A UN committee will look into whether Danish citizens are "protected" adequately from "hate speech"

Copenhagen Post:

While the Danish People's Party weathers the storm of image crisis at home, the party's leader, Pia Kjærsgaard, is herself coming under the scrutiny of a UN committee for allegedly racist statements she made in 2003.

The committee will use the case to determine how well Danes are protected from hate speech.

Kjærsgaard wrote a letter to the editor in 2003 that blamed all Somalis for mutilating their children by circumcising them. In the letters, she compared the Danish Somali Association with paedophiles and rapists.

The Somalis were deeply offended by the comments and asked the Danish Racial Discrimination Documentation and Counselling Centre (DRC) to bring up their complaint before the courts.

The courts, however, have refused to take up the matter, and now the UN's Committee for Human Rights will look into whether it is fair the statements were allowed to be made without the possibility of Kjærsgaard facing reprisals.

'The committee will decide whether Danish citizens are protected from racist statements as the law outlines. It will look into a complaint - not against Pia Kjærsgaard - but against the Danish state and whether it has given Somalis the opportunity to charge Pia Kjærsgaard,' said DRC leader Niels-Erik Hansen.

The committee's decision to look into the matter comes as the People's Party, Denmark's third most popular party, is dealing with highly publicised episodes in which two of its members have been charged with making racist statements.

Apparently it is alright to be against freedom of expression as long as you claim that you are "protecting" people from "hate speech".

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