Háttér Society co-organised a successful multi-stakeholder workshop about victim-centredness and intersectionality in hate crimes

On July 3, 2023 Háttér Society, in cooperation with the Secretariat of the Deputy Commissioner for Fundamental Rights responsible for the protection of the rights of nationalities living in Hungary organised a workshop titled Victim-centred approach and intersectionality in the fight against hate crimes. The event, which formed part of the EU-funded international project Counter Hate created a unique opportunity for both public and civil actors to discuss victim-centeredness and intersectionality in hate crimes, and hate crime related issues in general.

The organizers aimed at creating a platform for exchanging ideas, sharing knowledge and experience between public and civil society actors. As a result the twenty-five participants with broad experience in victim support and hate crimes represented important stakeholders in the field, i.e. the Ministry of Justice, the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, the Chief Prosecution Office of Pest County, the National Police Headquarters, the Victim Support Centre of Budapest, the National Institute of Criminology and the Józsefváros Victim Support Professional Cooperation System. In addition to the public bodies,  representatives of civil society organisations also participated: the Working Group Against Hate Crimes, the Res Iudicata Association, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, the Streetlawyer Association, and the White Ring Association.

The first part of the workshop focused on identifying the core elements and creating a common definition of victim-centredness. The brainstorming on victim-centeredness and the effort to develop a common understanding for the approach was complemented with a lecture on the theory of intersectionality. The theoretical discussions were followed by an exercise on case studies through which participants had the opportunity to discuss intersectionality through real life hate crime cases. As collecting good practices is an important part of the Counter Hate project, a significant part of the workshop was devoted to introducing other countries' hate crime-related good practices, and to collecting insights from the experts on more effective approaches in the area of victim support and hate crimes. This brainstorming led to a long list of recommendations that paves the way for future collaboration: easy to understand leaflets, posters, videos, infographics, social media posts for victims; online reporting interface for all victim groups with direct connection to the police; annual report on hate crime trends and summary of major cases; online trainings to police officers and several other plans to realise in the near future, just to name a few of the ideas agreed on.

Beyond the structured programme the workshop also served as a special networking forum for professionals. All participants agreed that this initiative has to be continued and regular meetings should be organised with more stakeholders involved. Háttér Society’s partners in the Counter Hate project carried out similar workshops in their respective countries. The findings and good practices will be discussed during a transnational workshop held in Budapest in September 2023.