Combating Religious Hate Speech: Lessons Learned from Five Years of Country-Monitoring by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI)

European governments that have to react to religious hate speech can turn for guidance to ECRI-the Council-of-Europe specialized monitoring-mechanism on racism and intolerance. They can be advised on how to use a variety of tools: criminal, administrative and civil law, self-regulation, prevention and, quite significantly, more speech. ECRI's protection complements that afforded by the European Court of Human Rights. The combination of judicial and non-judicial responses proposed by the Council of Europe can ensure that the fight against religious hatred does not entail unnecessary restrictions to fundamental freedoms.