LIGHT ON seminar on hate speech online

Turin, 3-4 April 2014. An expert meeting on “Investigating and Reporting Hate Speech Online” has been organized by the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) at its premises in the UN Campus.

The seminar is organized in the framework of the project LIGHT ON, with the financial support of the DG Justice of the European Commission, within the Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Programme.

Experts in the field of hate crime and anti-discrimination from five European countries participating in the project (Finland,Hungary, Italy, Slovenia and UK) will take part into the meeting. The aim is to discuss and finalize the training manual prepared by UNICRI, law enforcement authorities and the legal professionals working in the field of anti-discrimination and hate crime.

The training manual will enhance the capacities of law enforcement authorities and legal professionals in investigating and reporting incidents of racist hate speech online. Special attention will be paid on the role of new social media in spreading hate on the basis of race and ethnicity and how to report such incidents to the Internet service providers.

Episodes of discrimination are still common in Europe according to data collected by institutions and organizations working in the field of human rights’ protection. Not only discrimination and hate are widespread, but also they have become progressively “normalized” in the public discourse and in the society at large. LIGHT ON aims at tackling the normalization of racism and its related images and habits providing a set of tools for the community and for law enforcement professionals, through a preventive and participatory approach calling everyone to put discrimination in the spotlight, and combating it.