PRESS RELEASE: United against hate crime: European law enforcment agencies act to tackle hate speech
24/11/2016
Press release 24 November 2016 – Launch Event with First Vice President Frans Timmermans on 5th December 2016. Join us for the launch of the first-of-its-kind online training course to monitor hate crime and counter hate speech.
First Vice President Frans Timmermans will be speaking about the European Commission’s approach to deal with the most burning issues of hate crime and hate speech. The press conference will take place between 16h – 17h, after which you are invited for drinks and networking until 18h.
There is an emerging correlation between hateful discourse, which circulates quickly online, and hate crime – which includes harassment, vandalism and violence. EU member states are now accountable for recording bias-motivated crimes and ensuring that victims have access to justice. The European Commission and IT companies have recognised the echo chamber provided by the internet in amplifying the spread of hate in society, resulting in the recently agreed Code of Conduct which should see a more effective response to take down and prosecute criminal hate speech online.
Law enforcement agencies must prepare their officers to understand and implement their legal and moral obligations. Yet still tremendous gaps exist in the availability, quantity and quality of data received by member states. A new EU funded project, Facing all the Facts, will help to meet this need. The project is developing a series of online courses to help both law enforcement professionals and civil society organisations better monitor hate crime and counter hate speech. It is a pioneering example of how governments, civil society and private companies can cooperate to address a pressing social problem.
Law enforcement agencies from the UK, Italy and Hungary will be at the event, along with representatives from the European Commission, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Open Society Foundations and numerous civil society organisations.
About Facing all the Facts (www.facingfacts.eu):
Facing all the Facts is a new project that will run until the end of 2018, funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme of the European Union.4 It involves the creation of new e-learning modules for police, prosecutors, policy makers on hate crime and hate speech. These modules will become part of the e-learning platform called Facing Facts Online which is also launching the first e-learning course on hate crime monitoring for civil society organisations. Another course on hate speech and counterspeech for civil society organisations is currently under development for spring 2017. The Facing Facts Online platform and the courses for civil society have until now received funding from Open Society Foundations, Google, Facebook and Twitter.
More about the Facing Facts project
The Facing all the Facts project is coordinated by CEJI in partnership with National University of Public Service (HU), National Police Chiefs’Council (UK), Osservatorio per la sicurezza contro gli atti discriminatori (IT), European Network Against Racism Ireland (IE), CIDI -Centrum Informatie en Documentatie Israël (NL), Community Security Trust (UK), European Network for Independent Living – ENIL, European Roma Information office – ERIO, Movimiento contra la Intolerancia (MCI), Praksis (GR)
Associated partners in the project are ILGA-Europe, European Network against Racism (ENAR), Social Platform, European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), European Network on Religion and Belief (ENORB) , European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS), Generation 2.0 (Greece),COC (Netherlands), Interfederal Center for Equal Opportunities – UNIA (Belgium), Institute for Criminal Policy Research – Birkbeck College (London), Justice 21 (Bulgaria)
For security purposes, please register your attendance in advance!
For additional information or to arrange an interview please contact:
Julia Mozer, Communication Officer – julia.mozer@ceji.org
