It’s not often you get to say that The Council of Europe need your help. I feel very Jason Bourne. Actually, they need you to fill in this questionnaire on online hate speech. There have been many high-profile cases of cyber-bullying recently, and it’s something difficult to police. They COE are trying to do something about it though, and they need your help.

So, just what the hell is The Council of Europe? Well now, it’s an international organisation that promotes co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of law,
human rights, democracy, the rule of law and cultural co-operation. It was founded in 1949, has 47 member states with some 800 million citizens, and is entirely separate from the European Union (EU), which has only 27 member states. Unlike the EU, the Council of Europe cannot make binding laws.

It’s institutions are important to Ireland – for example the European Court of Human Rights is a Council of Europe Body and has had huge influence on LGBT rights in Ireland e.g. Norris and Foy cases.

The project of young people Combatting Hate Speech Online is developed by the Youth Department of the Council of Europe in response to the Councils Advisory Council on youth recognising that particular forms of hate speech such as racism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia could become problematic for young people with the growth of social networking – more information on the project here.

For more info on the campaign here, click here.