At the online training, election officials from the Election Administration of Georgia, including members and the staff of the Central Election Commission  exchanged views on international standards and good practices of the Council of Europe member states on issues related to hate speech and incitement of hatred during electoral processes.

As recent electoral cycles in Georgia revealed, democratisation and electoral processes proved to be vulnerable to hate speech and its negative impact on the electoral environment.

The online training was a part of the implementation of a study course on ”Countering Hate Speech in Electoral Processes”, developed in co-operation with the election administration.

The study course  covers applicable international standards and instruments for combating hate speech and incitement of hatred during electoral processes, strategies for election management bodies to prevent and respond to instances of hateful speech effectively and to think of a coordinated and cross-sectoral approach, hate speech and disinformation, hate speech and sexism.

The course will be integrated and implemented in all educational programmes of the Election Administration of Georgia targeting a broad scale of electoral stakeholders.