Enhancing victims’ rights in hate and extremism cases across Europe

In the current polarised European landscape, intolerance, hate, and extremist manifestations have been mushrooming, both online and offline, deeply affecting individuals, groups, and communities. However, despite the prevalence of the phenomenon, its consequences for those who suffer from it are often neglected or poorly managed, which is especially pressing as 5 to 9 in every 10 hate incidents in Europe go underreported, mostly due to a lack of information, trust in the system, fear of further trauma and humiliation.

These figures indicate the urgent need to bring victims’ perspectives forward to the criminal justice system, especially so in cases of hate and (violent) extremism, since its victims are granted an especially vulnerable status, raising awareness and mitigating any biases within the different relevant professional categories handling these cases, including law enforcement, the judiciary, and civil society.

The VicTory project focuses on ensuring the effective and coherent implementation of legislation and good practices, including restorative-based, to support and enhance victims’ rights, promoting their adequate support and avoiding secondary victimisation through the capacitation of relevant practitioners. By investing in the continuous and comprehensive capacitation of professionals dealing with victims, both from the governmental and non-governmental sides, the VicTory project is solidifying a cooperative approach to victim support, grounded on sound and evaluated practices and the most up-to-date European legislation. IPS_Innovative Prison Systems is proud to be one of the project’s partners, contributing with its expertise on radicalisation and extremism prevention, judicial and community practitioners’ capacity building, and holistic cooperative approaches.

IPS_Innovative Prison Systems will lead efforts to build professional skills through online and in-person training tailored to those working directly with victims of hate crimes and violent extremism. The company expert researchers and consultants will design and implement e-learning courses and organise exchange events to foster expertise among professionals. In addition, IPS will create an accessible information platform to support victim-centred practices and establish a cooperative network among institutions. Drawing on their strong background, IPS will also lead the project’s communication and dissemination activities to broaden its impact across relevant networks.

These comprehensive and specialised training efforts for victim support workers and criminal justice professionals will clarify the specificities of hate and (violent) extremism incidents, its consequences for victims, victim-sensitive communication, empowerment strategies, and how to build a psycho-social, gender-bound, and trauma-informed response, including a dedicated section to restorative-based solutions and practices, thus directly improving the support and management provided to these victims.

In addition to training efforts, the project will also establish a framework to promote and guide multi-agency cooperation between justice professionals and civil society, to be aided by an online cross-sectoral platform. This platform will streamline cooperation and the establishment of transnational links and trust between different professionals in European countries, enabling more coordinated and informed responses.

Moreover, and importantly, a restorative-centered programme for victim support will be created, implemented, and evaluated. By mobilising good practices within the restorative-based justice framework and invaluable knowledge from the consortium, different solutions will be put forward to be tested, directly by practitioners, and compiled into practical guidelines.

This project marks a key advance in the P/CVE field, bringing victims forward and placing them at the core of governmental and non-governmental efforts. Through the combined efforts of all partners, VicTory is committed to fostering a lasting impact on how hate and extremism-related incidents are managed, at a local, national, and European level.