EFHR conducted training for human rights defenders from Belarus

2018 October 16 Leszek Jankowski, a lawyer from the European Human Rights Foundation (EFHR), was invited to conduct a training on legal regulation against discrimination in Lithuania, as well as tools to combat hate speech, hate crimes and other challenges faced by the Foundation. The training was attended by specialists from non-governmental organizations, state institutions working in the field of human rights protection and other specialists from Belarus.

The lawyer introduced the audience to the field of Foundation‘s work and areas in which free legal aid is offered. The training started with a presentation about the current issues of original spelling of personal names and recent case-law. Later, Leszek presented to the participants of the training the relevant legal regulation against discrimination in Lithuania, the practice of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson and shared the experience of the Foundation in this field. At the end of the training, responsibility for hate speech and hate crimes was discussed. The Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania was presented, which describes the types of penalties the hate speech can bring. Participants of the discussion noted that such organizations specializing in hate crimes are lacking in Belarus, which is why, as in the case of Lithuania, officials of Belarus started pre-trial investigation, often do not look at the motive of hatred, and this leads to incorrect qualification of a crime.

After the EFHR presentation, a discussion took place where all the participants had the opportunity to ask questions and share their experiences. The training was useful not only for the participants, but also for the rapporteur, who had the opportunity to deepen his knowledge in the field of human rights as well as engage with non-governmental organizations from Belarus.

If you are interested in participating in EFHR trainings or you would like to invite EFHR to organize human rights training for your team, feel free to contact us (mokymai@efhr.eu) or (+370 691 50 822) – together we will prepare the program that suits your needs. More information about the training can be found on the EFHR website.