ZMINA joined efforts to establish a national platform to combat hate speech in Ukraine
On 3 September 2026, Ana More, Head of the Civil Society Protection Programme at the Human Rights Centre ZMINA, took part in a high-level meeting supported by the Council of Europe to develop a multi-level national platform and a community of practice to monitor, prevent and combat hate speech in Ukraine.
Ana More The meeting brought together representatives of the State Service of Ukraine on Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), the Ministry of Justice, the National Police, the National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine, the National School of Judges of Ukraine and civil society.
Hilde Haug, Deputy Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine, and Stefan Manevski, Senior Project Officer at the Council of Europe, opened the formal proceedings.
“No single institution can tackle hate speech on its own”, Stefan Manevski, Senior Project Officer at the Council of Europe, stressed in his opening remarks. He emphasised that the meeting marked an important step towards moving from isolated initiatives to coordinated action and establishing a lasting framework to combat intolerance amid growing polarisation in society.
Ihor Lossovskyi, Deputy Head of the State Service of Ukraine on Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), said that the agency had already drafted amendments to Ukraine’s law on the principles of preventing discrimination. The new bill, which will address multiple discrimination, discrimination by association and hate speech, is essentially complete and has been discussed by an interagency working group involving the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the National Police and the Ministry of Justice.
Tamara Zakrevska, Ihor Lossovskyi, Dmytro Shvydchenko, Nataliia Panchuk, Olha Momot, Iryna FedorovychNataliia Panchuk, a representative of the Ministry of Justice, added that a specific operational objective had been set to combat hate speech as part of implementing Ukraine’s EU integration roadmap and human rights strategy running until 2035.
Dmytro Shvydchenko, Head of the Analytics Department at the National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine, discussed media regulation. He said that the Law “On Media”, adopted in 2023, had established an effective legal framework for tackling discriminatory speech. However, the complete lack of regulation of foreign content-sharing platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Instagram remains a major challenge for Ukraine.
Tamara Zakrevska, Deputy Head of a Department at the National School of Judges of Ukraine, spoke about the judiciary’s readiness to strengthen its response to hate speech. She stressed that, for Ukraine to join the EU, it is crucial to demonstrate to international partners that the country has effective mechanisms to put European standards into everyday practice for Ukrainian legal professionals. Zakrevska said that as early as September 2026, 15 Ukrainian judges would take a specialised course on combating discrimination, taught by judge trainers who had successfully completed Council of Europe training.
During the discussion, civil society representatives focused on the challenges faced by people affected by intolerance. Human rights defenders highlighted people’s deep distrust of state institutions and their fear of being retraumatised when seeking help. They stressed that the new platform should establish a reliable system that enables those affected to safely document the harm they have suffered and ensures they receive protection while keeping their personal data confidential.
Ana More Participants also discussed the nuances of monitoring hate speech: recent research on the LGBTIQ community shows that manipulative “criminalising framing” (portraying members of the community as offenders or disloyal citizens) and rhetoric about “protecting children” currently predominate in Ukrainian media, rather than direct calls for violence.
Following a session with Federico Faloppa, a Council of Europe expert, on the platform’s overall framework, participants identified five practical steps to launch the platform: mapping the key challenges, clearly assigning responsibilities, creating a shared repository of training materials, promptly developing training courses based on monitoring findings and establishing regular communication among members of the community of practice.
“ZMINA is ready to contribute its expertise, monitoring and research to this work. In particular, we are currently preparing an analytical report on the challenges LGBTIQ activists have faced since the start of the full-scale invasion. Together with our partners, we are also examining how Ukraine’s EU integration process has affected them. ZMINA also advocates changes to Ukraine’s anti-discrimination legislation, as it still falls short of international standards and fails to provide effective protection”, said Ana More, Head of the Civil Society Protection Programme at ZMINA.
