Standing up against hate in the EU

2026-07-22

STAND-UP aims to establish a public authority-led, multi-agency model for countering hate crime. The model, designed and verified through participatory design process and a 6-month piloting period, comprises 1. technological instruments to enhance monitoring of the phenomenon and inter-agency data exchange, 2. A co-designed standardised definition of hate crime, 3. Two compatible models for hate crime reporting (for law enforcement and CSOs respectively), and 4. a multi-agency handbook for victim support. Training activities target public authorities (law enforcement and judicial bodies in particular), as well as CSOs, with the aim of 1. Ensuring that relevant actors are able to implement the tools and mechanisms developed within the project and 2. Better harmonising public body and CSO activities. Virtual Reality case simulations support training on sensitive questioning at investigation and prosecution. From a methodological perspective, STAND-UP strives to create a comprehensive and holistic counter-hate crime framework that covers all components of counter-hate process (reporting-investigating-prosecution-prevention (RIPP)), embedded within a framework of victim support. In this way, the project ensures the complementarity of the work of different actors, leading to a streamlined and more efficient RIPP cycle, better victim support, and higher levels of trust between CSOs, law enforcement, judiciary, and victims. OSINT is used to understand hateful sentiments and speech in localised contacts, helping public authorities and CSOs to identify areas of intervention, at-risk groups, and the weight of hateful sentiments expressed online as an indicator of physical acts of hate offline, all multi-factorally disaggregated. A platform is developed for interagency data exchange. Activities to raise awareness of STAND-UP and its outcomes, as well as well as to heighten awareness of hate crime and its impact on victims, are carried out throughout the project.

Italy

2025-12-15