The OSCE conference on hate crime legislation concluded in Vienna

On May 4-5, 2009, the OSCE conference “Hate Crimes - Effective Implementation of Legislation” was held in Vienna.

The conference opened with an introductory report by Professor Fred Lawrence (USA), the leitmotif of which was the relevance of the very problem of political recognition by states of the presence of hate crimes. It is this kind of political recognition of the problem, according to the speaker, that is the first step towards solving it.

In his report, Mr. Lawrence touched on such issues as the concept of a hate crime, the responsibility of the state to provide the skills and capabilities to investigate these crimes, and the need for special training for police officers, prosecutors and judges to adequately recognize and prosecute hate crimes. At the same time, the speaker paid special attention to the problem of the balance between the necessary prosecution of violent racist crimes (including vandalism of religious objects) and the preservation of fundamental freedoms (primarily freedom of expression). The speaker sees one of the most pressing tasks related to solving the problem of adequate prosecution of hate crimes as the problem of including protected groups in the process.

During the conference there were three thematic sessions.

Session 1. Legislation against hate crimes , during which the following issues were considered:

• Various options for legislation against hate crimes in the OSCE region;

• The benefits of developing specific laws to address hate crimes;

• Including the crime victim's perspective;

• The need to collect statistical data;

• Cooperation with civil society.

The introductory presentation for this session was a presentation by Ilze Brands Keris (Latvian Center for Human Rights, Latvia) on hate crime legislation in this country, which opened a discussion about the differences in approaches to the problem in the laws of different countries (in particular, speeches were made on the relevant legislation of Ukraine, the USA, Canada, Belgium, Turkey). It was noted that the legislation of the states formed in the post-Soviet space, in particular, still bears the imprint of the legislation of the USSR and, for example, in a number of post-Soviet states, racist propaganda and violence are still combined in the articles of the Criminal Code, which makes it difficult to take into account specifically violent crimes (in particular, Article 282 of the Criminal Code of Russia, Article 78 of the Criminal Code of Latvia, etc.)

The panellists then touched on a number of issues related to the implementation of legislation - the need for clear instructions for the police, the need for transparent and transparent statistics on both the number of crimes and the number of victims. A separate discussion arose between representatives of the SOVA Center (see the text of the speech in Russian and English ) and the official delegation of the Russian Federation about the need and possibility of statistically recording suspicions of a hate motive when registering a crime.

A separate issue that was particularly discussed was the protection of victims of racist attacks and the response of groups systematically targeted to this violence. It was in this part of the discussion that the social danger of hate crimes was especially emphasized, as they are directed not only at a specific person, but also at the entire group to which the attackers include the victim. Intimidation, failure to socialize, and criminalization of groups are just some of the tragic consequences of hate crimes for groups.

The second session , “Improving ways to investigate and prosecute hate crimes,” was devoted to discussing the following issues:

• Challenges in correctly identifying crime-related crimes

hatred;

• Ways to increase the capacity of the police and prosecutors to prove the motive of a crime;

• Organizational issues related to improving law enforcement activities;

• Problems associated with proving motive for a crime, including examples of possible solutions;

• The role of civil society as a partner and mechanism for strengthening accountability.

The introductory report at this session was made by Anita Soboleva (YURICS, Russia), who paid special attention to the attitude of representatives of law enforcement agencies towards victims and the state system as a whole - towards participants in anti-racist processes. The main theme of her speech was the conviction that the main factor in effectively investigating hate crimes is the desire to investigate this crime.

Subsequently, the discussion participants touched upon the problems of the spread of racist prejudices in the police environment (here again a small discussion arose regarding the assessment of the situation in Russia between representatives of the Russian official delegation and the main speaker and the SOVA Center), as well as issues of positive experience in retraining police officers and prosecutors for investigating crimes hatred. In particular, the positive experience of Great Britain was presented, where there is a whole system of training and qualifications for police officers. The UK representative particularly emphasized the importance of civil society in this work. In particular, he noted that the state did not have any methods or statistics for working with the Roma community. And it was the involvement of NGOs - their data and their work experience that made it possible to change the situation in the work of the police. The positive experience of the United States was also presented in the discussion - issues of increasing the trust of minorities in law enforcement agencies were considered.

