The three new international projects of ELSA are connected to the new campaign of the Council of Europe, the No Hate Speech Movement was launched on 21 March 2013.

The campaign is against hate speech online in all its forms, including those that most affect young people, including forms of cyber-bullying and cyber-hate. The campaign is based upon human rights education, youth media literacy. The campaign aims at reducing hate speech and at combating, racism and discrimination in their online expression; raising awareness about these phenomena is the first objective of the campaign.

Young people will play the central role in the campaign by taking part in online and offline activities and in being its most important agents. The campaign is led by young people and addressed to everyone.

Hate speech, as defined by the Council of Europe, covers all forms of expression which spread, incite, promote or justify racial hatred, xenophobia, anti-Semitism or other forms of hatred based on intolerance, including: intolerance expressed by aggressive nationalism and ethnocentrism, discrimination and hostility against minorities, migrants and people of immigrant origin.

ELSA is joining this initiative as a way to raise awareness among law students and young lawyers about the topic of the campaign and contributing to its high quality legal academic discussion. The projects that will be launched during 2013 are an Essay Competition, an Online Survey and an International Legal Research Group.

Visit the website of the No Hate Speech Movement: www.nohatespeechmovement.org

Do you want to read more about online hate speech?

• Article on hate speech written by Jan Malinowski, the Council of Europe
• Factsheet on hate online, published by the European Court of Human Rights
• Starting points for Combating Hate Speech Online’, published by the European Youth Centre
• The preparatory website of the Online Hate Speech Campaign