European body worried about Norwegian hateful rhetoric against immigrants

A European human rights body has expressed concern about immigrant-hostile speech and politicians' populist rhetoric in Norway's online debates, newspaper Aftenposten reported on Wednesday.

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), the Council of Europe's independent human rights monitoring body, has advised the Norwegian government to give the police a key role in preventing, monitoring and investigating hate speech online.

Units with special competence should also be established, like it was done in 2014 when opening a special police unit in Manglerud in Oslo whose job is to investigate and tackle hate crimes, the commission said in a report.

The ECRI would like to get measurable objectives in the integration politics, good relationship between the police and vulnerable groups and a data system for recordkeeping and monitoring of hate speech.

According to Aftenposten, the Norwegian Institute for Social Research is about to finish two reports on hate speech in Norway and the government has announced a strategy against hate speech.

Hate speech and hate crime have been the main topics on a seminar organized by Norwegian equality and anti-discrimination ombudsman this week after receiving the ECRI report. Endit