SCIENCE, TERROR AND HATE

The 21^st December is the beginning of the winter solstice, the shortest days of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. It has a mixed history.

Thomson

Nares

On the 21^st December 1872, HMS Challenger, commanded by Captain George Nares, set sail from Portsmouth and was known as the Challenger Expedition. The expedition, from1872 to 1876, was a scientific exercise that made many discoveries to lay the foundation of oceanography. Prompted by the Scot, Charles Wyville Thomson, of the University of Edinburgh and Merchiston Castle School—the Royal Society of London obtained the use of Challenger from the Royal Navy and in 1872 modified the ship for scientific work, equipping her with separate laboratories for natural history and chemistry. Under the scientific supervision of Thomson himself, she travelled nearly 70,000 nautical miles (130,000 km) surveying and exploring. The result was the Report Of The Scientific Results of the Exploring Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873-76 which, among many other discoveries, catalogued over 4,000 previously unknown species. John Murray, who supervised the publication, described the report as "the greatest advance in the knowledge of our planet since the celebrated discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries".

It was also on the 21^st December 1988 that a bomb exploded aboard Pam Am flight 103 causing the wreckage to fall on the town of Lockerbie in Scotland. Eleven residents of the town were killed along with the 270 passengers on the plane, citizens from twenty-one different nations. Not a good day in world history.

However, on the 21^st December 1965, the United Nations adopted the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). It is A second generation human rights instrument, the Convention commits its members to the elimination of racial discrimination and the promotion of understanding among all races. Controversially, the Convention also requires its parties to outlaw hate speech and criminalize membership in racist organizations. The Convention also includes an individual complaints mechanism, effectively making it enforceable against its parties. This has led to the development of a limited jurisprudence on the interpretation and implementation of the Convention. It entered into force on January 4, 1969 and as of October 2011 it has 86 signatories and 175 parties.

Hate speech is an unacceptable form of performance writing. Hate speech is, outside the law. In law, hate speech is any speech, gesture or conduct, writing, or display which is forbidden because it may incite violence or prejudicial action against or by a protected individual or group, or because it disparages or intimidates a protected individual or group. The law may identify a protected individual or a protected group by race, gender, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or other characteristic.

Unfortunately there are websites that use hate speech. Most of these sites contain Internet forums and news briefs that emphasize a particular viewpoint. There has been debate over how freedom of speech applies to the Internet. Conferences concerning such sites have been sponsored by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) also states that "any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law". There is an international consensus that hate speech needs to be prohibited by law, and that such prohibitions override or are irrelevant to guarantees of freedom of expression. The United States is perhaps unique among the developed world in that under law hate speech regulation is incompatible with free speech. I would suggest that expressions of hatred are not compatible with freedom of expression. Differences of opinion abound and are quite properly protected by freedom of speech. There is no problem with not liking another individual. The problem is that no one has a right to cause harm. If an expression causes harm, then it is outside of freedom of expression. It is no longer free speech. It is hate speech. Clearly the human race is sufficiently intelligent to make the distinction, except of course those who hate. That implies an element of ignorance, because they are incapable of making the distinction and fraudulently claim the right of free speech. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE!!!!