Press Release

OSCE conference on Internet and hate crime a succes

The OSCE conference in Paris on the relationship between racist, xenophobic and antisemitic propaganda on the Internet and hate crimes was a resounding success. INACH started to lobby the OSCE for a conference on this subject in 2002 and were supported in this by the French OSCE delegation, which Resulted in French Government organizing and hosting the conference on June 16 and 17, 2004 in Paris. INACH-members, candidate members & cooperation partners organized the side-event 'Dealing with Cyber Hate on a Daily Basis' provided experts in every session of the conference and generated a number of recommendations of which most were incorporated in the closing statement of the conference.

INACH published a special report, written for the conference, 'Hate on the Net - Virtual nursery for In Real Life crime'

Headway was made in understanding the scope and nature of Cyberhate. The United states and the European countries came closer together on the subject of 'the Atlantic divide', freedom of speech versus hate speech legislation.

The INACH network applauds the commitment and leadership the OSCE participating states have shown, dealing with this extremely important and difficult subject during this conference. INACH will continue to strengthen and extend its network of agencies countering hate on the Internet, mainly through direct (legal) action to get hate removed, and through education.

INACH secretariat, June 18, 2004