Back Council of Europe Recommendation on countering the use of SLAPPs, available in Albanian

Council of Europe Recommendation on countering the use of SLAPPs, available in Albanian

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted on 5 April 2024, the Recommendation CM/Rec(2024)2 on countering the use of strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs). The Committee of Ministers urged the member States to devise comprehensive and effective strategies to counter SLAPPs to curb the chilling effect that SLAPPs have on freedom of expression and public participation.

The newly adopted Recommendation provides a definition of SLAPPs, understood “as legal actions that are threatened, initiated or pursued as a means of harassing or intimidating their target, and which seek to prevent, inhibit, restrict or penalise free expression on matters of public interest and the exercise of rights associated with public participation.”

Its guidelines are intended to apply to civil lawsuits, as well as to administrative and criminal law contexts, including legal intimidation tactics. Moreover, the Recommendation covers both domestic and other types of SLAPPs, such as cross-border, multiple or coordinated, and SLAPPs targeting anonymous public participation.

The governments of the member States are recommended to further strengthen existing legislative and policy frameworks to counter SLAPPs, in particular regarding structural and procedural safeguards, remedies, transparency, support for targets and victims, and development of education, training, awareness raising programmes.

To assist Albanian speaking authorities, legal professionals, civil society, and academics, this important recommendation was recently translated in Albanian in the framework of the joint European Union and Council of Europe joint programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye – Phase III” and its action on “Protecting Freedom of Expression and of the Media (PRO-FREX)”, implemented by the Council of Europe Division for Co-operation on Freedom of Expression.

 Download in Albanian: Recommendation CM/Rec(2024)2 on countering the use of strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs)

26 August 2024
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