One of the NGO speakers, Professor Robert Oakley, emphasized the need for assistance from international organizations (in particular, the ODIHR) for states in which legislation to prosecute hate crimes is in its infancy (for example, he noted the positive experience of cooperation between the ODIHR and the Latvian police).

The French experience is that representatives of the French gendarmerie and police undergo specialized training under the guidance of judges on procedural issues in combating hate crimes. In addition, in France there are specialized courts focused on the consideration of precisely such crimes (unfortunately, the speaker did not outline the scope of competence of such courts).

A separate problem during the discussion was the issue of specialized training of judges - due to the special and usually independent position of the judicial community in the countries of the OSCE region. However, attempts at appropriate training exist, as well as corresponding methodological developments (in particular, in the UK).

The third session - "Special challenges associated with violent groups united by a common motive of hatred" - addressed the following issues:

• How violent groups united by a common motive of hatred operate and how they recruit their members, in particular through the Internet;

• The relationship between violent organized groups united by a common motive of hatred and acts of violence;

• International law enforcement cooperation;

• The use of technological, legal and regulatory means and mechanisms to combat groups united by a common motive of hatred.

Representatives of the leadership of the headquarters of the French Gendarmerie, who are in charge of the fight against terrorist and extremist manifestations, Benoit Ferrand and Jean-Luc Guerre, made an introductory report at the session. In their speeches, they focused on the experience of the French gendarmerie in the fight against hate crimes. The report noted new challenges for law enforcement agencies, primarily due to the development of communication technologies, which complicate the work of law enforcement agencies and force them to constantly look for new methods of combating hate crimes. Difficulties arise with identification. Currently, the most effective methods for investigating crimes committed by groups, rather than by individual racists.

During the discussion that followed, issues such as the existence and mode of functioning of far-right groups were touched upon - their emergence from local to national and, following this, an international level of activity. The issue of countering subcultural groups that carry out racist violence and the existing infrastructure of neo-Nazi violence has become especially acute (see the speech of the representative of the SOVA center on this in Russian and English ). However, of course, the issues of preventing violent crimes, including terrorist acts committed by racist groups, are extremely difficult due to the specifics of the environment. The issue of prospects for international cooperation was also discussed - examples of positive international cooperation between Germany and its bordering states were given. The issue of control over the Internet caused a separate discussion.

At the final session, the results of the conference were summed up.

The conference was preceded by a meeting of NGO representatives , which took place in the morning of May 4. At the round table, recommendations were developed based on the practical experience of the NGOs participating in the discussion. Russian NGOs were represented at the round table by the SOVA Center and ANO YURIX.

In particular, the recommendations noted:

• the need to develop legislation to prosecute hate crimes in countries that do not already have one

• the need for careful monitoring of such crimes and their rigorous prosecution

• the need to develop effective statistical records of victims - in order to identify the most vulnerable groups characteristic of specific regions

• the need to organize appropriate professional training for representatives of law enforcement agencies

• the need to thoroughly investigate cases in which the victim herself claims that the attack was racist

-the need to develop a system for assessing the effectiveness of activities to investigate and punish hate crimes

• the need to generalize and disseminate positive practices of intergroup interaction aimed at destroying stereotypes.

According to NGO representatives, the OSCE/ODIHR needs

• full support for programs for effective police work in the prosecution of hate crimes

• organization of regular meetings of representatives of state authorized bodies and representatives of NGOs

• development and dissemination of comprehensive programs for monitoring hate crimes and sharing information with government agencies for NGOs

and a number of other recommendations.

The results of the NGO working meeting were announced by prof. R. Oakley at the introductory meeting of the conference on May 4, 2009.

The OSCE/ODIHR plans to publish the conference materials on the OSCE website in the next one and a half to two months.

CM. also the opening and closing remarks of the ODIHR Director, Mr. J. Linarčić, and a press release about the conference (all in English).