D4.1 Country Report | November 2021
Author: Alessandro Rosanò – University of Florence
This report provides an overview of the acts regarding deradicalisation that have been adopted in the framework of the United Nations (UN), the Council of Europe (CoE), and the European Union (EU) as well as the case law developed in the field by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
It is highlighted that all three of these organisations have tackled deradicalisation in non-binding acts, whose implementation is left to the discretion of the states, which retain sovereign powers in the field. No binding acts deal directly with the issue.
As a consequence, it might be said that international organisations have only played a supportive role in promoting deradicalisation, because of the limited powers they have been given in the field.
As far as binding acts are concerned, the focus of the UN, CoE, and EU has been on topics that may be indirectly related to deradicalisation, such as hate crime and hate speech.
The same holds true regarding the ECtHR’s and ECJ’s case law. In fact, there are no judgments where the legal reasoning revolves around the concepts of radicalisation and deradicalisation. However, both courts have dealt with issues that are related to it, which may provide guidance with regard to the relevant principles in the field.