On October 15th Make Room and the Latvian Centre for Human Rights held its second seminar “Discrimination, hate crimes and hate speech: what can I do?”. The online seminar was mainly attended by newly arrived foreign students of the University of Latvia who have not yet faced discrimination, hate crime, and/or hate speech. The participating students were from India, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Ukraine, Germany, Albania, Sri Lanka, Spain, Egypt, Russia, United Kingdom, Japan, Indonesia, and Ghana. 

During the two-hour interactive online session, participants learned how to identify discrimination, hate crime and hate speech, analyzed practical situations, and understood how and to whom report incidents of discrimination, hate crimes, and hate speech.

Most of the participants have recently arrived in Latvia and due to the current Covid-19 restrictions have not yet had many personal interactions with public authorities and other individuals, therefore have not yet faced incidents of discrimination, hate crimes, and hate speech. But participants agreed that it is of utmost importance to know how to identify and to be aware of whom to report if faced such incidents. 

We are glad to raise the much-needed awareness on the topic, educate the community of newcomers about the legal provisions when faced with discrimination or subjected to hate crime and/or hate speech. Discrimination, hate crimes, and hate speech are punishable offenses and wrong-doers can be brought to justice, but only if and when reported.

If you ever face a hate crime or hate speech, please report it to LCHR by using the electronic form:  http://cilvektiesibas.org.lv/en/database/report-hate-crime/ 

In case of discrimination, you can report using this form: http://cilvektiesibas.org.lv/en/database/report-discrimination   

This was the second seminar of a series of 5 seminars raising awareness within the community of newcomers in regard to the topic.


The session was organized by the Latvian Centre for Human Rights in partnership with Foundation “Make Room” in the framework of a project “On the way to more tolerant society – awareness, education, support and cooperation” The project is funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through EEA / Norwegian grant program “Active Citizens Fund”.

#AktivoIedzivotajuFonds #ActiveCitizensFund #EEAgrants #EEAgrantsLatvia