Finland | HCRW

Finland regularly reports hate crime data to ODIHR and has conducted victimization surveys to measure unreported hate crime incidents. The Finnish police closely co-operate with the Finnish Human Rights League, the Finnish Red Cross and Finnish Victim Support to develop a co-ordinated response to combat hate crimes. These organizations, along with the national police and other key authorities, form a network tasked by Finland's Ministry of Justice with monitoring hate crime in Finland and developing effective preventative measures. In 2017, Finland implemented ODIHR's Training Against Hate Crimes for Law Enforcement (TAHCLE) programme, training over 1,000 police officers. The programme’s hate crime modules have since been integrated into pre- and in-service training for police.

SELECT YEAR

Download the 2015 hate crime report for Finland

OFFICIAL DATA REPORTED BY STATES

Year	Hate crimes recorded by police	Prosecuted	Sentenced
2023	1,361	49	48
2022	1,094	121	27
2021	1,390	44	30
2020	1177	48	42
2019	900	22	17
2018	880	55	21
2017	1497	63	37
2016	1311	N/A	N/A
2015	1704	Not available	Not available
2014	954	Not available	Not available
2013	904	Not available	Not available
2012	836	38	12
2011	1418	29	12
2010	1407	38	Not available
2009	1580	41	Not available

About 2015 Data

The police also record criminal forms of intolerance other than hate crimes, such as defamation, other hate speech offences and criminal discrimination. These data are reported to ODIHR but are not included in the overall figure or in the breakdown below.

Download official data

National developments

In order to increase the reporting of racist crimes, various awareness raising campaigns have been conducted in the framework of the "2012-2015 Internal Security Programme." The programme also initiated surveys among people of immigrant origin in order to gain information about their sense of security in the country. Finland is also part of a European Union project that aims at developing an EU model of good practice to counter racial and religious hate crime and hate speech, and that addresses effective systems to report on hate crime through capacity building for law-enforcement and ethnic communities.

The newly published "National Action Plan for the Prevention of Violent Radicalisation and Extremism" made a connection between hate crime and extremism, and commits to develop better mechanisms to counter the problem.

Finland signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ODIHR to implement the Training against Hate Crime for Law Enforcement (TAHCLE) programme.

KEY OBSERVATION

ODIHR observes that Finland has not reported information on the numbers of prosecuted hate crime cases to ODIHR.

Incidents reported by civil society, international organizations and the Holy See

INTERNATIONAL REPORTS

No information is available.