In Warsaw on October 13 2025, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) launched its updated hate crime training manuals for police and prosecutors, building on twenty years of hands-on practice across the OSCE region. The session, held in the Belweder meeting room as part of the OSCE Human Dimension Conference, gathered national experts from Poland and North Macedonia to showcase how these programmes have transformed the criminal justice response to hate crimes.
A Renewed Commitment to Combating Hate Crimes
Opening the event, Tia Jolijashvili, ODIHR’s First Deputy Director, reminded participants that hate crimes “are not only attacks on individuals, but on the cohesion and security of entire societies.” She underlined the importance of professional training for law enforcement, prosecutors, and the judiciary to ensure that bias-motivated crimes are properly identified, investigated, and prosecuted.
Since its creation in 2012, ODIHR’s Training Against Hate Crimes for Law Enforcement (TAHCLE) programme 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 fully revised to incorporate lessons learned, best practices, and new victim-centred approaches.
Programme coordinator Ruth Burns explained that the updated TAHCLE curriculum now includes expanded materials on victim support, community-based policing, and strategies to overcome chronic under-reporting of hate crimes. “If frontline officers fail to recognise bias motivation, victims will never see justice,” she said. The training promotes sensitivity, practical case analysis, and cooperation with civil society to build trust with communities most at risk.
For prosecutors, the PAHCT update—presented by Margarita Kovtun—offers flexible modules tailored to national legal frameworks. It focuses on accurate legal qualification, evidence of bias, and sensitive engagement with victims. A key innovation is the “Prosecutor’s Decision Tree”, a tool launched in 2024 to help practitioners navigate complex intersections between hate speech and hate crime provisions.
National Success Stories: Poland and North Macedonia
Two national case studies demonstrated the programmes’ concrete impact. Marta Krasuska, Chief Specialist on Human Rights and Ethics at Poland’s National Police Headquarters, described how the TAHCLE framework enabled the training of over 11,000 officers and staff since 2023 through 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 highlighted their success in institutionalising PAHCT through a formal memorandum of understanding between ODIHR, the national Prosecutor’s Office, and the Academy for Judges and Prosecutors. The result: a leap 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 echoed the importance of continuous monitoring and inclusion of health-related and intersectional dimensions, such as hate crimes targeting people living with HIV or TB. ODIHR representatives confirmed that future modules will integrate such perspectives and explore virtual reality simulations to modernise training delivery.
As Jolijashvili concluded, “Each hate-crime case properly recognised and prosecuted restores not only justice for the victim but confidence in the rule of law itself.” With its renewed manuals and growing network of trained professionals, ODIHR’s initiative stands as a cornerstone in the OSCE’s long-term effort to counter intolerance and strengthen human rights across its 57 participating States.
