| 
Introduction
The dramatic rise in homophobic, racist and anti-Semitic violence in many European countries over the past decades lends new urgency to the issue of combating discrimination and hate crimes. Poland and Germany, two neighboring countries with a particularly difficult historical relationship are no exception in this respect. Both have seen extreme nationalistic movements and right-wing organizations and parties gain influence inside and outside the parliaments over the past few years. Furthermore, various studies and public-opinion polls indicate that both are challenged by a wide range of intolerance and ethnic and religious biases within the population. (1)
Some of the hate crimes that accompany these troubling developments will be documented in this report to illustrate they are not isolated cases. We will also present official and unofficial aggregated figures on recorded incidents of right-wing violence and hate speech in both countries for the past three years; however, the main focus of the report will be on the strategies and activities of those organizations and projects that give marginalized groups a platform where they can be heard and represented. While there has been mounting public and academic interest in comparing organized forms of far-right activities with xenophobic tendencies across Europe, less common has been the transnational study of policies and projects th at counteract right-wing movements and related violence. This is particularly true regarding the dynamic role played by non-governmental actors and organizations that represent the interests of groups most affected by hate crimes, such as Roma, migrant and LGBT communities, religious minorities, anti-Fascist and anti-racist activists, as well as young people involved in alternative cultural scenes. Furthermore, despite various formal and informal NGO networks dedicated to counteracting homophobia, racism and anti-Semitism on the European level, programs that could foster transnational cooperation on practical issues are difficult to implement. This is often due to several factors, including lack of resources, dissimilar working and operational conditions between the countries, and structural differences within civil society that create political opportunities.
The funding of the Foundation »Remembrance, Responsibility and Future« (Stiftung »Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft«) provided us with a rare opportunity to take a closer look at potential forms of cooperation and mutual support between German and Polish NGOs in the field of human rights activities, specifically monitoring right-wing assaults and providing assistance to victims of hate crimes. The idea for this research project is based on the shared conviction of all project partners that these two elements are crucial if broader national and international strategies to counter right-wing extremism, homophobia, racism and anti-Semitism are to be effective. All efforts and public policies that seek to address the problem of bias-motivated violence and hate speech require detailedinformation on the frequency of these incidents and their circumstances, including the perpetrators and the victim groups affected. Unfortunately, the national governments and related institutions do not sufficiently provide this information, as will be illustrated in the following chapters. Outreach and support services to the victims are not only a matter of humanitarian commitment, solidarity and social justice, but they can also be utilized for further networking and empowerment of otherwise marginalized individuals, minority groups and communities. But the question remains of how to provide them with help given the limited resources and lack of government support, not only in the Polish context, but also for many German NGOs, especially those based in former West Germany, which receive less support than their eastern German counterparts.
Nigdy Więcej (Never Again) and Opferperspektive (Victims’ Perspective), the organizations that developed the idea for this joint study, have many years of experience in monitoring hate crimes. A brief summary of each organization’s work is as follows:
Nigdy Więcej: With a wide-ranging network of correspondents and volunteers, the Polish association is one of Poland’s most important anti-Fascist and anti-racist initiatives. In its Brown Book (Brunatna Księga), a register of racist, xenophobic and homophobic incidents, members have documented a few thousand cases of hate crime and hate speech since the beginning of the 1990s, mostly committed by offenders affiliated with neo-Nazi or skinhead groups. (2)
Since 2007 the monitoring program has been run in cooperation with the Collegium Civitas, a Warsaw-based university, and has received some support from the Stefan Batory Foundation (Fundacja im. Stefana Batorego). Hate crimes in Poland are published regularly in the anti-Fascist magazine Nigdy Więcej and on the association’s website. This information is collected by 150 volunteers and correspondents all over Poland, who regularly monitor the press and the Internet and have well-established contacts to minority organizations and social groups exposed to hate crimes. Correspondents also frequently report incidents that they themselves have witnessed. Many of the offenses documented by Nigdy Więcej were not reported to the police. Their publications serve general educational purposes and provide the basis for important investigative reporting that has prompted coverage of the issue of hate crimes in mainstream Polish media.
