Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

European Forum for Urban Security

Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Editor’s notes: As Efus considers that gender equality must be systematic and constant and as such promotes gender equality in all its activities, we have deliberately avoided in this publication using words that imply gender bias.

We are using the acronym LGBT (short for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual) to denote all communities of non-heterosexual and noncisgendered persons (including transgendered, questioning, queer, intersex, pansexual, androgynous and asexual) and their allies.

European Forum for Urban Security

Published by the European Forum for Urban Security (Efus), this document is the result of the Just and Safer Cities for All project, carried out between 2015 and 2017. It was written by Pilar de la Torre and Moritz Konradi, Programme Managers, under the direction of Elizabeth Johnston, Executive Director, and Carla Napolano, Deputy Director, and with the support of Sarah Martin, Intern, and the project partners.

The use and reproduction are royalty free and for non-commercial ends, on condition that the source be specified.

Revision: Nathalie Bourgeois Layout: Marie Aumont, micheletmichel.com Printing: Cloître Imprimeurs, Saint-Thonan - France Printed in September 2017 ISBN: 978–2-913181–55–7 Legal deposit: November 2017 European Forum for Urban Security 10, rue des Montiboeufs 75020 Paris - France Tel: + 33 (0)1 40 64 49 00 contact@efus.eu - www.efus.eu

This project is co-funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship (REC) Programme of the European Union.

This publication has been produced with the financial support of the Rights, Equality and Citizenship (REC) Programme of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the authors and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Commission.

Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

Acknowledgements

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The Just and Safer Cities for All project was carried out thanks to the commitment of representatives of the partner institutions - Forum Italiano per la Sicurezza Urbana (FISU) – Italy, Forum belge pour la Prévention et la Sécurité Urbaine (FBPSU) – Belgium, Fórum Español para la Prevención y la Seguridad Urbana (FEPSU) – Spain, Forum français pour la Sécurité Urbaine (FFSU) – France, Institut für Konfliktforschung (IKF) – Austria, Associação Portuguesa de Apoio à Vítima (APAV) – Portugal, UFUQ – Germany, Uniwersytet Jagielloński w Krakowie – Poland, who contributed with their expertise to the different components of the project and to the drafting of this handbook. We thank them for their generosity in sharing their knowledge and experience towards the success of the project.

Moreover, we would like to thank the representatives of the 130 institutions, projects and initiatives that participated in the call for local practices to counter and prevent discriminatory violence at the local level. Their tireless work to tackle hate and intolerance and promote social cohesion and peaceful coexistence across Europe is a true inspiration.

We would like to extend our thanks to all the participants in the numerous events, meetings and discussions organised in the framework of the project - their valuable inputs have greatly contributed to shaping the ideas formulated in this publication.

Additional thanks are due to the European Commission and its financial support, without which this project and publication would not have been possible.

Project partners Sara Filippini and Gian-Guido Nobili, Forum Italiano per la Sicurezza Urbana (FISU) – Italy; Laetitia Nolet and Tony Versaevel, Forum belge pour

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la Prévention et la Sécurité Urbaine (FBPSU) – Belgium; Gemma Pinyol and Josep Lahosa, Fórum Español para la Prevención y la Seguridad Urbana (FEPSU) – Spain; Myassa Djebara and Camille Jannel, Forum français pour la Sécurité Urbaine (FFSU) – France; Helga Amesberger and Birgitt Haller, Institut für Konfliktforschung (IKF) – Austria; Rui Nunes Costa and Mafalda Valério, Associação Portuguesa de Apoio à Vítima (APAV) – Portugal; Götz Nordbruch, Mariam Puvogel and Sindyan Qasem, UFUQ – Germany; Katarzyna Jurzak, Uniwersytet Jagielloński w Krakowie – Poland.

Other Contributors Christina Aigner and Thomas Weninger (Österreichischer Städtebund, Austria), Shams Asadi, Peter Florianschütz, Thomas Hie, Dr. Michael Häupl and Angela Schwarz (Stadt Wien, Austria), Wolfgang Bogensberger, Petra Polgar and Dagmar Weingärtner (European Commission Representation, Austria), Patrick Charlier (Interfederal Centre for Equal Opportunities, UNIA, Belgium), Marc Coester (Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht Berlin, Germany), Jon Garland (University of Surrey, United Kingdom), Katrin Gleirscher (Interventionsstelle gegen Gewalt in der Familie Wien, Austria), Francesc Guillen Lasierra and Àngels Vila Muntal (Generalitat de Catalunya), Gertraud Kremsner (Universität Wien, Austria), Josep Lahosa and Anabel Rodriguez (Ajuntament de Barcelona), Giuditta Lembo (Regione Molise, Italy), Erich Marks (Landespräventionsrat Niedersachsen, Germany), David Martin (Policía Municipal de Madrid, Spain), Niraj Nathwani, Geraldine Guille and Anna Szczodry (EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, FRA), Larry Olomofe (OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, ODIHR), Anna Rau (Deutsch-Europäisches Forum für Urbane Sicherheit, Germany), Claudia Schäfer (Zivilcourage und Anti-Rassismus-Arbeit, ZARA, Austria), Gerald Schöpfer (European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance, ECRI), Hans-Georg Schuhmacher (Stadt Mannheim, Germany), Gabriela Sonnleitner (magdas Wien, Austria), James Tate and Natasha Plummer (MOPAC London, United Kingdom).

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Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

Table of contents

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Foreword.........................................................................p. 8 Introduction.................................................................p. 10

Part 3: Recommendations for Local Stakeholders...... p. 150 1. Improving knowledge through targeted safety audits.............. p. 152 2. Tackling the problem of underreporting.................................. p. 153 3. Providing local and community-based victim support services.......................................................................... p. 154 4. A visible role for local and regional elected officials................. p. 155

Part 1 - Discriminatory Violence, Hate Crime and Intolerance Phenomena and Counter-Strategies.........................p. 13

5. Training for front line workers and other agents at local and regional levels.............................................................. p. 156

1. What is discriminatory violence? Concepts and phenomena..... p. 14

7. Diversity and awareness within local and regional administrations...................................................... p. 158

2. European strategies to counter discriminatory violence............ p. 21 3. Discriminatory violence and urban security the importance of responses at the local level............................... p. 28

Part 2: Local Approaches to Preventing and Countering Discriminatory Violence a Collection of Promising Practices...........................p. 36

6. Cooperation with law enforcement agencies........................... p. 157

8. Promote early / primary prevention........................................ p. 159 9. Cooperation and exchange with the national and European levels of government............................................ p. 160 10. Cooperation and exchange with the national and European levels of government............................................ p. 161 11. Collaboration with local and regional media outlets............. p. 162

1. Fostering Knowledge................................................................. p. 38 2. Raising Awareness.................................................................... p. 56

References and bibliography................................... p. 163

3. Empowerment.......................................................................... p. 78 4. Targeted Prevention.................................................................. p. 96 5. Victim Support........................................................................ p. 116 6. Transversal Strategies to Counter Discriminatory Violence..... p. 133

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Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

Foreword

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Acts of discriminatory violence – which are targeted at a person because of hostility towards their actual or perceived adherence to a group marked by a particular characteristic: for example, their ethnic origin, religion, gender identity or sexual orientation, a disability, age, their language or because they are homeless – are different from other crimes. They do not only have devastating effects on the physical and psychological health of the victims themselves but send a message to entire identity groups and communities, threatening them with violence and the denial of their right to participate in society. Moreover, they instil fear and hostility far beyond the local context and even acts that seem isolated have the potential to lead to escalation and larger-scale tensions and conflicts. Furthermore, discriminatory violence directly threatens the founding values of democracy, social cohesion and citizens’ safety embodied in the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Human Rights. As such, it has a particularly devastating impact on many levels.

In the framework of its Just and Safer Cities for All project, Efus has established a consortium of partners throughout Europe, garnering a high level of expertise. Efus has led the consortium’s common efforts to promote the exchange of promising practices and develop recommendations for local strategies to counter discriminatory violence.

However, up until now, this issue has not always been prominent in municipal crime prevention strategies. Discrimination is not systematically tackled as such by security practitioners, as it is often perceived as the responsibility of other departments. Efus and its members want to change the terms of this debate. As it seeks to improve safety and the sense of security for all groups in society by balancing prevention, sanction and social cohesion, Efus has always stressed the importance of taking into account not only the needs and opinions of the majority but also that of minorities and marginalised groups. With an inclusive and holistic vision of urban security, we believe strategies to counter discriminatory violence must be at the heart of urban security agendas.

Elizabeth Johnston Executive Director

The aim of this publication is to raise awareness among local and regional authorities and to support them in countering discriminatory violence at the local level. It explores the state of the art of local strategies to tackle hate and intolerance, provides a rich compendium of promising practices implemented and recognized across Europe, and proposes recommendations on how to build future strategies to this end. In doing so, Efus hopes to provide a powerful tool in the fight against violence and discrimination across Europe and for our common effort to construct just and safer cities for all.

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Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

Introduction

 Local activities conducted by each project partner to counter discrimi-

Discriminatory violence and hate crime are pressing issues of urban security policies.1 Efus members have long been dealing with the detrimental effects of racism and xenophobia, sexism and LGBT-phobia, violence against persons with disabilities and the homeless, against Muslims, Jews and Roma people, and other groups that are vulnerable to hate and intolerance. Indeed, European local authorities raised this issue many times during formal and informal Efus meetings and proposed to address it through a European cooperation project. It is their municipal services and ground staff that deal with the consequences of discriminatory violence on a daily basis. They are the first ones to be in contact with those who suffer attacks because of their group identity, and who have to respond to their pain, loss and righteous anger.

 An international discussion process to produce recommendations for

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Efus set up “Just and Safer Cities for All”, a European project on the topic of discriminatory violence, with support from the European Commission in the framework of the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme.

From September 2015 to December 2017, the consortium organised:

 A European call for practices “Prevention of and fight against acts of discriminatory violence”, which received more than 130 submissions from municipalities, civil society organisations, private initiatives and research institutions across Europe that shared their activities and experiences. Fifty practices have been selected by the project consortium and are presented in part 2 of this publication.

 A European seminar entitled “Preventing and Countering Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level”, held in March 2017 in Vienna, which gathered more than 100 participants.

1-Statistically measuring the prevalence of discriminatory violence and determine in- or decreasing tendencies of such phenomena remains a complex and oftentimes futile endeavour. While many important surveys point to an increase in incidents of discriminatory violence in Europe over the last 5-10 years, these developments are not uniform and must not be generalised. Chapter 1.1 gives an overview of these data.

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natory violence in their respective localities, i.e. youth video projects, the development of online training courses, or training sessions for local authorities representatives. local and regional authorities.

 A dissemination seminar in the framework of Efus’ international conference “Security, Democracy & Cities”, in November 2017.

This publication is not the result of the work of the project consortium alone. A great number of contributors, experts and practitioners from across Europe and a wide range of professional fields took part in the the development of its contents. On the many occasions provided by the wide-ranging activities of the project, they have engaged with three main questions: What challenges are we facing in our efforts to prevent and counter discriminatory violence at the local level? What kind of actions should be taken to counter such phenomena locally? And what is / should be the role of local authorities in these efforts?

This publication is organised in three parts. The first part gives an introduction to the topic of discriminatory violence. It differentiates the concept of discriminatory violence from the notions of hate crime and bias-motivated crime, and outlines Efus’ approach. It also introduces European institutions' main strategies in response to this issue and makes the case for evidence-based, balanced strategies to counter discriminatory violence at the local level.

The second part presents a collection of promising practices that are being implemented throughout Europe to counter discriminatory violence. It does not aim to be exhaustive nor comprehensive, but presents a selection that may inspire and support local and regional authorities in their efforts at the local level and to reinforce their strategies.

These practices are divided into six categories: knowledge production, awareness-raising, empowerment, targeted prevention, victim support and transversal strategies. This systematic approach allows for a comprehensive and inclusive overview of a variety of activities, strategies and policies that can be implemented at the local level.

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Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

The third part includes recommendations directed at local and regional authorities. They have been developed and shaped in the course of numerous discussions among the project partners, in Efus Executive Committee and General Assembly meetings, with the experts, researchers and practitioners who took part in the project's numerous activities, and with those who participated in the events organised through the project across Europe, notably representatives from local and regional authorities, national and European institutions and civil society organisations. All generously shared their insights and expertise.

These recommendations aim to support local activities to counter discriminatory violence, to enrich the work of municipalities already active in this field, and to inspire those who are embarking on new projects.

Part 1 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Discriminatory Violence, Hate Crime and Intolerance Phenomena and Counter-Strategies >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

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Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

1.1 What is discriminatory violence?

Concepts and phenomena

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Phenomena of violence spurred by discriminatory motives Violence spurred by intolerance, hate or other discriminatory motivations is a day-to-day reality across Europe. Any search for statistical data on the subject matter is a complex endeavour: numbers need to be thoroughly examined and their meaning carefully evaluated so as not to aggravate fear and the sense of insecurity among the affected groups and society at large.2 However, many recent findings underline the scope of the problem and point to worrying developments that merit our attention here and now.

Official data for the decade 2005-2015 show high levels of anti-Semitic violence in a majority of European Union Member States (see FRA 2016: 23ff). In France, 2015 saw a significant number of anti-Islamic acts and threats, with reports on such acts increasing by 223% in comparison with the previous year (see CNCDH 2016: 10). The UK Home Office registers each year since 2013 high levels of racist acts, with a peak in the context of the Brexit referendum and the accompanying campaign, in July 2016 (see Home Office 2016: 16ff). In Germany, the Federal Office of Criminal Investigations indexed a dramatic rise in politically-motivated criminal acts against asylum seekers in 2016 (see BKA 2017: 9f).

Large surveys conducted by the EU's Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) showed worrying levels of violence motivated by antiziganism, LGBT-phobic prejudice, or sexism and misogyny. In 2008, 18% of Roma people interviewed by the agency reported having experienced acts of racially motivated hate crime in the previous 12 months (see FRA 2009: 9). In 2013, more than 25% of the LGBT persons interviewed for a large survey reported having experienced one or more acts 2- On the challenges of collecting and evaluating data regarding such incidents see ODIHR 2005: 21ff as well as Perry 2010: 351ff.

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of violence or been threatened with violence on grounds of their sexual orientation or gender identity in the five years prior to the survey (see FRA 2014a: 56). In 2014, an EU-wide survey on violence against women found that one in three women have suffered physical and/or sexual violence after the age of 15 (see FRA 2014b: 27).

The findings gathered here may, at first sight, seem eclectic or even unconnected. They do not only cover a range of localities and national contexts, but also a wide variety of phenomena: violence against religious groups, based on ethnic origin, migration or refugee status, on sexual orientation or gender identity. However, on closer examination, a meaningful commonality between them and similar, albeit less researched forms of group-centred violence3 can be detected. The victims are specifically targeted because they are perceived as members of social groups or communities that are discriminated against, that are subject to degradation, exclusion or marginalisation, or that tend to be seen as "other", "different from" or "less than" a socially accepted norm. Because the phenomena described above are so closely linked to social dynamics of discrimination, Efus conceptualises them as discriminatory violence.

How discrimination and violence interact The term discriminatory violence is not self-explanatory. It combines the notions of violence and discrimination, which are both complex in themselves. A common and widely recognised definition of violence will understand it as “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation� (WHO 2002: 5). By including not only physical force but also power relationships, this definition encompasses neglect and forms of omission, threats, harassment, bullying, intimidation and psychological harm next to more obvious forms of physical or sexual abuse.

3- E.g. against persons with disabilities, the elderly, the homeless, or sex workers. Examples of practices aiming to counter violence against these groups are included in Part 2 of this publication.

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Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

An internationally accepted understanding of discrimination can be extracted from the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and will comprise “any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference (...) which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life” (ICERD, Article 1).

The concept of discriminatory violence thus integrates these two notions to describe and problematise all forms of violent behaviour that target people because of identity traits that render them subject to social dynamics of discrimination. It encompasses phenomena of sexism and gender-based violence, racism, Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, LGBT-phobia, homophobia and transphobia, ableist violence and violence against people with disabilities, ageism, antiziganism, antigypsyism and violence against Roma and Sinti populations, violence against homeless persons, against migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, and against sex workers.4 Perpetrators of discriminatory violence are motivated by bias, prejudice, intolerance or hate against these groups. While these are individual motivations and perpetrators must assume full responsibility for their deeds, they cannot be dissociated from the wider social dynamics of discrimination, which provide the backdrop against which they become intelligible as a coherent phenomenon of high significance for security policies.

Acts of discriminatory violence have severe detrimental consequences, which can be classified in three categories. Firstly, they can have devastating effects on the physical and psychological health of victims, witnesses, and of the victims' partners, friends and family. Research has shown that acts of discriminatory violence are often marked by extreme brutality and tend to be particularly consequential for victims (see Kees

4- It is important to note that this is not an exhaustive list. Compiling lists of groups that are affected by discrimination and related forms of violence is a thorny, albeit necessary endeavour.

While only by naming those affected can their victimisation be rendered visible, such lists will always omit other victims whose invisibility is thereby reinforced. For an in-depth analysis of this problem, see Garland/Hodkinson 2014: 613ff.

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et al. 2016: 19ff). Secondly, they carry a strong and potentially momentous symbolic intent – they are identity crimes (see Schneider 2009: 298f). They aim to threaten and intimidate a whole social group, community or cohort with violence and exclusion, putting into question their fundamental rights as well as public participation, confronting them with a message of hate and rejection – consequentially, they can also be understood as message crimes (see ODIHR 2009a: 19ff).

Thirdly, they instil fear and hostility far beyond the municipal, regional and even national context. As such, they fuel processes of polarisation and radicalisation that may lead to violent extremism5, and bear the potential of increasing pre-existing tensions among different communities, enhancing the risk of violent outbreaks of inter-group conflict.

Once these three dimensions are understood and thoroughly analysed, it becomes clear that discriminatory violence is not only a threat to individual lives, but also has major detrimental impact on peaceful coexistence, rule of law, social order and cohesion, and poses a real threat to the principle of equality.

Hate crime and discriminatory violence As there is no commonly agreed upon definition of discriminatory violence, it may be useful to compare it to and delimit it from the better known notion of hate crime. Hate crime has been more widely discussed in criminology, criminalistics and criminal policy, especially in the English-speaking world, since the 1990s. A widely cited academic definition has been proposed by the Canadian criminologist and hate crime expert Barbara Perry: “Hate crime (...) involves acts of violence and intimidation, usually directed toward already stigmatized and marginalized groups. As such, it is a mechanism of power and oppression, intended to reaffirm the precarious hierarchies that characterize a given social order. It attempts to re-create simultaneously the threatened (real or imagined) hegemony of the perpetrator’s group and the ‘appropriate’ subordinate identity of the victim’s 5- Efus' LIAISE (Local Institutions Against Extremism) project has highlighted these interconnections between discrimination, stigmatisation and lack of social cohesion on the one hand, and processes of radicalisation leading to violent extremism on the other. See Efus 2016b: 28ff.

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Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

group. It is a means of marking both the self and the Other in such a way as to reestablish their ‘proper’ relative positions, as given and reproduced by broader ideologies and patterns of social and political inequality.”

(Perry 2001: 10) Perry’s definition firmly roots phenomena of hate crime in broader social processes of power and subordination, distinctions between self and other or in and out groups, and dynamics of inequality, hierarchisation and stigmatisation. This definition captures a significant part of the processes and phenomena this publication aims to tackle, but conceptually narrows them down to criminal acts motivated by hate – thereby neglecting all forms of assault not covered by a valid criminal code, as well as the wide range of discriminatory motivations that do not coincide with the extreme emotion described by the term hate (see Chakraborty/Garland 2009: 4ff).

Equally much cited is the more practice-oriented definition used by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), which states that hate crimes are “...criminal acts motivated by bias or prejudice towards particular groups of people. A hate crime therefore comprises two distinct elements: It is an act that constitutes an offence under criminal law; and in committing the crime, the perpetrator acts on the basis of prejudice or bias.”

(ODIHR 2009b: 15) This is a concise and practical definition of hate crime. On the level of phenomena, it sticks with the narrow focus on criminal acts covered by the penal code. On the motivational level, it broadens the conceptual scope to include other forms of group-based abjection such as prejudice or bias. It provides a common basis for the OSCE Member States to discuss and coordinate their strategies to counter hate crime, which focus on the harmonisation of legislative measures, i.e. the introduction of hate crime paragraphs into national criminal legislation. These serve to clearly de-legitimise such acts, preclude impunity for perpetrators and enhance sentences for those who were evidentially motivated by bias, prejudice or hate, thereby mobilising the legislative as well as

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symbolic power of the penal code to protect the fundamental rights of hate crime victims (see ODIHR 2009a: 21ff).

While the concept of hate crime and the debates around it in academic as well as practitioners’ arenas are an important point of reference for any discussion of the phenomena at stake in this publication, Efus has chosen to use the alternative notion of discriminatory violence in its own work.

Conceptualising discriminatory violence Efus’ choice to use the term discriminatory violence is the result of a number of careful conceptual considerations. Firstly, it is of utmost importance to highlight the interconnections between discriminatory violence defined as acts motivated by hate, intolerance or prejudice, and larger social dynamics of discrimination, social exclusion, marginalisation and ostracism against the targeted groups. Violence never occurs in a vacuum, but becomes an intelligible social practice only against the backdrop of larger social processes of power and the construction of social order (see Arendt 1970: 53ff). The term discriminatory violence reflects these interconnections.

Secondly, in using the notion of violence rather than crime, the concept avoids limiting the scope to criminal acts. While a narrow focus on criminal activity may be well suited to develop legislative strategies on the national or supra-national level, there is no need for such a limitation at the local level. Here, all practices that threaten social cohesion and peaceful coexistence of local communities, and put at risk the safety of the population at the municipal and regional level, need to be taken into consideration. All forms of violence covered by the World Health Organisation's (WHO) definition mentioned above, whether subject to penal code regulations or not, need to be addressed by urban security policies that aim to defend the safety of our cities. After all, research has consistently shown that the so-called ‘low-level’ acts, such as verbal abuse and harassment, which may not constitute a criminal offence, are the most common forms of discriminatory violence (see inter alia, Hall 2013: 63ff).

