During MedNet Board Meeting 9 hosted by SUS in Belgrade. The student unions across the Mediterranean area decided to join, promote and support the No Hate Speech Movement.
Young People Combating Hate Speech Online is a project being run by the Council of Europe’s youth sector between 2012 and 2014. It aims to combat racism and discrimination, as expressed online as hate speech, by mobilizing young people and youth organisations to recognise and act against such human rights violations. The project is a tribute to youth participation and co-management. It was initiated by the youth representatives in the Joint Council on Youth, the committee which brings together youth leaders belonging of the Advisory Council on Youth and the governmental youth representatives of the European Steering Committee on Youth. The project is therefore being carried out by young people with the support of governmental youth institutions.
The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers” Recommendation 97(20) on “hate speech” defines it as follows:
“the term “hate speech” shall be understood as covering all forms of expression which spread, incite, promote or justify racial hatred, xenophobia, antisemitism 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”.
This definition places the discussion on hate speech and its regulation in the framework of human rights, anti-racist and anti-discrimination work conducted by the organisation. It is also the approach of the youth project herein described.
Hate speech as such is not a new issue in the human rights debate, its online dimension and the potential impact this offers gives new reasons for concern among young people and youth organisations. While easier to monitor and counter in mainstream professional media, the challenge posed by its online manifestation is the incapacity to monitor and measure its amplitude and impact. While the activity of static websites can be easily traced, most of the action is actually happening in the encounter spaces (i.e. social networking sites), which are far harder to monitor and analyse.
All you need to know about the movement by clicking on the image below:
MedNet 