Finland

Finland regularly reports hate crime data to ODIHR. Finland has conducted victimization surveys to measure unreported hate crime. The Finnish police closely co-operates 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 adequate measures to prevent such crimes. Finland implemented ODIHR's Training Against Hate Crimes for Law Enforcement (TAHCLE) programme in 2017 and went on to train over 1,000 police officers on hate crimes before integrating the programme's hate crime modules into pre- and in-service training for police.

Hate crime data collection in Finland
Support for hate crime victims in Finland

OFFICIAL DATA

Year Hate crimes recorded by police Prosecuted Sentenced
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 2019 Data

    The police also recorded 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. Prosecution and sentencing numbers only represent cases flagged by the police as hate crimes.

Hate crime recorded by police

A total of 1,237 hate crimes were originally reported to ODIHR. The number of individual crime reports was 899, as one crime report can include several hate crimes. This number included cases of ethnic agitation, defamation and discrimination, which were removed and are not presented here. With the consent of the Roma community, hate crime against Roma people has been included as a category separate from Racism and Xenophobia.

National developments

November 2019 marked the end of a two-year project "Against Hate", funded by European Commission Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme and co-ordinated by the Ministry of Justice. Project activities were focused on developing hate crime reporting and strengthening the capacities of  police, prosecutors and judges to handle cases of hate crime and hate speech, as well as on improving support for hate crime victims. The project included training activities, including five regional training events for police officers, prosecutors and judges in May 2019. A hate crime manual for prosecutors and judges was developed, and a shadow report on reported hate crime cases was published in March 2019. In November 2019, the project released three episodes of a podcast dealing with hate crime. The project also saw the publication in March 2019 of a shadow report on victims' experiences of hate crimes, aimed at including their perspectives in discussions on the issue (https://www.riku.fi/binary/file/-/id/79/fid/2142). Unlike the report on hate crimes by the Police University College, this report drew on qualitative rather than statistical data, and focused on the experiences and needs of victims. This type of data gathering will continue in the "Facts against Hate", launched in December 2019 and co-ordinated by Ministry of Justice.

INCIDENTS REPORTED BY OTHER SOURCES

Kantor Center reported only statistical data. This explains the discrepancy between the graphic above and the incidents included below.

Anti-Muslim hate crime

Date Type of incident Source Description
2019-05 Attacks against property
SETA
 Show info
2019-03 Attacks against property
SETA
 Show info

Anti-Christian hate crime

Date Type of incident Source Description
2019-07 Attacks against property
OIDAC
 Show info

INTERNATIONAL REPORTS

Racist and xenophobic hate crime

The Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers published relevant recommendations in its "Resolution on the Implementation of the Framework Convention for the protection of National Minorities by Finland."

KEY OBSERVATION

ODIHR observes that Finland has met most OSCE commitments on hate crime data collection and reporting.