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Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

Thirdly, the concept avoids the term hate, even on a nominative level, and speaks of discriminatory motivations instead. The notion of discrimination is significantly broader than that of hate, and can function as an umbrella term for different kinds of hostile motivations which may be described by a wide range of terms: bias, prejudice, hate, intolerance, abjection, ostracism, marginalisation, exclusion. Moreover, it establishes a close linguistic connection to the terms that describe the actual phenomena covered, such as racism, misogyny, homophobia, ableism, etc., which are central to understanding discriminatory violence.

Following these considerations, Efus proposes the following working definition of discriminatory violence:

>>>>>>>

An act of discriminatory violence is a violent incident which the victim, a witness or any other person perceives as being motivated by prejudice, intolerance, bias or hate, and which may or may not constitute a criminal offence under the valid penal code.

This definition allows to capture the phenomena described in the opening paragraphs of this chapter. It allows for a comprehensive analysis and consideration of their political significance and their consequential effects for public security – this tends to be precluded when such phenomena are either understood as hate crime and then directly delegated to the law enforcement system, or conceptualised as discrimination and then delegated to equality/non-discrimination bodies.

And lastly, it allows for a broad recognition and appreciation of practices, initiatives and projects that are being developed and conducted in many localities across Europe to thwart these phenomena and counter and prevent all forms of discriminatory violence. Measures to produce and spread knowledge on the topic, to raise awareness with different target groups, to empower those at risk, to prevent incidents in a targeted manner, to support victims or to mainstream and transverse such counterstrategies play an important role and will be considered in more detail in part 2 of this publication.

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1.2. European strategies to counter discriminatory violence

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The European political and legislative framework to counter discriminatory violence Discriminatory violence needs to be seen in a European perspective. At the very heart of the idea of the European project lies the conviction that difference and diversity are an intrinsic condition of life on the continent. The diversity of cultural, national and ethnic identities, languages, traditions and forms of government enrich the European heritage. Exploited for particular interests and bellicose intentions, these differences have provided the ground for frequent and bloody wars and indeed the darkest moments of European history. It is against such abuse and with the aim of enabling lasting peace and stability that European unification was set up after the end of the Second World War. A central manifestation of this idea is the foundation of the Council of Europe (CoE) in 1949 and the adoption the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms by its 47 Member States. The CoE aims to promote democracy, the rule of law, human rights and social development throughout Europe. The convention defines a list of human rights and obliges Member States to guarantee these in their national law. Article 14 of the convention guarantees the “enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this Convention (...) without discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status.�6

6- European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Article 14. Prohibition of discrimination. The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this Convention shall be secured without discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status.

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Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

Concerning the European Union (EU), legal prohibitions on discrimination applied only in the context of employment until 2000 (see FRA 2010: 15ff). Civil society activism and lobbying by public interest groups led to a significant strengthening of the principle of non-discrimination in European law, most notably the Employment Equality and Racial Equality Directives and the proclamation of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights in 2000, which declares the indivisible, universal values of human dignity, freedom, equality and solidarity. It is at this moment that “Unity in Diversity” became the motto of the EU. Article 21 of the EU Charter forbids any discrimination based on grounds such as sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation. When the Lisbon Treaty entered into force in 2009, this Charter became a legally binding document for EU institutions and Member States when they implement Union law.7 Regarding more specifically the topic of discriminatory violence, the EU adopted as early as in 1996 the Council Joint Action 96/44 3/JHA concerning action to combat racism and xenophobia, which was replaced in 2008 by the Framework Decision (2008/913/JHA) on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law, which addresses the need for further approximation of law and regulations of the EU Member States and for overcoming obstacles for efficient judicial cooperation which are mainly based on the divergence of legal approaches in the Member States.

Apart from defining offences related to racism and xenophobia, this Framework Decision obliges Member States to ensure that racist and xenophobic motivation is considered an aggravating circumstance, or, alternatively, that such motivation may be taken into consideration by the courts in the determination of the penalties of any other offence.

Moreover, the framework decision obliges the Member States to take the necessary measures to ensure that LGBT persons are equally protected, as some Member States have already done (see FRA 2014: 16).

Furthermore, the Victims’ Directive (2012/29/EU) obliges Member States to assess the needs of victims of hate crime and refer them to appropriate support and adequately trained law enforcement.

7- Opt-out protocols were negotiated for the UK, Poland and the Czech Republic.

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This legal framework at EU level has direct consequences for national legislations. An overview of legal frameworks in Member States shows that the legal situation and recognition of hate crime and discriminatory violence varies widely: some do not have it at all in their penal code; others provide legal protection to only some groups.8 The EU has the power to force Member States to comply with the obligations of the EU legislation, with the help of the so-called infringement procedure before the European Court of Justice, and the European Commission has declared its determination to take all the necessary measures to avoid that actions by a minority of extremists are exploited to spread racism, xenophobia and intolerance in the EU. This short review of the European legal framework shows that European supranational institutions have become an engine of non-discrimination and human rights protection. However, this stance has been contested.

Discriminatory violence in the European perspective In recent years, several events in Europe have led to an increasingly tense social and political climate across the continent, which in turn has raised alarm about the levels and forms of discriminatory violence, such as those mentioned in the previous chapter. Among the developments that provide the backdrop for this current situation are: the financial crash of 2008 and subsequent strategies in many Member States to restore fiscal austerity, leading to harsh social cutbacks and rising levels of unemployment, especially among young people; rising numbers of migrants seeking refuge in Europe from global theatres of war in the Middle East, from persecution by totalitarian regimes across the globe, or from extreme economic deprivation in regions such as sub-Saharan Africa; increased mobilisation of right wing extremist and/or populist movements in many European countries, promoting the supremacy of majority groups and prejudice against those who are considered “different”; a decrease in legitimacy and public support for European institutions in many Member States, especially in Eastern Europe and the UK, leading most notably to Brexit; and increased

8- For detailed information on these national legal frameworks, see the ODIHR database on hate crime laws in the OSCE region: www.legislationline.org/topics/subtopic/79/topic

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Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

public concern for Islamist terrorism in Europe with consequent attempts by the EU to reinforce anti-terrorist measures. On the other hand, heightened mobility of populations, rising levels of education and overall processes of globalisation have led to an increased awareness of discrimination and intolerance.

To step up cooperation and coordination and better prevent and combat hate crime and hate speech on the ground, the European Commission established the EU High Level Group on Combating Racism, Xenophobia and Other Forms of Intolerance in 2016. In her speech at the inaugural session of the group, European Commissioner Věra Jourová said the current situation is an “unprecedented societal challenge [for] Europe” (Jourová 2016). The High Level Group brings together Member States authorities, the European Parliament, civil society organisations, community representatives, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) and relevant international bodies such as the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It aims to help maximise synergies between all stakeholders and develops responses to tackle effectively all forms of racism and intolerance. Furthermore, it will seek to set up a common methodology to record and collect hate crime data.

The approaches of European institutions and organisations to counter discriminatory violence Three main pan-national institutions are driving the fight against discriminatory violence, intolerance and hate crime at a European level.

As their approach and activities provide a relevant framework and rich source of support and information for local stakeholders, they will be introduced and summarised here.

The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) is the EU’s centre for fundamental rights expertise. It was established in 2007 to provide independent, evidence-based assistance and expertise on fun-

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damental rights to EU institutions and Member States. The Agency works on a variety of themes that are relevant to countering discriminatory violence, in particular:

 access to justice for victims of crime, including compensation to victims;

Roma integration, rights of the child;  discrimination based on sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation;

 immigration and integration of migrants, visa and border control and asylum;

racism, xenophobia and related intolerance.

To combat discriminatory violence effectively, acts must be made more visible, perpetrators held to account and their victims supported. The Victims’ Directive (Directive 2012/29/EU) obliges Member States to identify victims of hate crimes at their first contact with police officers in order to offer them appropriate information to access their victim rights taking into account their specific needs and personal circumstances. Numerous rulings by the European Court of Human Rights oblige countries to ‘unmask’ the bias motivation behind criminal offences. In addition, the FRA's research consistently demonstrates large discrepancies remain in the ways in which Member States record and collect data on hate crime. The result is that many hate crimes remain unreported, unprosecuted and therefore invisible. Moreover, the agency has created a toolbox titled “Joining up Fundamental Rights”9, which provides local, regional and national authorities with hands-on tools and methodologies to integrate fundamental rights into policy making, service delivery, and administrative practices.

In 2014, FRA established a working party on improving the reporting and recording of hate crime in the EU with members of all 28 Member States as well as relevant international bodies. The major output of the working party is a compendium of practices10 on combating hate crime,

9- See : www.fra.europa.eu/en/joinedup/home 10-See: www.fra.europa.eu/en/theme/hate-crime/compendium-practices

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Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

which aims to facilitate exchange and the transfer of effective strategies at the European level.11 In 2016, the European Commission asked the Agency to join its High Level Group to combat racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance, and also asked FRA to coordinate a Subgroup reporting back to the High Level Group that will work to develop methodologies for recording and collecting data on hate crime. During the initial two-year period (2017-2018), the objective of the Sub-group is to suggest core common elements for a methodology that can record and collect data on hate crime incidents, improving data comparability across the Member States and ready to be tested by Member States if needed with adaptations appropriate to their national setting.

European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) The Council of Europe established its European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) in 1993, an independent panel composed of 47 experts from all the Council's member countries. The ECRI's original mission is to monitor and report on problems of racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, intolerance and discrimination on grounds such as “race”, national/ethnic origin, colour, citizenship, religion and language (racial discrimination), and to issue recommendations to Member States. Since 2013, discrimination and intolerance against lesbian, gay, bi- and transsexual persons (LGBT) are also included in its mandate.

ECRI is tasked with evaluating the political, legislative and societal measures taken by member countries to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and intolerance, and their effectiveness. Moreover, it proposes further actions and formulates general policy recommendations to Member States. ECRI is best known for its country-by-country reporting12, which examines the Member States’ policies to tackle and prevent racial discrimination and intolerance in five-year cycles, in cooperation with state agencies as well as non-governmental structures and initiatives, liaison officers, etc. ECRI’s findings, along with recommendations as to how each country should deal with the problems identified, are published in authoritative country reports.

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11- The work of Efus on the topic of discriminatory violence is in line with the FRA’s approach and there were intense exchanges during the Just and Safer Cities for All project.

12- See : www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/ecri/activities/countrybycountry_en.asp.

Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) is tasked with providing the organisation’s Member States as well as civil society with support, assistance and expertise to promote democracy, the rule of law, human rights, tolerance and non-discrimination. Established in 1990 with an original mandate to promote free elections, the office’s Tolerance and Non-Discrimination Department today plays an important role in countering intolerance, discrimination, hate and related forms of violence and crime. The focus of its work is to tackle hate crime by targeting various levels, i.e. to encourage governments to develop counter-strategies and integrate them into education, law enforcement and social policies, improve and harmonise hate crime reporting systems, amend penal law so as to reflect the severity of bias-motivated incidents, and train law enforcement agencies as well as civil society initiatives to monitor hate crime, support victims, and foster good inter-community relations.

Through its Tolerance and Non-Discrimination Information System (TANDIS), the ODIHR collects data on hate-motivated incidents from official state agencies and civil society organisations, compiles them and makes them available online.13 Moreover, it provides concise information on national hate crime legislations, as well as action plans, reports and other documents on dedicated country pages, and publishes widely recognised guides and fact sheets promoting strategies to counter hate crime.

Discriminatory violence as a priority of urban security policies in Europe Pan-national initiatives such as those taken by the European Union, the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and their respective bodies in charge of fighting discrimination and related forms of violence thus provide important frameworks for countering discrimination. However, for these initiatives to have a real impact on the ground and achieve their purpose of 13- See : www.tandis.odihr.pl.

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Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

protecting vulnerable people from assault against such private and precious aspects of their personality as their ethnic identity, sexual orientation or disability, more needs to be done.

Apart from top-down initiatives, there is a need for bottom-up actions at the local level that fully acknowledge the harm discriminatory violence inflicts on significant parts of the population. Coordination of measures taken at the different levels of governance – from local and regional to national, European and international – and by a variety of stakeholders must be intensified. Exchange between stakeholders at the local level across Europe and networking with representatives from national and international bodies needs to be improved. It is the development, implementation and evaluation of such local initiatives to counter discriminatory violence and their interaction and cooperation with other stakeholders that is the central interest of this publication, and which will be addressed in the next chapter.

1.3. Discriminatory violence and urban security - The importance of responses at the local level

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> European cities as diversity hotspots Cities and metropolitan regions embody the emblematic European notion of Unity in Diversity: they are melting pots, magnets for diverse groups such as migrants, sexual minorities, religious communities, the homeless, expatriates, and more generally people from all walks of life who mingle with the native population and become locals themselves.

They increasingly harbour large numbers of people from different generations, origins, ethnic backgrounds, gender identities and sexual preferences, religions, social and economic status, etc. who find ways of building communities and expressing themselves that are unique to urban environments. Increased urbanisation and migration to cities may be among the most obvious sources of the diversification of urban

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populations, but this development should be understood in a broader sense. Socio-economic differentiation, spatial segregation and a postmodern fragmentation of identities all contribute to such processes.

People do not belong to one but to diverse categories such as race, class, gender and other identity markers. Moreover, such denominations are becoming increasingly fluid and unstable. The entirety of this process has been conceptualised as the “hyper-diversification” of urban spaces, which has been widely recognised as a fundamental condition of urban life in our time and as an asset leading to wide ranging potentials for positive socio-economic developments.14 However, increased diversification of urban populations and communities living together in European cities is not always a smooth and peaceful process. The heterogeneous composition of urban society can also become a breeding ground for tensions and conflicts. Moreover, rapid urban growth in Europe can lead to a sharpening of intolerant and discriminatory behaviour, which in turn can escalate into violent or criminal acts, jeopardising social cohesion and affecting the tranquillity and security of individuals, communities and the citizenry in general.

Managing diversity is therefore an impending challenge for governments. Non-discrimination must be placed at the heart of the decision-making process at all stages of public policy. If diversity is not managed, it can lead to situations of exclusion and vulnerability for both minorities and society at large.

To fully grasp the significance of this nexus it is important to understand that discriminatory violence does not only classify incidents perpetrated by offenders who form part of radical groups or who display clearly extremist motives. Instead, the most pervasive and therefore possibly most threatening forms of discriminatory violence may seem much more like ordinary, everyday experiences: “the low-level violence of the broken window, the excrement through the letterbox, late night banging on doors, and the pushes, kicks and blows delivered to the passerby on the sidewalk” (McClintock 2005: 5). While it may be questioned whether such phenomena are adequately described as “low

14- The notion of hyper-diversity has been conceived by the research project “DiverCities Governing Urban Diversities”, which aimed to review such processes as well as innovative policy instruments addressing the societal changes they bring about. See Tasan-Kok et al. 2017: 8ff.

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Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

level”, they have to a certain degree been normalised in many urban settings (see Iganski 2008: 23ff). Such “minor” incidents tend to be trivialised and often go without a response by law enforcement agencies or other authorities and institutions. Nonetheless, they can instil a profound sense of insecurity, distrust and fear among other members of the affected communities, who may indeed be as psychologically affected as if they were themselves victimised (see ODIHR 2009b: 17), and thus have serious detrimental effects on social cohesion and public health.

Much has been said in public and scientific debates about urban crime hotspots or so called “no-go-areas”, in which public security is particularly weak. While talk of such areas generates fear and significantly damages the public’s perception of security in areas labelled as such, what is often missing is a deeper analysis of which types of crime are widespread in such areas and which social groups are being affected or at risk of victimisation. Research on the geographical distribution of hate crime and discriminatory violence in urban areas points to ethnic homogeneity and economic disadvantage or poverty as factors that may favour a concentration of risk situations for marginalised groups such as xenophobic attacks, homo- or LGBT-phobic incidents, sexist harassment or abuse, or anti-Semitic violence (see Iganski 2008: 45ff).

Such spatial dynamics should be further investigated through local security audits and surveys in order to make corresponding adaptations to local and regional prevention strategies.

Discriminatory violence as a challenge to urban security policies The previous chapters and paragraphs show that discriminatory violence is undeniably and unambiguously a security issue. However, measures to secure peaceful coexistence between diverse communities and combating and preventing discrimination oftentimes do not rank as a high priority in the security policies of European cities. Traditionally, local services tasked with the topic of discrimination are part of administrative departments for education, housing, employment, cultural activities, gender equality and other social programmes rather than security departments (see Crowley 2015: 11f). This remit is uni-

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versally accepted, as discrimination and related forms of violence are present in all these spheres of social life and need to be addressed by the relevant administrative departments. Nonetheless, discrimination, hate and intolerance do have an impact on public security as well as public perceptions of security. This nexus needs to be further explored in order to show why urban security practitioners should be involved in countering discriminatory violence and how local and regional strategies can include this topic.

The intersections of diversification, discrimination and security have predominantly been seen through the lens of risks and threats. For example, the highly mediatised terrorist attacks that have hit many European cities have been presented by some politicians and media outlets as a consequence of immigration and influx of refugees from regions torn by civil wars and military conflicts. This has contributed to a perception of migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers, especially Muslims, as a potential threat (see, inter alia, Nunziata 2015: 697ff).

Moreover, there is widespread though unjustified belief that crime rates are higher among immigrant populations, which has provided legitimation to discriminatory police practices such as racial profiling.

And the presence of other marginalised groups such as Roma or homeless persons in city centres is often perceived as a threat to urban security.

Increased diversification poses challenges to urban security that need to be met by appropriate measures. However, diversification should not exclusively be seen as a threat or risk. Such a view is one-sided and unproductive. It stigmatises groups that are already marginalised and facing discrimination. Suggesting that such groups are associated with delinquency and crime, while there is no scientific justification for such an association, may add to their ostracisation and provides additional legitimation to those who promote intolerance and hate against them.

Consequently, alternative ways of thinking about diversity and urban security are needed. These should rely on the core axiom of urban security as a public good based on the respect of fundamental rights and the participation of a wide diversity of individuals and groups within society (on this and the following, see Efus 2012: 7ff).

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Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

European cities wish to preserve and develop the existence of public spaces that are shared by diverse population groups. The creation of social ties and conviviality is a priority: security does not seek to alienate citizens from each other, but rather to create shared spaces in which the safety of all is ensured. Discriminatory violence threatens to preclude the participation of the affected groups in the creation of such public spaces as well as the exercise of the freedoms they provide. If members of these groups must consider themselves at risk of being harassed, insulted, or attacked on grounds of their identity, of being victimised by discriminatory incidents when becoming visible in such public spaces and participating in public debates and affairs, their input will be lost and participation will be limited to those who belong to the majority whose interests are already represented in public.

Only urban security policies that respect, promote and protect women’s rights, the rights of ethnic, religious and sexual minorities, of persons with disabilities and homeless persons, and the rights of other groups that face marginalisation and discriminatory violence will enable the involvement and participation of these groups (see Efus 2007: 4ff). As discriminatory violence, hate and intolerance are major concerns to such groups and the protection from such phenomena is a prerequisite for their well-being, integration and participation in societal processes, these matters must form an integral part of urban security strategies.

The strategic role of local and regional authorities in countering discriminatory violence Different responses have been developed throughout Europe to tackle discriminatory violence. The most widespread are legislative and punitive responses, aiming to establish hate crime laws in the relevant legal codes, to improve recognition of bias-motivated crimes in the jurisprudence of penal and civil courts, and to coordinate and harmonise such responses across Europe (see chapter 1.2). While these efforts are important given that they can discourage potential perpetrators and send an important message of recognition and solidarity to the victims, their scope is limited in the sense that legislation and enforcement cannot sufficiently tackle the roots of bias. Hence, such efforts must be

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seconded by local and regional measures to combat hate, intolerance and discriminatory violence.

Despite the European and international scope of discriminatory violence and hate crime, many of the factors that influence such phenomena have local components. Local living conditions, the influence of peer groups, a lack of social cohesion or a distance from democratic and civic values, stigmatisation of neighbourhoods – all these local factors can undermine the peaceful coexistence of communities in urban areas and foster phenomena such as hate, intolerance and discrimination. Moreover, due to their proximity to the population, local and regional authorities are very often the first ones to be confronted with citizens’ requests and demands: they are in direct contact and can offer information and guidance, they lead public services and the key institutions that manage public security, prevention and integration, and they supervise networks of institutions, organisations and initiatives that contribute to the provision of the public good of urban security (see Efus 2016b: 28ff). It is thus because of their proximity to the relevant social processes as well as their capacities to plan and implement measures of prevention, sanction and social cohesion that local and regional authorities have a unique and indispensable contribution to make to preventing and countering discriminatory violence.

Although the competencies of local and regional authorities in matters of security vary among EU countries, the important role they can play in countering phenomena such as racism and intolerance is increasingly recognised. For example, in its Resolution 149 (2003) On Social Cohesion and Regions in Europe: Regional Policies and Action with Regard to Social Cohesion, the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities emphasises that the role of local and regional governments in developing social cohesion is vital to truly guarantee minorities' and vulnerable groups' universal security and protection. In its Resolution 296 (2010) the Council of Europe notes that because of the close relationship between citizens and their locally elected representatives, local and regional bodies are best placed to assess situations where the protection of human rights is at stake, identify problems and act to protect residents' human and fundamental rights.

In its methodological guide on the topic, the Council details the impor-

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Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

tant contribution local stakeholders can make in this regard (see Council of Europe 2005: 50ff).

 defining a central and visible role for local and regional elected offi-

Moreover, the United Nations (UN) organises a European Coalition of Cities Against Racism (ECCAR) within the framework of its Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). ECCAR has published an action plan to fight racism on the municipal level, assembling commitments and examples of actions on a wide range of activities. One of the ten sections of the action plan aims to “support or establish mechanisms for dealing with hate crimes and conflict management” (ECCAR 2004: 7) and suggests three examples of action at the local level: to establish a board of experts to advise the municipality, to build an inter-agency group of city employees to coordinate actions, and to offer training for workers in local and regional agencies. While these are a good starting point, further expertise and recommendations are needed for local security practitioners on how to act to counter and prevent discriminatory violence.

 training a variety of local and regional stakeholders to better recog-

Efus promotes a comprehensive and balanced approach to countering and preventing discriminatory violence at the local level, which combines preventive measures, repressive action and efforts to constantly improve social cohesion. It must include a wide range of stakeholders and rely on the participation of all social groups, especially those who are affected by phenomena of discrimination and intolerance and related forms of violence. It must integrate and work with the existing resources in other fields of crime prevention and include appropriate ways of communication and dissemination. Important aspects of such an approach include:

cials in countering hate and intolerance; nise and respond to discriminatory acts;

 establishing or improving cooperation with law enforcement agencies with the aim of enhancing preventive and repressive measures;

 increasing diversity and raising awareness of discrimination within local and regional administrations;

 promoting measures of early and/or primary prevention of prejudice and bias in schools and civic education;

 fostering cooperation and exchange with the national and European levels of government on the topic;

 cooperating with local and regional media outlets to improve the quality of coverage on the topic.

