The second technical committee meeting of the project "Combating hate speech in Ukraine", which is part of the European Union/Council of Europe Partnership for Good Governance programme, took place on 25 April, bringing together the main institutional actors and civil society organisations working in the field of combating hate speech, namely, representatives of Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting, National Police of Ukraine, National School of Judges of Ukraine, Office of Prosecutor General, Prosecutors Training Centre of Ukraine, State Service of Ukraine for Ethno-Politics and Freedom of Conscience, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner on Human Rights and civil society organisations: Fulcrum UA, National LGBTI Consortium, Roma Women Fund "Chirikli".
During the meeting, the main project results during the first year of implementation were presented but also plans for the next project period shared and discussed with beneficiaries and partners.
The project reinforced capacities of state and non-state actors in line with recommendations of the systemic hate speech mapping report developed under the Partnership for Good Governance II regional project on Strengthening access to justice for victims of discrimination, hate crime and hate speech and Council of Europe standards in this field. The activities undertaken in the last 12 months of implementation contributed to an improved cooperation among stakeholders to prevent and combat hate speech in Ukraine, including to better protect vulnerable groups and ensure more accessible redress mechanisms in line with European standards and best practices.
Technical project committee members emphasised the importance of advancing in the work on identifying possible monitoring methodologies to cover different forms of hate speech, as well as of strengthening institutional responses to hate speech - further protecting and promoting equality and non-discrimination in line with European standards.
This meeting was organised as a part of the European Union and Council of Europe joint programme “Partnership for Good Governance”, co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe, and implemented by the Council of Europe, in the framework of the project “Combating hate speech in Ukraine”.
