BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 1
Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
The new forms to collect data on criminal cases are being used in all 26 courts of Georgia as of January 2020, the press service of the Council of Europe (CoE) told Trend.
"CoE helps to increase capacity to deliver training programs on anti-discrimination, hate speech, and hate crime for legal professionals, civil society organizations, and other relevant actors," said the source.
According to the CoE, as a result of the provision of tailor-made training courses, 136 prosecutors received further training through a certification process to work on investigation and prosecution of hate crimes.
"Moreover, the manual on “Policing Hate Crime against LGBTI persons: Training for a Professional Police Response” was developed and introduced to the curriculum of the Police Academy. The experts from the pool created with Council of Europe support were able to successfully transfer the knowledge to their colleagues via cascade training sessions. They were also able to adjust the program to the online format required by COVID-19. As a result, in total 151 police officers received further training to counter hate crime," the source said.
As the CoE noted, apart from organizing an equality week and eight public talks with the Public Defender, a variety of social media interventions and products enabled the Council of Europe to reach more people and further increase the level of activity on social media. In total 2,271 pieces of gender-sensitive campaign material (videos including webinars, visibility items, and essay publications) were produced, and 19 public events were organized reaching out to 65,883 people.
"A two-phase joint activity with the State Ministry for Reconciliation and Civic Equality "We together, We can" equipped 41 youth and municipality representatives from different regions of Georgia, with an understanding of discrimination and hate speech and helped them to create a counter or alternative narratives against hate speech," the source added.
---
Follow the author on Twitter: @Mila6197935