Promising Practice

Working group for hate speech/Working group for hate crime

Hate crime
Delovna skupina za sovražni govor/Delovna skupina za kazniva dejanja iz sovraštva
The working group on hate speech and hate crime was established with the aim of increasing the specialisation of state prosecutors, unifying prosecutorial practice and penal policy, and improving the training and knowledge of prosecutors for dealing with and prosecuting hate speech.
Štát
Slovenia
Guidelines
Encourage reporting
Ground of discrimination
Cross institutional cooperation
Monitoring progress and impact
Provision of guidance, training and capacity building

Organisation

Supreme State Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Slovenia (Vrhovno državno tožilstvo Republike Slovenije).

Start and end date

Start date:

Working group on hate speech:  30 November 2018.
Working group on hate crime: 26 March 2021.

End date:

Working group on hate speech: 26 March 2021.
Working group on hate crime: ongoing.

Scope

National.

Target group(s)

State prosecutors.

Funding

No budget. The members of the working groups participate in them within the framework of their prosecutorial function.

Objectives

  • Specialisation of public prosecutors.
  • Unification of prosecutorial practice.
  • Provision of an expert contact and consultation point.

Outputs

Not applicable.

Description

The working group on hate speech was established with the aim of increasing the specialisation of state prosecutors, unifying prosecutorial practice and penal policy, and improving the training and knowledge of prosecutors for dealing with and prosecuting hate speech. One state prosecutor from each district’s state prosecutor’s office was appointed to the group, subspecialising for this purpose.

Members of the group discussed criteria set by the European Convention on Human Rights that public prosecutors must consider when filing indictments.

The working group also considered the possibility of applying misdemeanour law in cases in which certain statements exceed the limit of permissible freedom of expression but do not yet reach the limit for a criminal offence.

The working group stressed that reports and treatment of hate speech should not be allowed to be exploited for ideological or political reckoning through the decisions of public prosecutors. Prosecutors are autonomous in their work, which is bound only by law and the constitution, regardless of how potential political authorities interpret the law.

The operation of the working group has, over time, expanded to address hate crime. For the purposes of recording such crimes, the working group prepared a definition of hate crime. On 2 June 2020, on the basis of this definition, the General State Prosecutor ordered a new special note/mark to be added to the files to indicate a hate crime.

On 26 March 2021, the General State Prosecutor ordered the transformation of the working group on hate speech into a working group on hate crime.

Critical success factors

  • Successful specialisation of prosecutors.
  • Unification of prosecutorial practice.
  • Expansion of the scope of the working group’s work.

Actors involved in the design and implementation of the practice

No participatory approach was applied.

Monitoring and evaluation

No monitoring and evaluation was carried out.

Publicly available contact details

Supreme State Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Slovenia (Vrhovno državno tožilstvo Republike Slovenije)