These aspects will be further developed in Part 3, which is dedicated to giving detailed recommendations for the implementation of strategies to prevent discriminatory violence aimed at practitioners and officials at the local and regional level. The following Part 2 presents a range of existing practices and provides an overview of promising projects already being implemented across Europe.

 improving knowledge on local phenomena of discriminatory violence through targeted methodological safety audits;

 tackling the widespread problem of the underreporting of discriminatory incidents and improving statistical data;

 providing or improving local and community-based victim support services for those who have suffered acts of discriminatory violence;

 setting up and leading preventive networks that tackle discriminatory violence or pushing the topic onto the agenda of such networks;

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Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

Introduction

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Part 2 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Local Approaches to Preventing and Countering Discriminatory Violence - Collection of Promising Practices >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The following part compiles 50 examples of practices on how to counter and prevent discriminatory violence at the local and regional level. The aim is to provide local actors across Europe with concrete examples and inspiration for their own efforts to this end. The practices presented here have been selected from 130 practices submitted by institutions and organisations from 16 European countries in response to a call launched by Efus and its project partners in April 2016. The call was circulated in English, French, Italian, Polish, German, Portuguese and Spanish, and submissions had to be filed by December 2016.

All the practices that were sent were carefully discussed and analysed by the project consortium. The selection process lasted over four months. All members of the project consortium reviewed the practices with the help of an evaluation form provided by Efus. The evaluation based on the criteria that were included in the call for practices: overall quality of the practice, relevance within the chosen categories, priorities and types of action, innovation, transferability, sustainability, quality of the partnership, cost-benefit ratio, citizen participation, and duration.

A pre-selection process was carried out on Efus’ online platform Efus-Network, at the end of which a short list of 70 practices was established. In March 2017, the 50 selected practices were decided during a project coordination meeting held in Vienna, attended by all members of the project consortium and two representatives of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights.

The practices presented here were considered by the consortium to be best suited to successfully tackle discriminatory violence, hate and intolerance. They were also selected with the objective of representing the diversity of field practices, including initiatives from a variety of European nations and regions, conducted by a host of different stakeholders, targeting a wide range of sub-phenomena, working with a multiplicity of target groups and applying various strategies and tactics.

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Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

The collection of practices presented in this section does not intend to give a comprehensive or exhaustive overview of initiatives implemented in the field. While the project team has made extensive efforts to distribute the project’s call for practices as widely as possible across Europe, we are well aware that many initiatives on the ground have not been reached by or have not responded to the call. The collection is thus not representative. It should be seen as complementary to other mappings of practices, such as the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights’ Compendium of Practices for Combating Hate Crime.

In order to highlight the most prominent and important forms of activity to counter discriminatory violence, the following six categories were established: Fostering Knowledge, Raising Awareness, Empowerment, Targeted Prevention, Victim Support, Transversal Strategies.

These categories will serve to systematise the practices in the following chapters.

2.1. Fostering Knowledge

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

resent the scope of the problem for a number of reasons, notably differences in legal definitions and regulations, lack of awareness among law enforcement officers, incoherent monitoring mechanisms as well as significant underreporting. In addition, the level of available data varies significantly between different forms of discriminatory violence: while racist or LGBT-phobic incidents are monitored more frequently, attacks targeting persons with disabilities or the homeless are less often documented in official statistics.16 Thus, supplementary forms of data gathering and knowledge production are crucial to countering discriminatory violence. Local and regional stakeholders, authorities as well as civil society organisations can play an important role in gathering such supplementary data, as they are close to the local affected communities and can record cases.

The practices documented in this section contribute to this task in different ways. They document individual incidents of discriminatory violence, e.g. by recording or archiving testimonies of victims or witnesses. They gather such information and/or compile it in a report they make publicly available or distribute to decision makers or other professionals. This data increase knowledge on the phenomenon, inspire the development of counter-strategies and enable the improvement of existing mechanisms and policies to prevent future incidents.

In order to develop and implement effective local responses to discriminatory violence and to prevent its harmful effects, a solid and comprehensive knowledge of the phenomenon, its distributions and dynamics as well as its consequences and effects is crucial.15 However, current knowledge and information on acts of violence spurred by discriminatory motives remain incomplete on different levels. As the discussions in chapter 1.1 have shown, several thorny questions remain unsolved concerning concepts, definition and wordings. Moreover, reliable data on the prevalence of discriminatory violence as well as on individual incidents remain scarce or incomplete. Official data collected by state institutions, such as law enforcement agencies, are insufficient to rep-

15- “... if we are to effectively respond to hate crime and ameliorate its effects, we must first have meaningful insights into the distribution and dynamics of hate crime” (Perry 2010: 267).

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16- The ODIHR’s Tolerance and Non-Discrimination Information System (TANDIS) is a good example of how data gathered by different stakeholders on different levels – OSCE Member States, specialised institutions and other organisations – can be combined to produce a more realistic assessment of the prevalence of discriminatory violence and to better equip relevant players to develop policies around it. See http://hatecrime.osce.org.

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Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Brunatna Księga Organisation: Never Again association Status: Civil society anti-racism organisation

The objectives of the Brown Book include raising public awareness to encourage public and other institutions to implement prevention schemes, contributing to educational media, scientific activities against discriminatory behaviour and encouraging cooperation between different institutions, communities and NGOs against neo-fascism.

Area: National level, Poland Main Funding: Voluntary activity Website & Email: www.nigdywiecej.org/brunatna-ksiega, redakcja@nigdywiecej.org

Mission and Objectives The ‘Never Again’ association works to document and increase public awareness of acts of neo-fascism committed in Poland every year in order to break the silence around issues of racism and xenophobia in the country and promote a multicultural society that respects diversity.

General Activities The Never again association records and categorises crimes in a Brunatna Księga (Brown Book) published every year. In addition, it is involved in other projects including ‘Delete Racism’, ‘Music Against Racism’ and ‘Let’s Kick Racism out of Stadia’. It also implemented the UEFA EURO 2012 ‘Respect Diversity’ programme. Since 1994, it publishes a magazine on these issues called Never Again.

Partnership and Networks The association cooperates notably with the media, minority organisations, religious communities and educational and scientific institutions. It also cooperates with international organisations including the Council of Europe, the UN and the OSCE and actively participates in the international networks UNITED for Intercultural Action, Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN), Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE), Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly (HCA) and Anti-fascist Network for Research and Education (Antifanet).

Outcomes and Challenges The ‘Brown Book’s’ content has been cited by politicians, journalists, activists, governmental and non-governmental organisations in statements condemning racist and xenophobic behaviour. The book, along with the other schemes run by the Never Again association, has also given visibility to the problem of racist and xenophobic violence. The Never Again magazine is now seen as the main anti-racist journal in Central and Eastern Europe.

Strategies to Foster Knowledge on Discriminatory Violence Since 1987, the foundation produces a yearly Brown Book documenting acts of neo-fascism committed in Poland. It includes incidents of xenophobia, discrimination and racism. Crimes recorded in the book range from physical acts of violence or assault to neo-fascist meetings and hateful graffiti on walls.

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Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

>>>>>>> PRACTICE : Annual Report on Racism Organisation: SOS Racismo Federation

Strategies to Foster Knowledge on Discriminatory Violence Strategies include compiling information for and subsequently publishing and disseminating the aforementioned annual report, in order to raise awareness about racism and other forms of discrimination in Spain.

Status: Movement of anti-racism NGOs Area: National level, Spain Main Funding: The project is based on voluntary work. Grants have, on some occasions, been received from the Ministry of Employment and Social Security as well as the European Union’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund.

Website : www.sosracismomadrid.es/web/blog/category/ informe-anual Mission and Objectives SOS Racismo aims to gather and analyse information about incidents and attacks linked to racism, hate crimes, the extreme right and police abuse in Spain in order to raise awareness about them. Its target groups include civil society organisations, authorities, victims and academics.

General Activities Since 1995, SOS Racismo Federation publishes annual reports which pay particular attention to topics including hate speech, migrant detention centres, Roma population, human rights at the Spanish borders, and racist or discriminatory attacks in Spain.

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Partnership and Networks The annual report is produced by the national SOS Racismo federation, together with eight SOS Racismo territorial organisations in Aragon, Asturias, Bizkaia, Catalonia, Galicia, Gipuzkoa, Madrid and Navarra, and volunteers around the country. The Centre for Studies and Documentation on Racism and Xenophobia, MUGAK, is also a partner.

Outcomes and Challenges The 2016 report includes 247 racist incidents that occurred throughout Spain and 100 cases of hate crimes, revealing an unseen problem in Spanish society. The report shows that in 2016, 28% of the cases referred to conflicts and racist attacks, 22% related to complaints about racism in establishments, 18% referred to cases relating to public security, denied access to public benefits and services (12%), discrimination at work (10%), denied access to private services (6%), problems with private security agents (3%), or cases related to the extreme right or hate speech (1%).

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Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

>>>>>>> PRACTICE: ZARA Status: Civil society association under Austrian law Area: City of Vienna and federal level, Austria Main Funding & Staff: ZARA has four full time staff members and six volunteers. Funded by the City of Vienna, state institutions, the European Commission and private donors.

Website & Email: www.zara.or.at, office@zara.or.at Mission and Objectives ZARA – Zivilcourage und Anti-Rassismus-Arbeit (Civil courage and anti-racism work) is an Austrian anti-racism NGO founded in 1999. Its mission is to enhance civil courage and to help building a racism-free society, combat all forms of racism and promote the legal as well as virtual equal treatment of all human beings residing in Austria irrespective of their skin colour, language, appearance, religion, citizenship and/or origin.

ZARA’s mandate is based on three pillars which are to provide support, empowerment and information: support to victims of discrimination, awareness-raising by informing the public, and prevention.

General Activities ZARA operates the only counselling, information and documentation unit for victims and witnesses of racism in Austria on the federal level and provides legal support to the affected persons. Through awareness-raising and educational measures aimed at different target groups, the organisation of activities and the publishing of material on racism and related issues, ZARA aims at enhancing public awareness of discrimination and issues linked with racism.

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Strategies to Foster Knowledge on Discriminatory Violence Since 2000, ZARA publishes an annual report on racism in Austria in German and English. The report offers qualitative data on racist incidents in Austria, explains why and in which contexts racist victimisation takes place, and documents individual incidents. It is a unique and rich source of knowledge and information on discrimination and violence motivated by racism in Austrian society. This knowledge is disseminated not only through the report itself, but also through a wide range of information materials and publications, video clips, press releases, newsletters, public discussions and targeted campaigns, notably during general elections.

Partnership and Networks ZARA cooperates and networks with a wide range of institutions and initiatives at a local, national and international level. It is a member of several networks, including the Civic Solidarity Platform, the International Network Against Cyber Hate (INACH), the Network for Social Responsibility (NeSoVe) and UNITED for Intercultural Action.

Outcomes and Challenges ZARA’s reports and information brochures are widely recognised and cited as reliable data on racial discrimination and violence in Austria.

ZARA deals with up to 1,000 racist incidents per year and counsels and supports hundreds of victims. The main challenge remains how deeply rooted racism and discriminatory practices are in Austrian society.

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Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Rowni i Bezpieczni Organisation: Association for Legal Intervention (SIP) and Lambda Warsaw Status: The Association for Legal Intervention is a professional non-profit organisation. Lambda Warsaw is a public interest organisation for LGBT inclusion.

Area: National level, Poland Main Funding: Citizens for Democracy, financed by the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area, implemented by the Stefan Batory Foundation Grant Website: www.interwencjaprawna.pl/en, www.lambdawarszawa.org Mission and Objectives The Association for Legal Intervention, an organisation combating social exclusion by providing free legal advice to people whose rights and freedoms are threatened or violated, is responsible for the entirety of the project. Lambda Warsaw, Poland’s oldest-running LGBT organisation which aims to create a positive gay and lesbian identity and build social tolerance towards sexual minorities, is responsible for the coordination of the coalition’s work against hate crimes and discriminatory violence. Both organisations provide legal support to victims.

General Activities These two organisations lead the project Rowni i Bezpieczni ("Equal and Safe"), which aims to increase awareness about crimes with racist, nationalist and anti-LGBT motives among lawmakers, the courts and the police. It also aims to improve cooperation between organisations that are involved in the fight against crimes motivated by hatred and prejudice through the exchange of experiences.

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Strategies to Foster Knowledge on Discriminatory Violence The project organises meetings and support for organisations fighting hate and prejudice-motivated crimes, offers legal counselling for victims of hate crime, sends legal experts to participate in court proceedings for cases of hatred and prejudice-motivated crimes and actively participates in conferences, meetings with decision-makers and the assessment of relevant political, governmental and legislative documents.

Partnership and Networks Official partners: Association for Legal Intervention and Lambda Warsaw Associate partners: members of the Coalition Against Hate Crime.

Outcomes and Challenges The Coalition Against Hate Crime has organised eight public meetings; 70 people benefitted from legal support in cases of hate crime, and lawyers from both organisations participated in seven court proceedings.

Generally speaking, it can be said that Polish lawmakers are now more aware of the consequences of crime motivated by prejudice and that cooperation with organisations fighting hate and prejudice-motivated crime has increased. The project needs to be expanded so that victims residing outside of large cities can be reached.

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Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Hatento Observatory Organisation: RAIS Fundación Status: Civil society organisation Area: National level, Spain Main Funding: Initially funded by the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area (EEA Grants). Currently funded by Spanish funds and the RAIS Foundation’s own resources.

Strategies to Foster Knowledge on Discriminatory Violence Hatento publishes research reports on the state of hate crime against homeless people in Spain. This report allows readers to gain specific and reliable knowledge on the subject. It details topics such as the nature of hate incidents or crimes, the most common patterns and the specificities of hate crime and discriminatory violence committed against the homeless (i.e the types of aggressors, locations, times of day, etc.). It also offers insights into producing safety and protection policies, details witnesses’ reactions when applicable, and specifies which victims request help and report the crime.

Website: www.hatento.org/hatento Mission and Objectives In 2014, the Rais Foundation created the Hatento Observatory, a group of various homeless care and human rights organisations that aim to pool their knowledge and resources to develop a more holistic understanding of hate crimes committed against people suffering from extreme social exclusion.

The observatory’s mains objectives are to know more about the prevalence of hate crimes and other discriminatory incidents against the homeless; to explore the main types of violence experienced by homeless people motivated by intolerance and prejudice towards homelessness; to analyse the factors that could influence people’s vulnerability to hate crimes and to perform a detailed analysis of the incidents or hate crimes that are identified.

Partnership and Networks The observatory relies on cooperation between multiple actors. They have achieved to establish a partnership with the Asociación Zubietxe, Asociación Bokatas, Asociación RAIS Euskadi, UNIJEPOL and Centro de Acogida ASSIS.

Outcomes and Challenges Hatento’s reports and campaigns have given visibility to the aggressions, humiliation or intimidation experienced by homeless people that are motivated by intolerance and prejudice.

People in positions of vulnerability, the general audience and institutions in Spain are now more aware of this issue.

The main challenge is to ensure attacks against homeless people motivated by intolerance and prejudice are recognised as hate crimes.

General Activities To detect and analyse hate crimes and situations of violence suffered by the homeless in Spain, the observatory collects data on such incidents and crimes. Hatento has also developed training programmes for professionals, designed detection and intervention tools, conducted campaigns to enhance public awareness about hate crimes against homeless people and ensure they are recognised as such, and organised meetings to educate citizens about the problem.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: PUFII project Organisation: Crime Prevention Council of Lower-Saxony, German Congress on Crime Prevention, German-European Forum for Urban Security Status: Cooperation between a regional authority and civil society organisations Area: Federal level, Germany Main Funding: The three participating organisations provide funding for staff (1 employee), an office room and supplies.

Strategies to Foster Knowledge PUFII provides a centralised hub for the exchange and stocking of information that is freely available for all professionals and volunteers in refugee support, thereby providing an important platform in a field that has grown very quickly in response to rapidly rising demand, and which as a consequence was lacking in coordination and information exchange. It provides a variety of tools with information on projects, events, funding opportunities, trainings, legal information, guides and handbooks. PUFII’s website is updated on a daily basis and all relevant information on refugee support is also included in a weekly newsletter.

Website & email: www.pufii.de, info@pufii.de Mission and Objectives The PUFII project (Präventive Unterstützung fur Integrations-Initiativen - Prevention Support for Integration Initiatives) was created in reaction to the great increase of refugees seeking asylum in Germany from 2015 onwards. In many German municipalities that received asylum seekers, there were hostile reactions, including attacks on refugees’ dwellings and other forms of discriminatory violence.

Ensuring integration and peaceful coexistence between established communities and the newly arrived posed great challenges to local and regional authorities. PUFII aims to support the circulation of information, networking and exchange among all professionals working in the field of integration.

General Activities

Partnership and Networks PUFII was designed through the formalised partnership of the three participating institutions. An informal network with many stakeholders working in the field of integration / refugee support has been established.

Outcomes and Challenges PUFII’s online publications and newsletters are read by an increasing number of professionals working with refugees. A platform for exchange between stakeholders contributing to the integration of refugees and the prevention of anti-refugee violence has been created.

A central challenge is securing resources to increase the project’s activities.

Run by three experienced crime prevention organisations, PUFII connects local and regional stakeholders contributing to the prevention of violence and crime against refugees and migrants, providing a platform for networking, exchange and information-sharing at federal level. Knowledge is collected and circulated online.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Bordeaux's Observatory on Equality

Organisation: City of Bordeaux Status: Municipality Area: Bordeaux Metropolitan Zone Main Funding: Own funds Website & email: www.bordeaux.fr, i.amicel@mairie-bordeaux.fr Mission and Objectives: In 2000, the city of Bordeaux initiated a proactive policy against discrimination and for equal opportunities. This paved the way for the establishment of the Bordeaux Committee for Monitoring and Acting Against Discrimination and for Equality (Comité bordelais de veille et d’action contre les discriminations et pour l’égalité, COBADE).

COBADE’s latest report pointed out the need to quantify suffered and perceived discrimination in order to better understand and prevent it.

To that end, the report advocated the implementation of an Observatory on Equality whose purpose would be to take stock of the real or perceived incidents of discrimination, violence or harassment.

General Activities The Observatory on Equality conducted a survey among residents of the Bordeaux metropolitan area on their perception of discrimination, which was followed by focus groups. Indeed, the City Council deemed important to gather quantitative and qualitative data on discrimination, both suffered and perceived by local citizens.

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Strategies to Foster Knowledge One of the first actions undertaken as part of this research was the creation of an online questionnaire that residents could access directly, which was circulated by the City Council and local associations during the first Fortnight of Equality, in November 2014. The results were presented in May 2015, on the occasion of the opening of the Estates General on Equality (États généraux de l’Égalité).

This event gathered associations, civil society representatives and municipal and metropolitan civil servants to discuss the main topics identified in the survey carried out by the Observatory. In addition, awareness-raising activities were organised for the general public at night.

At the end of this participative process, a first model of the future plan against discrimination was presented and endorsed by the participants in the Estates General on Equality. A Bordeaux City Council’s working group on the fight against discrimination, comprised on a volunteer basis of officers of most of the council’s departments, reworked this draft.

Partnership and Networks Bordeaux’s Observatory on Equality is composed of researchers (social and political sciences, law), anti-discrimination associations representing the COBADE, prominent personalities, local elected officials and representatives of the municipality. The scientific committee contribute with their knowledge in four areas: health and handicap, gender equality, LGBT issues, and origin and belonging.

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Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

>>>>>>> PRACTICE: The Fight against Violence Towards Women Organisation: City of Valence Status: Municipality Area: City of Valence, France Main Funding: Funds come mainly from the municipality’s own budget. Some one-off activities are funded by partners.

Website & Email: www.valence.fr/fr/re-decouvrir-la-ville/ ville-solidaire/actions-en-faveur-de-l-egalite-entre-les-femmes-etles-hommes.html, bertrand.leost@mairie-valence.fr

Strategies for Countering Discriminatory Violence The project focuses its activities around 3 main areas of intervention.

The first is to provide halfway apartments for women victims of violence for a period of 3 months. Women benefit as well from psychological, administrative and legal support during this period of time. The second intervention includes the publication and distribution of an information brochure titled "Victims of Violence, What Help is Available?"that includes practical information and advice. The third area of intervention concerns the organisation of public events and debates with institutional representatives and local associations.

Partnership and Networks Mission and Objectives As a signatory of the European Charter for Gender Equality since 2009, the city of Valence (France) is committed through this project to eradicating violence against women and raising public awareness on this issue. In addition, the project aims to develop common procedures and a common culture among its partners in order to provide better assistance to victims.

The project has a holistic and transversal approach in order to include a wide range of associations in its network. In addition, it partners with the regional Centre for Information on the Rights of Women and Families (Centre d'Information sur les Droits des Femmes et des Familles, CIDFF) for the management of halfway apartments.

Outcomes and Challenges General Activities The city of Valence advances its project in close collaboration with local stakeholders working with women victims of violence. It conducts activities together with local associations and institutions in order to raise awareness on the issue, such as reception staff in public administrations, as well as health institutions and practitioners, pharmacies, schools and colleges.

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The project has proved successful in mobilising contributors (in particular emergency health workers) and the public. Indeed, the network of contributors has trebled, and the project has gained recognition beyond the city of Valence. The main challenges are the lack of accurate statistics and the underreporting of cases of violence against women, the lack of available help for women who are in the process of separating from their partner, and the fact that victims do not know who can help and what procedures to follow.

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Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

2.2. Raising Awareness

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> In addition to gaps in knowledge, a lack of public awareness on discriminatory violence and its detrimental effects on society and public safety are a central challenge when countering such phenomena. While many studies and surveys show that discrimination and related forms of violence are widespread and are part of the personal experience of a large percentage of the population17, it is much less covered by the media and thus much less present in the public debate than other threats to urban security such as terrorism or organised crime.

