate speech and incitement to violence remain a serious concern in the country because of existing prejudice against the Rohingya people. He further commented that the February 2021 coup had worsened the overall situation of mounting hate rhetoric in the country.

On the other hand, Cecilia Jacob talked about the study of hate rhetoric in India. She shared that hate speech and violence against religious and ethnic minorities in India have increased drastically since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist party BJP came into power in 2014 and again in 2019. In addition to that, she expressed her concern about social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook facilitating the spreading of hate speech and incitement to violence in the country.

Lastly, Hatizah Rashid, project officer (Partnerships and Engagement) at ANU College of Asia & the Pacific, shared her insights about hate campaigns in Pakistan. Hatizah commented that successive governments in Pakistan had encouraged the politicisation of religion to get electoral advantages and appease the local religious groups harbouring extremist ideologies. Similar to the previous case studies of other countries, she reflected upon how the increased social media usage has facilitated the spreading of hate speech and incitement to violence targeting religious and sectarian minorities in the country.

Representatives from different ministries like the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs, the Ministry of Education, the Information and Communication Technology Division, the Ministry of Law, and emerging scholars and researchers from different universities attended the workshop in person in the LWM premises. Apart from that, representatives of civil society organisations from Nepal, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan (in exile), India, and Pakistan also participated in the workshop online. The workshop was concluded with the closing remarks of Babloo Loitongbam followed by a Q/A session.

The event was covered by Mehjabin Nazrana, Research Assistant, CSGJ, Liberation War Museum.