EFHR discussing ‘Effective reaction to crimes on hatred grounds’

On the 15^th of June representatives of EFHR Leszek Jankowski and Ewelina Dobrowolska participated in discussion ‘Effective reaction to crimes on hatred grounds’ organized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The meeting aimed to improve effectiveness of institutions and state organizations in liquidation of crimes on hatred grounds.

The opening speech was done by the Minister of Internal affairs Eimutis Misi?nas. He highlighted that even in XXI century there is need to discuss crime on hatred grounds. Representative of Lithuanian Gay League Tomas Vytautas Raskevičius told why the official statistics are not compatible with truth and how to encourage victims to contact the police. Participants of the discussion agreed that inconsistent jurisprudence in dealing with crimes on hatred grounds is one of the reasons why victims tend to stay silent.

Participants also agreed that criminal responsibility for encouraging to hatred, because of nationality, race, ethnicity and religion or other social groups is not always effective, that is why it is worth considering administrative responsibility for spreading hate speech. However there are doubts on criminal responsibility to be effective, because personal data is gathered after opening judicial investigation.

Representative of Human Rights Monitoring Institute highlights that according to jurisprudence and crime statistics on hatred grounds (because of age, sex, sexual orientation, disability, race, language, origin, religion) are not considered as aggravating circumstance, that is why official statistics donot show real situation. That is why EFHR cooperates with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and informs about crimes on hatred grounds in Lithuania.

On the 23^rd of May representatives of EFHR participated in discussion organized by Ministry of Justice of online press, IT companies, state institutions and civil society.

Discussion aimed to unable spreading hate speech on social networks. EFHR is happy that state institutions paid attention to problems considering hate speech and crimes on hatred grounds.

During past 7 years Foundation has filed 591 motions to Prosecutor’s office about spreading hate speech and encouraging to it. 50 cases have been a success.

EFHR