While the freedom of expression is a right, states are not obliged to protect expression that incites hatred and tramples upon other people’s rights, a Vatican official said.

The Vatican’s representative to U.N. agencies in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, said the freedom of expression should take into account the “principles of social ethics such as truth, solidarity, tolerance and fairness.”

These are principles that “form the cornerstone of justice, equity, respect for privacy and subsidiarity,” he said Sept. 30 at a U.N. Human Rights Council session focusing on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance.

Freedom of expression “is not only a right but also a duty that needs to be strengthened,” said the archbishop, who sent his remarks to Catholic News Service.

“Protecting the freedom of expression, however, is not an absolute obligation,” he said, because the aim should be to uphold the good of society and protect everyone’s enjoyment of religious freedom and belief.

“Any form of incitement to hatred that affects the human person and his/her rights is unacceptable,” and society should not be protecting freedom of expression at all costs if it comes at the expense of the life and dignity of real people, he said.