Secretary General Jagland joined UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Didier Reynders in raising awareness of the threats of mass atrocities at the International Conference on Genocide Protection in Brussels on 1 April.
In his speech, Mr. Jagland emphasised that genocide often starts with hate speech. Hate speech "involves discrimination and even dehumanization, often of vulnerable groups in society", he said. The conference was organised by the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Belgium will chair the Council of Europe for six months from November this year.
Secretary General Jagland and UN Secretary General Ban-Ki moon also met for a bilateral exchange on the situation in Ukraine.
