Back Countering hate speech in elections: workshop for members of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine

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Countering hate speech in elections: workshop for members of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine

On 30 November – 1 December 2021, the members, and Secretariat, of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine took part in the practical workshop “Countering Hate Speech in Elections”, organised with the support of the Council of Europe*. The participants discussed the challenges related to hate speech that election management bodies in Ukraine and other countries are facing, as well as international standards and best practices as to countering hate speech.

During opening remarks, Mr Steen Norlov, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine, , noted that the use of hate speech during elections was a dynamic and rapidly evolving issue. Thus, in today’s world hate speech is used not only by populist and extremist groups, but also by representatives of different movements and parties across the political spectrum, and election campaigns provide particularly fertile ground for hate speech and incitement to hatred. Mr Norlov also stated that developing efficient strategies to counter hate speech has become a major concern for national authorities and civil society actors across Europe, and the Council of Europe’s standards, case law of the European Court of Human Rights and monitoring findings provide the framework needed to develop such strategies and action plans on hate speech.

Ms Victoria Glushchenko, member of the Central Election Commission, pointed out that the Central Election Commission, being an election management body, quite often encountered manifestations of hate speech - both with regard to itself as a state body and to members of territorial and district election commissions, as well as to candidates and parties participating in elections. Given that, it is very important to respond adequately to such discourses in order to preserve public trust towards election management body and the elections themselves, that are the basis for building a democratic society.

During the first training day, focused on hate speech and activities of election management bodies, the participants got acquainted with the Council of Europe policies and legal instruments, international standards, as well as practices of election management bodies on hate speech issues, debated on the difference between hate speech and criticism and how to differentiate these phenomena, deliberated on the challenges related to hate speech that face election management bodies, and discussed best practices for preventing such cases.

The second day of the workshop was dedicated to hate speech and election campaigns. Thus, representatives of the Central Election Commission discussed various aspects related to the use of hate speech, in particular, toxic conversations and fake news, in election campaigns, deepened their knowledge of legal framework and practices to counter hate speech in Ukraine, as well as paid special attention to international standards and best practices used by the Council of Europe member states for countering hate speech in election campaigns.


*The workshop was organised and held with the support of the Council of Europe project “Supporting the transparency, inclusiveness and integrity of electoral practice in Ukraine”, implemented in cooperation with the Central Election Commission within the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine for 2018-2022.

online 30 November – 1 December 2021
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