Across Europe, many initiatives conducted at the local level by public authorities address this need and contribute to raising public awareness. They offer various forms of educative or training tools shedding light on prejudice, intolerance and discrimination and aiming to raise the level of attention and sensitivity to such social dynamics. They provide and distribute information materials such as leaflets or videos or run awareness campaigns on discriminatory behaviours and the need for solidarity with marginalised groups. They target a wide range of audiences: students and teachers, journalists, members of sports clubs, politicians, law enforcement agencies and representatives of public authorities, to name a few.

Discrimination and intolerance oftentimes appear to be accepted and normalised as forms of interpersonal conduct. The violence of such behaviour thus often goes unnoticed or only rises to public attention when taking on extreme forms of mistreatment including harsh physical assault leading to severe bodily injury. As a consequence, an unambiguous public proscription of discriminatory violence as well as a clear display of solidarity with victims or those at risk is often lacking.

To counter such tendencies of normalisation and habituation, targeted measures to raise awareness on the severe detrimental effects of discrimination and related forms of violence are needed. The European Commission acknowledges this lack and calls for an increase in awareness-raising activities: “Only one-third of EU citizens are fully aware that they are legally protected against discrimination. Getting the message across that Europe values diversity and is taking discrimination seriously is crucial for the success of its anti-discrimination measures. Raising awareness of anti-discrimination laws is vital to make rights known, used and understood” (EC 2017).

17- For example, the European Union’s Agency for Fundamental Rights’ (FRA) 2014 Europe-wide LGBT-survey shows that around 50% of respondents felt discriminated against, around 20% had experienced verbal violence and 6% bodily harm in the 12 months preceding the survey (see FRA 2014).

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Vier Schrauben für Zivilcourage Initiative

Organisation: Kein Platz für Rassismus und Gewalt (no place for racism and violence) Status: Civil society initiative Area: Local level, Düren, Germany

Strategies to Raise Awareness In order to raise awareness on the issue of racism and violence amongst players and club members, the project distributes plates with the inscription “No Ground for Racism and Violence” to football clubs, to be placed in highly visible parts of the arena (entrance areas, changing rooms, etc.). Football clubs take part in the campaign by sharing it with the local media and on their social networks.

Main Funding: Financed out of own funds and donations Website & Email: www.fussballvereine-gegen-rechts.de, www.facebook.com/4Schrauben, gegen-rechts@arcor.de Mission and Objectives The "Vier Schrauben für Zivilcourage" - ("Four Screws for Civil Courage") project aims to fight racism and violence faced by football players and managers or fans of migrant background, particularly in amateur clubs.

General Activities The ‘initiative against right wingers’ aims to encourage respect and cooperation in football with public appearances and campaigns to ban violence and racism at football events across Germany. Every year since 2011, the initiative has presented a person or team from the Düren area at the "Integration Through Goals" award. Its current (mid-2017) campaigns are ‘Four Screws’, ‘Team Pictures Against the Right Wing’ and ‘We Don't Rent Out to Nazis’.

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Partnership and Networks The German Federal Football Association and the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, an NGO focused on “strengthening democratic civic society” and fighting all “forms of hate and bigotry in Germany”.

Outcomes and Challenges Numerous clubs have given positive feedback and observed a change of behaviour among players and spectators towards migrants and foreigners. By mid-2017, more than 855 amateur clubs had taken part in the campaign, and the organisers had received more than 200 requests for plates.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: School's Codes for Equal Treatment

Organisation: Fundacja na rzecz Rożnorodności Społecznej (Foundation for Social Diversity) Status: Independent non-profit organisation Area: Warsaw, Poland Main Funding: European Fund for the Integration of Third Country Nationals and the EEA Funding Programme “Citizens for Democracy” Websites: www.ffrs.org.pl/, www.ffrs.org.pl/aktualne-dzialania/programy Mission and Objectives The Foundation for Social Diversity’s mission is to develop an open, diverse society by supporting intercultural dialogue and social integration, challenging discrimination, increasing knowledge and developing tools that improve social integration and equality.

One of the foundation’s key activities is to lead a programme to disseminate and support the development of equality standards in schools. The aim of this is to foster open attitudes towards diversity, strengthen social integration, and challenge discrimination in schools across Poland.

General Activities The School Equality Standards programme aims to reduce stereotypes, prejudices, discrimination and violence in school communities. The programme is a direct response addressed to school staff and parents regarding the need to strengthen equality standards by facilitating a process of consultation and dialogue within the school community (including pupils, teachers, staff, parents, directors, etc.).

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Strategies to Raise Awareness As a community-oriented, dialogue-based and consultative process, the overall initiative to develop unique Equality Standards in each participating school aims to increase awareness about discrimination, social diversity and equality. The process involves interactive methods, such as training sessions, workshops and meetings that include all members of the school community. The final Standards document accepted in each school aims to ensure broad, intersectional protection from discrimination, participation of diverse stakeholder groups within the school community and a long-term institutional commitment to equality.

Partnership and Networks Honorary patronage of: Centre for Education Development, Ombudsman and Government’s Plenipotentiary for Equal Treatment.

Organisational partner: Centre for the Development of Education.

Outcomes and Challenges The programme has garnered great interest from educational institutions among local, regional and national authorities in Poland and inspired more schools across the country to adopt their own Equality Standards independently from the FSD. Scaling up the programme is a challenge because it requires highly individualised support to participating schools in order to maintain the quality of results. Moreover, the current political climate in Poland (with a national-conservative party in government since 2015) poses a profound challenge to any initiative focused on issues of equality and discrimination.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Fighting Hate Speech Organisation: Concordia Status: Non-profit organisation Area: Aquitaine, France Main Funding: Project carried out entirely by volunteers Website & Email: www.concordia.fr/lassociation/regions/aquitaine, info@concordia.fr Mission and Objectives Concordia is a national non-governmental, non-profit organisation that has been promoting peace and intercultural exchanges through international voluntary service projects since 1950.

General Activities Concordia works to encourage values of tolerance and peace. In line with this, volunteers support and disseminate the European Council’s No Hate Speech Movement targeting children and young people in particular.

Strategies to Raise Awareness The Fighting Hate Speech project aims to combat online hate speech, an issue which was not sufficiently recognized in France. It does this through making people aware of their differences so that they are able to discuss, understand and accept them. It also aims to encourage people to find an alternative to hate speech and a solution or response to it and to get an overview of the different types of hate speech that can be found online.

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One of the project’s strategies involves getting groups of participants to reflect on examples of hate speech and to come up with a creative response or solution to it through an artistic performance such as dance or theatre. They design the performance and show it to the rest of the group. This method was tested during an international youth camp.

Another action is a Q&A board game for primary school-aged children to encourage debate and reflection about differences between people.

A further strategy involves volunteers going out to meet the general public in order to inform them about the existence of the No Hate Speech Movement.

Partnership and Networks Partners of the international youth camps, several municipalities (including Haux and Paillet), after-school clubs and the Concordia Association’s National Delegation

Outcomes and Challenges During the camps, the different activities led to lively debates on the need to recognise the importance of cultural differences: young people raised important questions that they would perhaps not have tackled otherwise, such as homosexuality.

The main difficulty is to manage extreme opinions; the role of the discussion leader is vital to regulate the debate.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Nie lajkuję – reaguję Organisation: Fundacja na rzecz Rożnorodności Społecznej (Foundation for Social Diversity) Status: Independent non-profit organisation Area: Warsaw, Poland Main Funding: Action has been funded under the project “Refugees?

Welcome!” implemented by the Foundation for Social Diversity under the programme Citizens for Democracy, financed by EEA funds.

Strategies to Raise awareness A working group of 12 people was established, consisting of representatives from NGOs, social media agencies and academia. They drew up a manual against hateful speech online entitled ‘I do not “like” – I react! - Combating hate speech in social media.’ It was published and disseminated at various forums, lectures and meetings with social media and PR agencies, with the objective of giving their staff the necessary skills and awareness to respond to hateful rhetoric online.

Website: www.ffrs.org.pl/aktualne-dzialania/media-w-spoleczenstwie-roznorodnym/nie-lajkuje-reaguje/

Partnership and Networks

Mission and Objectives

Organisational partner: The Multicultural Centre in Warsaw. A representative of Isobar Poland (previously working at The DIgitals digital agency) coordinated the involvement of social media and PR agencies in the initiative.

The Foundation for Social Diversity (FRS after the Polish acronym) aims to develop an open, diverse society by supporting intercultural dialogue and social integration, challenging discrimination, increasing knowledge and developing tools that strengthen social integration and equality.

The ‘I do not “like” – I react’ project aims to prevent the increasingly prevalent negative messages in public discourse in Poland regarding migrants and refugees by raising social media users’ skills to respond to hateful, prejudiced and discriminatory comments online.

Strategic partners: The Common Space Foundation and the Anti-discrimination Education Association (TEA).

Outcomes and Challenges Increasing the ability of social media agencies’ staff to respond directly to posts and comments which reinforce stereotypes, prejudices and encourage discrimination. The primary challenge facing the initiative in the future is to secure the funds that would allow it to be disseminated on a larger scale.

General Activities This initiative aims to develop an open, diverse society that challenges discrimination and increases social integration at a time when negative and divisive rhetoric, xenophobia, islamophobia and racism in Poland are increasing.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Campagne

"Stop au cybersexisme" Organisation: Hubertine Auclert Centre Status: Resource centre dedicated to the promotion of gender equality composed of NGOs, local authorities and trade unions Area: Île-de-France, France

Strategies to Raise Awareness Strategies include designing and distributing a “starter-kit” to fight cybersexism, consisting of posters and brochures informing young people and adults about the nature of cybersexism and ways to deal with it. Other activities include the deployment of adverts on public transport, social media and television and offering training programmes. A full website www.stop-cybersexism.com will be launched in 2017.

Main Funding: Regional Council and Ministry of Education Website & Email: www.stop-cybersexisme.com, www.centre-hubertine-auclert.fr, aurelie.latoures@hubertine.fr

The Hubertine Auclert Centre contributes to the fight against sex- and gender-based inequality and discrimination and promotes male-female equality. The centre has currently 171 members: 127 associations, 13 trade unions and 31 local authorities.

Design of the Campaign: three local education authorities, the Île de France Regional Council (Conseil régional d'Île de France), researchers, associations working in schools and police representatives. Promotion: Ministry of National Education, local authorities (Regional Council, Departmental Councils of Val-de-Marne, of Val d’Oise, and of Paris), association E-Enfance, female youtubers, Fun Radio, television channels TF1, M6 and France Ô.

General Activities

Outcomes and Challenges

In line with its work to promote gender equality, and in light of the increasing levels of sexism that women are subjected to online, especially young women (as revealed by the first study on gender-based cyber violence among teenagers conducted by the centre in 2015-2016), the centre launched a project which aims to publicise and educate young people and adults about the issue and how to tackle it. The campaign was run in 2015 and 2016.

During the 2016 campaign, prevalence of the term “cybersexism” increased greatly and was viewed 22 million times on Twitter. Search results from Google also show the sudden emergence of the word “cybersexim”, which produced 107,000 results in September 2016 (compared with 2,800 in February 2015). Numerous professionals have thus taken notice of the issue and put preventive action into place.

In 2016-2017, the centre ran a pilot prevention project for 1,500 secondary school students in the Île-de-France region.

Mission and Objectives

The “Stop Cybersexism” Campaign aims to raise awareness about the seriousness of online sexism and make young people aware of their responsibilities when using social media to prevent such acts of violence. It also aims to offer victims and witnesses advice on how to react.

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Partnership and Networks

Challenges for the future include enabling educators and other professionals to better tailor prevention strategies through training sessions designed by the centre.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Singular do Plural project Organisation: EAPN Portugal (European Anti Poverty Network) Status: NGO for development Area: National, Portugal Main Funding: National government Website & Email: www.eapn.pt, geral@eapn.pt Mission and Objectives The European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) is the largest European network of national, regional and local networks involving NGOs and grassroot groups as well as European organisations active in the fight against poverty and social exclusion. The EAPN believes that the fight against discrimination must include giving accurate information about Roma people and their way of life because ignorance fuels extremely prejudices and stereotypes against them.

General Activities EAPN members are involved in various activities including education and training, service provision and empowerment of people experiencing poverty and social exclusion.

Singular do Plural is part of the national campaign “A Discriminação é Falta de Educação” (discrimination is a lack of education) promoted by EAPN Portugal, which aims to create a more equal and cohesive society by raising awareness about discrimination against Roma communities in Portugal, deconstructing the myths and negative stereotypes about them and showing that Roma people have a place in Portuguese society.

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Strategies to Raise Awareness The project has developed and implemented a campaign to raise awareness across the country. It includes a book entitled ‘Singular do Plural’ and a photo exhibition whose purpose is to demystify negative stereotypes on Roma people.

Based on interviews, the exhibition and publication present 20 testimonies showing different life paths, wishes and expectations of 20 professions, 20 people and 20 Roma.

Partnership and Networks Secretary of State for Citizenship and Equality and High Commissioner for Migration

Outcomes and Challenges Awareness about discrimination against Roma communities was raised among the general public and many activities received highly positive feedback. After its first public presentation, the Secretary of State for Citizenship and Equality decided to support the initiative to fund a second edition of the publication for further dissemination across Portugal. The photo exhibition has been travelling on the road and public meetings were organised in the cities where it was shown to raise awareness and also present the book.

The biggest challenge is to attract positive attention from the media and bring them on board in the campaign.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Heartstone Project Organisation: Heartstone

Schools are invited to one major Heartstone exhibition taking place in the region during the year for the general public.

Status: Civil Society Organisation

Partnership and Networks

Area: National, United Kingdom

Local authorities (to recruit schools, set up training sessions, monitor progress, support final event), photo access partners (special access for photostories), and venue partners who provide high profile locations.

Main Funding: Local authorities across the UK, Scottish Government, private sector sponsors include Delancey and Rolls Royce.

Website & Email: www.heartstonechandra.com, sitakumari@heartstone.co.uk Mission and Objectives In light of increased hate crime in the UK following the Brexit vote, the Heartstone project works to intervene in primary and secondary schools to create a safe place for sensitive discussions which probe and reflect on hate crime. The project aims to provide a route to work with communities to deal with hate crimes originating from the far right, religious fundamentalism or other forms of extremism through a peer-led approach between young people.

Outcomes and Challenges Young people, particularly 9-12 year olds, have shown a greater awareness of hate crime. They have developed positive interventions if they see it and have increased self esteem and confidence, better communication skills thus supporting victims and potential victims and challenging perpetrators. The project provides a practical, effective and long term intervention which can be easily incorporated into the school curriculum.

The main obstacles to success are:

 securing funding to initiate a project, General Activities Heartstone leads a range of activities and initiatives in order to tackle hate crime in the UK, including working with schools, training teachers and organising exhibitions for the general public.

 good promotion in the area to allow spread into new schools and identification of additional funding sources after initiation,

 challenges with teachers – for example, the project needs at least one enthusiastic teacher in a school to lead it, illness or loss of the teacher for other reasons can lead to lapse in continuation.

Strategies to Raise Awareness After receiving a two-hour training session and a story and photo resource pack from Heartstone, teachers lead numerous sessions with their classes on the subject of hate crime; classes engage in discussions about it and participate in various creative and practical activities to better understand it (using the resources provided by Heartstone). They create displays and hold assemblies to raise awareness among the rest of the school community. Guest speakers are also invited to schools.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Sensibilisierungsakademie Organisation: Service Centre ÖGS barrierefrei Status: Non-profit organisation Area: Vienna, Austria

Strategies to Raise Awareness The Academy for Awareness-raising’s workshops include information about deafness and the Austrian Sign Language. Native signers teach some signs and key facts about deaf culture and life. These workshops are meant for various groups including young people, businesses and NGOs, as well as people working in the medical field.

Main Funding: The Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection Website & Email: www.oegsbarrierefrei.at, office@oegsbarrierefrei.at

Partnership and Networks The Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection and the schools and institutions where the workshops were held.

Mission and Objectives The Sensibilisierungsakademie (Academy for Awareness-Raising) aims to encourage and ensure equal opportunities and treatment for deaf people in Austria as well as to raise awareness of their needs and of the current barriers and obstacles that they face. It also aims to decrease fear of contact between hearing and deaf people and to encourage the learning of the Austrian Sign Language.

Based on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and also Austrian laws such as the Federal Disability Equality Act (BGStG), the Disability Employment Act (BEinstG) and the federal constitution (B-VG), the goal is to end discrimination of deaf people – especially in professional life and in our information society in order to ensure they can lead a self-determined life.

Outcomes and Challenges In 2015, 1,000 people were reached by the workshops. Some cases will linger longer in our memory; including one example where the federal police of Vienna and Lower Austria hired several deaf employees and held workshops to give their staff information on their new deaf colleagues.

The main challenge for the future development of the programme is funding; due to an increasing number of requests more funding is needed to extend its services.

General Activities Founded in 2005, the Service Centre ÖGS barrierefrei leads a variety of projects and initiatives, acting as an intermediary between deaf people and the hearing with the objective of improving the rights and equal status of the former.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Respect Zone

Website: www.respectzone.org

Schools that adopt the Respect Zone Label engage in a range of activities including placing the logo on their site, training ambassadors about it, putting up posters about ICT suites being a Respect Zone area and holding workshops and conferences. Organisations that adopt the Respect Zone Label have an official ceremony to mark the occasion. A communication strategy spanning across Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn is also run in order to raise awareness about the existence of Respect Zone.

Mission and Objectives

Partnership and Networks

Respect Zone encourages internet users to be respectful online; whilst ensuring freedom of expression, it aims to protect internet users from hateful comments. It aims to denounce violence, to combat discrimination and to encourage self-regulation online by empowering all internet users.

Respect Zone brings together various professionals (especially with law and history backgrounds) acutely aware of the problems of cyberbullying and dissemination of hate content online.

The following organisations are official partners or informal collaborators: UNESCO, French Ministry of Education and Research, #Nonauharcèlement educational campaign, Égalité contre le racisme platform, Paris Bar, InternetSansCrainte.fr (Safer Internet Day), République française le Défenseur des Droits, Observatoire international de la violence à l’école, Paris Games week fair, Syndicat des Éditeurs de Logiciels de Loisirs (SELL), SOS homophobie, International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA).

General Activities

Outcomes and Challenges

Respect Zone’s activities centre on the creation of a ‘Respect Zone Label’ created in 2014. This new, online initiative fights against excessively negative posts online. The Respect Zone Label is displayed on the website of organisations that adopt and agree to follow its principles in order to encourage visitors of the site to think twice before posting any content that may be hateful or offensive.

In 2016, over 400 press releases, 95 online articles, 10 television shows and 9 radio interviews focused on the project. The Ministry of Education sent a letter to all French-speaking schools in Belgium about Respect Zone.

Organisation: Respect Zone Status: Association Area: All of Francophone Belgium (phase 1), Flemish region (phase 2), Belgium Main Funding: Limited, one-time funds from various private sources

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Strategies for Awareness Raising

A current challenge is the lack of investment by major press and internet groups as well as a lack of human and financial resources.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Code of Good Practices in Private Security

Organisation: Department of the Interior, Government of Catalonia Status: Regional Government Area: Catalonia, Spain Main Funding: Department of the Interior, Government of Catalonia Emails: cristina.secades@gencat.cat bustia.seguretat.privada@gencat.cat Mission and Objectives The Government of Catalonia’s Department of the Interior, through the General Directorate of Safety Administration and in the framework of its integral strategy for the prevention and detection of victims of discrimination, has led a working group consisting of professionals, distinguished institutions and trade unions in the field of security in Catalonia, including the private security sector due to its importance in the Catalonian public security system. This sector, consisting of over 13,900 professionals, can play a relevant role in improving prevention, detection and management of hate and discrimination-based crimes.

General Activities The working group aims to contribute to professionalising the private security sector in Catalonia, to improve the Catalonian public security system and to generate more confidence among the citizenry. This group designed the Code of Good Practices in Private Security, a document consisting of fifteen paragraphs which establish rules and ethical principles in different domains of private security. Various activities to implement the code and reinforce its messages are undertaken.

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Strategies for Awareness Raising Through the design of a Code of Good Practices, this working group aims to establish corporate policies for security companies that are sensitive to discrimination through promoting diversity in recruitment and encouraging equal opportunities. In addition, it aims to guarantee exemplary handling of the relationship with citizens in the provision of security services.

In order to achieve targeted prevention, the Code pays particular attention to promoting rules for the prevention, detection and management of discriminatory incidents. Organisations that adhere to the Code’s principles receive a quality label which can be displayed on their corporate image, documentation, website, etc. In order to be a member of the Code, all personnel responsible for private security that offer services in Catalonia must receive training, delivered by the Institute of Security in Catalonia. This training includes a lecture about practices of non-discrimination.

Partnership and Networks Among the associated partners are the Public Security Institute of Catalonia, the regional police of Catalonia (the Mossos d’Esquadra), representatives from different fields of private security as well as the most representative associations of private security companies and private security personnel, and trade unions.

Outcomes and Challenges Many private security companies are working on the issue of discrimination and have expressed their interest in adopting the code. The main challenge is to have as many private security operators in Catalonia as possible adopt the code.

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2.3. Empowerment

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The notion of empowerment captures another set of strategies employed to counter discriminatory violence at the local level across Europe. The term, originally derived from the field of social work but today equally well known in the fields of crime prevention and urban security, broadly refers to “the expansion of freedom of choice and action to shape one’s life. It implies control over resources and decisions” (Narayan 2013: 4). Empowerment thus describes an individual or collective process of becoming stronger and gaining enhanced trust in one's abilities, especially to master one's life and claiming one's rights. It may include measures to enhance economic self-sufficiency, political participation or education.

The practices presented below address different groups struggling with the effects of discriminatory violence, among them refugees and asylum seekers, homeless persons, persons with disabilities or migrant women. They deploy different methodologies and activities, such as open spaces, media trainings or gardening projects. They are effective in empowering their target groups, strengthening their assets, helping them manage demanding situations, and fostering their self-confidence as well as their trust in public institutions, thus minimising their risk of victimisation.

It is particularly pertinent for groups that face intolerance, exclusion and discrimination, as these social dynamics have a serious impact on those they target, restraining them from experiencing themselves as valuable members of society and interfering with their self-confidence and trust in their abilities to shape their lives and live them in the way they choose.

