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4.2.7 Summary/Conclusions
In the course of our research, it became clear that, despite the growing number of organizations active in this field in Germany, there is a clear gap between NGOs (especially those involved in educational and youth programs, inter-cultural dialogues, various forms of political and public campaigning) and groups that focus primarily on monitoring hate crime and supporting those affected by it. There has been limited financial and political support for NGOs in the western part of the country despite the commitment expressed by civil society to fight right-wing extremism. Only in the new federal states, where the CIVITAS program had allowed for the creation of victim support organizations — organizations that specialized in right-wing violence and that were made possible through constant government funding — could we identify a well-established and stable approach to dealing with hate crime.
Organizations of the LGBT communities pioneered the victim-centered approach by first defining and addressing the problem of structural violence and hate crimes. While rarely using the term in a juridical sense, the victim support organizations originally established under the CIVITAS program still operate with a general understanding of hate crimes in Germany. The main focus for these organizations is on right-wing acts of violence because of the specific objectives and tasks assigned to them by government programs. Resulting from a long-term harmonization process, a set of definitions and standards has been drawn up in an effort to improve the efficacy of data comparison regarding incidents in East Germany. This data focuses on the motivation of the offense, which is also a criterion used by the police today when assessing offenses as right-wing, xenophobic, and/or anti-Semitic. Most other NGOs included in our sample do not operate with clear-cut definitions of the term »hate crime.« Instead, they deal with the problem in a non-systematic way; some under the rubric of anti-discrimination work.
With regard to monitoring activities, we identified various methods and approaches. The first is victimization surveys, which attempt to fill the data gap on hate crimes directed towards particular target groups. The Central Council of Roma and Sinti in Germany and organizations representing the LGBT community are two of several organizations that have conducted such surveys. One important initiative, which has been systematically monitoring and documenting anti-Semitic incidents throughout Germany based on media surveillance, is the Berlin-based Anti-Fascist Press Archiveand and Educational Center in Berlin. The artist Rebecca Forner and a small research team created an exhibition on victims of right-wing hate crimes in Germany (2000- 2005) based on month-long joint investigations by journalists of the newspapers Frankfurter Rundschau and Der Tagesspiegel, last published in 2003. The exhibition currently depicts 136 violent deaths as a result of racist or right-extremist crimes.
The regular publications and statistics provided by specialized victim support organizations that are active in the most eastern states (Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia), are the most exhaustive sources of information on right-wing violence and related crimes in East Germany. This information comes from various activities and sources: outreach activities to victims; active research, including the regular evaluation of local and regional press, relevant Internet sources etc.; contacts to regional and local networks, comprising of other NGOs, anti-Fascist groups, youth centers, unions, church groups, local politicians, committed individuals and journalists, all of whom provide them with relevant information. All victim support organizations compile and publish aggregated information on hate crimes for their region at least once a year. They have no counterparts in the old federal states of Germany. Most of the groups in West Germany talked about the need to improve the monitoring and documentation system; they also complained about their precarious funding and staff situation. While almost all agreed that there is a lack of information with regard to the amount of violence in the old federal states, they admitted that they do not have the needed resources for outreach activities or for investigating the cases they find out about in more detail. As a result, developing comprehensible data collection systems and means for assessing and documenting hate crimes has had an overall low priority so far.
The geographic distribution of organizations that provide legal and psycho-social services to victims of right-wing violence is also uneven, mainly resulting from specific federal and state government funding programs. Out of all the victim support organizations, organizations serving the LGBT communities were the first ones to set up specialized emergency hotlines and counseling centers with the help of local government programs. In metropolitan regions such as Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne or Dresden, the LGBT infrastructure is comparatively well-established. They possess a large amount of expertise that can be shared with other NGOs interested in running similar programs. In contrast, the situation in more rural areas, particularly in the eastern states, appears to be underdeveloped with respect to both the social services and the knowledge about the particular situation and vulnerability/exposure to violence targeting gay and lesbian communities.
The approach of the eight organizations that were created under the CIVITAS program to assist victims of right-wing violence in East Germany is considered the most comprehensive model in the field. They have all adopted a human rights approach by making the perspective and interests of the victims the guiding rinciple for all their activities. When consulting victims, these organizations practice low-threshold counseling and utilize an outreach concept that incorporatesthe community and groups affected by the violence. Their core services comprise individual psycho-social counseling, crisis intervention, advice and guidance through legal proceedings, and assistance with filing applications for victim compensation and other monetary support. Another important victim support strategy is local interventions. This lends guidance to municipalities regarding how to get involved on behalf of hate crime victims, and it also pushes local communities, politicians and other officials to take a clear stand against right-wing manifestations and racism. No similar initiatives could be identified in West Germany.
Under the auspices of the new federal program begun in 2007 (Competent for Democracy — Consultation Networks and Mobile Intervention Against Right-wing Extremism), provisions to help and empower victims of hate crimes are still very underdeveloped. While the new federal program does not represent a complete shift of paradigms with regard to the combat of right-wing extremism, racism and anti-Semitism, important modifications illustrate a changed approach that focuses less on the prevention of hate crimes and the strengthening of independent NGO structures. In some cities in the old federal states, anti-discrimination offices, mainly established in the late 1990s and run by NGOs, already serve as contact points for victims of hate crimes and provide a range of support services, including legal aid and psycho-social assistance. The financial situation, however, has remained rather limited and precarious in most cases. In other locations without such offices, general crime victim support organizations might also be qualified institutions to consult about hate crimes. Experts interviewed, however, were rather skeptical about whether they really can be a substitute for specialized NGOs, since the political dimension of hate crimes not only requires specific knowledge about the ideologies in question, but also a special commitment from the counselors, independence from state institutions and an active outreach approach.
In the course of our inquiries, we could not ascertain where migrants and refugees usually seek help (psycho-social and legal) after experiencing attacks and harassment in the western states. The same is true for young anti-Fascist activists and members of other left-leaning youth scenes, who constitute the second largest target group of right-wing extremist harassment and assaults in Germany. Since police statistics and media reports provide clear evidence that this problem is not restricted to particular regions in East Germany, this remains one of the most striking conclusions to our research and needs further investigation.
It is difficult to anticipate how the problem of right-wing violence and related hate crimes in Germany will develop in the near and projected future. Many experts point to the fact that a culture based on right-wing extremist values and activities has already become a significant problem not only in the former GDR, but also in many rural regions of West Germany. If it is true that professional victim support organizations not only serve the individuals and communities most affected, but also serve as watchdogs by assuming relevant monitoring functions, new NGOs and structures embedded in local networks would help to shed more light on otherwise undocumented cases of right-wing and related hate crimes throughout Germany.
(OPP)
