IPS has joined a new partnership focused on enhancing the prevention, reporting, and investigation of hate crimes and hate speech in Portugal

The new COOPERHATE initiative brings together ten Portuguese organisations from different sectors of society to tackle the growing incidents of hate crime and hate speech, while addressing the low conviction rates that highlight serious gaps in responding to these offences.

Hate crimes and hate speech are growing threats that victimise individuals and groups and undermine the foundations of a fair and inclusive society. In Portugal, reported hate crime cases rose from 132 in 2020 to 344 in 2023, yet only 5 were brought to court and just 3 resulted in convictions (OSCE, 2023). This disparity reveals systemic gaps in detection and accountability, highlighting the urgent need for coordinated action.

COOPERHATE – Multidisciplinary Cooperation Approach to Prevent and Counter Hate Crime and Hate Speech – consists of an exclusively Portuguese consortium that will focus on strengthening Portugal’s response to the growing prevalence of hate crimes and hate speech.

Building on previous initiatives, the project provides a more structured and coordinated national approach to addressing these challenges. It aims to offer an unprecedented framework for understanding the dynamics of hate at the national level, improve awareness of hate speech and hate crimes among civil society and institutional actors, enhance detection, reporting, and assessment of both phenomena, and strengthen the capacity of public authorities and civil society to prevent and respond to hate-related incidents.

The new initiative also aims to raise public awareness and empower victims through a comprehensive, multifaceted approach. To achieve these goals, COOPERHATE combines legal, technological, training, and awareness-raising initiatives to foster cross-sector collaboration, develop detection and assessment tools, and establish tailored support frameworks that strengthen the capacities of professionals and institutions.

To mark the launch of this new initiative, IPS held a conference on October 24 in Lisbon, which brought together partners, representatives from other law enforcement agencies, civil society organisations, media and experts on hate crimes and hate speech.

In addition to presenting the initiative’s goals to a wide range of social actors with a key role in this area, the event sought to immediately launch an intersectoral dialogue aimed at strengthening national efforts to prevent and respond to hate crimes and hate speech in Portugal.

Through a roundtable and open discussions, the partnership encouraged dialogue on the current landscape, the experiences and challenges faced by law enforcement, as well as the perspectives of civil society organisations regarding the factors contributing to the issue. Potential areas of collaboration between different sectors, including the role of the media, were also explored.