Tolerance & Non-discrimination Henri Nickels, Programme Manager at the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, listens as Carolyn Bys, an ODIHR Hate Crime Officer, speaks at an expert meeting on the development of a practical guide on the monitoring and collecting of hate crime data, Warsaw, 14 February 2012. (OSCE/Shiv Sharma) to strengthen collaboration with civil society to complement efforts of national authorities to respond. In 2012, ODIHR worked with an expert group to develop a practical guide on hate crime data-collection and monitoring systems. Together with experts, ODIHR conducted visits to Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States to gain a better understanding about their respective official approaches to collecting and analyzing hate crime data. ODIHR representatives also met with NGOs supporting victims of hate crimes. The development of the guide is an initial step of ODIHR’s efforts to support participating States in this area. The fourth meeting of the National Points of Contact on Hate Crime was held in Vienna on 15 and 16 November, to coincide with International Tolerance 56 ODIHR Annual Report 2012 Day. The National Points of Contact are nominated officials responsible for providing information to ODIHR on hate crimes, such as the number of these crimes and updates on relevant legislation and policies designed to combat and prevent such crimes. Participants exchanged their experiences about approaches to hate crime by different participating States and looked at examples of exchange between civil society and public authorities in order to identify effective strategies to deal with hate crime across the OSCE region. As the absence of reliable information remains a significant barrier to efforts to combat hate crime, ODIHR continually seeks other ways to collect additional information. On 15 and 16 October, ODIHR organized a training event on hate crime and methods of reporting for ten OSCE field operations, representatives from the International Organization for Migration and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In order to make information from the annual hate crime report available to a broader audience, ODIHR is developing a website based on this document. Awareness raising In 2012, ODIHR provided expertise at awareness-raising events on hate crimes in Brussels, The Hague, Istanbul, London, Madrid, Milan, Sarajevo, Skopje and Warsaw. ODIHR also presented its guidelines and tools at the European Parliament in November 2012. The aim of these presentations is to encourage a variety of approaches to addressing hate crime and to raising awareness among government and criminal-justice officials, as well as civil society, on the impact of hate crime. Participants were provided