On 18 and 19 March, the Barcelona LGBTI Centre will be hosting the Council of Europe meeting on the police response to hate crimes against LGBTI people. The meeting has been co-organised by the Council of Europe and Gaylespol, the national LGTBI police association, and the European LGTBI Police Association (EGPA).
It will be attended by international experts and its aim is to analyse and conduct a comprehensive review of the Council of Europe training manual on policing hate crime against LGBTI people.
Participating in the opening event on 18 March will be the head of the Council of Europe Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Unit, Evgenia Giakoumopoulou; Barcelona City Council’s Commissioner for Children, Adolescents, Youth and LGBTI Policies, Javier Rodríguez; Director General of the Police at the Generalitat de Catalunya, Pere Ferrer and the General Director for Real and Effective Equality of LGTBI+ People at the Ministry of Equality, Julio del Valle.
Over the course of the two day meeting, participants will review and gather comments on the Council of Europe training manual, published in 2017, which provides a protocol for responding to hate crimes against LGBTI people for police trainers, investigators, managers, hate crime officers and frontline police officers working in countries across the Council of Europe region.
The aim of the meeting is to carry out a comprehensive review and update this manual to ensure it remains relevant and effective, given the rise we are witnessing in hate speech and hate crimes against LGBTI people.
LGBTI people still experience high levels of discrimination and abuse, including violence, due to their sexual orientation, expression and gender identity, according to the European Commission. Furthermore, the commission says that the degree to which a person is exposed to this intolerance of LGBTI people is significantly influenced by other key aspects of their lives, for example, being a migrant.
In the sessions, participants will try to analyse different issues and compile statistics on hate crimes against LGBTI people; they will look at key concepts around sexual, affective and gender diversity and a non-discrimination and human rights-based approach to hate crimes against LGBTI people, how these types of crimes are investigated and working with civil society organisations.