The fight against hate speech, hate crimes and discrimination constitutes an important challenge in the Western Balkans. Horizontal Facility II aims to raise awareness and strengthen the capacity of key stakeholders to better address discrimination, as well as to combat hate speech in line with the recommendations set by the European Commission on Racism and Intolerance (ECRI).
In this context, the European Union and the Council of Europe have supported the development of the Manual for civil servants in Bosnia and Herzegovina for recognising and dealing with hate speech cases. The Manual is now available online. It focuses on illustrating the harmful effects of hate speech, and on explaining the existing mechanisms for prevention, protection of victims and sanctioning perpetrators.
In April, an online discussion on hate speech was held with young people from Bosnia Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia, in the framework of regional democratic chatrooms on democratic citizenship values. Patriotism and chauvinism were discussed, particularly in the context of the Western Balkans.
Complementing the efforts to fight hate speech, the regional campaign “Block the Hate; Share the Love” continues to raise awareness of this phenomenon. The campaign, which already reached the local communities in the Western Balkans, is engaging public figures and personalities in the quest to fight hate speech, with a specific focus on vulnerable groups affected by stigma and discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Another important highlight is the new “Report on the use of hate speech in the Serbian media” published in April. The report finds that more needs to be done to address the use of hate speech in the media in Serbia, stressing the need for the media community to establish a system of collective self-regulation based on agreed codes of conduct and mechanisms to deal with complaints of hate speech.
