Legal professionals, academics discuss OSCE/ODIHR approach to combating hate crime at workshop in Milan

A group of 20 legal professionals – prosecutors, judges and justices of the peace – and academics discussed the important role of the criminal justice system in addressing hate crimes at a workshop co-organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) on 19 May 2017 in Milan.

During the event, held in co-operation with the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart and the Superior School for Magistrates of Italy, ODIHR representatives presented the Office’s hate crime work, including its new project, “Building Comprehensive Criminal Justice Response to Hate Crime”. The project, co-funded by the European Union and the United States, employs a comprehensive approach to addressing hate crime in four OSCE states – Italy, as well as Bulgaria, Greece and Poland. It involves training police officers, prosecutors, judges, lawyers and members of civil society organizations to build their capacity to deal with hate crimes and analysing hate crime data collection by the Greek and Italian judiciary.

“The comprehensive approach will allow many different actors involved in addressing hate crime to develop together a deeper understanding of this issue. This will lead to better and more effective responses,” said Francois Deleu, ODIHR Hate Crime Officer.

The workshop included a question-and-answer session that touched upon general mechanisms, national legislation and international standards on countering hate crime, and on data collection.

“Efforts to train legal professionals to process hate crime cases show the commitment of the criminal justice system towards the whole community,” said Maria Theresa Verdugo Moreno, Special Prosecutor for Hate Crimes in Málaga, Spain, who shared her country’s experience in addressing this phenomenon with participants. “This serves to build bridges within society, guarantee social cohesion and protect democratic values."