On 15 and 16 June the Mission to Skopje conducted a two-day workshop on investigating and prosecuting hate speech and hate crime for heads of prevention departments in the police. Twenty people attended the workshop, including representatives from prevention departments in each Sector for Internal Affairs and the NGO Center for Intercultural Dialogue.
The MoIA Focal Point for Hate Crime delivered a presentation on the current situation in the country, while a rule of law expert from the Mission outlined the legislative framework related to hate crimes. The aim of the workshop was to better equip officers engaged in community-based policing with the knowledge and skills necessary to identify and investigate hate speech and hate crime offenses. This activity is part of a broader Mission project on the identification, prevention and investigation of hate crimes.