UN rights chief alarmed by rising hate speech amid elections flurry

The UN rights chief voiced alarm Wednesday at a hardening of rhetoric, including hate speech and dehumanising language against migrants and other minorities, linked to elections in Europe and elsewhere.

"This is an alarm bell," Volker Turk told reporters in Geneva.

He warned of rising populism, hate speech and scapegoating as a record number of countries are holding elections this year.

While refusing to comment on specific election campaigns playing out, as crucial votes loom in Britain and France, he decried that Europe had seen "a rise of hate speech, a rise in discriminatory discourse".

Turk said he was "worried" listening to the rhetoric surround recent votes, including the European parliament elections last month, which handed significant gains to far-right parties.

"I'm always worried when I hear narratives that denigrate the other, that dehumanise the other, that make scapegoats of migrants or refugees or asylum seekers or minority groups," he said.

"We need to be very vigilant, because especially history tells us, in particular in Europe, that the vilification of the other, that the denigration of the other is a harbinger for worse to come."

Turk insisted that those in power should make it very clear: "there should be zero tolerance for all hate speech".

Europe was not the only place Turk said he was concerned about, pointing to scenarios playing out around the world, including around the campaigns in the United States and in India.

He urged voters to study the programmes of political parties to ensure they respect human rights, "and that means the human rights of everyone".

While criticising the populists willing to use denigration and scapegoating to win political points, Turk said mainstream parties bore responsibility too.

"The traditional political parties never are self-reflective about how they actually could do their job in order to respond to legitimate grievances that populations and constituencies have," he said.

"We need to call out the hate speech and the dehumanisation and the scapegoating and the politics of distraction," he said.

"But we also have to push politics to do its job better."