Against hate -projekti

Goals and results

The objective of the project Against Hate is a) to develop means to identify, prevent and tackle hate crime and hate speech; b) to establish national cooperation structures for monitoring and tackling online hate speech and hate crime; c) to further develop the monitoring of online hate speech and hate crime; d) to exchange experiences between authorities at EU level and to share good examples of measures against hate speech and hate crime; and e) to identify and reinforce practices that can be applied to help victims in the best possible manner.
The project functions are: establishment of a national network against hate speech and hate crime; definition of architecture for work against hate speech and hate crime (roles and responsibilities); drawing up of a national strategy and action plan for the work against hate speech and hate crime; establishment of a training module and enhancement of the capacity of the police, prosecutors and judges through training; development of tools to identify online hate speech; round-table discussions on hate speech monitoring and reporting; drawing up of a guidebook on good practices in the work against hate speech and hate crime in the different EU countries; EU-level final conference; study visits related to the development of hate crime reporting (Finland–Croatia); network cooperation between local authorities and organisations to enhance the support and help provided for victims of hate crime; training of potential victims and organisations representing them; and shadow reporting of information on hate crime collected by organisations.
The Ministry of Justice will participate in all of these functions.

The Project Against Hate is supported by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship (REC) Programme of the European Union. The content can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Commission.

Summary

The objective of the project Against Hate is to develop the work against hate crime and hate speech. The project focuses on the development of hate crime reporting, on the enhancement of the capacity of the police, prosecutors and judges to act against hate crime and hate speech, and on the development of support services for victims of hate crime.

Starting points

The Finnish Discrimination Monitoring Group published a report on the effects of hate speech in March 2016. According to the report, hate speech and other harassment occur most often in the streets, parking places, parks, and other public places. The second most common place is the internet, especially public discussion forums and social media sites.
To better identify, prevent and tackle hate crime and hate speech, different parties' knowledge and skills in this area must be enhanced. In addition to authorities, potential victims must also be better informed of the available support services, among other things.
The changed situation also increases the need for exchanging experiences and good practices among European colleagues. Cooperation between the involved actors is often the most effective means to prevent, identify and tackle hate crime and hate speech.