Creating standards against hate speech through the case-law of the european court of human rights

Abstract

Hate speech imposes a complex and sensitive problem. Hate speech indicates intolerance and lack of culture of respect for diversity, particularly in modern multicultural societies when has manifested extreme forms of open incitement to violence, terrorism or war.

The European Court of Human Rights created standards by which a line between hate speech as a negative phenomenon and the right to free expression guaranteed in national and international level, were noted. By straight of his authority, the Court with its judgments and decisions sends strong messages condemns expression containing hatred of a certain category of citizens.

The basic goal of this paper is to identify the standards which the European Court of Human Rights creates through the court’s practice handling cases related to hate speech.

For that purpose, firstly we made an overview of basic definitions and elements of hate speech. Furthermore, we analyzed some of the most impressive cases related to hate speech processed in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights.