Aware of the potential chilling effect of overprotective defamation laws on freedom of expression and public debate, the Council of Europe promotes decriminalisation of defamation and provides guidance to its member states to ensure proportionality of defamation laws and their application with regard to human rights.
The case-law of the European Court of Human Rights serves as an important reference point for assessing the risks of human rights violations that are inherent in the structure and content of national defamation laws.
The Council of Europe has taken various steps in order to promote the decriminalisation of defamation, to define standards and to address the issue of “Libel tourism”. A summary of the standard-setting work of the Council of Europe in this field in the form of resolutions, recommendations, studies and declarations is given in the Council of Europe Leaflet on Defamation.
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