Înapoi Supporting Roma communities to fight human rights violations in Ukraine

Supporting Roma communities to fight human rights violations in Ukraine

The Lacho Drome Roma Center in Ukraine is implementing until July 2021 a local project aiming at supporting Roma communities to fight human rights violations in Ukraine, with the support of the European Union/Council of Europe joint programme Partnership for Good Governance, and its regional project “Strengthening access to justice for victims of discrimination, hate speech and hate crimes in the Eastern Partnership”.

Lacho Drome Roma Center will engage in building local network of mediators in 4 towns in 2 Ukrainian regions (Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk). The project goal is to train 8 Roma rights mediators in 4 settlements to equip them with human rights knowledge, mediation, and counselling skills so they collect data on human rights violations and advise Rome people how to solve them. Project also aims to set up a channel of local communications between mediators with local representatives of public authorities and the Ombudsman legal representatives to ensure timely reporting of human rights abuses and their prompt investigation. During project implementation, mediators will collect and report information about Roma rights violations, empower local community members helping them to understand their human rights and build connections with local authorities reporting all violations and monitoring its investigation.

This project is one of the five civil society projects supported by the European Union/Council of Europe regional anti-discrimination project, in Armenia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine aimed at combating discrimination, favouring inclusion of groups at risk of discrimination, hate speech and hate crimes, and raising awareness among vulnerable communities and the general public about redress to discrimination.

This activity is implemented in the framework of the regional project “Strengthening access to justice for victims of discrimination, hate crime and hate speech in the Eastern Partnership”, financed by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe in their Partnership for Good Governance phase II.

 

 

 Visit the website of our project "Strengthening access to justice for victims of discrimination, hate crime and hate speech"

Ukraine 24 February 2021
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Strasbourg, France Strasbourg, 1-2 July 2024
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Addressing hate speech and hate crime: regional gathering of the network of Equality Bodies from the Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership Region

A two-day workshop on addressing hate speech and hate crime took place at the premises of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, involving Equality bodies from the Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership regions.  The event supported by the EU and Council of Europe, gathered 50 representatives from both regions who discussed and exchanged on the best practices, measures and common challenges when addressing hate speech and hate crime. Through monitoring and reporting, policy advocacy, raising awareness and supporting victims equality bodies play a fundamental role in protecting human rights and ensuring that all individuals are treated equally.

In her opening remarks, Angela Longo, Head of Anti-discrimination Co-operation Unit, Council of Europe, underlined the significant progress in engaging with Equality Bodies through this network, regularly exchanging best practices and addressing the challenges of hatred and intolerance in societies. She highlighted that this new chapter of discussion delves into the grey area between hate speech and hate crime, addressing issues of incitement and biases,

Representatives from Equality Bodies had the opportunity to discuss and enhance their knowledge on the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers Recommendation to member States on combating hate crime, adopted on 7th May 2024, as well as gain a clearer understanding of EU standards in the field of hate crime. Moreover, participants engaged in exchanges with peers from the Spanish Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia (OBERAXE), who shared insights on addressing hate speech in the public discourse. The National Office Against Racial Discrimination (UNAR) in Italy provided practical examples for developing counter-narratives and raising awareness initiatives.

They also explored opportunities to advocate for legislative reform, foster multisectoral co-operation, enhance data collection, and overall improve national mechanisms to counter hate crimes.

This seminar was organised within the action “Promoting equality and combating racism and intolerance in the Western Balkans” and the project “Promoting equality and non-discrimination: towards more resilient and inclusive societies” – co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe, and implemented by the Council of Europe  under the joint Programmes “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye” and “Partnership for Good Governance”.

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