Some 30 participants from different public institutions and civil society organisations took part in the closing seminar of the hybrid training course on the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance’s General Policy Recommendation n.15 on Combating Hate Speech (GPR 15) in Georgia. 

The course was organised in the framework of the Council of Europe’s project “Strengthening the access to justice through non-judiciary redress mechanisms for victims of discrimination, hate crime and hate speech in Eastern Partnership countries” aiming to improve competences of relevant stakeholders to address hate speech in Georgia in line with human rights standards. The course consisted of eight modules hosted online on the Council of Europe’s HELP platform from September to November 2022, following the structure and the content of the GPR 15, as well as, an in-person closing seminar on 10 November 2022. Each of the modules included a webinar with invited guests who spoke about their work in addressing hate speech and provided examples of issues, challenges and solutions in addressing hate speech from the Georgian context.

The course participants were motivated to take action against hate speech and continue cooperating among them as stakeholders in combatting hate speech. This course serves as an additional impetus to implement GPR 15 recommendations in Georgia as well as, the recently adopted Recommendation on combatting hate speech CM/Rec(2022)16.