Two new publications on tackling hate crimes
ILGA-Europe is proud to present two new publications within our work on combatting hate crimes and violence against LGBTI people.
Research on the legal grounds and the political arguments for inclusive EU legislation against bias violence and hatred
ILGA-Europe, as well as many other anti-discrimination and human rights organisations have repeatedly raised their concerns as regards the need to develop a common legal definition of hate/bias crimes in the European Union. ILGA-Europe had first mentioned the necessity to tackle all hate crimes by means of EU criminal legislation provisions in 2008, in its Response to the European Commission’s consultation “Freedom, security and justice: what will be the future?”
In view of this political position of the organisation, it became necessary to consider the legal and political conditions of the adoption of further EU legislative provisions in this area, and to prepare advocacy strategies, making full use of all the EU treaties following the entry into force of the Lisbon treaty. This Research on the legal grounds and the political arguments for inclusive EU legislation against bias violence and hatred is aimed at informing ILGA-Europe and its allies’ reflection and political proposals in this policy field.
Download the publication here.
Training toolkit for police officer on LGBTI-phobic crime
Engaging with police forces and building confidence and concrete cooperation with law enforcement agencies often are key elements of successful strategies to combat homophobic and transphobic violence. For that reason, ILGA-Europe decided to provide its member and partner organisations with a dedicated Toolkit for training police officers on tackling LGBTI-phobic crime on how to devise and implement training for police forces better to tackle LGBTI-phobic hate crime.
Since national and local contexts across Europe vary considerably, this Toolkit does not provide definitive answers to all questions that may arise in a given situation or specific local context. Each training project proposed by LGBTI organisations will have to take into consideration existing legislation, the structure of the police forces, authorities and/or police academies. Similarly, implementing training will depend largely upon actions undertaken to raise awareness within the police. Very often, it would also depend on the mobilisation of coalitions between well-chosen allies, including Human Rights and anti-discrimination NGOs, and sometimes some sectors of relevant public bodies such as equality bodies and ombudspersons.
Taking into account these limits, the present Toolkit provides useful methodological advice to accompany and support LGBTI organisations in their efforts towards establishing training partnerships with the police. ILGA-Europe remains available for further targeted advice for its members and partners who wish to set up training strategies and training sessions with police forces with the aim to tackle more efficiently LGBTI-phobic hate crime.
Download the publication here.
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