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Reply to Recommendation | Doc. 14431 | 19 October 2017
Ending cyberdiscrimination and online hate
1. The Committee of Ministers welcomes Parliamentary
Assembly Recommendation
2098 (2017) on “Ending cyberdiscrimination and online
hate”, which it has brought to the attention of the governments
of the member States and transmitted for comment to the Joint Council
on Youth (CMJ), the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance
(ECRI), the Bureau of the Steering Committee for Educational Policy
and Practice (CDPPE) and the Steering Committee on Media and Information
Society (CDMSI).
2. The Committee of Ministers reiterates that freedom of expression
is one of the most important foundations of democratic societies
and that, in accordance with Article 10 of the European Convention
on Human Rights, member States are bound to preserve and promote
it, including on the internet. It is also aware, however, that the
internet increasingly provides a forum for hate speech, including
incitement to violence, directed against countless individuals or
groups on diverse grounds relating to identity, status and opinion.
All forms of expression which incite intolerance are to be condemned
as, in addition to the damage caused to the individual victim, they
undermine democratic security and cohesion and pluralism in society.
3. The Committee of Ministers further notes that online hate
is a pan-European problem that can best be tackled through member
States sharing experiences and good practice, and on the basis of
common standards. In this respect, it is important for member States
to be guided by the standards and recommendations of the Council
of Europe, notably the European Convention on Human Rights, the jurisprudence
of the European Court of Human Rights, the Committee of Ministers’
Recommendation Rec(97)20 to member States on “hate speech” and ECRI’s
country monitoring recommendations and its General Policy Recommendation
No. 15 on combating hate speech.
4. The Parliamentary Assembly asks the Committee of Ministers
to review and update Recommendation Rec(97)20, to ensure that it
continues to provide an effective basis for combating all forms
of hate speech, including online hate, and that it covers all the
grounds on which victims may be targets of hate speech. The Committee
recalls that “hate speech” is defined in Recommendation Rec(97)20
by reference to a non-exhaustive list of grounds for “hatred based
on intolerance”. Moreover, the principles set out in this recommendation
apply to both offline and online environments and cover the dissemination
of all forms of hate speech through media of all kinds. The Committee
therefore considers that Recommendation Rec(97)20 remains a valuable
tool to assist member States in combating hate speech, but recognises
the importance of further exploring ways to remove barriers to its
implementation, including through ECRI’s general policy recommendations
and country monitoring recommendations, as well as lessons learnt
from the No Hate Speech Campaign Movement and education and youth
policy measures.
5. With regard to the Parliamentary Assembly’s request for the
Committee of Ministers to review and update its Internet Governance
Strategy 2016-2019, it should be noted that the Strategy already
envisages measures that are fully in line with Parliamentary Assembly Resolution 2144 (2017) and Resolution 2143 (2017).
The relevant elements of the Strategy, including on education, are
being implemented by the Council of Europe primarily through the
No Hate Speech Campaign Movement, the Hate Speech Watch, the Platform to
promote the protection of journalism and the safety of journalists,
and through work with internet intermediaries. The Committee has
given the CDMSI the task of elaborating a draft recommendation on internet
intermediaries, which should provide guidance on the obligations
of States and responsibilities of intermediaries as regards the
exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms online. The draft recommendation
will be submitted to the Committee of Ministers in the course of
this year for adoption. The Parliamentary Assembly will be kept
informed of the Committee’s decision.
6. The Committee of Ministers further notes the Parliamentary
Assembly’s request that it launch work on education against racism
and hate speech, focusing in particular on children. The Committee
recalls that the Council of Europe has for many years been engaged
in human rights education for young people as a means of preventing
intolerance, racism and all forms of discrimination, primarily through
the No Hate Speech Campaign Movement, using inter
alia the manuals “Bookmarks”, which has been translated
into 15 languages, and “We CAN”, which was launched in March 2017.
In addition, the Education Department of the Council of Europe is
engaged in ongoing work in the field of education for democratic
citizenship and human rights, and has produced manuals entitled
“Democratic Governance of Schools” and “Living Democracy” and a
video entitled “Beat Bullying”, which provides tools for school
children to tackle bullying, including online. The CDPEE has moreover
recently commenced a new project on “Digital Citizenship Education”,
launched at a conference in Strasbourg in September 2017, which
seeks to respond to a variety of challenges associated with the
need for public authorities to move beyond policies aimed at safety
and protection online to empowerment and ensuring full and active
participation for all children in digital society. The Committee
underlines the importance of training legal professionals, including
by having recourse to the Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals
(HELP) programme of the Council of Europe, and particularly its
online free course on hate crime/hate speech.
7. Finally, the Committee of Ministers notes the proposal concerning
the designation of a European Day for Victims of Hate Crime, which
it will reflect on.