In Warsaw on October 13, 2025, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) unveiled its updated hate crime training manuals for police and prosecutors, enhancing two decades of practical experience across the OSCE region. The session, held in the Belweder meeting room as part of the OSCE Human Dimension Conference, included national experts from Poland and North Macedonia demonstrating how these programmes have improved the criminal justice response to hate crimes.
A Renewed Commitment to Combating Hate Crimes
During the event’s opening, Tia Jolijashvili, ODIHR’s First Deputy Director, highlighted that hate crimes “are not only attacks on individuals but on the cohesion and security of entire societies.” She emphasized the need for professional training for law enforcement, prosecutors, and the judiciary to ensure bias-motivated crimes are properly identified, investigated, and prosecuted.
ODIHR’s Training Against Hate Crimes for Law Enforcement (TAHCLE) programme, initiated in 2012, has been implemented in nearly 20 countries, while its companion course for prosecutors, the Prosecutors and Hate Crimes Training (PAHCT), launched in 2014, has reached over 15 states. Both programmes have now been revised to include lessons learned, best practices, and new victim-centred approaches.
Programme coordinator Ruth Burns explained that the updated TAHCLE curriculum now incorporates expanded materials on victim support, community-based policing, and strategies to address chronic under-reporting of hate crimes. “If frontline officers fail to recognize bias motivation, victims will never see justice,” she stated. The training encourages sensitivity, practical case analysis, and cooperation with civil society to foster trust with at-risk communities.
For prosecutors, the PAHCT update—presented by Margarita Kovtun—features flexible modules tailored to national legal frameworks. It concentrates on accurate legal qualification, evidence of bias, and sensitive interaction with victims. A significant innovation is the “Prosecutor’s Decision Tree,” a tool released in 2024 to assist practitioners in navigating complex intersections between hate speech and hate crime provisions.
National Success Stories: Poland and North Macedonia
Two national case studies highlighted the programmes’ tangible impact. Marta Krasuska, Chief Specialist on Human Rights and Ethics at Poland’s National Police Headquarters, discussed how the TAHCLE framework facilitated the training of over 11,000 officers and staff since 2023 using a cascade model. “We built a sustainable system—from national coordinators to local trainers—so every police station integrates hate crime prevention into daily work,” she explained.
From North Macedonia, Simona Yordanov, Rule of Law Officer at the OSCE Mission to Skopje, and Public Prosecutor Aleksandar Markoski showcased their success in institutionalizing PAHCT through a formal memorandum of understanding between ODIHR, the national Prosecutor’s Office, and the Academy for Judges and Prosecutors. The outcome: a rise from two convictions in two decades to 64 hate-crime and hate-speech judgments in the last five years.
Towards a More Resilient Regional Framework
Participants from civil society and OSCE field missions emphasized the importance of continuous monitoring and the inclusion of health-related and intersectional dimensions, like hate crimes targeting people living with HIV or TB. ODIHR representatives confirmed that future modules would incorporate such perspectives and explore virtual reality simulations to modernize training delivery.
As Jolijashvili concluded, “Each hate-crime case properly recognized and prosecuted restores not only justice for the victim but confidence in the rule of law itself.” With its renewed manuals and expanding network of trained professionals, ODIHR’s initiative is a cornerstone in the OSCE’s long-term effort to counter intolerance and reinforce human rights across its 57 participating States.
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