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4.2.4.2 Hate Crime Victim Assistance under the Program Competent for Democracy— Consultation Networks and Mobile Intervention Against Right-wing Extremism in West Germany
In summer 2007 the government program CIVITAS ended and was replaced by a new national program called Competent for Democracy—Consultation Networks and Mobile Intervention Against Right-wing Extremism, which grants further federal and state funding to NGOs in both parts of Germany (East and West). (5) Mainly because of intense lobbying efforts from an alliance of NGOs, academic institutions and some politicians, the »old CIVITAS projects« were able to continue their work in East Germany. The advocating efforts to establish similar structures in the Western federal states were not successful; therefore, we wanted to find out if and how these newly established networks deal with the problem of right-wing violence and (the lack of) provisions for the affected victims. (6)
The Conceptual Framework
Under this new program, consultation networks in West Germany are supposed to be responsible for crisis intervention with respect to right-wing activities. The structural framework of these networks consists of three elements: a »pool of experts,« the coordinator (or coordinating body) and mobile intervention teams (Mobile Interventionsteams, MIT).
According to the funding guidelines, these network should include: representatives of state institutions (police and intelligence services), ministries and other government departments, NGO counseling services, experts from youth and social work, justice, medicine and psychology, academic researchers, mediators and, finally, civil society initiatives. From these actors, MITs are set up by the regional coordinating bodies. The idea is that the MIT will respond to acute right-wing extremist, xenophobic or anti-Semitic threats. (7) Generally, any intervention should be clearly related to a specific incident, immediately and for a limited period of time, i.e. a maximum of six months.
The team will employ an outreach approach, i.e. consult, counsel and provide other forms of local interventions for affected regions, municipalities and communities. (8) The tasks of MITs and their partners at the local level are charged with jointly analyzing the incident, its context and identifying available resources. Based on theses analyses, they will create an action plan. Any »concerned individuals« can be included in the target group for counseling services. According to the guidelines, this might include victims of right-wing, xenophobic or anti-Semitic attacks but in most cases, the individuals seeking counseling will likely be initiatives, institutions and people (in schools, youth centers, administration etc.) who are confronted with right-wing and related activities.
Consultation Networks in Western Germany
About six months after the adoption of the new program, consultation networks were set up in most of West Germany. Even if their work is just beginning, preliminary conclusions can be drawn with regard to the support provisions for victims of rightwing violence. (9) In contrast to East Germany, no consultation network in the old federal states has publicly declared professional support for victims of hate crimes a priority. (10) Only half of all consultation networks mention the issue of victims of right-wing or racist violence at all. Coordinating institutions know little about the social and individual contexts of hate crime victims, the amount, and which social groups and communities are most affected in their respective area. According to our research, out of the nine coordinating points contacted, only one could provide an overview on victim groups. (11) However, consultation networks from Bavaria, Bremen, Lower Saxony and Rhineland-Palatinate explicitly voiced the need to gain more knowledge about this issue. (12) Reinhard Koch, a long-time member of the NGO ARuG in Braunschweig, believes that in the old federal states, awareness about rightwing extremism as a structural problem is »very underdeveloped.« Furthermore, he called attention to the lack of the necessary infrastructure like counseling services for victims of right-wing violence. (13) Friedrich Burschel, the former coordinator of the consultation network in Bavaria, expressed a similar opinion:
»In my experience with the work of the mobile intervention teams in Bavaria, I can say that there is a clear need for a permanent structure of victim assistance and outreach. In every case, in every city or village we went to, people told us about numerous incidents and violent forms of right-wing activities, but there hasn’t been the political will so far to make them more public and deal with them. And many victims, especially migrants and refugees, are still too afraid to go the police and report these incidents.« (14)
To this date, the consulting networks do not systematically conduct outreach activities to actual victims or potential victim groups. After all, limited financial resources do not allow for the constant evaluation of media reports, active research on incidents and establishing contacts to respective victims—steps which are required for effective hate victim support. On the other hand, specialized civil society organizations, which are often included in these networks, have information on single cases, certain regions or victim groups. (15) Some are also reaching out to specific target groups, for instance anti-racist football fans, relatives of right-wingers and breakaways from the right-wing scene. Some consulting networks have delegated the task of initial counseling to NGOs, such as the Lidice House in Bremen, which have gained visibility and trust among some of the victim groups.
Strategies on how to deal with actual cases of hate crimes must still be developed: In most states, plans for the installation and adoption of victim counseling services have not even been drawn up yet. In only two states — Lower Saxony and Hesse — professional, albeit non-specialized, victim support institutions (Stiftung Opferhilfe Niedersachsen, Hessische Hilfen), are involved. (16) Opferhilfe is criticized for not being independent from state supervision, but rather subordinate to it. (17) In the state of Hesse, it has been agreed upon that the Mobile Consulting Team should facilitate initial counseling for victims of right-wing violence. According to the team, »clients« will probably be referred to a refugee advice center or similar organizations. (18) Some states even discuss the possibility of victims being counseled by the Regional Offices for the Protection of the Constitution, which also run programs for those wanting to leave the right-wing scene (Programs for Breaking Away, Aussteigerprogramme). (19) Here, institutional independence is even more at stake.