The practices collected in this section address those social groups that are effectively or potentially affected by discrimination and related forms of violence – thus not only those individuals who have been (directly or indirectly) victimised, but most notably those at risk of victimisation. They aim at strengthening the self confidence of members of these groups by restoring their general sense of value and dignity, which are constantly challenged by intolerance, hate and related forms of assault. They provide opportunities to develop different kinds of skills, i.e. in the fields of sport, education, language learning, job training, media proficiency, etc., which also give beneficiaries an overall feeling of self-efficiency. In doing so, they do not render the target groups passive recipients of empowerment, but actively involve them in the activities proposed to foster and value their participation and input.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Conclusio

The scheme is coordinated in four stages:  information events

Organisation: SPES Zukunftsakademie (Academy of the Future)

 establishment of local groups and regional branches

Status: Association

 development and planning of work to be carried out by the volunteers in municipalities

Area: Upper Austria Main Funding: Donations and membership fees Website & Email: www.conclusio-hilft.at, conclusio@spes.co.at

 implementation

Partnership and Networks Mission and Objectives The Academy of the Future was created to support asylum seekers and foster their inclusion in the Austrian society by giving them access to voluntary work permitted by the law.

Local partners in municipalities (associations, people active in politics and voluntary work, companies and people interested by the project), the charity Caritas, a previous SPES project (Time Bank 55+ association).

General Activities

Outcomes and Challenges

SPES focuses on potential areas of conflict in Austrian society. They work in various fields such as adult education and regional and local development. They test and spread innovative projects, including “Conclusio”, for a positive, sustainable future. Conclusio brings together Austrians and asylum seekers to perform together volunteering activities to promote integration and the development of a cohesive, multicultural society.

By the autumn of 2016, there were 20 volunteer groups in Upper Austria with around 600 members and the scheme was spreading to neighbouring provinces and over the border to Baden-Württemberg, in Germany. Asylum seekers have reacted positively to the scheme, saying that the projects they volunteer for give them a sense of pride and empowerment and allow them to meet local people and integrate into the community.

Strategies to Empower Those at Risk This project aims to empower asylum seekers by giving them the opportunity to volunteer in community projects together with locals.

This gives asylum seekers the opportunity to use their skills for the benefit of their new community, to better integrate with locals and to improve their language skills and socio-cultural awareness while they wait for asylum court proceedings to take place. This also helps reduce prejudice among local residents, who can see the positive impact the asylum seekers have on their community.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Welfare dell'aggancio Organisation: Municipality of Cervia Status: Municipal government

The idea is to empower asylum seekers by encouraging them to use their skills to volunteer with local institutions and small businesses, for example working in a canteen for vulnerable people, doing painting, decoration, or carpentry jobs in public buildings or others, or any other job they master.

Area: Cervia, Italy Main Funding: State regulations and funding from the municipality of Cervia Website: www.comunecervia.it Mission and Objectives The municipality of Cervia is implementing a large project to improve the way asylum seekers are received and accepted in the local community, titled Sentinels Project – Engagement Welfare. The idea is to build on the talents of people who are not social care professionals, such as condominium managers, hairdressers or sport instructors, who are given the role of ‘community sentinels’ with a mission to liaise between the refugees and local support services and professionals.

General Activities The project consists in welcoming the migrants, finding accommodations, referring them to the relevant municipal services, informing them about their rights and duties, and giving them volunteer jobs in the local community based on their skills.

Partnership and Networks Partners are the social cooperative Zerocento, the Stem cooperative which manage the reception service, they have been identified through public procedures; and volunteer and sport organisations.

Outcomes and Challenges Although there has not been a proper evaluation, empirical evidence suggests that residents of Cervia have less stereotypes about asylum seekers than before the programme was launched, thanks to their positive contribution to the local community through their work. It can also be said that by and large, locals feel more secure as a result of the project.

The main challenges are the increasing number of asylum seekers arriving in the town and the continuation of the funding.

Strategies to Empower Those at Risk As part of the larger Sentinels Project, the Engagement Welfare-Welcoming Refugee scheme seeks to dispel prejudice against refugees and create a culture of acceptance towards them. Furthermore, it prevents refugees from feeling useless and apathetic, or worse engaging in unlawful activities, by giving them something to do and a sense of purpose. Lastly, the project seeks to create a protocol for the reception of asylum seekers.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: GRUND project

Website & Email: www.gartenprojekt.at, www.facebook.com/ derGRUND, antoniatitscher@yahoo.de

The project aims to empower asylum seekers by giving them a plot in a local community garden so they can tend to their own flowerbeds and grow vegetables. Various activities are also held, including meetings to discuss gardening matters, excursions and simply spending leisure time together. Participants regularly spend evenings together cooking the vegetables they have grown. Working in the garden allows asylum seekers to have some routine in their day and to socialise with other gardeners and visitors. In doing so, they also learn the language.

Mission and Objectives

Partnership and Networks

The main objectives of the GRUND (Ground for Diversity - Intercultural Community Garden) project are to promote inclusion and social interactions between asylum seekers and local residents, encourage meaningful outdoors activities and improve access to high-quality, low-cost fresh food.

GRUND works in close cooperation with the LAMES and Sonnenpark associations.

Organisation: Initiative Community Garden Status: Association Area: St Poelten, Austria Main Funding: Crowdfunding platform respekt.net and fundraising events. The scheme is run by volunteers.

General Activities The scheme organises various initiatives and events in the local community, mainly around a garden that is kept chiefly by asylum seekers.

The gardeners (asylum seekers and local people) have turned a meadow into a fertile garden with flowerbeds and vegetables. GRUND is a member of the Lower Austrian Community Gardens of “Natur im Garten”, which offers gardening workshops and lectures, as well as excursions. Some participants have been involved in the planning of the project. Planning and evaluation meetings are held before and after each gardening season.

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Strategies to Empower Those at Risk

Outcomes and Challenges The project has been running successfully since 2014 and some gardeners have been involved since the start. The project has allowed asylum seekers and residents to meet and exchange. There are currently 22 gardeners. Due to a lack of financial resources, the project is supported by volunteer work and does not have the capacity to cater to increasing demand.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: KAMA Linz Organisation: KAMA Linz Status: Association Area: Linz, Austria Main Funding: Voluntary donations. The scheme is run by volunteers.

Website & Email: www.kama.or.at/linz, www.facebook.com/kama.linz Mission and Objectives KAMA Linz is an organisation that aims to create spaces in which residents of Linz and migrants can get to know one another in a spirit of mutual respect and coexistence, to encourage positive social participation and discourage all forms of discrimination.

General Activities Activities include offering workshops run by asylum seekers, awareness campaigns and coordination events and meetings to ensure the organisation is run in a cohesive manner.

The strategy includes organising workshops in which participants are encouraged to reflect on the reality of daily life for asylum seekers, and holding a weekly ‘Cafe Monday’ during which people can socialise.

Asylum seekers and migrants can volunteer to be course leaders, which gives them a purpose and contributes to strengthening the cohesion of the community.

Partnership and Networks KAMA Vienna, Auwiesen city centre, Arcobaleno association, Youth & Leisure association, the Urfahr protestant community, Treffling youth centre.

Outcomes and Challenges Since the start of the project in Linz in 2014, 254 workshops were organised, with a total attendance of 2,159. Reactions have been very positive. In particular, participants welcome the feeling of empowerment they get and the intercultural exchanges. One of the main challenges is funding: the project would need two full time employees, notably to manage the administrative aspects, publicise the initiative and train volunteers.

Strategies to Empower Those at Risk KAMA Linz organises workshops held by asylum seekers and migrants with the aim of shifting the migrants’/asylum seekers’ roles from recipients to providers of courses/training (e.g. cooking, language, dance). This allows asylum seekers and migrants to get involved with voluntary work. The aim is to create a culture of mutual respect and provide places where residents and migrants can come together, share experiences and work towards building a more cohesive, tolerant society.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: La Xixa Fem Comunitat Organisation: La Xixa Theatre Association Status: Non-profit organisation Area: Barcelona, Spain Main Funding: Primarily from the Erasmus+ programme, as well as from public grants and social institution contracts. Involves the collaboration of 30 volunteers.

Website & Email: www.laxixateatre.org, laxixa@laxixateatre.com Mission and Objectives La Xixa Theatre Association promotes racial and gender equality and the idea of a diverse, inclusive society by organising cultural activities open to people of all ages and from all kinds of background.

Partnership and Networks La Xixa collaborates with local and regional administrations, universities and various civil society organisations. In addition, it is a member of several networks including the Hispanic-American Network of Community Theatre, the International Network of Theatre of the Oppressed and the Network of Schools for Equality and Non-Discrimination.

Outcomes and Challenges Over 10,000 people have participated in presentations, workshops or trainings offered by the association since its creation. Ten Theatre of the Oppressed groups have been created throughout Catalonia. Many themes have been broached through La Xixa’s activities and workshops, including cultural diversity and gender.

General Activities La Xixa Theatre Association runs, under the Community-Building project, a variety of activities associated with the research, development and dissemination of theatrical and popular educational tools for social transformation.These include workshops and training sessions.

Strategies to Empower Those at Risk The association organises workshops for trainers to encourage artistic action at a local and international level. It does this thanks to the help of its volunteers, all of whom have been trained in fields such as social sciences, pedagogy or art. Themes tackled in this action include interculturality, racism, xenophobia, gender and active citizenship.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Frauen stärken Frauen Organisation: Mönchengladbach Police Department in cooperation with the Mönchengladbach police sports club Status: Cooperation between police forces and a civil society organisation Area: Mönchengladbach, Germany Main Funding: No funds/budget is needed. Trainings are organised in premises provided by the partner, the equipment used is that of the police sports club.

Strategies to Empower Those at Risk Training sessions teaching women from migrant backgrounds to recognise and manage dangerous or stressful situations and avoid being victims have been held since 2012. The training course lasts two days, with each session lasting three to four hours. Topics covered include teaching women to manage conflict situations and basic rules of self-defence. Apart from empowering and contributing to protect these women, this activity helps build their confidence and trust in the police.

It also provides these women with the knowledge to recognise and act appropriately in dangerous situations, when faced with racist or xenophobic violence.

Website: https://www.polizei.nrw.de/moenchengladbach/ artikel__10816.html Mission and Objectives The project "Frauen stärken Frauen" ("Women strengthen Women") was founded to support women from all over the world living in Mönchengladbach to enable them to live a life without violence and to support their integration. More specifically, the project aims to foster trusting relations between women with migration backgrounds and the local police. Indeed, many migrant women have reservations towards the police. The objectives are thus to strengthen their trust in public institutions and encourage them to take part in public life.

General Activities The police are involved in a variety of activities to improve integration and people’s confidence in the police, including running training sessions for migrant women and attending cultural events such as open days in mosques and intercultural festivals.

Partnership and Networks Police sports club of Möchengladbach, Integration Council of the City of Mönchengladbach, Integration Officer of the City of Mönchengladbach, social services of the Protestant Church (Diakonisches Werk), Family Education Centre (Familienbildungsstätte), Department of Schools and Sport, association SKM Rheydt.

Outcomes and Challenges Feedback from participants has been positive: they say it has helped them have more confidence in the police and rely on their help in cases of need. In one specific case, a woman who had participated in the scheme contacted the police at a later date as she was concerned her nephew might have been radicalised, allowing them to take action.

Police officers involved in the project believe the role of the force is to promote inclusion and they contribute, among other things, to intercultural festivals, exhibitions, presentations, and public events in mosques or other religious sites.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Happy Centre

Organisation: Municipality of Bologna Status: Municipality Area: Bologna, Italy Main Funding: Publically funded Website & Email: www.piazzagrande.it/, happycenterbolognina@piazzagrande.it Mission and Objectives Happy Centre Bologna is a community service of the municipality of Bologna. It was launched in 2015 to promote inclusion and facilitate exchanges between homeless people and local residents in order to tackle the issue of the marginalisation of homeless people and help them integrate into society.

In the afternoon, the centre is open to everyone who wants to participate in an activity. There is a specific activity for each day of the week and they are chosen according to the needs and desires of the local community and the homeless. Each activity is run by one moderator and two volunteers per group.

Activities include Italian-English conversation; paper recycling and sewing group; dance and theatre; computer courses; musical improvisation; philosophy courses and team building.

Partnership and Networks Collaboration with Italian and American universities (internships and scientific research), social and cultural organisations, scout groups and informal groups. The project is also focused on the local community of the neighbourhood where the Centre is situated.

Outcomes and Challenges General Activities Activities led thus far have included art exhibition tours, a DIY initiative and language exchanges. Happy Centre aims to tackle the problem of the isolation of homeless people at an individual level through strengthening their social skills and at a group and community level through encouraging mutual respect. It also hosts projects to help people, such as courses based on non-formal educational methods.

The centre has thus far been able to successfully help some people in difficult or vulnerable positions who would not have been helped by social services. It gives them the opportunity to meet all kinds of people in a welcoming and friendly environment.

Challenges include the centre’s lack of space: there are only two rooms for the activities and an extra room would be helpful. Another challenge is that social services do not always recognise the benefits homeless people receive from the centre’s activities and the capabilities they gain.

Strategies to Empower Those at Risk There are different activities during the day: in the morning, access is reserved to people who have difficulties in interacting with others. They can come to the centre to have a chat, use the computer, prepare lunch together, and take part in activities such as the chess or newspaper reading groups.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Medienbüro project Organisation: Alpha Nova

show, Unheard – TV inquiry. This also gives them a platform where they can be heard and seen by the public and through which they can show they and creative are even, for some, funny.

Status: Social Services Company Area: Graz, Austria

Partnership and Networks

Main Funding: Through the Disability Act of the Federal State of Styria

Cooperation with Radio Helsinki (Graz)

Website & Email: www.alphanova.at/medienbuero.html, doris.gusel@alphanova.at Mission and Objectives The aim of the Alpha Nova association is to support people who are disadvantaged due to disability or other circumstances. To achieve this goal, the association founded the Alpha Nova company in 1992.

Outcomes and Challenges The presence on the radio, YouTube and Facebook creates a feeling of inclusion. The project shows that people with disabilities do not have to hide.

Furthermore, people with disabilities not only gain practical skills in media production, but also learn to be heard and seen in public.

See:

General Activities

 www.facebook.com/unerhoertTV

Alpha Nova provides disabled people with the opportunity to participate in various creative, media-based activities. For example they can design their own shows, which empowers them and gives them a public space where to express themselves.

 www.facebook.com/radi.ounerhort  www.youtube.com/user/Unerhoertgehoert A big challenge is the financial situation. Due to financial constraints, the project cannot grow at the moment.

Strategies to Empower those at risk The "Medienbüro" ("Media Office") project aims to help disabled people develop skills such as independent decision-making. It also aims to identify and develop participants’ vocational skills and reduce stereotypes and prejudices towards them in the general population.

Disabled people are empowered by being given the chance to develop a range of creative, technology-based and social skills. They are able to do this through creating, recording and marketing a monthly radio programme tittled Unheard – a programme without barriers and a TV

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2.4. Targeted Prevention

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Preventive measures that aim at preempting incidents play a central role in strategies in all fields of urban security policy. However, Efus and other stakeholders consider that repressive responses to phenomena of violence and crime still prevail too often. This is no less true of discriminatory violence, where the implementation of so-called hate crime laws, i.e. penal code reforms that increase sentences for culprits who act on the ground of discriminatory motivations, has often taken centre stage in international debates in criminology as well as politics.

volunteers, and address situations or contexts that entail a specific risk of victimisation, e.g. nightlife or partying scenes, sports events, etc. These measures are often customised to the specific risks faced by different communities, among them religious groups such as Muslims and Jews, as well as the LGBT community, sex workers or persons with disabilities.

Preventive measures can be classified in three main categories: primary or universal prevention, secondary or selective prevention, and tertiary or indicated prevention (see Brantingham/Faust 1976: 288). Following this widely used scheme, a wide range of activities covering broadly perceived education and awareness-raising initiatives as well as specific measures to preclude recidivism with individual victims or culprits can be considered as prevention.

For the purpose of this publication, the term "targeted prevention" has been chosen to encompass practices that aim to prevent acts of discriminatory violence in a concrete and focused manner. Measures of targeted prevention go to the places and contexts where prejudice, hate and intolerance take place, work with those involved in dynamics of discrimination and violence, and provide tools to break these cycles and usher in less hostile, more inclusive forms of interaction.

Practices in this section deliver concrete and specific measures to prevent acts of discriminatory violence in different spheres of social life. They work with various target groups such as law enforcement professionals, journalists, religious leaders, teachers and students, civil society organisations and

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Turning the Spotlight on Hate Crime Programme Organisation: AWAZ Cumbria Status: Social enterprise and community development organisation Area: Cumbria, United Kingdom Main Funding: Funded by the Cumbria office of the Police and Crime Commissioner Website & Email: www.awazcumbria.org, aftab@awaz.info

The ‘Turning the Spotlight on Hate Crime Programme’ involves activities to tackle prejudice, reduce hate crime and hate-related incidents and foster good relations by helping individuals to reflect on actions and attitudes that harm people from diverse communities. The project aims to help and support individuals who have perpetrated hate crimes, or are at risk of doing so. It aims to guide them away from prejudice-based behaviour, helping them to understand hostility and hate crime, respect diversity and human dignity, develop their skills and self-esteem, work with others in an open and supportive environment and develop victim empathy and respect for human rights.

AWAZ means “voice” in several Asian, Middle Eastern and European languages. AWAZ Cumbria has been supporting and empowering the voices of underrepresented people and marginalised communities since 2005.

AWAZ aims to make Cumbria a more welcoming and caring place by connecting communities, advancing equality, celebrating diversity, challenging prejudice, fostering community development and supporting integration and enterprise.

The programme receives referrals from organisations or individuals that support people who have perpetrated, or are at risk of perpetrating, hate-related crimes. Once the referral has been received, the programme coordinator meets the referred participant to carry out an initial risk assessment.

Once the participant has been accepted onto the programme they are assigned a mentor, are given the opportunity to undertake accredited training, gain experience on placement with partner organisations, are supported to work towards personal goals and, if they wish, can become an ambassador for the programme once they have completed it.

General Activities

Partnership and Networks

To achieve their mission, AWAZ Cumbria organise several activities such as advocacy on public policy and for people experiencing racism and discrimination; promoting community engagement, empowering voices and participation in strategic consultations and at local decision making forums. They also provide with consultancy and training in community development, tackling hate crime, equality, diversity and human rights, and develop online resources.

Cumbria Reducing Offending Partnership (CROPT), Cumbria Youth Alliance, Carlisle MENCAP, OutREACH Cumbria, and The Heathlands Project.

Mission and Objectives

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Outcomes and Challenges The programme has had a positive impact on its participants. After successfully completing it three participants are now exploring career development opportunities and are keen to engage in diverse community initiatives.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Hate Speech Alert Organisation: INTERKULTURALNI PL Status: NGO Area: National, Poland Main Funding: EEA funds. A group of 11 trained volunteers worked on the project monitoring the media.

Website & Email: www.hatespeechalert.org.pl, www.facebook.com/ HSA.org, www.interkulturalni.pl, interkulturalnipl@gmail.com

other politicians, were written, published and disseminated amongst members of parliament and several hundred journalism organisations to inform them about the issue. Training sessions, panel debates and workshops have been held and reports written in order to further spread awareness of the importance of not publically spreading hate and influencing public opinion, in order to avoid the propagation of  such discourses.

Partnership and Networks Main partner: Dialog-Pheniben Foundation

Mission and Objectives

Outcomes and Challenges

INTERKULTURALNI PL and Dialog-Pheniben Foundation work to reduce hate speech in Poland at a time when xenophobia is increasing following the migrant crisis. They work for the development of an open and multicultural society through acting to change the legal system, offering cultural education and promoting different cultures.

A total of 97 journalists and politicians attended the workshops.

General Activities An important part of their work is to monitor hate speech online and in the media with the support of volunteers and through various activities (workshops, training sessions, manuals) in order to educate key public figures about the impact of publicly expressing and propagating hateful discourses.

The project hopes to have a long term impact on reducing hate speech.

The association has been able to further spread its message due to being invited to participate in many events (TV programmes, campaigns to counter hate speech). There has also been a notable reduction in hate speech on the public social media accounts of politicians.

A shortcoming of the project is that leading journalists and politicians did not attend the training sessions, nor did those who are particularly known for expressing hate speech.

Strategies for Targeted Prevention With a specific focus on three groups that were identified as most likely to be victims of hate speech in Poland (Muslims, Jews and  the LGBT community), the project works to prevent hate speech through educating journalists and politicians about the negative impact that expressing hateful opinions can have on these minority groups and on the opinions and behaviour of the population as a whole. Two manuals, one targeting journalists and the

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Together! project

Strategies for Targeted Prevention The project is carried out in four phases:

Organisation: SOS Racismo Gipuzkoa (Spain), SOS Racisme Catalunya (Spain), KISA (Cyprus), OPU (Czech Republic), Camera del Lavoro di Milano (Italy), Lunaria (Italy), Universita di Roma-observatorio cotra il Razzismo (Italy)

 developing the programme and training materials, one including

Status: Together_ project

 executing the training for trainers from partner organisations to enable

Area: Basque Country and Catalonia (Spain), Milan and Rome (Italy), Prague (Czech Republic), Cyprus Main Funding: EU Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Programme and contributions from member organisations Website: www.togetherproject.eu/about/ Mission and Objectives This project aims to improve the capacities of Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) and civil society to make hate crimes visible in European society, which is the first step to tackle this type of crime and address related fundamental rights violations.

13 modules and a shorter version including 10 modules, available in English and the project national languages (Spanish, Italian, Greek and Czech); them to replicate it with members of civil society and LEAs in the participating countries, and also delivering trainings for LEAS and NGOs;

 drafting national reports based on the standard data collecting tool on hate crimes created;

 disseminating the project’s results through the project’s website, an international conference and other dissemination tools.

Partnership and Networks The Spanish National Union of Local Police Force Chiefs and Management (Unijepol), the Catalan Association of Local Police Force Chiefs and Management (AAPOLC) and other public administrations.

General Activities The project promotes four primary fields of work: offering training programmes on hate crime for LEAs, NGOs and community-based organisations; developing data collection tools for NGOs on the reporting of hate crimes and protocols for LEAs; promoting mechanisms of information exchange between civil society and LEAs in the involved countries; drawing up national reports and a comparative report on hate crime based on data collected by civil society organisations through the data collection tool, and organising international conferences on the underreporting of hate crimes.

