Hate speech and acts of hate are interconnected and represent a threat to human rights and freedoms, but also to the development, security and stability of a democratic society.

CIVIL strongly condemns any act of violence, especially acts resulting from hatred towards dissenters or members of different communities. The organization condemns the violence against the twenty-one-year-old Bulgarian from Ohrid, Hristijan Pendikov, secretary of the Bulgarian club “Car Boris III” in Ohrid.

CIVIL condemns in the strongest terms hate speech, acts of hate and violence resulting from the inability or unwillingness to debate arguments in public. Regardless of the “side” from which the destructive phenomena in society and on the political scene come, regardless of whether they are politically, ethnically or religiously motivated incidents, they cannot and must not be justified and silenced.

Violence and hate speech are never, under any circumstances, an appropriate response to anything!