necessary and proportional. This section considers the issue in more detail, as it relates to the right to freedom of expression. Incitement to terrorism is a strategy commonly used by terrorist organizations to further support for their cause and call for violent action. The Security Council has identified it as conduct which is contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations and called on States to adopt measures to prohibit and prevent it.89 Proscribing incitement to terrorism is integral to the protection of national security and public order, which are both set out as legitimate grounds for limiting freedom of expression in article 19 (3) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It is also consistent with its article 20 (2), which requires States to prohibit any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence. Great care must be taken, however, to ensure that any restriction on the right to freedom of expression is both necessary and proportional. This is especially important given that freedom of expression is an essential foundation of a democratic society,90 and its enjoyment is linked with other important rights, including the rights to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, belief and opinion. Although none of the universal terrorism-related conventions explicitly requires the prohibition of incitement to terrorism, the Council of Europe’s Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism requires States parties to criminalize the unlawful and intentional public provocation to commit a terrorist offence, defining this as “…the distribution, or otherwise making available, of a message to the public, with the intent to incite the commission of a terrorist offence, where such conduct, whether or not directly advocating terrorist offences, causes a danger that one or more such offences may be committed” (art. 5 (1)). The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism has expressed the view that this provision represents a best practice in defining the proscription of incitement to terrorism.91 Article 5 of the Convention was the result of careful intergovernmental negotiation and defines what amounts to a “public provocation to commit a terrorist offence” with reference to three elements. There must first be an act of communication (“the distribution, or otherwise making available, of a message to the public...”). Secondly, there must be a subjective intention on the part of the person to incite terrorism (“…with the intent to incite the commission of a terrorist offence… whether or not directly advocating terrorist offences…”). Finally, there must be an additional objective danger that the person’s conduct will incite terrorism (“…where such conduct… causes a danger 42