How to intervene in acts of hatred
There is no quick and easy solution for preventing and intervening in acts of hatred. Instead, it requires long-term efforts. Below are instructions for different situations.
In everyday life
You can promote a discussion atmosphere that involves listening and interacting in your everyday life. Be conscious of your prejudices and language use. Intervene in discrimination, offensive jokes and other disrespectful behaviour.
Online
- Support an atmosphere for discussion that involves listening and interacting with others. Do not post or share hateful comments. Think about which themes you want to give visibility on social media.
- Check facts. Misinformation is both intentionally and unintentionally spread online. You can use search engines and fact-checking tools to check the reliability of content.
- Be cautious about the material displayed to you. Artificial intelligence can be used to create images and videos that appear genuine.
- Report a hateful post to the service administrator. If you suspect that a criminal offence is taking place, collect the evidence and report the offence before you ask the administrator to delete the message.
In organisations and educational institutions
- Increase your awareness of hate-motivated acts and their effects. Find out any problem areas in your organisation. Intervene in discrimination on a long-term basis through equality planning. Include the prevention of hate-motivated acts and intervening in them in your equality plan or security plan.
- Provide clear information about who a person encountering a hate-motivated act can turn to.
- Organise training on non-discrimination and the promotion of equality.
- Communicate that discrimination is taken seriously. Try to strengthen your capacity to intervene in discrimination, harassment and hate speech. There must be clear instructions for situations involving discrimination and harassment that the entire organisation is aware of.
- Intervene in hate speech on your social media platforms.
- Intervene in discrimination on a long-term basis through equality planning. Include the prevention of hate-motivated acts and intervening in them in your equality plan or security plan.
All these measures can be included in the equality plan of the organisation or educational institution.
- Support should be accessible with low barriers and provided promptly, including anonymous options when needed.
- Peer support should be more widely available to all victims of hate crimes.
- Support services should be further developed in a client-centred manner, considering the needs of different minority groups.
- Information about support services and forms of assistance to victims of hate crimes should be clarified and tailored to different minority groups. This information should be provided in multiple languages, including plain language and sign language.
- Contact with support providers should be possible through various channels. In addition to online options, face-to-face meetings should be available when needed.
- Availability of interpretation services should be increased.
- The cost of services or travel expenses required to access the service should not hinder individuals from seeking support. When conveying information about the service, it is important to communicate its cost.
- Professionals and authorities interacting with minority groups should adopt a more proactive approach. Information about hate crimes and forms of support should be shared more proactively. Individuals should be routinely asked about their possible hate crime experiences during customer encounters (e.g. in municipal integration and counselling services and schools). Providing example sentences for these encounters could assist professionals and officials in absorbing a more proactive approach.
- Information on the physical accessibility of support services should be easily available. Providers should conduct accessibility assessments and address any identified deficiencies.
1. Professionals and authorities who encounter minority groups should be provided with training that includes essential information for their work about
- human rights, hate crimes, prohibition of discrimination and harassment and crime recognition
- sensitive and client-centred interactions
- potential special needs of different minority groups
- identifying and addressing prejudices
Training should be integrated into the curricula of relevant degrees. Professional groups include social and healthcare professionals, interpreters, teachers, police officers, prosecutors and judges.
2. Minority groups should be provided with information about identifying hate crimes and victims’ rights. Existing materials, such as brochures and videos, should be made more accessible.
3. Information about hate crimes, their impact and legal consequences for perpetrators should be more widely disseminated.
4. Efforts should be increased to strengthen the trust of minority groups toward law enforcement and other authorities, for example through school visits.
- Permanent structural operating models should be created to improve the identification of hate crimes and the smooth progress of cases in criminal investigations and judicial proceedings. Possible hate motives should be more systematically investigated during pre-trial proceedings.
- Efforts to combat ethnic profiling should be actively developed.
- The use of mediation should be increased in situations where it is appropriate. Mediation may also be a remedial experience for the perpetrator and prevent recidivism.
- Information on the physical accessibility of police departments and court premises should be easily available. Police departments and court premises should conduct accessibility assessments and address any identified deficiencies.
- Efforts to combat hate crimes should be enhanced. For example, the legal responsibility of operators of online platforms should be strengthened.
- Cooperation between authorities, different minority groups and organisations promoting their rights should be increased to improve multi-professional support for victims.
- Efforts should be made to establish national coordination mechanisms and secure sustainable, long-term funding to combat hate crimes and support victims.