Opferperspektive: This registered association has been offering legal, social and psychological assistance to victims of right-wing violence in the state of Brandenburg since 1998. The organization operates as a proactive outreach and monitoring center. On a daily basis, they monitor incidents of right-wing violence and identify and offer support to victims. When the federal government of Germany set up the CIVITAS program in 2001, it sought to combat the spread of right-wing extremism in East Germany. The approach developed by Opferperspektive served as the model that would later be replicated in other states. Eight regional NGOs with a similar profile have since been established. These NGOs have developed and implemented a set of definitions and standards to improve the quality and comparability of data collected on hate crimes. Each year they publish comprehensive information about the amount and type of hate crimes in the new federal states of Germany based on their research and a common database. These data highlight not only the persisting problem of right-wing violence in East Germany, but also the ongoing problem of underreporting.
Despite shared beliefs, commitments and interests, all project partners are well aware of the fact that specific experiences with far-right activities, hate crimes and subsequent countermeasures can not be easily transferred from one national context to the other. The geographic proximity of both countries and their common challenges with right-wing extremism do not necessarily mean that their counter-strategies and approaches to the problem have to look the same. Poland and Germany are still different in many respects, ranging from specific governance traditions to legal structures. This shapes the relationship between state actors and NGOs, different party systems, and public discourses on matters such as national or religious identities and distinct demographic features (e.g. the size of ethnic/religious minority groups and differing patterns of migration). While litigation strategies have become an integral part of some NGO activities to bring justice to victims affected by hate crimes in the German context, legal approaches and direct cooperation with state authorities are less common among Polish organizations due to a widespread distrust of law enforcement agencies in many sections of Polish society. This is especially the case among members of minority communities and young people.
When looking at strategies to raise awareness of the problem of hate crimes, one has also to take into account that Poland has experienced an ultra-conservative backlash on the highest political level during the past few years. Until quite recently, some parties and politicians in power have been openly homophobic and anti-Semitic. When the party Self-Defense (Samoobrona) and the League of Polish Families (Liga Polskich Rodzin, LPR) signed a coalition agreement with the Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS) party in May 2006, this represented the culmination of an ongoing campaign by right-wingers and extreme nationalists to gain government positions. Their objective was to intimidate and persecute their political opponents and minority groups. In light of publicly condoned assaults and the clash of political ideologies, NGOs involved in anti-racist and anti-Fascist activities or groups representing the LGBT community faced different challenges when compared to their counterparts in Germany, where most intellectuals, all major political parties and other institutions (such as the mass media) generally condemn racism, homophobia and ethnic hatred. Furthermore, one has to keep in mind that various federal and state programs adopted by governments to counteract right-wing extremism in the early 2000s have provided hundreds of German NGOs with considerable resources, especially in the eastern parts of the country. This has increased their professional capabilities, enabling them to more effectively address the public and institutional neglect of hate crimes. In contrast, no comparable funding programs to date have been established in Poland to support the work of NGOs dealing with hate crimes and their victims, even though NGOs have been selected to form part of consultation processes organized by government agencies to fulfill some of the obligations resulting from international treaties and agreements.
Note on Research Design and Scope of the Study
In the following report we will address some of these national differences, but we would also like to acknowledge from the very beginning the limited scope of the study. We did not set out to discuss all the historical, political and social factors and constraints relevant to NGO activities in the respective field. The goals of the study were the following:
1. To summarize relevant research concerning the problem of hate crimes in both countries.
2. To outline the respective national legal frameworks.
3. To summarize data on right-wing violence in both countries for the years 2005 to 2007.
4. To identify German and Polish NGOs monitoring right-wing violence and providing assistance to victims of these crimes.
5. To describe their operational definitions of right-wing violence/hate crimes, their methods of data collection/presentation, and victim assistance.
6. To examine the organizations’ perspectives, available resources and their current integration with transnational networks.
7. To propose viable forms and fields of transnational (Polish-German) cooperation.
Simply fulfilling these tasks was a major undertaking given that both teams had only six months to accomplish the following objectives: a) researching primary and secondary sources; b) conducting, summarizing and evaluating interviews; c) discussing the results and compiling this first draft report; and d) organizing five workshops with heated debates on matters such as terminology, the relevance of legal provisions and the assessment of our findings. One also has to take into account that the current status of research and official data on hate crimes and hate crime policies is still very limited in Poland. Furthermore, other Polish organizations and supranational bodies carried out few legal studies and current reports. At the same time, we can assure that contacts to NGOs and other interview partners were facilitated by both project partners’ knowledge, favorable reputation, and many years of extended activities and experiences in their respective fields.
