Consultation on the use of the Internet for the purpose of incitement to racial hatred, racial propaganda and xenophobia

This report is the result of a request by the Commission on Human Rights to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to undertake a study on the use of the Internet to incite racial hatred and racist propaganda. A goal of the project was to explore means of promoting international cooperation by developing a program of human rights education over the Internet. The report is based on questionnaire responses received from 10 States, 1 United Nations body, 2 specialized agencies and 2 non-governmental organizations. The list of respondents is provided in the annex of the document. Although some states are at the embryonic stage of considering the issue of racism on the Internet, there were many suggestions for enhancing more positive use including: the possibility of documentation and registration; content filters; chat rooms for debates on the issues; and awareness raising through human rights educational tools. The report concludes by recognizing both the negative and positive aspects of the Internet as an information dissemination tool.