On 8 and 9 November 2021, Council of Europe units (the Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals Programme, the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Unit and the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights) in partnership with the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice of Romania organised an online seminar to launch the HELP course “Fight against Racism, Xenophobia, Homophobia and Transphobia” for a group of 17 Romanian prosecutors from different Prosecutor’s offices.

The implementation of this course aims in particular to support the execution of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights delivered in the case M.C. and A.C. v. Romania, concerning the failure of the Romanian authorities to take into account possible discriminatory motives in the investigation of a homophobic attack.

Gabriela Scutea - General Prosecutor of Romania and Oana Ezer - Government Agent to the European Court of Human Rights, welcomed the cooperation process with the Council Europe and emphasised the need and importance of such training in ensuring effective investigations into hate-motivated violations of rights guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights.

The seminar further addressed the Council of Europe standards on hate crimes and hate speech against LGBTI persons, the co-operation activities of the Council of Europe in these areas, the relevant case-law of the European Court of Human Rights as well as the best practices identified in the execution of other similar judgments of the European Court on hate crimes, and brought forward perspectives and challenges posed by hate crimes and hate speech against LGBTI persons at the national level.

This event represents a first milestone of a strategic cooperation process with the Romanian authorities on preventing and redressing further hate crimes and hate speech against LGBTI persons.