On December 6^th-7^th, 2016 the Policy Coordinator (Human Rights) of the National LGBT* Rights Organization LGL Tomas Vytautas Raskevičius and the Deputy Head of Police Activity Division of the Lithuanian Police School Vilius Velička participated in a multilateral meeting on police’s role in combating discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and (or) gender identity, organized by the Council of Europe. The Lithuanian representatives shared their good experience in organizing trainings for law enforcement officials in Lithuania with the view of increasing their capacities to effectively respond to the negative phenomenon of hate crimes and (or) hate speech on grounds of sexual orientation and (or) gender identity. The multilateral meeting was attended by representatives of 17 Member States of the Council of Europe.

During the meeting in Strasbourg (France), the representatives of the association LGL and the Lithuanian Police School shared their best practice in organizing trainings for the Lithuanian law enforcement officials in September-November, 2016 regarding the effective investigation and prevention of homophobic, biphobic and transphobic hate crimes and (or) hate speech. In the course of the series of the trainings more than 150 cadets at the police academy, patrolling police officers and pre-trial investigators have been trained. The participants of the trainings have acquired practical skills in the field of working with LGBT* victims of hate crimes and (or) hate speech and ensuring their fundamental rights in accordance to the EU Victim Rights Directive. The training methodology was based on the recently issued LGL’s “Toolkit for the Law Enforcement Bodies on Accommodating the Needs of the Victims of Homophobic and Transphobic Hate Crimes”. This type of trainings in Lithuania were organized for the first time.

In the course of the multilateral meeting on police’s role in combating discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and (or) gender identity, organized by the Council of Europe on December 6^th-7^th, 2016, the human rights standards within the European Code of Police Ethics, the Council of Europe’s manual for police training and European human rights standards for LGBT* people, persons with disabilities and Roma people and other important issues were discussed. The multilateral meeting was organized by the SOGI Unit and the Criminal Law Co-Operation Unit within the Council of Europe.

The activities by the National LGBT* Rights Organization LGL in the field of hate crimes and (or) hate speech are funded within the framework of implementing the project “Accommodating the Needs of the Victims of Homophobic and Transphobic Hate Crimes – Raising the Competences of Law-Enforcement Institutions” (grant agreement No. JUST/2013/FRAC/AG/6163) (financed by the Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Programme of the European Commission) and the project “#NOH8LT: Developing Effective Response to LGBT* Hate Crimes“ (grant agreement No. S-LH500-15-GR-066) (financed by the US State Department).