The most important empirical source for our report are qualitative face-to-face interviews with NGOs and some selected experts, which were (with a few exceptions) recorded and summarized. A complete list of organizations and their representatives interviewed are listed in the Appendix on page 197, along with the date of the interview. Altogether, about 60 interviews were conducted, most of them between February and April 2008. Each research team was responsible for selecting the interview partners in their respective countries. However, given the lack of victim assistance structures with widespread governmental and community support in Poland, we agreed that it was reasonable to broaden the scope of the research by contacting and interviewing organizations and groups that have not been directly involved in monitoring and victim assistance. Nevertheless, we expected that these organizations would have an interest in these issues, because they either represent the interests of particular minority communities, or they have regular contact to potential victim groups such as refugees or the Roma community as welfare or human rights organizations. In the German part of the study, we concentrated more from the very beginning on organizations already active in the respective fields, paying less attention to informal groups, self-help groups, general welfare associations and human rights associations; this was mainly due to time restrictions. It would nonetheless be useful to incorporate the latter in subsequent studies and projects to find out about their views and experiences with victims of hate crimes.
For the Polish part of the study, 28 organizations were selected for interviews. Most of them are officially registered associations, while others are foundations, religious organizations or informal groups. We mainly focused on organizations operating in larger urban areas. Almost half of the NGOs included in the survey are based in Warsaw, while others are primarily active in the eastern or southern parts of Poland (in cities such as Kraków and Oświęcim, as well as in the Lower Silesia and Opole region). In Germany 24 longer face-to-face interviews and about 20 shorter telephone inquiries were conducted. The main geographic focus of the study was East Germany, due to its better established structures for victim assistance and monitoring (with regard to right-wing violence). About 70 percent of our interview partners represent NGOs located either in Berlin or in the eastern states. With regard to West Germany, we decided to concentrate on two regions: North Rhine-Westphalia and northern states such as Lower-Saxony, Hamburg and Bremen. Names of organizations and projects are first supplied in English and then followed by Polish or German. Subsequent references are in English only, but a table can be found in the Appendix on page 197 with most organizations listed in both English and the original language.
The scope of our study sample is, of course, limited. Many other organizations could have been included in our research. We also realize that further interviews with academics, experts, and representatives of police or other government institutions might have been helpful for a broader assessment of hate crime policies in both countries. Unfortunately, there was not enough time to include their perspectives in this report. As highlighted in various chapters of this report, more comprehensive research on many issues is certainly needed.
Note on Terminology
On a mixed team of Polish and German researchers and activists with different languages, backgrounds and educations, a general discussion on terminology at the beginning of our research was inevitable. What do we mean when we write and talk about right-wing violence and hate crimes? Are these terms understandable in our respective national, linguistic and political contexts? How do we differentiate between hate crimes and hate speech?
Throughout the report, terms such as »right-wing,« »far-right,« »extreme right« and »right-wing extremist« are frequently used, serving as umbrella terms for nationalistic, xenophobic, ultra-conservative; anti-liberal and anti-democratic positions, tendencies, organizations and manifestations in both countries. This pragmatic decision to abstain from academic distinctions and to use these terms rather interchangeably is due to the difficulty of a comparative study, in which we look at the two countries with different political constellations, academic and public discourses; and points of references. It is worth mentioning that, in the context of Eastern Europe and Poland, categories such as right-wing or left-wing have different connotations. Especially in the case of Poland, the term »right-wing« has often been associated with the democratic opposition during the post-Communist years. It should be also noted that even today some parties and organizations, which are usually called conservative or »center« in the Polish context, would be labeled right-wing or far-right in the West.
We are also aware of the fact that the terms »extremism« or »extremist« are rather controversial in both national contexts. In Poland the term »extremism« is often applied to fundamentalist groups and movements outside the country, for example, openly terrorist organizations. In Germany, many scholars and public discussions have applied the term »extremism« to ideologies and movements that undermine »the existing democratic order.« In the context of hate speech and crimes this concept of extremism is misleading, because hate crimes should be condemned and persecuted regardless of whether they pose a threat to national security or not. Since many of the attacks referred to in this report are not committed by people affiliated with organized groups that have a clear-cut right-wing world view or sympathies to historical forms of Fascism such as German National Socialism, we were rather cautious with the application of the terms »Fascist« or »neo-Nazis.« If used in the report, they refer to groups which openly display Fascist ideologies.
