Ethics training has been designed for all police officers and MoI employees. It was expected to be delivered country-wide in the cause of the annual in-service programme, but the handbook was also to be used as a resource material in basic police training and specialized training. The Mission planned to continue supporting this initiative by delivering some of the lessons and monitoring training course once the implementation phase started. In December the first ToT course took place in order to prepare trainers to deliver the ethics training in 2014. The Handbook was to be used in interactive and experience-based training. In addition to providing expert advice and consultancy to the Ministry on the development of the curriculum and training program, the Mission also supported the promotion as well as printing of 200 copies of the Handbook which were distributed to police managers and media representatives at the promotional event. On 17 May, the MoI’s Department for Organization, Prevention and Community Policing was awarded with the 2013 “Rainbow” award for their contribution to the fight against homophobia and transphobia, and the protection and promotion of human rights of LGBT people in Serbia. The winner of the award is announced every year on the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia. The jury recognized the overall improvement in the police services’ co-operation with the LGBT community, active communication and cooperation with LGBT organizations on cases of violence and discrimination, and a great interest in improving LGBT rights and improving their own work which was, among other things, evident in their participation at numerous conferences and seminars on these topics. The Mission was actively supporting the police service’s interaction with diverse groups through the implementation of the community policing concept. Mission members were also present at the award ceremony. Hate Crimes On 8 March, Mission representatives attended the ODIHR “Hate Crimes Co-ordination Meeting” in Vienna. Following the increased interest by the OSCE participating States in ODIHR’s tools to combat hate crimes, ODIHR organized this co-ordination meeting with OSCE field operations in South-Eastern Europe. The objective of the meeting was to present ODIHR’s Training against Hate Crimes for Law Enforcement (TAHCLE) programme and discuss current needs, capacity and resources of the field operations in 2013. The meeting also explored possibilities for conducting the training in Serbia, bearing in mind the recent interest expressed by the Serbian MoI. In general, the meeting contributed to improving cooperation between ODIHR and the field Operations in supporting participating States to tackle hate crimes. On 25-26 June, the Mission, in co-operation with the Government’s Office for Human and Minority Rights (OHMR), organized the first co-ordination meeting between representatives of state authorities (MoI, Ministry of Justice and Public Administration, and Public Prosecutor’s Office), independent state bodies (Commissioner for Protection of Equality), special training institutions (BPTC and Judicial Academy) and CSOs on combatting hate crimes in Serbia. Participants presented on-going activities and discussed challenges in the implementation of the hate crime provisions adopted into Serbian legislation in January 2013. With the aim of enhancing regional co-operation on this issue, the Mission invited a representative of the OSCE Mission to BiH to give an overview of hate crime legislation in BiH. This meeting was expected to serve as a starting point in developing comprehensive state mechanisms for preventing, monitoring and responding to hate crimes. Participants agreed to organize a follow-up meeting to discuss concrete steps to proceed and to include representatives of the Ministry of Education, Judges’ Association and scientific institutions such as the Criminology Research Institute. 87

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