The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) attended the online conference entitled “Hate, Democracy and Human Rights” organised by the International Network for Hate Studies (INHS) on 2-3 December 2020. ABTTF International Affairs Director Melek Kırmacı Arık attended the conference which was co-hosted by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the University of Plymouth in UK.
In the first session of the conference which began with the opening speeches of Dr Zoë James from Plymouth University and Kishan Manocha, Head of the OSCE/ODIHR Tolerance and Non-Discrimination Department, it was stated that far-right ideology has shifted to the centre and the mainstream and that hate speech has become increasingly involved in politics and the media which is damaging democracy and the rule of law.
At the session entitled “Towards an international understanding of hate crime”, the speakers which were composed of Gay McDougall, Former Vice-Chair of the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), Stefano Valenti from the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) and Paul Giannasi from the United Kingdom National Police Chiefs’ Council discussed the definition of hate crime within the framework of international organisations and assessed the international provisions that set standards for combating hate crime.
At the session entitled “Traversing disciplines, practices, and institutions” which was held on the second day of the conference, it was noted that there is a gap between academic research on hate crime and policies created to combat hate crime, while underlining that there are profound differences between countries in implementing laws.
During the conference’s final session entitled “From COVID to Cohesion - Drawing pathways for the future’, Graeme Reid from Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Barbara Perry from the University of Ontario in Canada discussed the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on vulnerable communities with examples from around the world. The discussants indicated that in order to counter the bad effects of the epidemic on all fragile communities, there is a need to prevent the spread of hatred on online platforms with plans for national action on political leadership, combating racism and discrimination.
