Description
This project constitutes a complete provision of support and legal services for victims of hate crime, thus contributing to recognize, record and address hate crime in a comprehensive way. It is constituted by the following stages: 1. Recognizing and reporting, 2. First-instance medical aid, 3. First-instance legal aid and support, 4. Continuous psychosocial support, 5. Legal representation of the victims, and 6. Drafting a report with the outcomes and results, of advocacy activities. It is a comprehensive system for recognizing, recording and addressing hate crime, and will be placed under the auspices of the Racist Violence Recording Network. The project has two main goals: a. To provide concrete and comprehensive support services to victims of hate crime, and b. through this service provision, to highlight the procedural, institutional and legal gaps while at the same time protect the rights of its beneficiaries.
Summary of project results
The specific project has been implemented under the auspice of Racist Violence Recording Network of UNHCR. RVRN has recorded 383 victims of racist violence since 2011. Only for 2014, RVRN has recorded 81 incidents of racist violence with more than 100 victims. The project aims to improve the inadequate access of victims of hate crimes in medical, psychosocial and legal services, and improve their access to the justice system in order to seek legal redress. International experience has shown that hate crimes should receive more attention than ordinary crimes, since they affect entire communities and social cohesion. Furthermore, in regard with victims per se, they experience a multiple exclusion: On the one hand, lack of supporting structures leads to further victimization, on the other hand the lack of access to the justice system does not allow victims to experience redress. The aim of the project was to provide an integrated system of identification, registration and treatment of racist crimes, with two main objectives: a. To provide integrated services to victims of hate crimes through a referral system of interpretation, primary medical, psychosocial and legal support to victims, and b. due to these services, to communicate institutional and legal problems and formulate recommendations to the competent authorities. The project actively contributed to social inequalities, since it offered the necessary support to recipients of the most acute forms of discrimination, hate crimes. During the implementation period, the partners were able to identify and record incidents of hate crimes in the Greek periphery. Out of these incidents, many people received support. As part of the project, a spot was also produced with in order to raise public awareness regarding issues of racism, discrimination and hate crimes. Also, a leaflet was produced in collaboration with RVRN. For a period of 18 months, this project exceeded its objectives, since the participants managed to identify and record 200 incidents of racist attacks and hate crimes. Of these 200 recordings 52 people received support. Finally, during the 18 months, went to trial or hearing date was set for 14 cases.
Summary of bilateral results