Matilde Fruncillo (left), ODIHR Adviser on Civil Society Relations, leading a workshop on “Training for Civil Society on Preventing and Responding to Hate Crimes”, Kyiv, 2 December. (OSCE/Aleksey Muzalev) 41 information on the nature and extent of hate crimes within individual states and across the OSCE region. This presents governments and law enforcement agencies with a tremendous obstacle. Without knowledge of perpetrators and victims or of the extent and type of crimes being committed it is impossible to know what sort of response is needed, what strategies might be successful, and where resources should be targeted. To help fill this information gap, ODIHR has been acting as a collection point on hate crime data for the past three years. Its main activity in this area is the publication of an annual report on hate crime. As in previous years, the report published in 2009 shows that not enough is being done to collect and disseminate information on this issue. It points out that there are significant gaps in the collection of data in most participating States. Some do not collect any statistics on hate crimes at all, while others do not make these data public. In any event, only 18 participating States submitted data for publication. The report also emphasizes the need to record, investigate and prosecute hate crimes and to strengthen the involvement of civil society in such activities in order to complement government efforts. In addition to its annual report, ODIHR has set up an OSCE network of national contact points on combating hate crime. Made up of individuals or organizations in 53 of the 56 participating States, the contact points are responsible for providing ODIHR with information on hate crimes, such as the number of these crimes reported, relevant legislation and projects designed to combat and prevent such crimes. At the second annual ODIHR Annual Report 2009 meeting of the national contact points, held in Vienna on 28 and 29 October, participants stressed that one way to ensure that more reliable information is collected and disseminated would be by training government officials on how to collect statistics on hate crimes. They also highlighted the need to develop and adopt principles to be used in recording and collecting data on hate crimes. Given that lack of information remains a significant barrier to making any inroads in efforts to combat hate crime, ODIHR continues to explore other ways to help collect the information that participating States need. In March, for example, ODIHR organized training on the concept of hate crime and methods of reporting on these crimes for the staff of OSCE field presences, the International Organization for Migration and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. As a result, staff members of all three organizations were able to provide ODIHR with information about haterelated incidents, which was then published in ODIHR’s annual report on the issue. In addition, ODIHR organized two government workshops on hate crime in Hungary and in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, respectively. The aim of the workshops was to raise awareness of the complex nature of hate crime and to encourage a variety of approaches to addressing the problem. Participants were also encouraged to identify ways in which the various tools that ODIHR has established to combat hate crime could be used to support states’ ongoing efforts. For example, the majority of participants stressed the Tolerance and Non-discrimination