Înapoi Planning ahead with Ukraine partners, to strengthen responses to discrimination and enhance societal cohesion in difficult times

© Shutterstock

© Shutterstock

Throughout the last years, the Council of Europe No Hate Speech and Co-operation Unit has been cooperating with various national stakeholders in Ukraine within the thematic area of combating discrimination, hate crime and hate speech, and protecting rights of national minorities.

Since 2019, two projects have been implemented: a voluntary contribution project on “Strengthening the protection of national minorities, including Roma, and minority languages in Ukraine” (in 2 phases) and a component of the EU-CoE funded regional project “Strengthening the access to justice through non-judicial redress mechanisms for victims of discrimination, hate speech and hate crime in Eastern Partnership countries”. The support to partners continued also during the last months, replacing in person modalities with online, reinforming sub-granting schemes for CSOs, finding alternative ways to ensure cooperation, yet coping with circumstances.
 
From 6 to 8 December 2022 meetings were hold with national stakeholders to summarize results of the implemented projects and discuss possible activities and ways of cooperation under the new thematic projects within the new CoE Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” (2023-2026).
 
The meetings were conducted with 20 representatives, from the Ombudsman office, Parliament Caucus on National Minorities, Office of Prosecutor General, National Police of Ukraine, National School of Judges of Ukraine, Prosecutors Training Centre, Legal Aid Coordination Center, State Service of Ukraine for Ethno-Politics, Freedom of Conscience and National Minorities Broadcasting Coordination Centre of Suspilne.
 
Representatives of the national stakeholders, participating in the meetings highly appreciated the cooperation with Council of Europe’s  projects coordinated by the No Hate Speech and Co-operation Unit, mentioned a number of achievements in the previous periods and expressed their willingness and readiness for further cooperation.

 

This activity was carried out in the framework of the project "Strengthening the access to justice through non-judicial redress mechanisms for victims of discrimination, hate speech and hate crime in Eastern Partnership countries”, funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe in their Partnership for Good Governance II 2019-2022. 

UKRAINE 8 December 2022
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Strasbourg, France Strasbourg, 1-2 July 2024
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Addressing hate speech and hate crime: regional gathering of the network of Equality Bodies from the Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership Region

A two-day workshop on addressing hate speech and hate crime took place at the premises of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, involving Equality bodies from the Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership regions.  The event supported by the EU and Council of Europe, gathered 50 representatives from both regions who discussed and exchanged on the best practices, measures and common challenges when addressing hate speech and hate crime. Through monitoring and reporting, policy advocacy, raising awareness and supporting victims equality bodies play a fundamental role in protecting human rights and ensuring that all individuals are treated equally.

In her opening remarks, Angela Longo, Head of Anti-discrimination Co-operation Unit, Council of Europe, underlined the significant progress in engaging with Equality Bodies through this network, regularly exchanging best practices and addressing the challenges of hatred and intolerance in societies. She highlighted that this new chapter of discussion delves into the grey area between hate speech and hate crime, addressing issues of incitement and biases,

Representatives from Equality Bodies had the opportunity to discuss and enhance their knowledge on the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers Recommendation to member States on combating hate crime, adopted on 7th May 2024, as well as gain a clearer understanding of EU standards in the field of hate crime. Moreover, participants engaged in exchanges with peers from the Spanish Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia (OBERAXE), who shared insights on addressing hate speech in the public discourse. The National Office Against Racial Discrimination (UNAR) in Italy provided practical examples for developing counter-narratives and raising awareness initiatives.

They also explored opportunities to advocate for legislative reform, foster multisectoral co-operation, enhance data collection, and overall improve national mechanisms to counter hate crimes.

This seminar was organised within the action “Promoting equality and combating racism and intolerance in the Western Balkans” and the project “Promoting equality and non-discrimination: towards more resilient and inclusive societies” – co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe, and implemented by the Council of Europe  under the joint Programmes “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye” and “Partnership for Good Governance”.

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