Improved Response to Hate Speech through Legal Research, Advocacy and Training

ended

The project is designed to advance the aim of the call to support a comprehensive and intersectional approach and specific actions to prevent and fight against intolerance, racism, xenophobia, and discrimination, in particular on grounds of racial or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity. This project brings together efforts of key official stakeholders tasked with the law enforcement and judicial response to hate speech, policy and monitoring bodies, and the civil sector representatives. These diverse actors have joined together to expand the knowledge and understanding of the phenomenon of hate speech in Croatia through empirical research using content analysis and focus groups; use such insights to recommend improvements in the sphere of law enforcement and the justice system responses to hate crime, but also more broadly by influencing policies of public bodies and develop capacities of official stakeholders through training. The main target groups are members of professional groups key for responding to hate speech, including police officers, state attorneys, and judges (of criminal and misdemeanour courts), benefiting through increased knowledge, capacity, and through mutual learning. In addition, the project directly targets the policy community, offering evidence-based recommendations for the improvement of regulation, procedures, and practice. Members of communities targeted hate speech are also expected to indirectly benefit from research and directly participate in the process of developing evidence-based policy recommendations. Finally, due to the consistent application of the human-rights based and victim-centred approach, with focus on gender equality and non-discrimination issues, the project aims to result in direct benefits in terms of the contribution to the introduction of an innovative and more equality-promoting approach grounded in rights.