The Safe To Be Handbook is an expert collection of 5 experts’ articles on the theoretical and practical aspects of anti-LGBTI hate crimes and restorative justice. The handbook, created by Speak Out project consortium, including the Bilitis Foundation and Çavaria (also partners at the Let’sGoByTalking project), aims to show the potential of implementing restorative justice in cases of anti-LGBTI hate crimes.
The study traces the situation in 9 different countries, among 9 organizations that are part of the Speak Out project consortium, and provides a guide to the application of established methods for resolving conflicts and techniques against hate crimes, designed for professionals and defenders in the field.
“In today’s age of globalization and technological advancement, a well-established partnership network of LGBTI rights organizations will contribute immensely to the discussion on the topic of restorative justice. We hope it will work in a more meaningful way for the community. Yet, it often seems that wherever we are on our journey to a society that fully respects the human rights and rights of LGBTI +, we still have a long way to go. At the same time, justice is much easier if we have a solid foundation and know the available protection and control tools. We hope that this handbook will introduce very good practices in working for a safer Europe for LGBTI + people and peaceful coexistence for all of us. ” – say the authors of the guide.
The handbook is composed of 5 expert articles which give a historical and theoretical overview on
restorative justice and possibilities it creates for tackling hate crimes, as well as 9 chapters by country, which include information on the local community, policies, practices and procedures that have been developed and used in the field of restorative justice. Anyone who reads it will be able to follow from the evolution of the topic to get an idea of the current situation in different countries. Safe To Be focuses in particular on the opportunities and challenges faced by restorative justice processionals and the aspects it may have on crimes based on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression.
The organizations, part of the study, are: BILITIS Foundation (Bulgaria), Çavaria (Belgium), FELGTB (Spain), GALOP (Great Britain), HÁTTÉR SOCIETY (Hungary), ILGA (Portugal), LGL (Lithuania), MOZAIKA (Latvia), Estonian Human Rights Centre (Estonia).
All organizations participating in Safe To Be are affiliated with LGBTI communities in their respective countries and have experience in the topic of hate crime and hate speech, which they want to serve their communities and professional stakeholders.
The Handbook is available at: https://safetobe.eu/professionals/
For more information on the Speak Out project, please visit https://www.speakout-project.eu/