OSCE/ODIHR delivers series of workshops on countering hate crime for prosecutors in Poland, Bulgaria and Georgia

Recognizing, investigating and prosecuting hate crimes in Poland and Bulgaria were the focus of three workshops organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), from 9 to 18 March 2016 in Lublin and Sofia.

Of the 59 prosecutors who took part in the workshops, 39 were trained to become trainers and will continue working to spread ODIHR’s training among their colleagues as part of the Prosecutors and Hate Crimes Training (PAHCT) programme’s implementation.

"As the first two OSCE participating States to co-operate with ODIHR to implement the PAHCT programme, Poland and Bulgaria are helping to lead the way in taking a stand against hate crime," said ODIHR Hate Crime Officer Aleš Gião Hanek. "With more trained prosecutors, we will start seeing the positive effects of addressing hate crimes, as their enhanced expertise and knowledge spreads across both countries’ prosecutorial services."

The event in Bulgaria follows a training-of-trainers event, held from 9 to 11 March 2016, which aimed at deepening the participants’ understanding of hate crime and enabling them to become independent trainers. In Bulgaria, a similar workshop and a training-of-trainers event were held from 14 to 18 March. These PAHCT courses expand upon the implementation of ODIHR’s Training Against Hate Crime for Law Enforcement (TAHCLE) programme with both countries’ police forces.

"ODIHR’s training offered an invaluable opportunity to exchange experiences and best practices with colleagues and international experts. My understanding of hate crimes, and how they can be prosecuted, has broadened, and I look forward to adopting this approach in my daily work," said Ruzhena Kondeva, a Prosecutor with the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Razlog, Bulgaria.

The training events in Poland and Bulgaria will be followed by workshops held from 21 to 23 March 2016 in Georgia. These workshops will introduce ODIHR’s approach to countering hate crime through working with prosecutors.