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Nils Muižnieks, the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human RIghts, has recently called for the introduction of broad-sweeping measures that would criminalise Holocaust denial and gender-based hate speech. However, while driven by good intentions, the proposals not only fail to find support in international law, but also stand to seriously dilute the fundamental right to freedom of expression.

The UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief recently explained that religious intolerance and hatred needed to be tackled by "trust-building" and not by prohibiting critical or even hostile speech. The Freedom Rights Project Aaron Rhodes blogs on the issue from the 25th session of the UN Human Rights Council.