'International Conference on Hate Speech and Discrimination' was held online on 11-12 December 2020. Through the conference, researchers, civil society workers, lawyers, students, and academics working in areas such as hate speech, media, and discrimination from various parts of Turkey and around the world,came together online. A total of 26 papers were presented in 11 panels at the conference. 

On the first day of the conference, Rakel Dink, President of the Hrant Dink Foundation, welcomed the conference participants by emphasizing the unchanging importance of combating discrimination, racism, and hate speech. Following Rakel Dink’s speech, Director Ronald Meinardus Friedrich Naumann Foundation Turkey and Peter Ericson Consul General of Sweden in Istanbul pointed out that considering the current developments all throughout the world, the conference is very crucial and timely considering the discussed subjects.

Yasemin İnceoğlu, Chairperson of the Conference Scientific Committee, in the keynote speech, marked the need to strengthen coexistence and combat hate speech taking into consideration the local and global dimensions of hate speech and discriminatory speech.

On the first day of the conference; presentations were on the topics on hate speech in media, racism, politics of discrimination, minority rights, discrimination against Syrian refugees and hate speech on social media during Covid-19. During the panels,   The increasing importance to discuss hate speech and racism, the globality of the subject matter were discussed with examples from different countries from a comparative approach.

On the second day of the conference, hate speech and discrimination were discussed from a conceptual and legal perspective, and examples from field researches were shared from the field of education and digital media. In these panels, the mechanisms to combat hate speech and discriminatory practices were discussed.

The closing remarks of the conference were made by a critical discourse analysis theorist, and prominent name in the hate speech studies Teun A.van Dijk. In his speech, van Dijk emphasized that hate speech should not only be treated as an emotion, but also a shared idea and ideology, and should be treated in relation to the context. He underlined that a focus on anti-racism and anti-discrimination studies, as well as studies on hate speech and discrimination, will also strengthen the struggle. 

During the conference, short videos were shared with the participants from the multicultural heritage sites of Istanbul and 23.5 Hrant Dink Site of Memory. Though it was not possible to meet physically, these side events held at the conference tried to compensate for the impossibility of being together. During the second day of the conference, at the HDF Kitchen event, Takuki Tovmasyan and Levon Bağış had a fruitful conversation with the participants about food and multiculturalism. 

The conference was broadcast live on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts, as well as the Foundation's website, in Turkish and English. Before and during the conference, there were shares on the social media accounts of the foundation with the #ForANewDiscourse # NoToHateSpeech hashtags.

The conference was organized with the support of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation and the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

For detailed information about the speakers and moderators and the conference program click here.