The Campaign
The No Hate Speech Movement - Online youth campaign
Hate speech is threatening our democracies. To tackle hate speech, it is vital for people to campaign, to act together to uphold human rights online, to raise awareness, change attitudes and mobilise communities. Campaigning is a way of bringing people together, united by common goals and values. The Council of Europe has a proud tradition of running youth campaigns, notably its All Different – All Equal campaign. The No Hate Speech Movement will be open to everyone online. Young people can join from the age of 13. It will be based on online communities of young people motivated to discuss and act against hate speech online. The campaign will be launched on 21 March 2013 and will run through to April 2014. National campaigns may start earlier and continue to run after April 2014.
A Youth campaign
The campaign has been shaped through several consultations with young people and youth representatives, ensuring it is a campaign by and with young people. Young people aged between 13 and 30 will play the lead role in the campaign by taking part in online and offline activities and in being its most important advocates. It is addressed to everyone.
A campaign for human rights based on freedom of expression
The campaign is not designed to limit freedom of expression online. Neither is it about everyone being nice to each other online. The campaign is against hate speech online in all its forms, including those that most affect young people, such as cyber-bullying and cyber-hate. The campaign is based upon human rights education, youth participation and media literacy.
A Multi-Faceted Campaign
The goals of the campaign are:
- To raise awareness about hate speech online and its risks for democracy and for individual young people
- To promote media and Internet literacy
- To support young people in standing up for human rights, online and offline
- To reduce the levels of acceptance of online hate speech
- To mobilise, train and network online youth activists for human rights
- To map hate speech online and develop tools for constructive responses
- To support and show solidarity to people and groups targeted by hate speech online
- To advocate for consensus on European policy instruments combating hate speech
- To develop youth participation and citizenship online
Although based online, the campaign will also have an important offline dimension, with seminars, youth events and festivals. Local and linguistic differences are crucial, so the online campaign has been designed to allow for national, cultural and linguistic diversity. The campaign will highlight the importance of involving school communities as well as non-formal education and youth work.
Target groups
The campaign’s main target groups are the public at large and online activists. “Victims” and “Haters” will also be considered through specific measures and through the wider project.
| Targetgroups | Personal and interpersonal sphere | Civil society | Broader social context | Legislative aspect | Political and policy domains |
| Victims | Empowerment | Methods for inclusion of victims | Social and cultural inclusion | Stronger legal protection | Better minority policies |
| “Haters” | Alternatives for expression opinion | Other ways of involvement | Stronger social pressure | Consequent legal approach | Less political justification |
| Activists | Counter arguments and practical tools | Stronger networking | More support and recognition | Legal support for prevention and measures | More political recognition and more support |
| Public | Awareness | Dynamic civil society involvement | Stronger public opinion against hate speech | Clearer agreement among governments | Less political extremism, more democracy |
A campaign of campaigns
The campaign is based on a European platform and programme of activities run by the Youth Department of the Council of Europe – under the responsibility of its Joint Council on Youth, where youth leaders and government representatives make decisions side by side, the Organisation’s co-management system. This is the umbrella under which national and/or local campaigns will run.
The national campaigns are to be implemented with the active involvement of non-governmental and governmental representatives in the field of youth, in the spirit of co-management. While responsibility for establishing the campaign committees lies with the governmental youth partners of the Council of Europe (through the European Steering Committee on Youth); in cases where no committee has been set up, the Council of Europe welcomes joint initiatives from non-governmental partners in the countries concerned.
National campaign committees have been set up in some 34 member states so far; it is expected that the others will soon follow and that by June 2013 most of the Council of Europe’s 47 member states will have a campaign up and running.
The campaign is designed to be everyone’s campaign; any organisation or individual should feel free to join and to take action whether alone or with others.
Download the Brochure of the Project and the Campaign in pdf format in English or French:
