No Hate Speech Week 2025
The No Hate Speech Week 2025, 17-20 June 2025, provides space to exchange on recent legal and policy developments and good practices of implementation, innovations and foster synergies between key partners. The presence of different stakeholders provides networking opportunities that can enable a comprehensive and multi-stakeholder approach to preventing and combating hate speech in the member States.
The Week gathers a wide range of stakeholders who engage in preventing and combating hate speech, including representatives of national authorities, public figures and political bodies, CSOs active at European and national levels, equality bodies and Ombudsoffices, academia, internet industry, international organisations, and EU bodies
The Week is organised by the Anti-discrimination Department of the Council of Europe in the framework of a EU-CoE joint project and supported by the Maltese Presidency of the Council of Europe.
The Week gathers a wide range of stakeholders who engage in preventing and combating hate speech, including representatives of national authorities, public figures and political bodies, CSOs active at European and national levels, equality bodies and Ombudsoffices, academia, internet industry, international organisations, and EU bodies
The Week is organised by the Anti-discrimination Department of the Council of Europe in the framework of a EU-CoE joint project and supported by the Maltese Presidency of the Council of Europe.
Theme for 2025: “Enhance legal and non-legal measures against hate speech through a multi-stakeholder approach”
The CM Recommendation CM/Rec(2022)16 invites member States, in-line with the European Convention of Human Rights and related case-law, to define when hate speech should be prohibited under criminal, civil or administrative law. When developing and implementing policies, legislation, strategies and action plans to prevent and combat hate speech, member States should balance the need to protect the rights of those targeted by hate speech with the right to freedom of expression.
In practice, states address the most serious cases of hate speech through criminal law, and sometimes in parallel through civil law with regard to compensation. Less severe cases are dealt with through administrative or civil law only. Criminalising the most serious cases of hate speech also serves as a message that freedom of expression should be limited when it denigrates people and attacks their dignity and rights.
urces and networks on combating illegal hate speech in cooperation with the law enforcement and prosecutors.
In practice, states address the most serious cases of hate speech through criminal law, and sometimes in parallel through civil law with regard to compensation. Less severe cases are dealt with through administrative or civil law only. Criminalising the most serious cases of hate speech also serves as a message that freedom of expression should be limited when it denigrates people and attacks their dignity and rights.
urces and networks on combating illegal hate speech in cooperation with the law enforcement and prosecutors.