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Outcomes and Challenges 501 members of LEAs and 267 professionals from civil society have been trained in identifying and reporting hate crimes. The collaboration and information exchange between LEAs and civil society has been strengthened and the project has made hate crime more visible in European society through the elaboration of five in-depth reports on the issue.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Ouvre les yeux

Strategies for Targeted Prevention

Website & Email: www.association-alc.net, p.hauvuy@association-alc.org

A working group comprising local representatives of three political parties and the local government of the Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolis was established. Its work has allowed various actions to be implemented including Nigerian cultural mediation targeted towards Nigerian sex workers, due to the high number of girls in risk of prostitution in this region, the creation of liaison files and the holding of a conference on human trafficking. Other measures to raise awareness about the reality of prostitution among the general public include mediation between locals and sex workers, the training of social and medical workers and law and order forces, and victim support services.

Mission and Objectives

Partnership and Networks

Founded in 1958, ALC is an association that acts for and with people faced with social difficulties who are either excluded from society or on the brink of exclusion. Initially, ALC focused on young girls at risk of prostitution, but over time its interventions have extended to a range of groups from infants to the homeless.

Services of the City of Nice (Local Security and Crime Prevention Committee and locally elected officials), State services (Women’s Rights and Prefecture), organisations specialised in victim support, the Nice municipal shelter for victims, urban security services, members of the Commission Against Violence Against Women.

General Activities

Outcomes and Challenges

As an organisation that is constantly renewing itself, ALC has developed a diverse set of intervention methods that include face-to-face exchanges, collective action, home visits, street tours, workshops and online contact.

The association has received positive feedback from non-professionals, who have told them how their perception of prostitutes had changed thanks to the scheme.

The project "Ouvre les yeux" ("Open your eyes") aims to combat stereotypes and opinions held by local people towards the issues of prostitution and human trafficking in Nice and the Alpes Maritimes department of France, and to reduce the victims’ feelings of exclusion and discrimination. It aims to do so through educating the general public and through training professionals about the identification and protection of victims.

On 19 June 2016, 200 people took part in a conference on human trafficking in the Mediterranean.

Organisation: ALC Association Status: Civil society organisation Area: Nice, France Main Funding: Staff costs are paid through the operating budget of the Lucioles Centre for Accommodation and Social Reintegration (Centre d'hébergement et de réinsertion sociale)

A variety of activities ranging from a conference, the establishment of a working group and various mediation and training sessions have been established in the framework of the project.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Significativo Azul Programme

Organisation: National Federation of Social Charity Cooperatives (Fenacerci) and Public Security Police (PSP) Status: Cooperatives and Public Security Police Area: National, Portugal Main Funding: Fenacerci’s and PSP’s own funding Website & Email: www.fenacerci.pt, fenacerci@fenacerci.pt, www.psp.pt Mission and Objectives The key objectives of this project are to train professionals working in the field of mental disability and rehabilitation as well as the police about preventing the maltreatment of disabled people in order to protect and enable them to exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms. The project also aims to promote cooperation among specialised institutions and the police and to improve the communication and information skills of police officers.

General Activities The project has three types of activities: training, implementation, and development and monitoring. They involve a range of actors and stakeholders including professionals working in the field of disability, the families of disabled people and the police.

stage, the project promotes the use of the “estou aqui” (I'm here) programme put in place by the Portuguese police to equip vulnerable adults (as well as children) with wristbands enabling the police to easily locate relatives or carers in case the person is in disarray in a public space. The project also campaigns to inform families on the rights of mentally disabled people and the issue of domestic violence. In the implementation and monitoring stage, forums and debates are held between the police and the Fenacerci associate organisations with the aim of raising awareness on the rights of mentally disabled people and fostering synergies.

Partnership and Networks Public Security Police (PSP), the National Federation of Social Solidarity Cooperatives (Fenacerci), the National Institute for Rehabilitation (INR, I.P.) and the National Confederation of Solidarity Institutions (CNIS).

Outcomes and Challenges The programme succeeded in unmasking the social phenomenon of disability-related violence. According to the available data 1,351 police officers were trained by the programme and 229 local awareness-raising sessions were held in 2015. In 2016, 68 awareness-raising sessions were held for professionals, people with disabilities and their families and relatives in 2016. In addition, the police intervened in 209 reported cases involving victims with mental health disabilities, and 39 criminal cases were recorded.

Strategies for Targeted Prevention During the training phase of the project, trainings are held for professionals working in the fields of disability and rehabilitation to inform them about the legal framework in which the police can intervene, the procedures they have to follow to identify offences against the disabled and gather evidence, and how to effectively communicate with the police. In the implementation

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Meet2respect Organisation: Leadership Berlin – Netzwerk Verantwortung e.V. Status: NGO / Association under German Law Area: Berlin, Germany Main Funding: The Berlin Senate Culture department co-finances staff costs. The Axel Springer Foundation granted one-off funding for the project.

Website & Email: www.meet2respect.de, susanne.kappe@meet2respect.de Mission and Objectives Leadership Berlin – Netzwerk Verantwortung e.V. promotes diversity, civic engagement and the capacity for critical thinking and a culture of dialogue and communication. Its primary target group are leaders and decision makers in public institutions, civil society organisation and private enterprises. Its project meet2respect specifically aims to foster dialogue, respect and tolerance among young people in order to prevent religiously-motivated violence and discrimination as well as mistrust between different religious groups.

Strategies for Targeted Prevention A key part of the meet2respect project involves organising school visits by Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious leaders. Schools with mostly Muslim pupils work preventively against anti-Semitism by being visited by an imam and a rabbi, the former of whom supports the latter during the sessions.

Conversely, classes with few or no Muslim pupils are visited by imams to facilitate contact between students and a representative of Islam to try and prevent anti-Muslim prejudice. During such visits, the religious leaders promote inter-religious respect and denounce exclusion, discrimination and violence. Other strategies to prevent religious discrimination include the aforementioned visits to synagogues and mosques and the tandem cycle tours, during which rabbis and imams toured different religious sites and institutions in Berlin on tandem bikes. In addition, exchanges between Muslim and LGBT communities have also taken place to encourage tolerance.

Partnership and Networks Associated Partners: Sehitlik Mosque Berlin, Jewish Community of Berlin and Chabad Lubawitsch. Informal partners: LGBT-leadership network Völklinger Kreis, Berliner Missionswerk “Interreligious Dialogue”, various schools and Jewish, Christian and Muslim congregations.

General Activities

Outcomes and Challenges

The association organises and coordinates a variety of projects and activities on the topics of anti-Semitism, homophobia, anti-Muslim prejudice, homelessness, refugees or youth delinquency. The project meet2respect promotes religious tolerance by organising school visits by religious leaders of different faiths, school visits to synagogues and mosques and cycling tours involving both Jewish and Muslim religious leaders.

Forty-five school classes, each with an average of 25 pupils, have benefited thus far from visits from religious leaders in the framework of the project.

The project has helped young people think critically about religious stereotypes, and has allowed some who have never come into contact with a Jew or a Muslim to meet one for the first time in a controlled, positive environment.

Challenges include mistrust on the part of local authorities and schools towards Muslim contributors. There are also issues with funding; it is only provided for new projects and staff costs are hard to fund.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Faith Groups and Hate Crime

Organisation: Communities Inc. Status: Social enterprise Area: Nottingham, United Kingdom Main Funding: Financial support from Faith Action, Together in Service and matched from Communities Inc’s own resources Website & email: www.communitiesinc.org.uk, shamsher@communitiesinc.org.uk Mission and Objectives Communities Inc is a Black and Minority Ethnic (BME)-led national social enterprise whose main goal is to create innovative projects to tackle the needs of businesses, communities and organisations in order to serve the most vulnerable communities in society. They work to engage marginalised groups to promote their voices and needs, influence people and policy to implement realistic and sustainable solutions, and develop creative approaches/projects that build the capacity of individuals and organisations.

General Activities Communities Inc’s focus is to break down barriers and empower, inspire and develop individuals and organisations. This includes capacity-building and projects/initiatives that encourage sustainable integration and partnership-working.

Strategies for Targeted Prevention For this project, they supported different faith groups to explore how they could promote messages around tolerance, cohesion and challenging inequalities in our communities and workplaces.

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The Faith Groups and Hate Crime project aims to raise awareness of hate crime within faith groups, to provide advice to faith groups on how to integrate hate crime awareness, prevention and support into their activities and to encourage unity and consistency through highlighting the commitment of a diverse range of faith leaders. As part of this project they have produced a brief guide for faith groups on actions they can take to tackle hate crime and support the victims. Christian, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish and Muslim faith leaders contributed to the guide and were consulted about how to raise awareness of hate crime and provide better support to victims. In order to have a greater impact and support for the implementation, the guide was disseminated through workshops. Several workshops were held with faith leaders. It was subsequently circulated to over 400 faith groups.

Partnership and Networks Official project partners included the eight faith groups who contributed to the guide, Southwell Diocese, Nottingham City Homes and Dr Sanghera (Interfaith Academic and Scholar).

Outcomes and Challenges Following the project, some participating faith groups initiated activities around hate crime, particularly regarding raising awareness among their congregations and offering support to victims.

Some faith groups and their leaders reported having a better knowledge and improved confidence in addressing hate crime.

The guide published won a national hate-crime prevention award.

A key obstacle was the differing levels of interest of each faith group. This restricted the consistency of the messages that the project had initially hoped to circulate within faith communities.

The guide was circulated to all faith groups across Nottinghamshire.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: La Quinzaine de la diversité Organisation: Bruno@ttitudes network, Police Zone “Polbruno” Status: Local Police Area: Local Police Zone – Schaerbeek – Evere – Saint-Josse-ten-Noode (Brussels, Belgium).

Main Funding: No specific funding, network members dedicate some work time to the project

Strategies for Targeted Prevention The Diversity Fortnight consists of around 10 training workshops for police officers on topics such as non-discrimination, equality and diversity. A press conference is held at the end of the Fortnight.

Partnership and Networks Interfederal Centre for Equal Opportunities (UNIA)

Website & Email: www.polbruno.be/, theo.vangasse@polbruno.be, dirprox@polbruno.be

Organisations invited to take part in the Fortnight event include Fedasil, Rainbowcops, Womenpol, the Federal Police, and Foyer.

Mission and Objectives

Outcomes and Challenges

Bruno@ttitudes is a network of reference persons created in 2008 to promote diversity. This network targets the local police force in the Brussels area, in Belgium. It aims to promote a culture of diversity and to counter discriminatory speech and actions as well as to take action against discrimination, racism and homophobia in the workplace or in the private sphere.

The objective to raise awareness among police staff was achieved. During the two Fortnights organised so far (in 2013 and 2015), around 300 local police employees participated in at least one workshop and gave positive feedback afterwards.

Some workshops had to be rerun several times due to their popularity.

General Activities Themes tackled by the network include raising awareness about diversity, corporate moral values, respecting diversity within human resources management and respecting human rights, particularly in selection processes.

Information material are regularly published and circulated, including a monthly magazine.

In addition, the network organises "La Quinzaine de la diversité" ("The Diversity Fortnight") every two years.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Management of diversity by the police

Organisation: Municipality of Madrid, municipality of Silla, Platform for the Management of Diversity by the Police Status: Local police Area: Municipalities of Madrid and Silla and national level Main Funding: Municipal funding and partners support Website & Emails: Madrid:delitosdeodio@madrid.es, Silla: www. polciaydiversidad.es

Strategies for Targeted Prevention In Silla, through the ‘Police and Diversity Project’, a variety of strategies are followed which include talks and training sessions for student communities about the values of citizenship, strengthening penal legislation on hate crimes and training police in managing diversity in a more professional manner.

In Madrid, as part of the ‘Unit for Diversity Management’, strategies include increasing contact with civil society to improve police-population relations, treating complaints of hate crimes committed both in person and on social networks as well as offering care, protection and support to victims of hate crime.

Platform: davidgarfellagil@gmail.com Mission and Objectives The Platform for the Management of Diversity by the Police was established in 2010 as a meeting place between civil society organisations representing diversity in Spain and the police. It aims to encourage and promote changes in police institutions to improve their operational procedures and guarantee equal, non-discriminatory treatment for all, especially minority groups.

Partnership and Networks The Platform’s partners include notably the National Union of Local Police Force Chiefs and Management (Unijepol), the Gypsy Secretariat Foundation (Fundación Secretariado Gitano), the RAIS Foundation, the Association of Gay and Lesbian Police Officers (Gaylespol), and the Open Society Justice Initiative (OS).Whilst there are no official partners for Silla, permanent work is carried out by the NGOs Movement against Intolerance, Welcome Network and the Valencian Islamic Cultural Centre.

General Activities Activities carried out by the Platform for the Management of Diversity by the Police include raising awareness about the need to develop policies on social diversity management, pushing for the improvement of police training on diversity management, encouraging better relationships between public police services and minority communities and defining criteria for police stop and search practices.

The platform has inspired the municipal police forces of Madrid and Silla (a municipality situated in the region of Valencia) to offer support and work with local communities to improve police-population relationships and the acceptance of diversity.

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Outcomes and Challenges In Silla, signs of hatred (graffiti, stereotypes, prejudices and hate crimes) have declined notably; in particular there has been a 79% drop in discriminatory incidents.

Obstacles so far been encountered include internalised racism within the police force and a lack of economic resources.

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2.5. Victim Support

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

deep knowledge of the needs of their target group. However, specialised units managed by local authorities or police liaison officers may equally offer such services, contribute to them or cooperate with victim support institutions.

While discriminatory violence concerns the whole of society and must be tackled on all levels, individual victims must not be forgotten. Incidents such as insult, harassment, intimidation, duress, sexual assault or bodily injury may cause various forms of significant physical or psychological damage. People are targeted because of traits that form integral part of their identity and cannot be dissociated from the core of their existence, and this may further aggravate the consequences and effects of these attacks (see Kees et al 2016: 19f). If victims are left on their own and do not receive sufficient support, this may lead to anger and frustration as well as a loss of trust in public institutions or society at large, a decline in or retreat from participation in collective and social processes, or a loss of respect for the norms and values of a society that has not provided a clear and appropriate response to their victimisation.

It is in this context that supports for those afflicted by such unacceptable violations on their path to justice forms a crucial part of strategies to counter discriminatory violence. What is needed is support for victims by qualified agencies and organisations that offer for example professional psychological and legal counselling, psychosocial support, facilitate access to medical services, can offer financial support in case of dire need, support victims in their claims to insurance companies, etc.18 The practices documented in this section cooperate with and mobilise a variety of services offered at municipal and regional level to provide well-adjusted and professional support to victims of discriminatory violence and hate crime. The offer targets different groups, among them victims of LGBT-phobic incidents, women and children who have suffered gender-based violence or pupils who were victimised by discriminatory behaviours at school. These services are mostly offered by civil society organisations that have a great expertise in psychosocial counselling and

18- The necessity of such services is increasingly recognised also at transnational levels. At the European level, the relatively recent Victims’ Directive (2012/29/EU) requires Member States to assess the needs of victims of hate crime and refer them to appropriate support and adequately trained law enforcement.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: ADAS project Organisation: Life e.V.

schools to deal with cases of discrimination. It also implements recommendations for an institutional framework for managing discrimination complaints in order to deal effectively with cases of discrimination in schools based on the results and the data gathered in the project.

Status: Non-profit organisation Area: Berlin, Germany Main Funding: Foundation of the German Lottery Website & Email: www.adas-berlin.de/, yegane@adas-berlin.de Mission and Objectives Life e.V. is an independent, non-profit organisation that has been providing services in education, counselling and networking since 1988. This project aims to contribute to non-discrimination in schools through improving institutional protection against discrimination. In addition, it aims to help pupils, parents, teachers and school personnel who experience discrimination in schools as well as to support schools with implementing anti-discrimination rules.

Partnership and Networks Berlin senate of education, Berlin district office of Neukölln, the Berlin State Office for Equal Treatment and Against Discrimination (LADS), various civil society organisations from the non-formal education sector and organisations representing different groups (LGBT, Migrants, Muslims, Roma and Sinti).

Outcomes and Challenges Thus far, the results that have been observed include raised levels of awareness and action in schools regarding all forms of discrimination and growing openness of educational institutions to dealing with discrimination.

General Activities The project Anlaufstelle für Diskriminierungsschutz an Schulen (ADAS) centres on a helpdesk for victims of discrimination in schools and an internal system of complaint management for schools in order to tackle the widespread issue of discrimination in German schools.

Strategies for Victim Support The ADAS counselling centre offers victim support for students, parents, school staff or third parties that suffer from discrimination by providing independent advice and support. It documents and evaluates all cases of discrimination. In addition, it develops an internal complaints management system for cases of discrimination and preventive measures for non-discrimination and inclusivity in schools and produces guidelines for

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Hate Crime Victims' Advocates Scheme

Organisation: Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) Status: Functional Body of the Greater London Authority Area: The London boroughs of Westminster and Hackney, United Kingdom Main Funding: A grant agreement for the delivery of a one-year service in two London boroughs provided by MOPAC’s victims services funds Website & Email: www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/mayors-office-policing-and-crime-mopac/our-strategies/hate-crime Mission and Objectives The Mayor has made ten clear commitments to combat hate crime in his Police and Crime Plan. These include encouraging more victims to come forward with measures such as smartphone apps and online facilities to report hate crime, and extending the Hate Crime Victims' Advocates Scheme across London.

The objective of the Hate Crime Victims' Advocates Scheme is to tackle the lack of signposting and referrals to appropriate support services for victims of hate crime in London, which can lead to failure to recover from a crime, repeated victimisation and the collapse of criminal prosecutions if the victim does not have the support to navigate the criminal justice system.

General Activities

Strategies for Victim Support The Hate Crime Victims' Advocates Scheme was developed to offer a better support to victims with an appropriate service with the aim to empower victims to make informed decisions, to help them with safety planning to reduce repeated victimisation and to work with partner organisations to secure the best outcome for victims regardless of whether they choose to pursue their case through the criminal justice system.

The pilot scheme employs a consortium of practitioners from groups covering all fields of hate crime named Community Alliance to Combat Hate (CATCH). The scheme was formed to provide frontline delivery of one-to-one support to a caseload of hate crime victims. CATCH undertook a communication and engagement programme with police, local authorities and community groups to raise awareness of the scheme. Both emotional and practical support systems are provided as well as help with navigating the criminal justice system. The scheme targets victims who may be identified as “vulnerable” or "high risk".

Partnership and Networks CATCH consortium who delivers the scheme via a grant agreement.

Outcomes and Challenges Victims are now receiving a level of appropriate specialist support that was not available to them prior to the scheme. MPS specialist Hate Crime Liaison Officers now work with the consortium to jointly support victims and reduce repeat victimisation.

Starting in April 2016, the pilot scheme for this project employs practitioners to provide frontline delivery of one-to-one support to hate crime victims. The scheme targets victims involved in complex cases, who may be identified as “vulnerable” or “high risk”.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Shelter for Women and

Children Victim of Domestic Violence Organisation: Municipality of Heraklion Status: Municipality

(leaflets, posters, etc.), are distributed in all the municipality’s departments to raise awareness about domestic violence. In addition, campaigns are organised on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (25 November), which include the distribution of leaflets, a press conference and an art exhibition inspired by women’s experience of abuse.

Area: Heraklion, Greece Main Funding: Financed by European ESPA Programme (covering staff payroll, equipment, expenses).

Website & Email: www.heraklion.gr, filoxenia@heraklion.gr Mission and Objectives This project aims to offer protection and safety to women who have experienced discrimination or violence. In addition, it aims to educate against and thus prevent gender-based violence in the community of Heraklion.

Partnership and Networks The Municipality of Heraklion and the Region of Crete execute the project, which is carried out by the Hellenic Agency for Local Development and Government on behalf of the Ministry of the Interior. Consultation centres, shelters, emergency telephone lines, social services, the police, child care services, and the Public Prosecutor’s office are also part of the project. A formal partnership exists with a hospital.

Outcomes and Challenges General Activities Activities involve the provision of a shelter offering accommodation and support to women of all backgrounds who have been, or who are at risk of being victim of domestic violence or discrimination, as well as their children. It also campaigns against gender-based violence. The shelter can accommodate up to 21 people and is run by a team of workers (an administration manager, a social worker, a psychologist, a child psychologist, a facilities supervisor and 24h security guards).

The shelter has thus far managed to help women regain a sense of control in their lives. Most of the women that left the shelter subsequently moved to a new home. Most of the unemployed women were able to find a job.

Strategies for Victim Support Women can stay in the shelter for up to three months (they can extend their residence if need be). They are protected and receive psychological support through individual and group counselling. They also receive help in accessing public services such as schools, hospitals, public prosecution offices and welfare, are informed about their rights and get help in finding a job. The shelter’s staff also organise community-based interventions to prevent discrimination and domestic violence. Information materials

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: SAVE project

Area: Bologna, Italy

Casa Delle Donne offers a variety of services to women who have been victim of gender-based violence: the SAVE emergency shelter (nine beds) provides temporary accommodation for women and their children. There are also several ‘hideout’ flats (whose address is kept secret) available. The programme also offers women counselling, legal assistance, cultural mediation, and group sessions.

Main Funding: Financed by the Equal Opportunity Department of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (Prime minister’s office, Italian Government).

Partnership and Networks

Organisation: Casa Delle Donne per Non Subire Violenza (House of women to not suffer violence) Status: Non-profit organisation

Website: www.casadonne.it Mission and Objectives Casa Delle Donne per Non Subire Violenza is an organisation focusing on combating all forms of gender-based violence in Italy. The objectives of its SAVE (Sicurezza e ccoglienza per Vittime in Emergenza - Security and hospitality for victims in a situation of emergency in English) project include offering protection to women and children who are victims of violence, creating a network specialised in hosting high-risk victims and improving feelings of trust towards institutions that support victims.

General Activities The project is part of a global strategy to encourage networks at the local and national level to work collaboratively to protect women and children from gender violence. The general objective is to offer an emergency refuge for women who are subject to violence. Referrals are made by the police, emergency services or emergency social services.

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Strategies for Victim Support

The project was supported by the municipality and province of Bologna, the Union of Women in Italy (Unione Donne in Italia, UDI), the Carabinieri and the police.

