OM; Peer Action against Hate

Goals and results

The activities of the project are divided into four work packages. The Ministry of Justice participates in all of them.

Project activities:

Work package 1: Project coordination and administration
Responsible parties: Ministry of Justice and Centre for Peace Studies (Zagreb, Croatia)

This work package comprises the project’s general coordination and management, including financial monitoring and constant reporting in the Commission’s project portal.

Actions:
• Progress report
• Internal evaluation workshops
• Coordination network

Work package 2: Peer-to-peer learning programme for public authorities
Responsible party: Ministry of Justice

The objective of the work package is to share experiences of effective means of communication and to enhance peer learning and peer support, to develop the capacity of the authorities to combat hate and intolerance, and to increase the awareness of the authorities of the materials and tools available.

Actions:
• Mentoring programme and secondments of civil servants
• Virtual transnational peer-to-peer workshops
• Study visit to another EU country
• National round-table

Work package 3: Improving communication skills and methods to enhance effectictivity
Responsible party: Seta ry and Ministry of Justice

The objective of the work package is to share experiences of effective means of communication and to strengthen peer learning and peer support, to strengthen the role of civil society and its opportunities to combat hate and intolerance, and to support the authorities by increasing their knowledge of the materials and tools available.

Actions:
• Setting up a peer-to-peer network of communication experts and network meetings
• Compiling conclusions from strategic communication and creating a virtual centre of expertise
• Identification of development needs
• Creating tools for effective communication
• International virtual round-table discussion on effective communication tools and strategies to tackle different forms of hate crime, harassment and harmful prejudice against different groups

Work package 4: Filling the gaps in victim support services
Responsible parties: Centre for Peace Studies (Zagreb, Croatia) and Ministry of Justice
The objective of the work package is to increase knowledge of support mechanisms and reporting channels, to strengthen the expertise of experts in addressing hate crime and harmful prejudice, to identify the needs of victims of hate crime, and to support the authorities by increasing knowledge of the materials and tools available.

Actions:
• Mapping of victims’ needs
• National round-table discussions
• Developing a virtual tool to support victims
• Training courses

Summary

The project aims to improve the effectiveness of addressing racism, discrimination and hate crimes through peer learning with the support of authorities and civil society actors.

Starting points

Hate speech and hate crime are a social problem despite the fact that many measures have been taken to identify, tackle and prevent them, for example in projects coordinated by the Ministry of Justice. In recent years, projects such as Against Hate, Facts Against Hate and Capable (Osaavat) have developed data collection, local cooperation and the expertise of professionals in various fields. Many international bodies monitoring the human rights situation have drawn attention to the increase in hate speech and called on Finland to step up its efforts.

Peer Action against Hate is based on the aforementioned previous projects and continues their strategic work against hate speech and hate crimes. The Capable (Osaavat) project conceptualised a centre of excellence for work against hate crimes. The piloting of the centre of excellence will continue in the Peer Action against Hate project, for example in the form of the establishment of a virtual centre of expertise. Within the Government, the Ministry of Justice is responsible for coordinating the task of promoting equality, and the activities of the Peer Action against Hate project are also linked to this basic task, for example through a mentoring programme between authorities.

The challenges of racism, hate speech and hate crime have also been identified and recognised at the highest level in the European Union, for example in the EU Anti-racism Action Plan 2020–2025. The Peer Action against Hate project supports the national implementation of the EU Anti-racism Action Plan by creating opportunities for national and international peer learning between different operators.