Ahead of the first Council of Europe No Hate Speech Week taking place from 17 to 20 June 2024 in Strasbourg, an updated course on Combating Hate Speech is available on the Council of Europe’s European Programme for Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP) online platform. This new version of the course includes consistent references to the Recommendation CM/Rec (2022)16 on combating hate speech adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CoE) in May 2022. It builds on international human rights standards and relevant case-law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and pays special attention to the online environment in which most of today’s hate speech can be found.

The course is tailored to the learning needs of legal professionals and other practitioners engaged in combating and preventing hate speech. The first module introduces key definitions and concepts and covers relevant international legal frameworks and standards as developed at the level of the CoE, including the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), and at the level of the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU).

The second module addresses hate speech through a comprehensive and multi-stakeholder approach, providing concrete examples of non-legal measures to prevent and combat hate speech, including awareness raising, education, training and the use of counter speech and alternative speech. It also refers to the importance of support for those targeted by hate speech, monitoring and analysis of hate speech, as well national co-ordination and international co-operation. The third and last module covers recent ECtHR cases, illustrating the different factors used by the Court to assess the severity of hate speech and their interplay. It also presents relevant legislation regarding online hate speech.

The updated course is available in English, Albanian, Bulgarian and Serbian, and will soon be translated into other languages. The Council of Europe Media and Internet Governance Division, the Hate Speech, Hate Crime and Artificial Intelligence Unit, and the Anti-Discrimination Cooperation Unit contributed to the course development and the course update in 2024 which also benefited from contributions by a lawyer of the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights.

The course is freely available in self-learning format on the CoE HELP e-learning platform. The overall length of the new version is approximatively 3.5 hours and those who complete it in self-learning format can obtain an electronic ‘Statement of accomplishment’. To access the course, you need to have a HELP account. If you have not yet created one, you can sign up here - it only takes a few minutes.