“Enhancing police officers to fight discrimination and effectively respond to crimes against LGBTQI people”

2026-07-22

Law enforcement discrimination and harassment against LGBTQI+ people as a result of their sexual orientation and gender identity is a persistent and pervasive problem in rainbow communities. Such discrimination compromises the ability of police officers to protect and serve the communities by destroying trust and impeding communication. According to the FRA Surveys only 10% of the sexual or physical abused / members of the LGBTQI+ communities report their victimization in Greece, while 11% reported their discrimination experiences to an equality body or another organization in Greece. In the meantime, recent researches indicate that Greece has substantially lagged behind the majority of its counterparts in the EU when it comes to civil rights for LGBT people, including equality and non-discrimination, family legislation, and hate speech and violence. Moreover, according to Amnesty International, “in practice, the Hellenic police and judicial authorities regularly fail to take alleged hate motives into account when investigating and prosecuting hate crimes”. EXIS aims to develop a multidisciplinary police reporting approach that effectively responds to crimes against LGBTQI+ communities, as well as to establish a non-biased culture of approach when dealing with rainbow communities. Through capacity building activities based on identified needs and gaps, and peer-to-peer learning techniques, EXIS project focuses on increasing knowledge/enhancing the intersectoral approach, strengthening the multi-disciplinary cooperation among police officers, CSOs and other relative services to efficiently respond to the needs of the colorful communities and prevent crimes against LGBTQI+ members, and lastly deconstruct deep-rooted, restrictive and stereotypical perceptions regarding the rainbow communities and their members.

Greece

2025-10-15