Hate speech: Tackle causes, not symptoms.

It saw over 75 participants brainstorm on strategies to curb the spread of hate speech and identify Early Warning and Early Response, EWER, mechanisms for fostering social cohesion and peace.

The workshop also set up a hate speech monitoring and reporting task force to be managed by Civic Watch and the EU Delegation in Cameroon.

It was just one of numerous workshops, seminars, and conferences that has for over the years been holding in the country by various "stakeholders" including the National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism which is on the lead.

It would appear that last week's workshop was so important that the Minister of Communication and Government Spokesman, Rene Emmanuel Sadi, presided over it. 

He tasked civil society stakeholders, religious leaders, political parties, youth, as well as the media, to each be accountable for the protection of social cohesion, peace, and love for one another through defying hate speech.

He further lauded the initiative taken by Civic Watch organisation in establishing such a platform to sensitise the public, stressing that the government will spare no effort on its part to bring perpetrators of hate speech to face the law where need be.

Given the peril that hate speech causes in society, the minister deserves kudos for dangling the excruciating sword of justice to deter any potential perpetrator.

What the organisers of the workshop and those before them did, which is nonetheless praiseworthy, was just attempting to treat the symptoms of a disease that is almost a pandemic in Cameroon.

Can such a debases be effectively treated without a proper diagnose of the cause?

Hate speech which this daily newspaper deplores is not only limited to Cameroon. It is a global phenomenon in an increasingly polarised world and its devastation varies from country to country. 

It is becoming a pervasive problem reflective of underlying societal inequalities and divisions but the prescription is the same. We will explain.

The United Nations sets standards for member countries in accordance with international human rights law obligations for promoting inclusion, diversity and pluralism, as well as the numerous action plans and commitments in place to guide states. 

The instruments explain how governments and other actors can effectively tackle hate by promoting and protecting the mutually reinforcing rights of citizens to freedom of expression, freedom of religion or belief, freedom of assembly and equality.

Does the Cameroon government provide these freedoms? How often have rallies of opposition parties been proscribed by Divisional Officers with flimsy excuses that they pose a danger to public peace? Has the Cameroon press freedom index not been nosediving with each year?

How many times have international election observers and leaders of credible opposition parties demanded for a review of the electoral law which is said to favour candidates of the ruling party? 

Have human rights groups including the United States annual Human Rights report not criticised the CPDM government for being "tribalistic"? 

Have people of the North West and South West regions not been shouting at rooftops for being marginalised in every facet of development and top public appointment?

The answers are in the negative and contribute to the root causes of hate speech. It is on that background that the Head of State, President Paul Biya, created the bilingualism commission to appease the people of the two regions but the Commission is not succeeding because the root causes are not being addressed and it is incapable of solving the problem.

While the media can to a limited extent mitigate the spread of hate speech following the launch last week of “a multistakeholder platform to collect, analyse and flag factors of hate speech in Cameroon", the ball remains in the court of the CPDM government.

The Guardian Post recommends vehemently that the government should not just join civil society to push for a holistic and collective approach towards reducing hate speech.

It is the prime responsibility and duty of the CPDM regime to tackle the root causes including ensuring all the freedoms as enunciated by the United Nations, especially when the country will, be represented by H.E. Philemon Yang, for one year beginning next September, as President of the 79th United Nations General Assembly and the global media will focus on his country.