• Denmark failed to take effective measures against racist hate speech.
• CERD was found in favor of a Swedish man who filed a complaint against Denmark.
• Swedish man and other people of color were humiliated in a way that may promote racial hatred.

GENEVA – Denmark failed to take effective measures against racist hate speech than a decade ago when it abandoned an investigation into an art exhibition displaying “racial hate images,” according to a UN watchdog.

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) found in favor of a Swedish man who filed a complaint against Denmark’s failure to act on a 2014 art exhibit in which he and other people of color were humiliated in a way that may promote racial hatred.

“It does not suffice merely to declare acts of racial discrimination punishable on paper,” committee member Mehrdad Payandeh said in the statement.

“Criminal laws and other legal provisions prohibiting racial discrimination, including racist hate speech, must also be effectively implemented.”

Momodou Jallow, the former spokesman for the National Association of Afro-Swedes and the national coordinator for the European Network Against Racism in Sweden, filed the complaint in 2017.

He claimed that Danish police had dropped their investigation into a three-year-old exhibit at a private gallery in Copenhagen by Swedish street artist Dan Parks, who had already been jailed in Sweden for defamation and incitement to hatred.

Incitement to violence

Sponsored by the far-right Danish Individuals’ Party, the show contained an image of Jallow and two other black people hanging from a bridge, with the message “hang on, afrofobians,” while another depicted Jallow as a fugitive slave with the text “our negro slave has gotten away”.

Jallow filed a racial discrimination complaint against the musician and the organizers.

The Copenhagen state prosecutor initiated an investigation but later dropped it, citing national and European laws on free expression.

Jallow took his case to CERD after his appeal in Denmark was denied, claiming that the Danish judgment violated the convention.

The committee decided that the photos shown were racial hate speech expressions.

It recognized the importance of striking a balance between the right to free expression and the obligation to combat racist hate speech.

However, it stated that the representations and language, in this case, were especially problematic since they showed racial superiority and could instigate violence.

“Some of the pictures displayed specific anti-discrimination activists, with messages to humiliate them and tarnish their dignity, and that can incite racial hatred and violence,” Payandeh said.

The committee, whose findings and recommendations are non-binding but carry reputational weight, found that the Danish authorities had failed to respond to the issue in an adequate and proportionate manner.

Denmark should apologize to Jallow and provide “full reparation,” it stated.

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