The No Hate Speech Week 2026 took place from 17-19 June 2026 at the Council of Europe, drawing on three days of dialogue, networking, presentations and testimonies from an exceptionally broad range of stakeholders, from equality bodies and local municipalities to youth organisations, law enforcement, public authorities, academic institutions, media professionals and representatives of communities most affected by hate speech. The diversity of perspectives made visible both the scale of the challenge and the genuine breadth of expertise that now exists in addressing it, offering spaces to learn from each and reflect on the potential cooperation.
The No Hate Speech Week was organised in conjunction with the Democracy Hackathon, as a joint event “Hack the Hate, Renew Democracy”. The event welcomed close to 500 participants from 44 countries, from Council of Europe member States and beyond. It consisted of three plenary sessions, a networking fair, the Democracy Hackathon, a mini-hackathon, activities with students and young people and 38 parallel thematic sessions or workshops. All these spaces were designed to share practical experiences and achievements, explore policy frameworks, initiate partnerships, and propose emerging solutions.
The event fed directly into the ongoing consultation for the Council of Europe's New Democratic Pact for Europe. Ideas from various contributions and thematic sessions will ensure that the conversations contribute to building a hate-free democracy.
The closing sessions presented some cross-cutting conclusions and calls which emerged from the discussions, each with direct implications for policy, practice and institutional cooperation at local, national and European level.
Good policies start with good evidence
The contributions highlighted that collecting data is not a technical exercise, but rather a way to identify trends, understand who is targeted, and design better responses. Presentations from ECRI on racist and anti-LGBTI hate speech, Spain's OBERAXE on the AI-based monitoring tool FARO, and INACH on the tracking of online hate narratives during election periods all demonstrated how systematic documentation transforms individual incidents into actionable evidence for policymakers. The colloquium on root causes of racism organised with the Steering Committee on Anti-Discrimination, Diversity and Inclusion (CDADI), offered a reflection on the knowledge-based conclusions to be drawn at the level of the Council of Europe when taking measures to prevent and combat racism and related forms of intolerance.
Technology is a tool, not a solution
Artificial intelligence can provide significant assistance in monitoring hate speech, processing large volumes of content and reducing the exposure of human moderators to harmful material. However, AI continues to face substantive limitations in processing context, irony, humour, images, video and culturally specific references, that make human oversight necessary. The practitioners present at the No Hate Speech Week from HateAid, Textgain, CESIE, DePresPOP, Solidarity with Others, TechHive Labs, Media Diversity Institute and the Media Authority of Luxembourg shared impressive examples of tools monitoring online hate narratives, to projects exploring AI-generated counter-speech, digital reporting platforms, and educational initiatives. The thematic session on religious intolerance in the digital environment led by the Special Representative of the Council of Europe Secretary General on antisemitism, anti-Muslim hatred, and all forms of religious intolerance, offered a structured discussion between intergovernmental policy-makers, spanning media, information society and AI (CDMSI, CAI/CDNET), the United Nations system, civil society, and AI innovators to examine how the Council of Europe’s new human rights-based AI governance standards anchored in the Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and HUDERIA risk assessment methodology, can translate those commitments in practice of “living together”.
Countering hate is not only about reacting; It is about creating
On narrative change, several workshops drew attention to the distinction between reactive counter-speech and the longer-term work on promoting inclusion and preventing hate speech from occurring. Culture, education, art and participatory approaches were all identified as essential instruments. ERIAC's Roma Art of Resistance initiative, ICEI's work through the Intercultural Cities Programme, KAICIID's facilitation of dialogue between municipalities and faith communities, and the Guidance for the development of positive narratives to deflect anti-gender rhetoric developed by Gender Equality Committee (GEC), collectively illustrated that narrative change is achievable, and even stronger when communities are given the genuine means to represent themselves. The thematic session on hate speech against women journalists in the framework of the Journalists Matter Campaign organised with the Steering Committee on Media and Information Society (CDMSI) combined a powerful first-hand testimony, fresh European research and concrete national responses, to move beyond diagnosis to explore challenges, trends and practical approaches in preventing abuse and strengthening protection for women journalists.
Democracy happens locally
Democratic values are frequently formed and eroded at the most immediate level of daily life: in schools, municipalities, community centres, youth organisations and local councils. The Congress presented concrete experiences of protecting locally elected representatives from intimidation, hate speech and physical attacks, and the inclusion work of municipalities and LGBTI inclusion in the workplace was explored by the Intercultural Cities programme and the SOGIESC Unit. Local initiatives supporting migrants and refugees were highlighted as models of what is achievable in practice.
No one succeeds alone
The various projects with multistakeholder approach to combating hate speech and hate crime, the partnership models presented by Equinet, the Equality Council of Moldova, ERGO Network, and the exchanges within the Workstream on prevention of hate speech and hate crime co-run with the European commission, all pointed in the same direction: structural cooperation between institutions, sectors and disciplines is not an aspiration but a requirement. Many thematic sessions included testimonies of the documented experience of collaboration between equality bodies, law enforcement and community organisations.
One of the strongest messages of this week has been the importance of cooperation, between institutions, civil society and public authorities, the private sector and human rights defenders, educators, researchers, journalists and local communities, and sometimes between people who would not normally find themselves in the same room. Because hate thrives in isolation, solutions to counter hate speech must thrive in cooperation.
Aurora Ailincai, Head of Anti-discrimination and Inclusion Department
The No Hate Speech Week was convened with the support of the New Democratic Pact for Europe, as well as, longstanding institutional partners including the European Commission through the joint project “Increasing Civil Society Organisations’ knowledge and capacities to tackle hate speech online”, the EEA and Norway Grants Mission-Driven Initiative Enhancing multi-stakeholder responses to hate speech and hate crime, the Presidency of the Committee of Ministers of Monaco, and a wide network of civil society, academic, media and technology sector partners.
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