Council of Europe developed together with the Centre for Continuous Electoral Training of the Republic of Moldova (Training Centre) an e-course on combatting hate speech in elections, hosted on the e-training platform of the Training Centre.

The e-course offers training to key electoral stakeholders - politicians, electoral officials and observers, journalists, and of course the public, interested to learn about human rights and hate speech legal provisions and standards.

Besides, the trainees will learn about:

• the specific provisions on international and national legislation, freedom of expression and combatting hate speech, cases analysed and settled by the European Court of Human Rights;
• national human rights protection mechanisms and recommendations enabling trainees to identify and prevent this type of speech, that affects the integrity of electoral process in the Republic of Moldova.

The rationale behind the development of the e-course arises from reports by international and domestic election observers who observed hate speech, intolerant rhetoric, and verbal violence between candidates during electoral campaigns in the Republic of Moldova.

The e-course is open for anyone and can be accessed here: (only in Romanian).

This activity was funded and implemented within the Council of Europe Project Improving Electoral Practice In The Republic of Moldova, Phase II.