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Acknowledgements
The following report is the result of a Polish-German joint project, coordinated and carried out by the Potsdam-based association Opferperspektive (Victims’ Perspective) and the Warsaw-based organization Nigdy Więcej (Never Again) between January and July 2008. It was made possible by funding from the Foundation »Remembrance, Responsibility and Future« (Stiftung »Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft«), a German foundation dedicated to fostering projects hat promote: a better understanding among cultures, the interests of survivors of the National Socialist regime, youth exchange, social justice, remembrance of the threat posed by totalitarian systems and despotism, and international cooperation in humanitarian endeavors.
The research project entitled Hate Crime Monitoring and Victim Assistance in Poland and Germany touches on various aspects of the foundation’s program. First, it has brought together a mixed group of political activists and academics from both countries involved in the struggle against contemporary manifestations of racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and right-wing extremism. This has facilitated an intensive exchange of information and practical experiences. Secondly, the project focuses on the problem of hate crimes, which should be considered one of the most severe and yet common forms of human rights violations in Europe today. These crimes undermine and threaten not only an individual’s right to dignity and physical inviolability, but also the ability of many minority groups and communities to participate in our democracies. And finally, it furthers future transnational
cooperation between participants in Polish and German civil society in order to improve monitoring systems of right-wing violence and support services for hate crime victims.
The report was compiled and prepared by Britta Grell (Berlin), Timm Köhler (Berlin), Rafal Pankowski (Warsaw), Natalia Sineaeva (Warsaw) and Marcin Starnawski (Wrocław). Jacek Zinkiewicz (Kraków) and Alicja Kowalska (Warsaw) conducted some of the interviews, on which the report is mainly based. Dominique John (Berlin) was the project coordinator.
The results of the research were presented to the public during the conference »Intolerance Kills: Hate Crimes Monitoring and Victim Assistance in Poland and Germany,« hosted by the University Collegium Civitas in Warsaw, 12–13 September 2008. The event opened with keynote speeches by the well-known Polish journalist Konstanty Gebert and Ulla Kux from the German Foundation »Remembrance, Responsibility and Future.« The conference consisted of presentations by members of the research team on hate crime monitoring: Timm Köhler discussed the legal aspects of hate crime prosecution and victim assistance in Poland and Germany; Britta Grell analyzed the dynamics, challenges and future perspectives of NGO activities in the field in Germany; and Marcin Starnawski explored the same issues in Poland. The discussion that followed highlighted critical points of the research report. After the plenary session, participants had a chance to raise further questions in a general discussion about the proposals concerning future Polish-German cooperation in hate crime monitoring and victim assistance, as well as the development of NGO and research projects dealing with these issues in Poland. These proposals were then discussed at greater length in workshops. On the second day of the conference, a series of workshops were held specializing in subjects of hate crime victim support, homophobia and hate crimes on the Internet. The conference brought together about 70 researchers, activists and journalists from Poland, Germany, Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Russia and Belarus.
We would like to thank the Foundation »Remembrance, Responsibility and Future« for their generous financial support and commitment. Furthermore, we wish to thank all the other contributors, especially the more than 60 interview partners from NGOs and the experts in both countries, who dedicated their time and efforts to support our inquiries. We very much appreciate the views and experiences shared with us by so many people and hope that our representation of their experiences and activities are accurate.
The opinions expressed in the following report are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the foundation or the project partner organizations Opferperspektive and Nigdy Więcej.
Berlin, October 2008
Britta Grell, Timm Köhler, Rafal Pankowski, Natalia Sineaeva, Marcin Starnawski
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