University of Brescia (Italy), Lambda Warsaw (Poland) and GLAS Foundation (Bulgaria), together with partners from 10 European countries, are excited to announce the international conference Breaking the barriers: Improving access to justice for victims of anti-LGBT hate crime, organized within the framework of the EU-funded project Come Forward. Violence targeting lesbians, gay men, bisexual, trans and intersex people remain a problem across Europe. Victimization surveys and police statistics show that members of the LGBT community are victimized more often than members of the general population; that victims tend to not report attacks; and that hate crime can harm people in a particularly damaging way. Despite that, legal protection from bias crimes on the continent is patchy and many victims lack access to justice.

Hate crime is a problem that cannot be contained to one academic discipline or policy area. The only way to effectively combat it is by bringing together key stakeholders: community organizations, support services, international and national policy makers and scholars. Together, these interdisciplinary groups can help each other understand and acknowledge the problem, discuss solutions and share promising practices. They can help counter hate crime and break the barriers that victims encounter when reporting and seeking support.

Conference themes
The conference will focus on the following themes:
- Hate crime legislation on the books and in practice
- Training of hate crime professionals
- Community outreach and reporting of hate crime
- Recording hate crime
- Support services for hate crime victims
- Rights of hate crime victims
The list is not intended to be exhaustive. Contributors should feel free to examine any other relevant aspect of anti-LGBT hate crime law, policy, research, training, practice or advocacy.