Publications

A factsheet outlining ODIHR's initiatives in the fight against hate crime.

The report assesses the progress made by Kosovo institutions in respect to the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in the areas of inter-community dialogue, security and justice, language, education, returns, culture and media. The report finds that, while progress has been achieved in certain areas, more remains to be done to ensure the protection of communities’ rights. It also provides recommendations to the relevant institutions on how to improve their implementation of the Framework Convention.

This booklet aims to help local authorities, police and prosecutors, legislators and civil society groups better understand the problem of hate crime. It explains the significance of hate crimes and suggests how authorities and communities can prevent and better respond to them. The booklet is not a comprehensive guide or manual, but aims to introduce the concept of hate crime and the main aspects of the application of the concept in Ukraine.

An assessment of substandard Roma settlements in 21 municipalities in Serbia was undertaken in order to define the list of priority measures that need to be implemented for the purpose of improving the living conditions in these settlements. This publication contains basic data on each settlement, with the list of priority activities and cost-estimations for their realization.

Hate Crime Data Collection and Monitoring: A Practical Guide was written in co-operation with national experts, partner international organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations with responsibility for monitoring hate crimes at the national and international levels. It sets out 'Ten Practical Steps' that need to be taken to improve recording systems, to understand the extent of under-reporting and to encourage victims to report hate crimes. It aims to contribute to efforts to fill data gaps and gain a better understanding of the prevalence and impact of hate crime across the OSCE region.

Prosecuting Hate Crimes: A Practical Guide was written in cooperation with the International Association of Prosecutors to improve the investigation and prosecution of hate crimes across the OSCE region. The guide is relevant to different legal systems and legislative frameworks and complements ODIHR’s Prosecutors and Hate Crime Training (PAHCT). This guide aims to explain the impact of hate crimes by highlighting their specific features compared with other crimes. It presents the most common issues that arise for prosecutors in dealing with these crimes, with an emphasis on evidence of bias motivation, which is the distinguishing factor in hate crimes.

Prosecutors and Hate Crimes Training (PAHCT) is a programme designed to improve responses to hate crimes by prosecutors. PAHCT is tailored to the needs and experiences of each country in which it is used. This programme is short, compact and flexible. It is designed to be integrated into existing training efforts and to draw on local resources. The standard PAHCT curriculum is customized to the hate crime context of the implementing state and to the laws and criminal justice procedures. PAHCT is best applied in co-operation with national training institutions for prosecutors and prosecutorial authorities. PAHCT can be delivered as a training of trainers or through training sessions provided directly to prosecutors. The training of trainers lasts three days, while a typical course for prosecutors only takes one and a half days.

The Guide on Discrimination grounds is a systematized and analytical review of discrimination grounds, based on consideration of existing definitions (and their integral parts) set forth under international and domestic law, international and national case law of courts and various treaty bodies, as well as in academic and grey literature.

This Handbook is intended as a simple tool providing basic guidance to judges on identifying discrimination and rendering judgements.