The first co-ordination meeting for the consortium of the two-year project “WE CAN for human rights speech” (WECAN4HRS) took place on 11-12 March 2020. Due to recent travel restrictions the meeting moved online.

The project aims to help organisations and young activists fighting hate speech become more efficient by providing them with user friendly tools and training which will be developed through evidence-based research. The project will also update the “WE CAN!” manual which was prepared by the No Hate Speech Movement.

The WECAN4HRS is co-ordinated by the Council of Europe and the first phase of research has started with the partners (Active Watch (Romania), APICE (Italy), Neue Deutsche Medienmacher (Germany), CEJI (Belgium)) on how to identify situations most likely to generate waves of hate speech, and how timing and ways of engaging in counter and alternative narratives can have an impact. The research results will be presented in September and will help activists and NGOs be more effective in their counter narrative campaigns.

This project is funded by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020) and the Council of Europe.

More information can be found on the project webpage.