About us
Hatred Monitoring Centre
Hatred Monitoring Centre (HMC) is a non-profit organisation (Charity number: 1212109) with the prime mission of documenting hatred campaigns and all forms of prejudice in the the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Initiating the charity resulted from debates and discussions on the ongoing systematic killings targeting ethnic minorities, including the Banyamulenge, Hema community, Congolese Tutsi and the Batwa.
Vision
Lack of attention of hate
HMC’s founders and initiators believe that one the challenges to prevent mass violence and genocidal killings against ethnic and linguistic minorities is the lack of attention to the danger associated with hatred campaigns and research-based information which in end opens rooms to manipulated narratives and . supports reconciliation initiatives.
Founders
Why ethnic minorities in DRC?
On the basis that they are not “real” Congolese, ethnic minorities in Eastern DRC are targeted by specific forms of violence that intends to get rid of them. On top of that, ethnic minorities are highly targeted by hate speech and online campaigns. While Eastern Congo conflicts have been extensively researched, there is yet scant research that documents the link between hatred campaigns and mass violence targeting these minority groups. Hatred Monitoring Centre has set out the mission to fill this gap.
HMC
UN definition of Hate Speech
There is yet no universal definition of hate speech under international human rights law. However, as per the United Nations, it “refers to offensive discourse targeting a group or an individual based on inherent characteristics (such as race, religion or gender) and that may threaten social peace.”
The UN Strategy and Plan of Action defines hate speech as “any kind of communication in speech, writing or behaviour, that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group on the basis of who they are, in other words, based on their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, colour, descent, gender or other identity factor.”