All forms and manifestations of hatred are incompatible with the EU values and the fundamental rights enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty and the Charter. Hatred affects the individual victims and the groups they belong to, generates societal polarisation and silences wide sectors of the population, weakening pluralism and undermining respectful public democratic debates. The online world has amplified the negative effects of hate speech. Hate crimes are a direct violation of the victims’ fundamental right to dignity, to equality and non-discrimination. Combating hate speech and hate crime is therefore a key part of the Commission’s action to promote EU values and to ensure that the Charter is upheld.

At EU level, the 2008 Council Framework Decision requires the criminalisation of certain forms of hate speech and hate crimes. Also, the Commission adopted a Communication in December 2021 inviting the Council of the European Union to extend the legal basis for EU-level criminalisation to other forms of hate speech and hate crime beyond the racist and xenophobic grounds already covered by the Framework Decision.

Recently, the EU is experiencing an alarming increase in hate speech and hate crime, including physical and online attacks targeting in particular the Jewish and Muslim communities in Europe. The Joint Communication on “No Place for Hate” confirms a strong commitment to step up EU efforts to fight hatred in all its forms, by reinforcing action across a variety of policies.

As recognised by the Communication, civil society organisations play a crucial role in combating hate speech and hate crime, thereby safeguarding and promoting fundamental rights. Projects should focus on activities to tackle hate speech online, including reporting content to IT companies, designing countering narrative and awareness raising campaigns, and educational activities to address the societal challenges of hate speech online.

The following activities can be covered:

• Activities to increase the general awareness of the societal consequences of hatred and polarisation, and to address their root causes, particularly in the fields of teaching and education;
• Activities to enable civil society organisations to work in synergy with competent authorities to support the reporting and recording of episodes of hate, including with a focus on specific grounds, and to contribute to the creation of data collection methodologies and mechanisms;
• Activities to ensure support to victims of hate speech and hate crime, encouraging reporting, providing practical help in seeking redress and gender-sensitive and psycho-social support;
• Activities to support the enforcement of existing legislation prohibiting hate speech and hate crime, including through training for law enforcement and justice professionals;
• Activities to elaborate national or local coalitions or action plans against hate speech and hate crime, and to establish or reinforce mechanisms of public authorities in the area of tackling hate crime and hate speech, including to support investigation and prosecution and to protect victims;
• Activities to enhance the resilience of civil society organisations working on combating racism, antisemitism, hate speech and hate crime in all its forms, against threats and in particular cyber-attacks;
• Activities to tackle hate speech online, in particular to monitor the prevalence of hate speech on social media and the “ecosystems” of hatred online, to report hate speech content to IT companies, and to design effective initiatives to prevent and combat hate speech. These can include campaigns or educational activities to address the societal challenges of hate speech online.