The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), a body dependent on the Council of Europe, has raised alarm bells in its latest annual report. The organization warns of a growing trivialization of respect for others and an “alarming” increase in hate speech across the continent, a phenomenon that not only victimizes specific minorities, but already directly threatens the democratic quality of European societies.
According to the document, ethnic or national origin leads the reasons for these “worrying” verbal attacks, closely followed by religion, nationality, sexual orientation and gender identity.
The study is eminently qualitative, legal and political in nature, so it does not provide statistics, but it does provide social and regulatory trends.
The x-ray presented by the ECRI shows a general worsening on all fronts. The x-ray, of course, is devastating. For example, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia reflect a drastic rebound in official statistics in various countries, with levels much higher than those recorded before the Hamas attack against Israel on October 7, 2023 and the consequent genocide in Gaza.
The tightening of migration policies on the continent has also been accompanied by a greater prevalence of xenophobic discourses, in parallel with the rise of far-right forces. The Roma people, for their part, continue to be a recurring target, often exploited as a supposed “threat to security” or “public health.”
In the case of the LGBTI community, transphobia continues to rise, placing transgender people as the most vulnerable sector within this group, the dossier points out.
There are 21 Member States that already explicitly include sexual orientation within their criminal legislation against hate speech and hate crimes (or consider it as an aggravating factor), and 12 that go a step further and specifically include gender identity. Only two of the Twenty-Seven explicitly legally cover sexual characteristics (intersexuality).
Political responsibility and misinformation
The report emphasizes that foreign citizens, the LGBTI community, Muslims and the Roma community are the main targets of political rhetoric based on negative stereotypes and misinformation, a problem that becomes significantly more acute during electoral periods. Added to this is growing concern about remote-directed disinformation campaigns from abroad.
The president of the ECRI, Bertil Cottier, is blunt about this: “Hate speech not only attacks individual people, but society as a whole. When people feel insecure for being who they are, they exclude themselves and withdraw from public life, damaging democracy itself. Political leaders, officials and digital platforms must assume their responsibility, reject these speeches and promote inclusive narratives,” he explains.
For this reason, its organization insists on the need for self-regulation of political parties through initiatives such as the Pact of European Political Parties for a Non-Racist and Inclusive Society.
Content moderation on social networks and messaging platforms remains one of the biggest technical and legal challenges for Member States. The use of anonymous profiles and bots hinders investigations and the application of effective sanctions. For example, several studies analyzed by the ECRI detected an increase of up to 30% in the toxicity of messages on networks during periods of greatest geopolitical tension and debates on immigration hardening.
Although the ECRI is optimistic about the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to detect and manage online hate, Cottier recalls that these tools are still limited and “must be accompanied by strict human supervision and clear reporting channels, relying on the figure of ‘reliable whistleblowers’ (trusted flaggers)”.
Police distrust and “deterrent effect”
The report brings to light two critical realities that complicate the situation, beyond the increase in cases. One is the lack of reports of this type of crime. Groups such as Muslims or Gypsies are often left out of protection policies because defending their rights is not always considered “electorally advantageous.” This, added to the low levels of trust in the police on the part of these risk groups, causes the vast majority of incidents to go unreported.
The other is the harassment of rights defenders, those who put their finger on the sore spot, those who insist that this hatred be eradicated and whoever takes it out must pay. Parliamentarians, judges and civil society activists who speak out against racism and homophobia are suffering firsthand death threats and harassment campaigns, causing a dangerous “deterrent effect” that silences critical voices.
The ECRI also shows deep concern about the impact of hate on children and young people, who act as both victims and perpetrators, especially on the internet. The organization warns that divisive narratives spread easily in school environments and that current teachers do not have the tools or sufficient preparation to stop them. Given this situation, it urges European Executives to reinforce human rights education and media literacy.
As an institutional counteroffensive, the Council of Europe trusts that the recently launched New Democratic Pact for Europe will serve as a platform to underpin the principles of tolerance on the continent, using the ECRI monitoring standards as a basis. From paper it really has to go into practice.
