How much hate-motivated violence was committed in 2019?

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On the International Day for Tolerance, on 16 November 2020, OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) published its data on hate crimes for 2019.

For Croatia, data is available here, containing mostly cases of threats, damages to the property and cases of physical violence, in two categories:

1. Official data on hate crimes as criminal offences.

The police recorded 48 of these cases and most of them were motivated by racism and xenophobia – 36. Six criminal offences were motivated by sexual orientation or gender identity and expression of the victims. The rest six criminal offences, two are motivated by Anti-Semitism, two by bias against Muslims and one motivated by bias against Roma and one by bias against persons with disabilities.

By the type of incidents, threats or threatening behaviour lead with 13 cases, out of which 10 were motivated by racism and xenophobia, two by biases against Muslims and one criminal offense is motivated by the bias against sexual orientation or gender identity and expression.

Twelve criminal offences constitute public incitement to hatred and violence, five motivated by racism and xenophobia, four by bias against sexual orientation or gender identity and expression, two by Anti-Semitism and one by bias against persons with disabilities

There were 11 recorded physical assaults, ten motivated by the racism and xenophobia and one by the bias against sexual orientation or gender identity and expression.

Nine cases of criminal offences of damage to property were mostly motivated by the racism and xenophobia (eight), while one was motivated by the bias against Roma.

One theft / robbery was recorded (motivated by the racism and xenophobia) and two unspecified criminal offences were recorded also motivated by the racism and xenophobia.

 

2. Data that are not part of the official data on hate crimes collected and presented by the Office for Human Rights and the Rights of the National Minorities to the Government (available here), collected by civil society organizations and international organizations (list of contributors is available here).

As many as 53 such incidents were reported by local civil society organizations and international organizations (UNHCR and OSCE-ODIHR).

Out of 53 incidents, as many as 39 were motivated by racism and xenophobia, ten incidents by bias against different sexual orientation or gender identity and expression, three by bias against Roma, while one incident has a double motivation: racism and xenophobia and bias against different sexual orientation or gender identity and expression.

According to the type of the incident, violent attacks against people predominate – 32 such cases were recorded, of which 19 were motivated by racism and xenophobia, 10 were motivated by bias against different sexual orientation or gender identity and expression of the victim, while two attacks were directed against Roma, and one had twofold motivation - a combination of racism and xenophobia and bias against persons of different sexual orientations or gender identity and expression.

Thirteen threats were recorded and all were motivated by racism and xenophobia.

There were also eight attacks against property, seven motivated by racism and xenophobia and one attack against property motivated by bias against Roma.

 

What is the difference between a hate crime (under 1) and a hate incident (under 2)?

Hate crimes refer to criminal acts as recorded and reported by local authorities. These are usually recorded by police and then processed through criminal justice systems. 

Hate incidents are those reported by civil society, international organizations and the Holy See. While these incidents might constitute hate crimes, they may not have been verified by the state authorities. ODIHR reviews every hate incident reported to ensure that those incidents displayed on the ODIHR site fall within the scope of the OSCE’s definition of hate crime. 

Reports on hate incidents from civil society groups play a critical role in hate crime reporting, complementing and contextualizing the official data. Information submitted by civil society allows for a better understanding of the impact and nature of hate crimes. Some incidents are only reported to civil society groups and not to the authorities for various reasons, for instance the fear of secondary victimisation.

The 2019 data contain information provided by participating States, civil society and international organizations. This includes official data reported by 39 states, including disaggregated official hate crime statistics for 25 countries.

The data also include information on hate incidents in 45 participating States, as reported by 148 civil society groups, UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and OSCE missions. These contributions amount to 6,964 hate incidents, including 3,207 disaggregated statistical incidents and 3,757 descriptive incidents.

 

 

This article is published as a part of the project Facts Against Hate, funded by the European Rights, Equality and Citizenship (REC) programme.

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