Good practices for building civil society coalitions to address intolerance and discrimination subject of OSCE/ODIHR event in Warsaw

Good practices for promoting tolerance and non-discrimination and the challenges that civil society may face in this work were the subject of an event held on 13 September 2018 by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) on the margins of the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw.  

Civil society plays an important role in addressing hate crime and bridging the gap between victim communities and the authorities. Civil society carries out a broad range of activities, from monitoring hate incidents to supporting victims and advocating methods to prevent hate crime. When civil society organizations form coalitions, they can significantly boost the impact of their work.

"Coalitions can achieve things that individual civil society groups cannot necessarily accomplish alone. Our recently published guide shows the practical steps activists can take to amplify their work through cohesive and sustainable coalitions," said Cristina Finch, Head of ODIHR's Tolerance and Non-Discrimination Department. "Coalitions are most effective when they are built around specific activities, such as monitoring hate crime."

Delia-Luiza Nita, Human Rights Officer at the Centre for Legal Resources (CLR) in Romania, shared her experience of coalition building during the event: "One of the main difficulties for civil society organizations in addressing hate crime is our diminishing ability to properly support victims. Building a coalition of diverse communities allows us to assist victims more effectively."

The event raised awareness of ODIHR's work on coalition building, including the new publication Coalition Building for Tolerance and Non-Discrimination: A Practical Guide prepared as part of ODIHR's Words into Action to Address Anti-Semitism project.