Hate speech

The Council of Europe's human rights commissioner, Dunja Mijatovic, said in a report published on Tuesday that the principles and standards on which human rights have been built in Europe over the past seven decades are being increasingly challenged.

Human Rights House Zagreb said in its annual report published on Friday that "as in previous years, war crimes prosecutions were stagnant" in Croatia in 2019, while hate speech and intolerance toward minorities persisted in the public arena and the digital environment.

Town mayors and mid-level politicians are still getting away with hate speech and discrimination against Roma communities in three Balkan EU states, despite the bloc's commitment to minority rights.

The deputy prosecutor in a Supreme Court appeal by the controversial bishop of Kalavryta, Amvrosios, of his conviction for inciting hate and abusing his position with a homophobic rant in 2015 has recommended that the senior cleric be acquitted of the latter crime.

Germany will step up its fight against right-wing extremism, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said on Dec. 18, following a number of incidents this year.

"Germany has to become more active against the far-right," Seehofer said at a press briefing in Berlin to introduce new measures.

Secretary of State with the Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) Victor Micula participated on Thursday and Friday in Paris, in the high-level conference marking the 25th anniversary of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI).

Muslims are subjected to hate speech the most, the Turkish president has said.

Damir Marjanovic, a member of the Sarajevo Canton parliament from the liberal, multi-ethnic Nasa Stranka (Our Party), told BIRN that he has filed the proposal for new legislation to the Cantonal Assembly because there is a real need for a clear and precise law that will enable people to be sanctioned for hate speech.

The Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union has set itself the objective of promoting the effective fight against racism, intolerance, xenophobia, populism, anti-Semitism and discouraging hate speech, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila said on Tuesday.

The mufti's office in Tuzla on Friday condemned what it described as a series of attacks on Islamic Community property in the towns of Zvornik and Bijeljina in recent weeks.

Unidentified persons destroyed four gravestones and caused considerable damage at the Kazanbasca Muslim cemetery in Zvornik during the night of June 7, the Tuzla mufti's office said.