Report Launch: Hate Speech in Southeast Asia

Hate speech, often disseminated online, has surged following the COVID-19 pandemic. Asia Centre in its inaugural baseline study, Hate Speech in Southeast Asia, explains the background and the issues that lead to discrimination, violence and communal strife in the region. It examines the legal framework, in particular a slew of “harmony” bills aimed at securing social, racial or religious harmony as well as non-legal measures to foster social cohesion, interfaith dialogues and social harmony. It also evaluates states in Southeast Asia that signed the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).This study recommends a range of measures to alleviate the challenges arising from hate speech. Among them is a primary recommendation to officially recognise newer forms of hate speech and a set of secondary recommendations to promote understanding and diversity. Do not miss the launch of this very timely publication.

This launch is part a series of webinars in the lead up to Asia Centre’s international conference on Hate Speech in Asia: Challenges and Solutions scheduled 7-9 October 2020, Bangkok, Thailand. To submit an abstract for the conference, you can do so at this link: https://forms.gle/VDajnQtz66g5xhWZ7

｜Presenter
Dr. Robin Ramcharan, Executive Director, Asia Centre

｜Discussants

Nukila Evanty, Asia Centre Advisory Board Member and Executive Director, Women Working Group, Indonesia

Nur Judy binti Abdullah, Founder and Executive Director, Project Women and Girls Development, Brunei Darussalam

Rowan Reid, Program Manager, Internews

｜Respondent
Dr. James Gomez, Regional Director, Asia Centre

｜Moderator

Belen Bode, Partnership Officer, Asia Centre

Register at: https://forms.gle/JzhSVRLxM8B4jr9w6

Date: 22 July 2020
Time: 2 PM – 3.30 PM (Bangkok, Thailand GMT+7),
Registration from 1.45PM

Contact: research@asiacentre.org
Website: http://asiacentre.org/