In the majority of the western consultation networks, civil society organizations serve as the first point of contact for all kinds of clients, including victims of right-wing violence. However, with the exception of the Lidice House in Bremen, which has been conducting counseling for some time now, it is unknown how much experience these organizations have in psychological counseling and social work.
The federal funding program defines victim support organizations as an integral part of consulting networks in East Germany and thereby safeguards their nominal survival. However, the new program does not endorse the dissemination and adoption of models from the preceding CIVITAS program to the western states. To the contrary, the pre-existing traditions and priorities for dealing with right-wing extremism in the western federal states have been subsumed by the new program, thus prolonging the lack of attention concerning victims of right-wing violence. In summary, program implementation is inadequate in the eastern and western regions, even as right-wing tendencies become increasingly common all over Germany.
5. The program allots different budgets for consultation networks in East and West Germany. The budget of networks in the new federal states will decrease from 400,000 euros in 2008 to 250,000 euros in 2010. As the federal contribution is downscaled in the new federal states, installments for networks in the old federal states will increase from 25,000 euros in 2008 to 250,000 euros in 2010.
6. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (ed.) 2006. Gegen Rechtsextremismus in Ost und West: Andere Ursachen — Andere Gegenstrategien: Konferenzdokumentation, Berlin, p. 46.
7. The official program website provides an example of this type of threat: After a summer fair in a small municipality, »fisticuffs broke out between visitors,« and a youth gave the Hitler salute. In the talks that followed between mayor, police and a youth center, it became apparent that similar incidents were frequent, and right-wing symbols had become increasingly popular. The officials had been at a loss for how to best deal with the problem, but now the coordination point helps them create community strategies for combating right-wing trends, such as educational classes for teens that teach them arguments against rightwing extremism. See: Kompetent für Demokratie (n.d.). Beratungsnetzwerke, Berlin.
8. This is not to be confused with the outreach approach of the CIVITAS projects, which do research on incidents, establish contacts with the victims affected and communicate the offer for support.
9. The following findings are mainly based on the consultation networks descriptions of themselves, their member organizations and information available available to the public through the grant-processing institution Foundation Democratic Youth (Stiftung Demokratische Jugend) and politicians such as Monika Lazar (MP for Alliance 90/The Greens). Furthermore, additional information provided by the coordinators was added in some sections. We also conducted an interview with the former coordinator of the consultation network in Bavaria. Thorough research, however, was not intended within the scope of this study.enstrategien: Konferenzdokumentation, Berlin, p. 46.
10. Schleswig-Holstein, featuring the highest number of hate crimes per capita among the old federal states, has not even installed a consultation network.
11. According to the coordinator of the consultation network in the city state of Bremen, anti-racist football fans, anti-Fascist activists and journalists specialized on right-wing extremism were the main targets. E-mail correspondence with Marja Sabaß, 23 Apr 2008.
12. Interview with Fritz Burschel (Bavaria); e-mail correspondence with Marja Sabaß (Bremen); telephone inquiry with Marc Coester (Lower Saxony) and Felix Eitel (Rhineland-Palatinate).
13. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung 2006. Rechtsextremismus — andere Problemlagen in Ost und West?. In: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (ed.). Gegen Rechtsextremismus in Ost und West: Andere Ursachen–Andere Gegenstrategien, Konferenzdokumentation, Berlin, p. 22-32: p. 25.
14. Interview with Fritz Burschel.
15. Interviews with Lidice House (Bremen), ARuG (Lower Saxony) and Anti-Discrimination Office Siegen (NRW); telephone inquiry with Adolf-Bender-Werk (Saarland); internet information from the Institute for Social Studies, Education and Counseling in Bavaria (Institut für Sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung Bildung und Beratung, www.ifsbb.de).
16. Opferhilfe Niedersachsen, a general victim counseling office in Verden (Lower Saxony) has dealt with some cases that have a right-wing or racist background. Unfortunately, with the relatively short research period, a longer face-to-face interview could not be arranged.
17. Interview with Opferhilfe Hamburg.
18. Telephone inquiry, 8 Apr 2008.
19. In a recent publicaton, the Ministry for Social Affairs in the state of Bremen considers »re-activating the Program for Breaking Away (Aussteigerprogramm) and extending it to the protection of victims of right-wing violence.« Senatorin für Arbeit, Frauen, Gesundheit, Jugendarbeit und Soziales der Freien Hansestadt Bremen 2008. Konzeption zur Integration von Zuwanderern und Zuwanderinnen im Lande Bremen, 2007–2011: Grundsätze, Leitbilder und Handlungsziele für die bremische Integrationspolitik, Bremen, p. 18. This undertaking has to be seen in the context of recent cases of organized intimidation of victims and witnesses. In the state of Hesse, the Program for Breaking Away (IKARus) is actually the coordinating point for the consultation network.
(OPP)
