Tolerance and Non-discrimination
OSCE/Sarah Crozier
Nasrin Khan (left), co-drafter of
the ODIHR’s legislative guidelines
on hate crime, discusses
discrimination law with a
colleague.
society) were convened to develop the guide and
to ensure it would be relevant and applicable to
all OSCE states. Legislative support was also
provided to two participating States (the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Moldova), upon their request, through an ODIHR
review of their draft anti-discrimination legislation. In one instance, comments were provided
in close co-operation with the European Commission for Democracy through Law (the Venice Commission) after a joint assessment mission. ODIHR also continued to take active steps
to update its database of relevant legislation
from OSCE States and to make this available on
Legislationline.org and TANDIS, through both
English- and Russian-language interfaces.
Data collection
A lack of comprehensive and public data on
hate crimes hinders the ability of governments
to understand the nature and distribution of
hate crimes, to identify their impact on targeted
communities and society, and to channel relevant resources in order to effectively respond
to hate crime patterns. In 2008, ODIHR established further contact with data-collection
experts, who are expected to serve as members
50
Annual Report 2008
of a future expert group on hate crime data that
will provide technical support to government
authorities in the collection and maintenance of
reliable information about hate crime. The questionnaire developed by ODIHR and the NPCs
will also help ensure greater consistency in the
format of data submitted to ODIHR by OSCE
states, thus enabling better analysis of this
information.
Training law enforcement officers
The ODIHR Law Enforcement Officer Training
Programme (LEOP) continued to provide support and technical assistance in 2008 to participating States in their efforts to strengthen
the response of law enforcement officers to hate
crime. Awareness-raising seminars and meetings among law enforcement experts were held
in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Poland and Ukraine to discuss ways to further strengthen the response to hate crime and
engagement with victim communities.
Several consultative meetings were organized
with representatives of the Polish Ministry of
Interior to facilitate and support the implementation of LEOP in Poland. ODIHR co-organized
the “Police Training Seminar on Hate Crimes
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