A/HRC/42/58 Plan against Racial Discrimination. Venezuela also had special laws against discrimination, with emphasis on the protection of vulnerable groups, such as the Law on Labour that prohibited any distinction, exclusion, preference or restriction in access and working conditions, based on reasons of race, religion and social origin, among others. Another example of legislation in Venezuela was the Law on Social Responsibility in Radio, Television and Electronic Media, that prohibited the dissemination of messages that incited or promoted hate and intolerance for religious reasons, political reasons, gender differences, racism or xenophobia, as well as any other form of discrimination. That Law provided for sanctions against TV, Radio and electronic media broadcasters. In November 2017, as a consequence of the political violence in the country, the Sovereign National Constituent Assembly approved the Constitutional Law against Hate, for Peaceful Coexistence and Tolerance, that aimed to generate the necessary conditions to promote and guarantee the recognition of diversity, tolerance and reciprocal respect, as well as to prevent and eradicate all forms of hatred, contempt, harassment, discrimination and violence. The law prohibits propaganda and messages of intolerance and hate, including the responsibility for the dissemination of this type of messages through social networks that promoted war or incited national, racial, ethnic, religious, political, and social hate as well as ideological and gender discrimination. 75. Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation stated that the OIC countries were multicultural and multi ethnic. The OIC had since 2011 been leading on the Human Rights Council Resolution 16/18 on “Combating intolerance, negative stereotyping, stigmatization, discrimination, incitement to violence and violence against persons, based on religion or belief” at is implementation through the Istanbul process as a ways and means to address issues of religious intolerance around the world. The OIC considered it important to build a narrative with regard to racial discrimination against migrants and refugees in receiving societies and, thus, the importance for the Ad Hoc Committee to address the issue of hate speech, that could also take the form of xenophobic and Islamophobic speech. As the Secretary General of the OIC had been highlighting, Islamophobia was a contemporary manifestation of racism and combating Islamophobia as well as the vilification of religions and personalities sacred to religions was a matter of priority. 76. The European Union recalled the “Report on the study by the five experts on the content and scope of substantive gaps in the existing international instruments to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance” A/HRC/4/WG.3/6 of 27 August 2007. The delegate drew the Committee’s attention to paragraph 34 of the report: “The DDPA identifies lack of political will, weak legislation and lack of implementation strategies and overall concrete action by States as the major obstacles to overcoming racial discrimination and achieving racial equality. The DDPA stresses unequivocally that the faithful implementation of human rights norms and obligations, including enactment of laws and political, social and economic policies are crucial in this regard. It is in light of the nature of these obstacles that States should be specifically required to adopt and implement anti-discrimination legislation and equality policies as a matter of highest priority and urgency.” The delegate further cited from the report, noting that the experts did not identify substantive gaps in ICERD. Replying to the statement made by Pakistan, the EU delegate noted that the European Union was delighted that the European Union had organised a stock taking exercise in the framework of the Istanbul process, as the European Union supported that process. 77. The representative of Ethiopia noted that Ethiopia’s constitution as well as a number of laws prohibited any discrimination based on any grounds. In addition, criminal law prohibited discrimination among the population, as well as the incitement of hatred and similar offences. Article 9/4 of the Constitution also clarified that even if there was no specific national legislation, all international law, such as ICERD, was automatically part of the national canon of law. 78. The representative of Algeria stated that the principles of equality and antidiscrimination were enshrined in Article 32 of the Constitution. The Constitution consequently ruled out any discrimination. In addition, the legal national framework, such as the criminal code ruled out discrimination. The criminal code was adapted in 2014 for 31