Outcomes and Challenges Between November 2012 and mid-June 2017, the emergency SAVE centre hosted a total of 293 women and children. Of 142 women hosted, 116 decided to stay and protect themselves and their children from violence. Thus after leaving the refuge, they received help from the network, for some of them moved to accommodations provided by Casa Delle Donne or other accommodation available in the area. Some returned home but only after having secured a restraining order against their partner. Twenty-six decided to seek reconciliation with their partner.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Hate Crime Reporting Smartphone App

Strategies for Victim Support

Website: www.london.gov.uk

Commissioned in 2015, the hate crime reporting app is free of charge and can be downloaded on Apple or Android devices. It enables victims to immediately report an incident. The information goes directly to the police via a secure server. Users can upload photographic and video material as part of their report and can submit a verbal statement or footage of the incident. This means that the process to report the perpetration of a hate crime is simple, that evidence can easily be captured and retained and that victims are able to access information on available support services immediately.

Mission and Objectives

Partnership and Networks

The MOPAC is responsible for the strategic oversight of the Metropolitan Police, the largest police force in the United Kingdom. In 2014, MOPAC published “A Hate Crime Strategy for London 2014-2017”, London’s first strategy to tackle all forms of hate crime. The Mayor wants to build on the achievements of that strategy by embedding a zero-tolerance approach to all forms of intolerance, extremism and hate in London. MOPAC has four main objectives in its work against hate crime; to develop more accessible ways to report hate crimes, to improve support for victims of hate crime, to develop their approach to online hate crime and to improve the oversight and transparency of the criminal justice response to hate crime.

Witness Confident, the app developer who is commissioned via a grant agreement, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS).

Organisation: The Mayor of London’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) Status: Functional Body of the Greater London Authority Area: Metropolitan London Police District, United Kingdom Main Funding: MOPAC’s victims services funds

General Activities

Outcomes and Challenges The initial number of reports via the app was disappointing: 200 reports were made through it during its first year. The number of reports has increased following a programme of engagement and awareness raising among victims, community groups and police officers. It has been shown to be particularly useful for repeat victims. The app is used to report any crime, including hate crime, and Metropolitan Police Service officers have expressed a desire to extend its use to domestic abuse victims.

The Mayor has made ten clear commitments to combat hate crime in his Police and Crime Plan. These include encouraging more victims to come forward with measures such as smartphone apps and online facilities to report hate crime, and extending the hate crime victims’ advocates scheme across London.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: The Integrated Domestic Violence Programme Organisation: City of Malmö Status: Municipality Area: Malmö, Sweden Main Funding: Municipality funds Website: www.malmo.se Mission and Objectives The executive board of the local authority in Malmö gave the Southern Central district administrative board the task of formulating an action programme for the whole local authority on the prevention of violence against women. It was emphasised that the relevant agencies were to develop a collaborative operation based on the situation and needs of women and children exposed to violence. The most important objectives are to make visible the violence that occurs in intimate relationships and to provide the support women need in order to feel safe in reporting this violence.

General Activities To achieve this main objective and in order to support victims, information and awareness-raising activities are organised jointly by the different partners. Information on the problem and on the existence of specialist initiatives are given to both the victimised women and children and to the perpetrators.

Strategies for Victim Support The Integrated Domestic Violence Programme has been designed on the basis of a concrete picture of what a woman needs when she has been subjected to assault. Women who have been the victims of assault need treatment for their injuries (from the healthcare sector), they need to report the assault (to the police) and they need support in the form of counselling (provided by the local authority) to enable them to break off the abusive relationship.

The action programme has the support of decision makers and practitioners at several levels: at the political level, among the relevant managers and among those dealing with individual cases. The programme has its own steering group comprised of executives from the social services, the police, the healthcare sector and the prison and probation service, and a coordination group comprised of representatives from relevant agencies.

Partnership and Networks The main partners of the Malmö Integrated Domestic Violence Programme are the local authority, the police authority and the healthcare sector.

Outcomes and Challenges Since the project began in 1996, the number of cases where a woman has reported having been assaulted by a male acquaintance has increased by 50%. A larger proportion of these cases lead to a prosecution than before the start of the project.

The media played a major role in circulating this information. Knowledge on the problem has been disseminated to a number of groups by means of visits to schools, clubs and associations and also to various workplaces, conducted by representatives of the police and social services, among others. Since 26% of the population of Malmö comes from a country outside of Sweden, informational brochures are available in eight languages.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: MANEO project Organisation: Mann-O-Meter e.V., Berlin’s Gay Checkpoint and Information Centre Status: Association under German Law

MANEO aims to raise awareness amongst professionals in the criminal justice system about homophobic violence and hate crime and to improve cooperation between criminal prosecution authorities and Berlin’s LGBT communities. In addition, it aims to improve the reporting and prosecution of homophobic crimes through building LGBT people’s trust in the police and public prosecution services.

Area: Berlin, Germany Main Funding: partially funded by the Berlin Senate’s department for Justice, relies on additional funding and donations to finance it wide-ranging activities Website & Email: www.maneo.de/eng, maneo@maneo.de Mission and Objectives MANEO was founded in 1990 to respond to the worrying degree of homoand transphobic incidents, counter discrimination against LGBT persons in Berlin and open up a dialogue with the Berlin police to change police operations in and approaches to the LGBT scene. MANEO is the most experienced and best-known gay anti-violence project in Germany. Its staff gives advice to more than 300 victims of violence annually, records anti-gay acts of violence and provides violence-prevention public relations work.

Strategies for Victim Support MANEO offers professional counselling and support to victims of violence and discrimination. Victims often feel helpless and as if they are serving the interests of others, e.g. the police, the justice system, insurance companies or the media. MANEO takes the fears and concerns of victims of violence and witnesses seriously and provides assistance in difficult situations. It provides counselling on how to file a police report and the penal process and helps to consider potential alternatives. It facilitates contact with experienced lawyers, doctors and other supporting institutions. It also accompanies victims to police interviews and through oftentimes lengthy legal proceedings. The filing of a police report is not a prerequisite for counselling and support.

Partnership and Networks General Activities MANEO focuses on four main areas of activity; offering victim support for those who have experienced homophobic violence, providing a report centre to document cases of homo- and transphobia in Berlin that are published in an annual report, acting to prevent homophobic violence and empowering LGBT communities in Berlin so they stand up for equal rights and non-discrimination.

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Berlin Police Force and Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office; SOS Homophobie (France), Lambda/KPH (Poland); The Rainbow Project (N. Ireland) and Pink Cross (Switzerland), formalised partnership with more than 140 organisations and institutions through the “Berlin Tolerance Alliance” coordinated by MANEO.

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Outcomes and Challenges MANEO’s engagement with authorities has led to the recruitment of specialised liaison officers at the Berlin police service (1992) and Berlin’s public prosecution office (2012). This model has been praised by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) as well as many criminal justice experts. In addition, Berlin police now recognise homophobic hate crime and have published statistics about it since 2008.

Furthermore, the LGBT population’s trust in the criminal prosecution authorities has grown, as shown by an increasing number of reports.

2.6. Transversal Strategies to Counter Discriminatory Violence

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Discriminatory violence is a complex, multi-faceted phenomenon, and so are the strategies tackling it. While the strategies presented in the preceding sections have been chosen because they formulate a clear, delimited aim and propose coherent and concrete measures to tackle discriminatory violence in a purposeful manner, the practices presented below entail different procedures. They develop broader strategies, formulate a series of aims and sub-aims in the fight against discrimination and violence, and a corresponding array of measures and activities to reach them.

The practices presented in this section have truly incorporated the insight that hate, intolerance and discriminatory violence transverse all sectors of society. They are transverse in the sense that they combine different strategies, involve a multiplicity of stakeholders, and/or aim explicitly to implement measures to counter discrimination and discriminatory violence in a variety of fields. For example, a city may work on the topic of discrimination in a manner that involves a number of departments and units within the city administration, bringing on board a multiplicity of elected officials, magistrates and technicians. By doing so, they expand the know-how and resources that feed into their strategies and broaden the access to resources as well as opportunities for dissemination. Or, a community centre may, instead of focusing on one specific aspect, take a wider, more comprehensive approach and combine different measures of community empowerment, victim support and prevention work. Moreover, these may be networks of a variety of actors, coordinated by a unit within the city administration or by a civil society organisation.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Action Plan against Homoand-Transphobia

Organisation: Berlin State Office for Equal Treatment and Against Discrimination Status: Governmental strategy Area: Berlin, Germany Main Funding: Financed by the city of Berlin at its inception (2010) Website: www.berlin.de Mission and Objectives This action plan is based on a resolution of the Berlin House of Representatives; the initiative 'Berlin Supports Self-Determination and Acceptance of Sexual Diversity' has been in place since 2010. It has a range of objectives which include, but are not limited to, combating homophobia and transphobia, improving education and information in schools, improving LGBT research in Berlin, increasing the participation of LGBT organisations in advisory boards and committees and increasing equal legal treatment throughout Germany.

General Activities The original action plan includes over 60 measures in six fields of action to fight against homophobia and transphobia. These include commissioning research, conducting work in the field of anti-violence and encouraging international engagement. These activities aim to target all residents of Berlin, particularly those in the LGBT community, as well as teaching staff and school pupils.

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Strategies for Countering Discriminatory Violence Measures taken in the field of anti-violence included installing a contact office for LGBT victims of hate crime at the department of public prosecution, carrying out a multimedia campaign aimed at the public to raise awareness and improving cooperation between federal institutions (e.g. prosecution offices) and anti-violence projects.

Research centred on anti-violence commissioned as part of the project included studies focused on experiences of violence and discrimination and acceptance of sexual diversity in schools and German law in relation to potential discrimination.

International engagement activities included the co-founding of the Rainbow City Network in 2013, which aims to combat discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity at a local level in Europe through the exchange of knowledge and experiences. More than 30 European cities are now involved in the network as well as Mexico City (Mexico) and Sao Paulo (Brazil).

Partnership and Networks Federal State of Berlin, Berlin State Office for Equal Treatment and Against Discrimination (LADS) at the Senate Department for Justice, Consumer Protection and Anti-Discrimination, all other departments of the Berlin senate, LGBT communities and NGOs.

Outcomes and Challenges Thus far the outcomes of this plan have included an increase in the number of support structures available to the LGBT community and more guidelines and awareness-raising activities for the community on  themes such as  rights, access to the job market and protection. An evaluation report on the outcomes of the action plan was published in 2012 and is available on www.berlin.de.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Model for the Integration of Immigrants

Organisation: Gdansk City Hall Status: Municipality Area: Gdansk, Poland Main Funding: Financial contribution from the City Hall. External funds from the Asylum and Migration Fund and other programmes, donations and sponsorships.

Website: www.gdansk.pl/migracje/ Model-Integracji-Imigrantow,a,61064 Mission and Objectives This project is Poland’s first initiative for a systematic approach to immigration at the city level. It aims to develop migrant management capacities in all of Gdansk’s public and social institutions and to improve the integration and wellbeing of immigrants in all areas of local life.

General Activities The Model for the Integration of Immigrants (Model Integracji Imigrantów, MII) on which this scheme is based is an executive plan for the implementation of the operational programmes of the "Gdansk 2030 Plus" development strategy. It focuses on a broad range of areas including education, culture, social welfare, housing, the prevention of violence and discrimination, local communities, employment and health.

codes in municipal institutions, the development of a social campaign for equal treatment, the provision of internships and employment programmes for immigrants and the provision of public housing support for refugees.

Partnership and Networks The activities carried out as part of this scheme involved a range of stakeholders with the objective of creating synergies and cross-sectoral cooperation: various City Hall departments, the Municipal Family Support Centre, the District Employment Office, the Municipal Police, the European Solidarity Centre, the Immigrant Support Centre in Gdansk (NGO), the Municipal Crisis Intervention Centre as well as various cultural, educational and health institutions and regional/national media.

Internationally, Gdansk’s active participation in the Eurocities network (of European cities) is an opportunity to benefit from more experienced cities and to share experiences in the field of migration.

Outcomes and Challenges Results from the project thus far include an increase in the number of immigrants who have seen improvements in their language skills, social, health, psychological and economic circumstances as a result of better public service. There has also been an increase in the number of free Polish and English lessons for immigrants, in the number of institutions and organisations involved in the integration process of immigrants, and in the number of immigrants who have begun integrating into Polish society through participating in projects proposed by the MII.

Strategies for Victim Support The strategies outlined by the document include, but are not limited to, the adjustment of university structures in order to better cater to the needs of foreign students, the creation and development of a network of local organisers for integration, the inclusion of immigrants in the city’s cultural and social life, the development and implementation of anti-discrimination

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Coalition for Diversity in Communal Life

Organisation: Coalition of Mannheim Status: An alliance of actors and stakeholders from civil society and economic, political and administrative institutions, coordinated by the Department for Integration of the City Council. Area: Mannheim, Germany Main Funding: Some projects are financed by the federal programme “Demokratie Leben” (democracy life) (German Ministry of Social Affairs, Family and Youth) Website & Email: www.mannheim.de/de/service-bieten/integrationmigration/mannheimer-buendnis-fuer-ein-zusammenleben-in-vielfalt Mission and Objectives This project aims to promote mutual respect and coexistence and to counter discrimination in Mannheim. In addition, it aims to promote networking and the dissemination of knowledge as well as to raise the visibility of engagement against discrimination.

Partnership and Networks The project partners are a range of organisations. All coalition partners are signatory tos the Declaration of the City of Mannheim for Living Together in Diversity, which was drafted collaboratively and passed by the Mannheim City Council, and are committed to promoting diversity. The network includes NGOs, grassroots movements, religious groups, political parties and a few large companies.

Outcomes and Challenges Thus far over 100 institutions and organisations took part in events organised by the coalition. This led, for example, to participants agreeing to sharing values through the "Declaration of Mannheim". Up to 20 projects are implemented by the coalition partners annually.

More than 250 coalition and network partners attended the ceremony marking the coalition’s establishment (the coalition action days “Vielfalt im Quadrat”).

One notable challenge was to define the scope and limits of each of the coalition members’ actions as part of the coalition.

General Activities The coalition’s actions are centred on its internal workings (through continued communication between partners) and outside communal actors and structures (through voluntary joint activities). It functions as a platform gathering diverse stakeholders of Mannheim’s civil society.

Strategies for Countering Discriminatory Violence Strategies include communication campaigns (via newsletters and a coalition website) and various meetings between coalition partners to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and experiences, the provision of anti-racism and anti-discrimination counselling and the holding of action days.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Centre for Equal Opportunities

Organisation: City of Mouscron Status: Municipality Area: Mouscron, Belgium Main Funding: Financed by the municipal administration for the implementation of various projects, the centre’s visibility and the team’s training.

Website & Email: www.mouscron.be, egalite@mouscron.be Mission and Objectives The Transverse Strategic Programme of the city of Mouscron is based on the needs and aspirations of residents. Through constant dialogue with the citizenry, the City Council identified the main issues linked to discrimination: a lack of knowledge about mechanisms in place to counter discrimination (stereotype, prejudice) and about how to deal with feelings of discrimination.

Following its observations, the city of Mouscron created the Centre for Equal Opportunities in 2007, which aims to prevent discriminatory behaviour, raise awareness about it and change the attitudes of local authorities and citizens in order to improve the integration of people from other communities and cultures.

the legislative framework related to discrimination and equal opportunities.

The Centre collaborates with the Unit for Solidarity Actions Against Harassment (Cellule d’Actions solidaires contre le Harcèlement, CASH) and the Network for Literacy in Mouscron (Réseau d’Alphabétisation mouscronnois, RAM), and has created “sports for the disabled” actions, organised a committee of residents to prevent conflicts, promoted cultural activities and established a network between neighbouring municipalities.

Partnership and Networks Members of the municipal authorities, various communal city services, the anti-discrimination NGO Unia, the Federal Institute for Equality Between Women and Men, associations, schools, the centre for secular action Picardie Laïque and various municipalities. Conventions have been signed with CASH and RAM.

Outcomes and Challenges The number of requests for information, assistance, partnerships and contact with associations and projects for equal opportunities. Many requests were successfully dealt with in collaboration with the appropriate authorities, or are still ongoing.

A challenge is the lack of time since, team members have to split their time between working on equal opportunities and on projects focused on youth.

General Activities The Centre for Equal Opportunities carries out four main types of activity: listening to citizens, informing them, linking with institutions that deal with discrimination and setting up awareness-raising projects.

Strategies for Countering Discriminatory Violence The Centre for Equal Opportunities’ activities include workshops aimed at citizens which explain the concepts of stereotype, prejudice, and discrimination and how they are closely linked. A Charter of Equal Opportunities has been created to provide municipal administrations with information about

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: The Villeurbanne

Vigilance Network and Discrimination Observatory Organisation: City of Villeurbanne

discrimination about their rights and producing an information guide aimed at professionals and associate partners, which aims to aid the legal classification of discrimination cases.

The Observatory publishes and disseminates an annual report. In addition, in 2013 it carried out a survey aimed at residents about their experiences of discrimination and their knowledge of anti-discrimination laws.

Status: Municipality Area: Villeurbanne, France Main Funding: Funded by the city and co-financed by the State Website & Email: www.villeurbanne.fr, joanna@tralalere.com Mission and Objectives In 2008, the City of Villeurbanne implemented a vigilance network for equality and non-discrimination with the aim of identifying and acting upon discriminatory situations, informing the victims of discrimination about their rights and pointing them in the direction of legal aid. In 2010, this project was supported by the creation of a Discrimination Observatory which reports on potential discrimination identified in the city and on how it is dealt with. It aims to monitor discrimination in the area in order both to identify what leads to it and develop strategies to tackle it. In addition, the Observatory aims to identify resource structures for victims.

General Activities

Partnership and Networks Currently composed of around 15 local organisations, this network has progressively developed into a collaboration between employment-support workers, housing and social action specialists, legal professionals (legal practitioners, lawyers, prosecutors), the police and sociologists.

Outcomes and Challenges Since the creation of the network over 500 cases of discrimination have been registered, 200 cases have been dealt with by partner organisations, 200 professionals working in the field have been trained and around 3,000 information files about discrimination are disseminated annually by partners to the public. People helped by the network have reported that they feel supported and that they have regained self confidence and trust in the institutions. In addition, discrimination has become more visible and more widely punished in Villeurbanne. The project has inspired other projects (including in Paris, Grenoble and Lyon).

The Vigilance Network and Observatory lead various activities ranging from holding training sessions, providing various information tools about discrimination and publishing various documents based on the theme.

Strategies for Countering Discriminatory Violence The Network has thus far undertaken a range of actions to tackle discrimination, including training professionals from partner organisations about the network, holding regular meetings between correspondents with its member organisations, providing information tools about discrimination for the public, creating a duty lawyer service to inform and advise victims of

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: The Schools Relay Race "Stop Mowie Nienawiści”

Organisation: City of Wroclaw, Wroclaw Centre for Social Development (Miasto Wrocław, Wrocławskie Centrum Rozwoju Społecznego, WCRS) Status: The Administrative Unit of the Municipality of Wroclaw Area: Wroclaw, Poland

For pupils, interactive “Stereotypes-Biases-Discrimination” workshops of a duration of two hours are held to inform them about what is a stereotype, how stereotypes differ from bias and how this can lead to discrimination.

These activities are complemented with the opportunity to hold an exhibition free of charge showcasing 10 citizens of Wroclaw of multicultural origin who belong to groups that are often discriminated against. These people talk about their lives and share their opinions about tolerance in an effort to discourage discrimination.

Main Funding: Fully funded by the municipality of Wroclaw Website: www.wielokultury.wroclaw.pl/stopmowienienawisci Mission and Objectives Launched in October 2014, the Schools’ Relay Race "Stop Mowie Nienawiści” ("Stop Hate Speech") is an urban educational project. It is designed for students, teachers, and school administrators and employees. The aim is to raise awareness in the school community about hate speech and manifestations of discrimination. Other objectives include raising awareness of the legal and psychological effects of hate crime and to convince participants to actively oppose discriminatory behaviour when they encounter it.

General Activities

Partnership and Networks The School of Economy and Administration (Zespół Szkół Ekonomiczno-Administracyjnych), the Regional Representation of the European Commission in Wroclaw, the Hilton Ovo Hotel, the Sports club WKS Silesia, the Chief of of Police for the Protection of Human Rights, the Wroclaw Municipal Guard, the Wroclaw Centre for Integration and other units of the municipality of Wroclaw.

Outcomes and Challenges According to surveys conducted after the lectures, around 90-100% of participants say their knowledge of the legal and psychological aspects of hate speech has improved as a result of the project.

The relay project involves delivering lectures, workshops and educational exhibitions, each of which are tailored to different members of a school community.

Strategies for Countering Discriminatory Violence A key strategy of the project is giving lectures to school staff on the symbols of hate speech (including the Swastika and the Celtic cross), how young people are lured by extremist groups and methods to prevent such occurrences in schools.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Barcelona’s Anti-Rumour

Strategies for Countering Discriminatory Violence

strategy

The Anti-Rumour Strategy’s activities can be divided into three main lines of work:

Organisation: Citizenship and Diversity Rights Municipal Service, Barcelona City Council

1) Raising awareness: including the production of material resources (guides, manuals, comics) and trainings addressed to professionals, social agents or citizens who have already been sensitised so that they can become ‘anti-rumours agents’ and deconstruct stereotypes and rumours.

Status: Municipality Area: Barcelona, Spain Main Funding: Fully funded by the municipality Website: www.ajuntament.barcelona.cat/bcnacciointercultural/en/ Mission and Objectives In 2010, the City of Barcelona launched an Interculturality Programme whose objective was to transform the multicultural Barcelona (i.e. different citizens of Barcelona living together) into an intercultural Barcelona (i.e. a diverse Barcelona that engages in “city building” on a collaborative basis).

This programme was created following the Barcelona Interculturality Plan, drafted through a the participatory process. In this plan, “ignorance about others” had been identified as one of greatest hindrances to interculturality, which often turns to fear or mistrust and is expressed through rumours and false stereotypes.

2) Communication: opening spaces and organising events (workshops, plays, debates, etc.) in order to meet and work together with the local media. This work includes disseminating information that counteracts rumours or offers positive experiences.

3) Participation: promoting coordinated work with local actors involved in the anti-rumour network.

Partnership and Networks The Anti-Rumours network, which is also promoted by the Municipality of Barcelona, consists of nearly 1,000 members, including organisations and private individuals, as well as the municipality itself.

Outcomes and Challenges General Activities The Barcelona Interculturality Programme generates its own resources for the city while working with the city by supporting the intercultural activities of organisations, services, programmes, facilities, schools, the media, etc.

One of its current key lines is the Barcelona Anti-Rumour Strategy, which aims to dispel rumours, prejudices and stereotypes about cultural diversity and thus prevent racist attitudes and discriminatory practices against certain groups and communities.

