Capable project

Goals and results

Project activities are divided into five work packages.

Work package 1: Project coordination and management
Responsible parties: Ministry of Justice and other partners
This work package comprises the project’s general coordination and management, including economic monitoring and constant reporting in the Commission’s project portal.

Work package 2: Piloting a Centre of Excellence for work against hate crimes
Responsible party: Ministry of Justice

The objective of this work package is to develop national coordination and support various actors in work against hate crimes. The work package will conceptualise a Centre of Excellence for work against hate crimes and discrimination as well as pilot the Centre’s activities. It will further include assessing the functioning of the concept and activities of the Centre of Excellence.

Actions:
• Mapping similar centres of excellence
• International study visit
• Proposal for the concept of a Centre of Excellence
• Policy briefs on hate speech and hate crimes
• Establishing a national network and its meetings
• Training for crime victim services and legal aid offices

Work package 3: Strengthening the competence of authorities in the field of education
Responsible party: Office of the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman

The objective of this work package is to strengthen the competence of authorities in the education sector and increase understanding of the importance of leadership in creating a safe school environment free from racism and harassment. The work package includes producing a practical handbook for dealing with racism and harassment at educational institutions and implementing a campaign to increase awareness of the manifestations of racism and harassment at educational institutions.

Actions:
• Mentoring programme for the management of educational institutions (e.g. principals)
• Training for student counsellors and employees in pupil welfare (e.g. school social workers)
• Handbook for dealing with racism and harassment at educational institutions
• Social media campaign

Work package 4: Strengthening the competence of police in work against hate crimes
Responsible party: Ministry of the Interior

The objective of the work package is to strengthen the competence of police in work against hate crimes. Strengthening the competence takes place through producing materials and training.

Actions:
• Material for local police departments on hate crimes (e.g. hate crime narratives and local hate crime statistics)
• Training for the management of local police departments
• Assessment of previous training provided for the police on hate crimes
• Training for local police departments
• Plan for implementing training in the future

Work package 5: Development of data collection on hate crimes and harassment
Responsible parties: Ministry of Justice, Anti-Racist Forum

The objective of the work package is to develop data collection on hate crimes and harassment. The work package includes carrying out a study on perpetrators of hate crimes and investigating the use of non-criminal justice methods in addressing hate crimes. Furthermore, the work package will continue promoting the use of the tool developed for reporting hate acts.

Actions:
• Study on perpetrators of hate crimes and on non-criminal justice methods in addressing hate crimes
• International workshop on non-criminal justice methods in addressing hate crimes
• Development of reporting on hate acts, particularly antisemitism and islamophobia
• Safety walks

Summary

Project aims at strengthening work against hate crimes and harassment especially through developing the competence of professionals in various fields.

Starting points

Hate speech and hate crimes are a social problem despite the fact that numerous actions have been taken to identify, address and prevent them in, for example, projects coordinated by the Ministry of Justice. Over recent years, data collection and local-level cooperation, for example, have been improved in the context of Against Hate and Facts Against Hate projects.

Several bodies monitoring the international human rights situation have paid attention to increasing hate speech and urged Finland to step up its actions. The areas to which Finland has been requested to pay attention include professionals’ competence and coordination between various actors.

The Programme of Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s Government includes many actions related to hate crimes and hate speech, such as promoting monitoring of the situation in relation to discrimination and hate crime and horizontal measures to address systematic harassment, threats and targeting. The actions included in the project implement the goals of the Government Programme.