From 5-8 June 2023, the Council of Europe participated in the 12th edition of RightsCon 2023, a global summit on human rights in the digital age. More information about Council of Europe at RightsCon2023 can be found on our website.

On 6th June, the Council of Europe hosted in a hybrid format a roundtable session on “Gendered hate speech online: a candid conversation together with civil society organisations”. The session saw the participation of representatives of CSOs, international organisations and journalists from diverse global regions and captured participants’ experiences and reflections on the challenges to ensuring a gender-sensitive approach to combating hate speech and concrete practices and experiences, including in light of Recommendation CM/Rec(2022)16 on Combating Hate Speech. The main takeaways from the session highlighted the need for a gender-sensitive approach when tackling online abuse, and stressed that this approach should inform all of the decisions in this regard. The session also confirmed the importance of agreeing upon a definition, and of addressing the root cause through education, a pivotal area to intervene in.