Monitoring Hate Crime against Roma with mentors

Monitoring and support based on the ability of Roma mentors to approach the Roma victims of hate motivated incidents, to gain their trust and efficiently link them with relevant professionals, who provide expert services (legal, support, psychological support etc.) in order to prevent reciprocal radicalisation and reciprocal hate crime as a reaction to the attack. Monitoring of hate crime incidents against members of Roma minority, using the web of Roma mentors and Roma City Police Assistants, trained laymen from the same community. Monitoring itself is connected with (or even conditioned by) providing of Roma Mentoring, the program focused on increasing the efficiency of alternative sentences among offenders from Roma minority and making them more resilient against committing hate crime acts of retribution/retaliation. Roma mentors contact reporting persons (victims of hate motivated incidents). Due to their ethnic and cultural closeness to the clients and detailed knowledge of Roma community, they have high ability to approach the clients and gain their confidence. Roma mentors report the cases to coordinator who (with eventual help of legal experts) classify the type of the case. Part of the regional coordinator´s work is the field work with mentors, meeting the victims and/or witnesses. Depending on the type of the case they are linked to partner organisation (In IUSTITIA) who provides legal support to victims of hate crimes. If the reporting person doesn´t require legal support or if the incident is not qualified as hate crime, regional coordinator provides basic support of victims and/or reporting persons, and possibly links them to other local organisations providing support services or counselling. Eventually, regional coordinator also communicates with other members of local community in order to prevent situations leading to hate-motivated incidents. The mentors can offer accompanying the victims after the agreement with In IUSTITIA (e.g. to accompany victim to meet In IUSTITIA counsellor or state institutions).

Contact details:

Korunní 880/101
130 00 Praha 3
Czech Republic

Marek Demner
Email: demner@rubikoncentrum.cz 
Tel: (+420) 739 470 408