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HANS-JÖRG ALBRECHT 261 $4 Swiss Criminal Code; $283 $1, No. 3 Austrian Criminal Code; France: Art. 24 bis Loi du 29 juillet 1881 sur la liberté de la presse) and let public provocation of or calls for discrimination or hate suffice as a condition of establishing a criminal offence. The European Court of Human Rights when balancing Art. 8 (dignity and identity) and 10 ECHR points to thresholds in terms of calls for hatred or intolerance, a context marked by heightened tensions or special historical overtones and interference with the dignity of the members of affected communities ””. The second strand concerns successors of conventional blasphemy laws which after extensive criticism have been abolished now in most European countries. In principle it is (perhaps better: it was) uncontested that blasphemy laws are in breach of Art. 19 of the ICCPR. However, some European countries have retained or newly enacted criminal offence statutes which penalize insult/defamation of religion, again sometimes placed under the condition that insult is suited to disturb social peace or arouse justified indignation (see for example $166 German Criminal Code; Art. 261 Swiss Criminal Code; §188 Austrian Criminal Code’’). On the other hand, Denmark, Norway and Sweden have removed religious insult offence statutes completely from their criminal code books; in Norway this move was in part motivated by the 2015 attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris and the wish to avoid perceptions that religion is entitled to special protection (compared to other ideologies).*° The problematization of hate speech gaining momentum through emphasizing the internet and social media and increasingly placed under regulatory restrictions below the threshold of criminal law as well as “counter defamation discourses” spreading rapidly through international arenas have resulted in tests of the meaning and scope of freedom of expression in face of ? In line with Art. 6 of the Additional Protocol to the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, concerning the criminalisation of acts of a racist and xenophobic nature committed through computer systems, the Policy Recommendation No. 7 of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance on national legislation to combat racism and racial discrimination of 13 December 2002 and Art. 1 §1c Framework Decision 2008/913/ JHA. European Court of Human Rights Perincek v. Switzerland, Judgment 15 October 2015, No. 280. 28 Human Rights Committee: General comment No. 34. Article 19: Freedoms of opinion and expression. CCPR/C/GC/34, 12 September 2011, No. 48; Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression Promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. United Nations General Assembly, A/74/486, 9 October 2019, 10. For a complete overview of European criminal code books in this respect see Venice Commission, Blasphemy, insult and hatred: finding answers in a democratic society, Strasbourg, Council of Europe, 2010, 149-228. Representantforslag 59 L (2014-2015) fra stortingsrepresentantene Anders B. Werp og Jan Arild Ellingsen, Dokument 8:59 L (2014-2015). 27 29 30 + 110 +
