and Sinti. Information about efforts of participating States in this regard and illustrations of initiatives that worked to improve dialogue and co-operation between police and Roma communities were compiled in a comprehensive manual which was launched at a press conference in Vienna, 21 May, on the margins of the Annual Police Experts Meeting. ODIHR’s Contact Point on Roma and Sinti Issues (CPRSI) supported participation at the launching of two Roma police officers from Hungary and one from United Kingdom who have shared their first-hand experiences in preventing and combating discrimination and racially motivated violence against Roma and Sinti, and their work experience as mainstream police officers. The manual is envisaged to serve as the starting point for a number of follow-up activities. ODIHR has commissioned translation of the manual into the Russian, Romanian and Hungarian languages, and is planning translation into two more languages in 2011. In addition, ODIHR started to discuss with state authorities and police representatives details of launching the manual at national levels through round tables aimed at discussing the good practices presented in the manual and the best and most effective ways to replicate such positive experiences nationally and in local contexts. Besides the planned round tables, which will bring together law-enforcement institutions, local authorities and Roma representatives and organizations, the ODIHR and SPMU are planning to organize a number of national workshops with representatives of Police Academies and schools and discuss the possibility of curricula development integrating elements of the manual into the teaching and training process of these institutions. ODIHR CPRSI has used a range of opportunities in view of giving the manual visibility and wide dissemination. The manual was introduced on 8 July, in Coventry, United Kingdom, on the occasion of the conference titled “Pride not Prejudice” organized by the Warwickshire Police and National Federation of Gypsy Liaison Group, an event which gathered approximately 200 people, among them representatives of police, UK government and Gypsies, Travellers and Roma communities. The manual was also introduced to the Romanian Police General Inspectorate and representatives of the Ministry of Interior and Administration on the occasion of a CPRSI visit to Bucharest on 8-11 November. The CPRSI experts agreed with the Romanian Police to organize the launching of the translated version of the manual 2011. The manual was also introduced at the joint ODIHR-Hungarian government round table organized in Budapest on 23 November as a follow up to the report of the field assessment visit conducted by ODIHR in 2009. Expert Meeting on ODIHR Hate Symbols Database for Police ODIHR organized an expert meeting in Warsaw on 16 November 2010 to discuss a number of issues connected to the recently created ODIHR Hate Symbols Database (HSD) with various police experts who have had experience working with this form of data gathering instrument. Police officers and other representatives from the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Slovakia and the United Kingdom took part in the meeting. The general consensus of the group was that the database was to be used for intelligence purposes and as an easy-to-use tool for law enforcement across the OSCE region to identify a particular symbol, its meaning and its potential link to any organized hate group and that the database should be developed primarily as an intelligence gathering and disseminating tool. Specific countries where the uses of certain symbols are illegal could add information in the description of the symbol, but the utility of this information would still depend on the national legal system of a given country using the database. 117