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There are important changes in terms of participation, areas of work, discourse against rumours and stereotypes, ways of conveying the message.

More than 1,800 anti-rumours agents have been trained between 2010 and 2015 and more than 300 activities have been organised in the same period.

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>>>>>>> PRACTICE: Prevention of violence and crime against senior citizens

The activities are carried out in the whole territory of the municipality. In this sense, the planned actions for this project are:

Organisation: Valenciennes

1) Identification and support of vulnerable people: The department of Social Mediation, the officers in charge of the Senior Concierge service and the volunteers of the Senior Citizens Council meet elderly residents on a regular basis and detect eventual situations of concern.

Status: Municipality Area: Valenciennes, France Main Funding: Own funding Website & Email: www.valenciennes.fr, eaznar@ville-valenciennes.fr Mission and Objectives: The number of senior citizens in Valenciennes was a little over 6,000 in 2010, and has increased to some 8,000 in 2016. Senior citizens have become the target of violence and offences because of their physical weakness or their ignorance of certain risks such as fraud and even criminal offences committed by close relatives and friends or fraudsters passing as relatives. This social phenomenon has not been yet fully taken into account by local political decision makers, but the Valenciennes City Council has been a precursor and decided as early as 2010 to include the specific security needs of the senior population across all its relevant policies.

General Activities The project’s general aim is to create an environment that is welcoming and caring for senior citizens, so that they do not feel isolated and vulnerable. To do so the city has integrated the concept of crime prevention in all the aspects of its policy on seniors. Three domains for action were defined: identification of vulnerable senior citizens in order to protect them; raising awareness among seniors so that they can protect themselves or at least call the relevant public institutions when in deed; taking into account the specific needs of seniors and provide adapted responses.

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Strategies for Victim Support

2) Raising awareness: Senior citizens benefit from a wide range of informational activities such as training in the prevention of fraud; prevention of cybercrime in the form of computer literacy workshops, and security in the tramway.

3) Including the specific needs of the senior population in the overall security and crime prevention policy of the municipality: Several working committees linked to the Senior Citizens Council make recommendations on the different aspects of seniors’ everyday life that could affect (or be affected by) the local crime prevention strategy.

Partnership and Networks The main partners of the project are the Valenciennes municipality and the Caisse Communale d’Action Sociale (Communal Welfare Fund or CCAS), which also are the largest contributors, financially speaking.

Outcomes and Challenges The evaluation of individual actions has produced thus far very positive results. In 2015, some 8,000 senior citizens benefited from preventive services at least once.

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Introduction

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Part 3 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Recommendations for Local Stakeholders >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

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This section develops recommendations for local and regional authorities on how to counter and prevent discriminatory violence at the local level. As explained in Part 1.3, local and regional authorities have a central part to play in this endeavour, notably setting the political framework, allocating appropriate resources and coordinating the different measures enacted by all those stakeholders who can contribute to such efforts.

With the following recommendations, Efus wishes to support and assist local and regional authorities in these efforts and provide them with concrete ideas and suggestions. They are one of the primary results of the Just and Safer Cities for All project, product of many discussions among the project partners, Efus members, experts, researchers and practitioners who took part in the numerous project activities.

While aiming to cover a wide range of aspects that are relevant to the establishment of such approaches, these recommendations are not exhaustive. Neither will all of them be equally suitable for all local and regional contexts – the realities of discriminatory violence as well as legal and administrative regulations that provide the frameworks for countering these phenomena are so manifold that frequent adaptations and revisions of these recommendations will be necessary. Efus is looking forward to seeing these recommendations discussed and adapted, and to engage in debates with authorities and all other stakeholders who are ready to contribute to a common effort to counter and prevent discriminatory violence at the local level.

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3.1. Improving knowledge through targeted safety audits

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> In many municipalities, profound and detailed knowledge on discriminatory violence is missing. The resulting lack of clarity on definitions and concepts as well as the prevalence, dynamics, impacts and spatial and temporal distribution of acts of discriminatory violence within a municipality’s or region’s territory is problematic because it would provide the adequate allocation of resources to the topic as well as the development of effective measures of prevention. Boosting knowledge and evidence on the topic is thus of paramount importance.

In order to improve knowledge on discriminatory violence and provide an evidence base for the development of prevention measures, Efus recommends that local and regional authorities  conduct local safety audits or surveys on the topic of discriminatory violence making use of adequate methodologies and relying on expert support19;  routinely review and evaluate existing prevention strategies on the basis of new knowledge and evidence;  regularly publish data on discriminatory violence in the territory of the municipality or region, e.g. in an annual report;  train local safety practitioners on how to effectively audit and monitor discriminatory violence in their territory.

3.2. Tackling the problem of underreporting

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The underreporting of incidents spurred by hate, intolerance or other discriminatory motivations has been identified by many experts as a key problem. Many surveys point to a reluctance of victims and witnesses of discriminatory violence to turn to law enforcement agencies or other public institutions to report on their victimisation. This reluctance can be due to a variety of individual motives: a trivialisation of the experience of victimisation; feelings of shame or self-blame in relation with the incident, or fear of experiencing discrimination by the officer in charge of their case.

The absence of reports on acts of discriminatory violence is problematic in more than one way. The prosecution of the perpetrators is inhibited. The collection of data and knowledge on the nature, distribution, dynamics and impacts of hate crime is hindered. And consequently, the development of prevention strategies is thwarted. Efus thus recommends that local and regional authorities:  support or initiate campaigns that encourage victims of discriminatory violence to report and liaise with law enforcement agencies;  cooperate with local communities and their representatives to empower victims of discriminatory violence and strengthen their trust in public institutions;  provide training opportunities for local police forces and other public services on the needs of victims of discriminatory violence as well as the institutional procedures to be followed when cases are reported;  develop further measures to facilitate reporting, i.e. offer opportunities to report in foreign languages.

19- Efus provides expert support and technical assistance for such audits and has created a body of methods and tools for a strategic approach to urban security in Efus 2016a.

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3.3. Providing local and communitybased victim support services

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

3.4. Local and regional authorities as leaders of prevention networks

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Victims of discriminatory violence may suffer particular hardships due their victimisation. In order to limit the momentous consequences such incidents can have, it is crucial that victims receive a clear message of solidarity and support from local communities and from administrations and public institutions, which represent the state in the eyes of local communities.

Local and regional authorities often direct communal crime prevention networks or councils which tackle a variety of questions and topics related to urban security. Such networks involve a broad range of stakeholders, among them law enforcement agencies, schools, sports and youth clubs, churches, etc., who can contribute to the design, implementation and dissemination of prevention activities.

As local and regional authorities are the level of government that is closest to local communities, they are well placed to contribute to the provision of professional and accessible victim support services. We recommend that local and regional authorities support victims of discriminatory violence by:

Discriminatory violence does not always rank prominently among the issues tackled by such councils or networks, as they sometimes lack the necessary resources or expertise or believe it is the responsibility of other departments or units within their administration.

 cooperating with local communities and their leaders to provide community-based, accessible20 and professional victim support services that cater to the specific needs of victims of racism, LGBT-phobia, sexism, anti-Semitism, and other types of discrimination;  ensuring that psycho-social, medical and legal support is available and accessible to victims of all walks of life, including those who live in poverty, are homeless, or live with disabilities;  collaborating with local communities to provide shelter for victims who have to flee from sexist, racist, LGBT-phobic or other forms of discriminatory violence;

Efus recommends that local and regional authorities:  push for the inclusion of discriminatory violence among the list of topics treated by local prevention councils/networks and provide sufficient resources;  support interaction and exchange between prevention actors and leaders from the local communities that are marginalised or targeted by discriminatory violence, so that the needs and concerns of these groups can be addressed by the local prevention work;  develop clear criteria and standards that cooperation partners must comply with in order to avoid cooperating with or legitimising stakeholders who promote prejudice and intolerance.

 supporting and coordinating exchange and cooperation between victim support organisations and public institutions such as law enforcement agencies, schools and universities, hospitals and cultural centres.

20- Special attention must be paid to ensuring accessibility for persons with disabilities, as they often face additional challenges when in need of support and counselling.

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3.5. A visible role for local and regional elected officials

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Mayors and local and regional elected officials play an important role in designing urban security policies. It is their role both in crisis situations and in their day-to-day management to bring together all the inhabitants of their city regardless of their ethnic, cultural and religious background, gender identity or sexual orientation, legal or socio-economic status, disability or homelessness.

Local and regional elected officials have jurisdiction to shape the framework in which local administrations, municipal social workers, civil society organisations and other stakeholders work to counter discriminatory violence. They decide political priorities, influence budgetary choices, and have a significant impact on the public debate.

In order to make full use of the powers of local and regional elected officials in the fight against discriminatory violence, Efus recommends that they:  take a clear public stand against all forms discrimination and related forms of violence, especially in the aftermath of high visibility cases, to clearly de-legitimise and outlaw such acts;  lead and coordinate local and regional coalitions against discriminatory violence and ensure their wide recognition and dissemination within urban society, thereby improving inter-agency cooperation;  contribute to counter-narrative campaigns that advertise clear and attractive alternatives to prejudice, hate and intolerance.21

21- On the significance of counter-narrative campaigns for the local prevention of radicalisation leading to violent extremism, see Efus 2016b: 77ff. Counter-narratives are equally crucial to prevent discriminatory violence.

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3.6. Training for front line workers and other agents at local and regional levels

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> As discriminatory violence is a complex topic, the dissemination of information and knowledge on it is crucial. This does not only concern the phenomenology, prevalence and dynamics of discriminatory acts, but equally the practices to counter and prevent them. Many strategies and methods have been developed and implemented to this end by a variety of stakeholders from different localities, but oftentimes these practices are not shared widely. The knowledge and information gathered on the topic can provide important inspiration for future counter strategies.

Training programmes are a well-established way of transmitting information and knowledge on a wide range of phenomena related to violence and crime. Additionally, training sessions that include opportunities for participants to rehearse behaviours and strategies are particularly impactful in countering and preventing discriminatory violence. There are three groups of professionals that will be important to consider for training opportunities: law enforcement officers, social service providers, and professionals in the justice system. While all these populations will benefit from initial training on knowledge and concepts, they will also require ongoing training specific to their everyday job functions. Efus recommends to offer trainings addressed to:  police officers, aiming to equip them to better identify cases of discriminatory violence, enable them to provide better services to victims, and ensure that they respect and promote human rights and non-discrimination;  front line workers in direct contact with the local population, such as social workers, teachers and other educators as well as medical professionals to inform them about the existing protocols to counter hate and intolerance and support victims;

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 professionals in the justice system in order to ensure the effective investigation and prosecution of hate crimes and other violent acts motivated by discrimination.

3.7. Cooperation with law enforcement agencies

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Law enforcement officers play a crucial role in giving a societal response to hate crime and discriminatory violence. Indeed, police officers are usually the first to arrive at a crime scene, support the victim and investigate the incident. Public prosecutors and judges play an important part in recognising the discriminatory motives that spur an incident and its effects on the victims as well as society at large. Both police and judiciary are key in recording and documenting discriminatory violence, thereby producing evidence on and knowledge of such phenomena, which are preconditions for the development and implementation of effective counter-strategies (see ODIHR 2009b: 27).

Efus has long promoted close cooperation between local and regional authorities and law enforcement agencies, which it considers essential in the integrated approach to urban security that it advocates. Local and regional authorities can play a critical role in improving relations between the police, the judicial system and the public.22

To better involve law enforcement agencies in strategies to counter discriminatory violence, we recommend that local and regional authorities and law enforcement agencies:  consider the establishment of liaison officers as contact points for victims of discriminatory violence23;  work together to intensify exchange and communication with local communities that are affected by discriminatory violence, e.g. migrant, LGBT, refugee or Roma communities;  establish local or regional working groups with leaders from the affected communities to engage in frequent exchanges with the aim of monitoring the development of discriminatory violence and developing common counter strategies.

3.8. Diversity and awareness within local and regional administrations

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Local and regional authorities provide key public services to all members of the local public, regardless of their religious or ethnic identity, disability or economic status, sexual orientation or gender identity, etc. To be able to integrate the concerns and needs of their diverse public, their rank and file should be representative of this diversity.

The objective is to promote a public service that is representative of the diversity of the population, and to develop increased trust in these services while mitigating the critics accusing them of bias against members of certain social groups. At a time when public services are under increasing pressure and scrutiny, determined efforts to increase diversity, representation and trust are more important than ever.

22- In this respect, Efus promotes formal security partnerships between local and regional authorities and the police, the integration of prevention, codes of conduct and trainings for police officers, inter-communal exchange for law enforcement agencies and action programmes to foster communication and contact between police forces and the public, especially young people, see Efus 2012: 21.

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23- Some cities and regions already have such contact points within their law enforcement agencies or their administration, and they are widely considered as good practice, see e.g. ECRI 2014: 24f.

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We thus recommend that local and regional authorities:  strive to recruit female and minority background staff to better represent within their ranks the diversity of the population they serve;  work together with local communities to analyse how their services work to identify and reduce institutional barriers that prevent certain social groups from accessing these services;  cooperate with research and practitioners to develop programmes, standards and benchmarks related to trainings on diversity and discriminatory violence, and train individual members of their staff who can pass their knowledge to colleagues.26

3.9. Promote early / primary prevention

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> To prevent discriminatory violence, measures to raise awareness among children and youngsters and teach them critical thinking about diversity, difference, bias and prejudice are of paramount importance and have been proven to be effective. In order to reach young people and foster their resilience against hate and intolerance, all stakeholders contributing to raising and educating children and youth must be involved.

To strengthen early / primary prevention of discriminatory violence, we recommend that local and regional authorities:  act as intermediaries between the education system – from kindergarten to university – and local communities and their leaders to facilitate the development and implementation of early prevention programmes;  contribute to the establishment of action plans to counter hate and intolerance in educational institutions;  support the development of civic education programmes and training modules to raise awareness of discrimination and prejudice and foster resilience against intolerance and hate for all age groups.

3.10. Cooperation and exchange with the national and European levels of government

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Efus has long promoted a high level of coordination among cities, regions and national and supra-national governments and institutions as a key factor for efficient and successful policies improving the security of local communities (see Efus 2012: 46ff).25 However, interaction between different levels of government can be stepped up in many countries, which would clarify the assignment of tasks and responsibilities between those levels and improve citizens’ trust in their public institutions.

To effectively counter and prevent discriminatory violence, the competencies and capabilities of the different levels of government must be effectively articulated and supplement each other: Knowledge must be shared, strategies and measures must be coordinated and potential synergies must be identified and developed.

To improve coordination and cooperation between the different levels of government and strengthen local policies, Efus recommends that local and regional authorities  draw on the knowledge, expertise and tools provided by FRA, ECRI, ODIHR and other supra-national bodies as well as relevant national institutions, e.g. when planning and implementing training sessions for local practitioners;  push for the establishment of working groups comprised of local, regional and national stakeholders to gather relevant data on discriminatory violence and share these with supra-national institutions26;  promote the tools and support provided by European institutions, including opportunities to obtain funding for activities against intolerance and hate, and facilitate local NGOs' access to such offers.

25- For an in-depth discussion, also see Crowley 2015.

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24- On the necessity of such trainings, see also Coester 2017: 1f.

26- See in particular the example of Germany, as discussed by Kugelmann 2015: 43. Such cooperation will be needed to provide the ODIHR hate crime reporting tool http://hatecrime.osce. org/ with comprehensive data.

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3.11. Collaboration with local and regional media outlets

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Local and regional media play an important role in responding to discriminatory violence. Their coverage of acts of hate crime, discriminatory practices and the effects these have on individual victims can shape public perception. It can contribute to raising awareness and fostering sensitivity, or it may add to prejudice and intolerance. Media can direct public attention to discriminatory violence, thereby helping to put the topic on public and political agendas. However, in order to be able to report in adequate and balanced ways, journalists need knowledge and background information on the topic. They also have to include the point of view of victims and take into account the impact of their coverage on these groups. Moreover, regarding the topic of hate speech, social media companies have a special responsibility to respond to hateful statements made on their platforms.

References and bibliography >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Efus documentation  Urban Crime Prevention Policies in Europe. Towards a Common Culture, European Forum for Urban Security, Paris, 2004.  Security, Democracy and Cities. The Saragossa Manifesto, European Forum for Urban Security, Paris, 2007.  Security, Democracy and Cities. The Manifesto of Aubervilliers and Saint-Denis, European Forum for Urban Security, Paris, 2013.  Methods and Tools for a Strategic Approach to Urban Security, European Forum for Urban Security, Paris, 2016. (Referred as Efus 2016a)

In order to support an adequate coverage by local and regional media, Efus suggests that local and regional authorities:

 Preventing and Fighting Radicalisation at the Local Level, European Forum for Urban Security, Paris, 2016. (Referred as Efus 2016b)

 cooperate with local and regional media outlets to provide information on discriminatory violence in their territory and exchange about the views of the authorities and affected communities on the issue;

Research, studies and articles

 engage in a process with representatives of the media, the local communities and other stakeholders to collectively discuss problematic publications and their impact;  ensure mechanisms are in place to review the content of television programmes, printed and online information to avoid discriminatory content, and that can initiate public debate on such content.

 Arendt Hannah, On Violence. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1970.  Bundeskriminalamt, Kriminalität im Kontext von Zuwanderung.

Kernaussagen. Betrachtungszeitraum 1.1. - 31.12. 2016, Wiesbaden: Bundeskriminalamt, 2017.  Brantingham Paul. J., Faust Frederic L., A Conceptual Model of Crime Prevention, in: Crime and Delinquency, Vol. 22, n° 3, 1976, p.284-296.  Chakraborti Neil, Garland Jon, Hate Crime: Impact, Causes and Responses, London, SAGE, 2009.

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 Commission nationale consultative des Droits de l’Homme, Rapport sur la lutte contre le racisme, l’antisémitisme et la xénophobie, Paris, May 2016.

 European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), Violence Against Women: An EU-Wide Survey, Vienna: FRA, 2014. (Referred as FRA 2014b)

 Coester Marc, Welche Rahmenbedingungen auf kommunaler, auf der Ebene des Bundes und der Länder und welche Strukturen der Vernetzung und Kooperation auf diesen Ebenen zwischen Wissenschaft, Praxis, Verwaltung und Politik bilden das Fundament künftiger, im Sinne gewaltfreien Handelns nachhaltiger und effektiver Gewaltprävention im Bereich vorurteils motivierter Gewalt. 25 Jahre Gewaltprävention im vereinten Deutschland, Bestandsaufnahme und Perspektiven, 2017.

 European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), Antisemitism: Overview of Data Available in the European Union 2005-2015, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2016.

 Council of Europe, Concerted Development of Social Cohesion Indicators. Methodological Guide, Strasbourg : Éditions du Conseil de l’Europe, 2005.  Crowley Niall, Cooperation for Effectiveness. Local Authorities and National Specialised Bodies Combating Racism and Intolerance, ECRI-Study, May 2015.  European Commission, DG Justice, “Tackling Discrimination / Awareness Raising”, Website. URL: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/ discrimination/index_en.htm. (accessed July 5, 2017)  European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance, ECRI Report on Germany (fifth monitoring cycle), Strasbourg: Council of Europe, 2014.  European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey. Data in Focus - The Roma, Vienna: FRA, 2009.

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 Garland Jon, Hodkinson Paul, “F**king Freak! What the hell do you think you look like?” Experiences of Targeted Victimisation Among Goths and Developing Notions of Hate Crime, British Journal of Criminology, Vol. 54, n° 4, 2014, p. 613-631.  Hall Nathan, Hate Crime, Second Edition, Oxon: Routledge, 2013.  Home Office, Hate Crime, England and Wales, 2015/2016, Statistical Bulletin 11/16, 13 October 2016, London.  Iganski Paul, Hate Crime and the City, UK: Policy Press, 2008.  Jourová, Speech by Commissioner Věra Jourová at the launch of the EU high level group on combating racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance, Brussels, 16 June 2016.  Kees Stephan Jakob, Iganski Paul, Kusche Robert, Swider Magdalena, Chahal Kusminder, Hate Crime Victim Support in Europe. A Practical Guide, Dresden, 2016.  Krug Etienne G. et al., eds. World report on violence and health.

Geneva, World Health Organization, 2002.  McClintock Michael, Everyday Fears. A Survey of Violent Hate Crime in Europe and North America, New York: Human rights First, 2005.

 European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), Handbook On European Non-Discrimination Law, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2011.

 Narayan Deepa, Conceptual Framework and Methodological Challenges, Measuring Empowerment. Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives, Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013, p.3-39.

 European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), EU LGBT Survey: European Union Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Survey; Main Results, Equality, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2014. (Referred as FRA 2014a)

 Nunziata Luca, Immigration and Crime. Evidence from Victimisation Data, Journal of Population Economics, vol. 28, n°3, 2015, p.697-736.

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 Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), Combating Hate Crimes in the OSCE Region: An Overview of Statistics, Legislation, and National Initiatives, Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe , Warsaw, 2005.  Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), Hate Crime Laws. A Practical Guide, Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Warsaw, 2009. (Referred as ODIHR 2009a)  Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), Preventing and Responding to Hate Crimes, A Resource Guide for NGOs in the OSCE Region, Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Warsaw, 2009. (Referred as ODIHR 2009b)  Perry Barbara, In the Name of Hate: Understanding Hate Crimes, New York: Routledge, 2001.  Perry Barbara, Counting – and Countering – Hate Crime in Europe, European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, vol. 18, 2010, p.349-367.  Schneider Hans Joachim, Hass- und Vorurteilskriminalität, in: Internationales Handbuch der Kriminologie. Band 2 Besondere Probleme der Kriminologie, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2009, p.297-338.  Taşan-Kok Tuna, Bolt Gideon, Plüss Larissa, and Schenkel Walter, A Handbook for Governing Hyper-diverse Cities. Utrecht: Utrecht University, Faculty of Geosciences, 2017.

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Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations

Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations Discriminatory violence is widespread across Europe and poses a real threat to citizen safety, social cohesion and integration.

Comprehensive responses are needed at the local level to enhance knowledge and raise awareness, empower communities and prevent incidents, to support victims and foster multi-stakeholder cooperation. This publication introduces the concept of discriminatory violence, documents 50 promising European local practices, and provides recommendations for local stakeholders on how to successfully counter hate, intolerance and prejudice.

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