This interactive workshop will explore how Roma historical memory can serve as a powerful tool in preventing and countering hate speech today. Drawing on the perspectives of Georgios Stamatis, PACE General Rapporteur on Roma and Travellers, Simona Cruciani, Political Affairs Officer at the UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect (online), and award-winning journalists Paula Szewczyk (Poland) and Višnja Višnjić Milić (Serbia), the session will bring together parliamentary, human rights and media expertise to examine how storytelling and remembrance can build resilience against hate speech.

This practical session looks at how larger social media teams organise and plan their response online and their online campaigning, including tips and tricks on how to report, respond or ignore trolls and online attacks. The session helps to prepare communication specialists and activists to protect themselves from online hate speech reactions and to respond in an organised way during larger hate speech incidents. It also includes a practical example from Rutgers, the Netherlands on a court case aiming to counter disinformation towards their human rights work.

The session includes a presentation of the Federal Union of European Nationalities’ (FUEN) “Mute Hate Speech” campaign and the “Minority Monitor”, which collects and documents cases of hate speech targeting minority groups in Europe, highlighting documented cases, emerging trends and the role of minority organisations in reporting and addressing hate speech. Another monitoring example comes from the Lithuanian Gay League (LGL) who will present their monitoring methodology and long-term data trends on illegal hate speech targeting LGBTI persons in Lithuania including practical experience on documenting illegal hate speech, engaging with platforms under the EU Code of Conduct framework, and addressing challenges related to platform responsiveness and enforcement.

The session includes practical presentations of two international project: (1) Hatedemics implemented by the Citizenship Education Foundation, Poland, including the Hatedemics Educational Toolkit containing theory and education activities on combatting hate speech connected to disinformation and (2) SEED – Supporting European Youth Engagement against Disinformation by ICEI, Italy including their approaches to counter disinformation at the local level by making young people and educational communities the key actors of the process.

The session includes a presentation of research on digital transformation in youth work, which includes two case studies, one at national level from the No Hate Speech Movement Italy and one at international level – the “Democracy Here, Democracy Now” campaign of the Council of Europe’s Youth Department. Furthermore, the National Youth Council of Ireland will be presenting the Transforming Hate resources, that look at how responses to hateful behaviours from young people in a youth work setting, and a youth ambassador of Stopp hatprat, Norway will share the experience with youth engagement, workshops, activism, and awareness campaigns as examples of youth-led initiatives.

Inspiring insights from IGLYO’s work on combating hate speech and hate crime and the policy guidelines developed to translate Council of Europe standards into practical recommendations for youth organisations and policymakers will be shared during this thematic session. The FELGTBI+’s practical experience in countering online hate and misinformation, especially against vulnerable LGBTI+ groups will also add the national perspectives from Spain, and the findings from the research project “Queer Defence” on encountered hate speech and harassment by lesbian and queer women in Finland will conclude the session.