International Day for Countering Hate Speech

CIS-Iscte is today marking the International Day for Countering Hate Speech, highlighting the kNOwHATE project, coordinated by researcher Rita Guerra, which is today launching a handbook to help identify and combat hate speech.

Rita Guerra and Raquel António (researchers at CIS-Iscte) and Paula Carvalho (researcher at CLLC-University of Aveiro), have produced a handbook to help identify and combat hate speech.

The handbook is based on the work carried out by Rita Guerra and Paula Carvalho as part of the kNOwHATE project and emphasises the importance of understanding hate speech from an interdisciplinary and contextualised perspective. It also explores the ways in which hate speech operates and manifests itself, notably through narratives of dehumanisation, the portrayal of certain groups as a threat, and the use of subtle and coded language.

Presented as a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, hate speech both reflects and influences broader social dynamics, such as inequality, polarisation, disinformation and the erosion of social norms. The handbook also highlights its impacts on victims, on those who witness such incidents (bystanders) and on the functioning of society, by contributing to the normalisation of exclusion, the desensitisation of the public and the weakening of shared democratic norms.

This work was developed at the project COOPERHATE – Abordagem de Cooperação Multidisciplinar para Prevenir e Combater os Crimes de Ódio e o Discurso de Ódio, funded by the European Union and coordinated by APAV. The manual was also produced in collaboration with SOS Racismo, ILGA Portugal and IPS_Innovative Prison Systems.

Its main objectives include promoting a shared understanding, based on scientific evidence, amongst civil society organisations, public authorities and the general public; enhancing the coherence of training, awareness-raising and prevention initiatives; and encouraging cooperation amongst the various stakeholders involved in preventing and combating hate speech.