International conference on anti-LGBTI hate crimes

The GLAS Foundation, the University of Brescia, Italy, and the Lambda organization from Poland organized an international conference on the topic ‘Overcoming Barriers: Improving the Acccess to Justice for Victims of anti-LGBTI Hate Crimes’. The forum, which was organized in cooperation with 11 partners from 10 European countries, took place on September 20 and 21 at The French Institute in Sofia. Its aim was to familiarize the Bulgarian publice with the developments in areas such as research, policies, trainings and hate crimes in the European Union (EU) and to present good practices for their implementation.

Among the main topics, discusssed during the initiative, were the hate crime legislation in EU, the reporting of such offenses and community relations, victim support services and victim rights, work with police, etc. The two-day program included discussions, capacity-building and problem-solving workshops, consultation with experts and specialists in the field, as well as a feature film screening, organized by GLAS Foundation’s initiative Big Gay Film Club.