Throughout the last two years, we have been witnessing an alarming increase of hate crime incidents in Greece. This is linked both to the reversion of the generalized welcoming sentiment towards refugees and migrants that was prevalent in Greece throughout 2015-2016, and to the fact that the Golden Dawn trial is in a turning point, triggering new developments.
Within this context, new formulations and modus operandi of organized racist groups appear, such as targeting refugee shelters and homes of refugees, or targeting lawyers and human rights defenders that are directly linked with the Golden Dawn trial, as well as the appearance of new organized racist groups that substitute for the ones we had seen in the past and are now dismantled because of the GD trial. At the same time racist violence incidents have appeared in the daily life of this population in the communities e.g in the public transportation (metro/bus etc) while “traditional” forms of hate crimes that target specific communities are on the rise, an alarming phenomenon for which members of the civil society –including those of HumanRights360 – have filed a complaint before the Prosecutor of the High Court.
Combatting hate crime is a horizontal approach running throughout all HumanRights360 projects and coordinated actions in an advocacy and legal level through: