The rise of populist politicians in Europe and other regions of the world is a major concern for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk.
Türk said in Geneva that hate speech is increasingly being employed during election campaigns in Europe, the United States and India, arguing that there should be no tolerance for such conduct in politics.
Asked about France, where Marine Le Pen's far-right nationalist National Rally won the first round of parliamentary elections on Sunday, Türk asserted: "I am always worried when I hear narratives that denigrate and dehumanize the other, that make scapegoats of migrants, refugees, asylum seekers or minorities."
"We need to be very vigilant," he added, ahead of the second round of voting in France this Sunday.
The Austrian lawyer criticized Europe's traditional political parties, which he said have failed to meet the needs of voters and have left citizens open to considering more extreme options.
"The traditional political parties are never self-reflective about how they actually could do their job in order to respond to legitimate grievances that populations and constituencies have," he said.
Türk drew on European history to warn that "the vilification of the other, the denigration of the other is a harbinger of worse to come."
He concluded: "It is an alarm bell that we need to ring."
