Action Plan on Documenting Hate Speech Incidents by the Racist Violence Reporting Network
Signal – Researching and Confronting the Far Right will contribute to the needs of the Racist Violence Recording Network (RVRN) by providing its expertise on monitoring hate speech, enhancing civil society capacity on the matter and striving for more societal resilience.
The RVRN consists of 51 NGOs that record racist attacks against individuals of minority groups following a uniform process. Signal recently joined RVRN, at a time when RVRN expressed its need to expand monitoring to incidents of hate speech.
Signal will draw on the RVRN’s methodology and synergies with the participating NGOs in order to prepare a strategic action plan that will be presented before the RVRN plenary. Its aim is to highlight the challenges and opportunities in monitoring hate speech and to propose concrete proposals to be used as a basis by the RVRN in the process of expanding its reporting practices.
In preparation of this action plan, Signal will engage in the following: It will gather best practices on the matter across Europe taking into consideration European, regional and international actors’ recommendations. Further, Signal will organize focus groups discussions with RVRN members in order to get their feedback on the challenges they might face in future monitoring of hate speech. The ultimate aim is to produce a conclusive proposal that the RVRN can use to reform its working methods and include hate speech monitoring in light of EU initiatives and CoE recommendations.
The beneficiaries are identified at three levels; first, the RVRN members will enhance their existing capacities; second, the RVRN will expand its working cycle into a new field responding to the emerging challenge of hate speech, following European standards; finally, minority groups will be armored with a robust toolkit against divisive narratives and social exclusion.
