Hate crimes (including hate incidents) are committed because of prejudices or negative attitudes towards some groups of people. As such, they threaten entire communities and society as a whole, as they can lead to serious conflicts between different groups. In addition, they threaten the sense of security of all people in a community. Therefore, a stronger response to these crimes is needed.

Hate speech incites people to hostility and violence, which paves the way for the spread of hate violence and hate crime, in extreme cases even crimes against humanity, such as genocide.

The Estonian Human Rights Centre helps to stop and reduce hate crime by raising awareness, deepening cooperation between the NGOs and the state, and lobbying for more effective laws and policies. We also help social media platforms fight illegal hate speech by regularly monitoring the speed and the quality of hate speech removal from the platforms.