The term »hate crime,« the central concept this study is based on, is not commonly used in Poland and Germany, but it has the advantage of incorporating or circumscribing a range of different ideologically motivated offenses—offenses that are usually addressed as racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, social Darwinist, anti-Roma, anti-Muslim etc., or sometimes right-wing (extremist). The term, thus, emphasizes the common characteristic of all these ideological dimensions; namely, the assumption of inequality or inferiority of the victims targeted. On the other hand, by focusing on hatred or the perpetrators’ biases, the deep-rooted prevalence of racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia etc. in society might be downplayed or neglected within the framework of this concept. We nevertheless decided to adopt the term »hate crime« not only because it is the term most frequently used in English, but because it best reflects the variety of ideologically motivated attacks against minority groups in both countries.
We agreed to follow a definition to which a number of supranational bodies and international human rights organizations adhere. This definition was first developed by the Warsaw-based Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the principal institution of the OSCE responsible for the human dimension (elections, human rights, and democratization).
A) Any criminal offence, including offences against persons or property, where the victim, premises, or target of the offence are selected because of their real or perceived connection, attachment, affiliation, support, or membership with a group as defined in Part B.
B) A group may be based upon a characteristic common to its members, such as real or perceived race, national or ethnic origin, language, color, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, or other similar factor. (3)
In contrast to the ODIHR definition, however, we also consider attacks on left-wing activists, human rights activists or members of alternative youth cultures to be hate crimes, providing the motivation of the offender is ideological. That is, the offender views the victim/s as »anti-national« or a political enemy. We are also aware of the fact that hate crimes can take a variety of forms, from verbal abuses, graffiti, vandalism, harassment, to physical assaults, arson attacks or even murder, and that not all of these forms might be litigable. The degree to which the police, government institutions and NGOs in both countries apply and understand the term »hate crime« will be discussed in more detail in the following chapters.
Outline of the Report
The report is divided into five parts. Chapter 1 examines recent incidents of intolerance and violence towards minority groups in Germany and Poland. It describes how national authorities, supranational bodies and human rights organizations represent data concerning right-wing violence and related legislation. We also evaluate reports on the effectiveness of legislation against hate crime in both countries by organizations such as the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), the anti-racism body of the Council of Europe and the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) of the European Union. In the third part of the chapter, we briefly focus on the hate crime policies adopted by the most important national government programs to counteract right-wing extremism in
both countries.
Chapter 2 gives an overview of relevant national legal provisions for combating and prosecuting hate crimes. We concentrate on the question of how the criminal justice system in both countries treats bias-motivated attacks in contrast to other crimes. Which potential victims groups receive more protection and why? This chapter on legal framework also provides information about the rights of crime victims in court proceedings and available restitution and legal funds, which are sometimes pertinent to litigation strategies.
Chapter 3 deals with the official monitoring systems in both countries. We look at the most important official data sources in Germany and Poland and present the figures provided by government and law enforcement institutions on recorded incidents of hate crimes and related legal proceedings. We also summarize the discussions surrounding official monitoring and registration systems, including the main concerns and complaints expressed by legal experts, NGOs and activists.
Chapter 4 is the research teams’ most unique contribution. This chapter details the results of our study about NGOs that monitor right-wing violence and assist victims of hate crimes. We describe different approaches to the problem of hate crimes in Poland and Germany and how the groups and organizations in both countries understand and apply the term. The section on Polish NGOs discusses the demand and need for monitoring and support activities at length. Furthermore, it tries to identify the main reasons why hate crimes in Poland have not yet been addressed more openly. It explores obstacles and barriers within Polish society as well as limited resources and capacities of many NGOs. Each country chapter provides a tabular overview of the interviewed organizations’ main activities, as well as their perspective on transnational cooperation. In the chapter conclusion, the most important research results are summarized.
In Chapter 5 we make recommendations for further research and projects, where German-Polish cooperation could be beneficial to NGOs that focus on human rights, especially NGOs in Poland. Based on our findings, these recommendations should be considered a basis for further discussion.
1. Heitmeyer, Wilhelm (ed.) 2006. Deutsche Zustände (Folge 4), Frankfurt/Main; Decker, Oliver; Brähler, Elmar 2006. Vom Rand zur Mitte: Rechtsextreme Einstellungen und ihre Einflussfaktoren in Deutschland, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Berlin; Stosunek Polaków do innych narodów 2008. Komunikat z badań CBOS Nr. 193, Warsaw; Prawa gejów i lesbijek 2008. Komunikat z badań CBOS Nr. 88, Warsaw.
2. Nigdy Więcej. Katalog Wypadków Brunatna Księga.
3. OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights 2006. Challenges and Responses to Hate-Motivated Incidents in the OSCE Region for the period January-June 2006, Warsaw, p. 7.
(mabe)
