Multidisciplinary cooperation approach to prevent and counter hate crime and hate speech

ongoing

The COOPERHATE ‘Multidisciplinary cooperation approach to prevent and counter hate crime and hate speech’ project aims to provide a comprehensive approach to the prevention, reporting, investigation and prosecution of hate crime and speech-related incidents in Portugal, focused on: i) providing an unprecedented framing of hate dynamics at the national level; ii) improving the understanding of the phenomena of hate speech and hate crime by civil society and (non) governmental actors; iii) increasing the detection, reporting and evaluation of both phenomena; iv) enhancing the capacity of public authorities and civil society to prevent and act on hate-related (and motivated) incidents; and v) foster public awareness (and victim empowerment) through a multivariate framework. The project's objectives are to: 1) improve the enforcement of hate crime and hate speech-related laws; 2) ensure justice, protection and support for hate crime and hate speech victims; 3) increase the capacity of civil society and public authorities to detect and act on hate crime and hate; and 4) raise public awareness of hate crime and hate speech. To do so, COOPERHATE will assess current gaps and obstacles to the successful implementation of hate crime-related laws, enhance an existing online reporting platform for hate-related incidents, and propose cross-sectoral collaboration protocols between CSOs, LEAs, IT companies and judicial actors. It will also create the COOPERHATE’s Detection & Assessment Technology, integrated hate speech digital glossary & handbook, Motivation Identification & Victim Assistance (MIVA) Toolkit, as well as provide a b-learning training course for LEAs, CSOs and judicial actors. Finally, it will implement a holistic awareness-raising and public positive-narrative campaign. COOPERHATE will directly engage (at least) 613 stakeholders. Yet, due to broader communication/dissemination, the project’s outreach is expected to (indirectly) impact over 50 000 persons.