Gendered Hate Speech, often intersecting with other hate biases, is a particularly pervasive form of hate speech.  Online it can be disseminated very quickly and widely, and its persistent availability can exacerbate its impact, including offline, and transmit and strengthen existing gender stereotypes and contribute to the perpetuation of sexism. Civil Society organizations (CSOs) are most often at the forefront of addressing these challenges.

This hybrid roundtable session seeks to collect promising practices and recommendations from CSOs and other interested participants on how to effectively ensure a gender sensitive approach when implementing policies and strategies to prevent and combat hate speech, with a pragmatic focus on the recently adopted Council of Europe Recommendation on Combating Hate Speech and how to ensure its implementation in practice.

The session will start with quick-paced exercise consisting of brainstorm, share and extrapolate steps in subgroups. The main aim is to capture participants’ experiences and reflections based on three guiding questions:

1. What are the challenges to ensure gender-sensitive approach to combat hate speech?
2. Which experiences, practices and other creative ideas have worked in practice?
3. Which concrete steps should be taken next and by whom?  The sub-groups will collect their insights and present it in the plenary session.

Then participants will engage in an informed discussion with the speakers, facilitators and participants, building on the inputs of the subgroups. The session concludes with time for participants to post on a large report card, their reflections and concrete suggestions for next steps, a shared document that will remain available online after the session to facilitate the collection of further inputs.

Co-organisers:

• Menno ETTEMA, Administrator, Council of Europe - Anti-Discrimination Department
• Giulia LUCCHESE, Administrator, Council of Europe - Media and Information Society Department

Speakers:

• Antonina CHEREVKO, Senior Adviser, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media; and former member of Council of Europe Expert Committee on Combating Hate Speech
• Claudia FRATANGELI, Project Coordinator, Chayn Italia –
• Elif SARIAYDIN, Administrator, Secretariat of the Istanbul Convention monitoring mechanism, Council of Europe 

While cyberthreats and their impact are increasing and affecting core values of societies worldwide, criminal justice authorities are faced with complex challenges.  Effective tools for the investigation of cybercrime and the obtaining of electronic evidence require conditions and safeguards (including rules for the protection of personal data) that act as a check against abuses of power and ensure that the rights of suspects, accused persons, defendants, and victims are protected. This will enable more trusted data exchange also with the private sector and ensure the right balance between the positive obligations of governments to protect people against crime on the one hand, and rights of individuals, including the right to privacy and protection of data, on the other hand. A recent example of effective tools with a strong system of safeguards is the recent Second Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime on enhanced co-operation and disclosure of electronic evidence.

The session seeks to learn perspectives and experiences of different stakeholders not limited to criminal justice authorities, but also including legal professionals, representatives of private sector and civil society and will take the form of a dialogue.

Key questions the discussion will be built on are:

1. How can we work together to promote fair and just criminal justice response in the context of cybercrime investigations;
2. What are the concerns and issues related to collection and processing of personal data in cybercrime proceedings and how safeguards can be put in place to protect the rights of victims at the same time preventing misuse or abuse of personal data;
3. Are there good practices and innovative solutions that have been successful in addressing these challenges

Outcomes from the session will be captured and incorporated into future deliberations and actions, in particular on the margins of the upcoming Octopus Conference 2023, but also as a follow-up in capacity building activities.

Co-organisers:

• Public Ministry of Costa Rica
• Cybercrime Division of the Council of Europe

Moderator:

• Claudio PEGUERO Advisor on Cyber-matters, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Dominican Republic

Speakers:

• Maria Solange MAQUEO RAMIREZ, Director of the Legal Studies Division, Center for Research and Teaching in Economics
• Esteban AGUILAR VARGAS, Prosecutor of the Cybercrime and Fraud Unit, Public Ministry of Costa Rica
• Felix KROLL, Deputy Head of the Cyber Policy Coordination Staff, German Federal Foreign Office
• Patrick PENNINCKX, Head of the Information Society Department, Council of Europe