Group setting up center to monitor hate crimes in Turkey

The Social Change Association, established to fight ethnic, religious, regional and sexual discrimination, has announced that it will be setting up centers to monitor hate crimes in Turkey. The association's Hate Crime Monitoring Center will be supported by the Stop Nationalism and Racism Initiative. According to association officials, the center will use the model of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. The association said the primary duties of the center, set to begin operations later this year, will be monitoring and publishing reports on hate crimes, which will then be submitted to the government and judicial institutions to promote solutions. The center will fill an important gap, both in Turkey and the world, as there are not many examples of mechanisms or institutions that monitor hate crimes alone, it said. Next month the Social Change Association will release a guide explaining its methodology, and to serve as a roadmap for individuals and groups that will work with the center. Levent Sensever, the group's secretary-general, said they have long been working on guidelines for the center's monitoring policies. Experts from the OSCE's Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights as well as US-based civil society groups also support the center's activities, he said.