Twenty-five judges and prosecutors from Armenia have successfully completed the online training course on the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance’s General Policy Recommendation No.15 on Combating Hate Speech (GPR 15).
The course, implemented from January to February 2023 consisted of eight modules hosted online on the Council of Europe’s HELP platform, that followed the structure and the content of the GPR 15 and covered the following topics: defining and identifying hate speech; raising public awareness and using counter-speech; support for those targeted by hate speech; self-regulation as a means of tackling the use of hate speech; media, the internet and hate speech; administrative and civil liability for the use of hate speech; administrative and other sanctions against organizations that use hate speech; criminal liability and sanctions for the use of hate speech.
After each module, an online session with the course tutor was organized, offering a platform for discussion on the scope and applicability of the liability under criminal, civil and administrative law for the use of hate speech. Hate speech is intended or can reasonably be expected to incite acts of violence, intimidation, hostility or discrimination against those who are targeted by it; sanctions need respecting the right to freedom of expression and opinion.
The course participants were encouraged to follow developments in this field, continue to exchange with their peers but also with other stakeholders as active in the field of combatting hate speech and in the protection of those targeted. This course served as an additional impetus to implement GPR 15 recommendations in Armenia, as well as the recently adopted Council of Europe’s Recommendation on combatting hate speech CM/Rec(2022)16.
The course was organised in cooperation with the Academy of Justice of the Republic of Armenia, in the framework of the regional project “Strengthening the access to justice through non-judiciary redress mechanisms for victims of discrimination, hate crime and hate speech in Eastern Partnership countries” funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe under their Partnership for Good Governance II, 2019-2022.
