Midis de STRIGES "External pressure or local need? Logics of fighting anti-LGBT hate crime in South-East and East Europe"

Le 28/11/2022

par Piotr Godzisz, ULB/Atelier Genre(s) et Sexualité(s)

Much political science research sees EU conditionality as the driving force behind the reforms in the area of LGBT and human rights in Eastern Europe. Operating the logic of consequence, the external incentives model (Schimmelfennig and Sedelmeier, 2005) argues that the development of legal and policy frameworks in EU candidate states is linked to material benefits for the country which accepts EU norms and values. This is, for example, how Godzisz (2019) explains why Western Balkan countries have good hate crime legislation which they rarely use – a fairly common problem if policymakers are only interested in “ticking boxes” for the purpose of external validation. While the existing explanation may account for the flurry of legal changes in the past decades, it fails to account for the slower and deeper deliberative processes of changes of changes in meanings, practices and structures which can be increasingly observed in recent years. A key example is Georgia, which, contrary to theoretical expectations and media depictions of state-sponsored homophobia, has recently started to detect and penalise surprisingly high levels of anti-LGBT hate crimes. An alternative theoretical lens is needed to understand the mechanisms behind this phenomenon and identify which actors – such as international norm brokers and local change agents – have a role in it. For that, this paper will build a case for more attention to be paid to processes of socialisation and learning (Börzel and Risse, 2000) as drivers of Europeanisation outside of the EU, in the hope that it will allow us to make sense of why, when, and how countries in South-East and East Europe address anti-LGBT violence.

Piotr GODZISZ est un chercheur interdisciplinaire ayant une formation en sciences politiques et en criminologie. Il a obtenu un doctorat de l’University College London et un Master de l’Université de Varsovie. Il est engagé dans la recherche, la formation et la défense des droits humains à travers l’Europe et a travaillé pour des institutions et des organisations telles que l’OSCE et le Conseil d’Europe. Il était le chercheur principal de deux projets de recherche transnationaux financés par l’Union européenne - Call It Hate (2017-2019) et Come Forward (2016-2018). Il est actuellement boursier individuel Marie Skłodowska-Curie à l’AGS à l’ULB.

Lundi 28 novembre de 12h15 à 14h

Salle de réception
Bâtiment DE1 – Niveau 3 – R3.105 Avenue Antoine Depage 1 1000 Bruxelles

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