Austria

Austria regularly reports hate crime data to ODIHR. Austria's hate crime laws are a combination of a general penalty-enhancement provision and a substantive offence. The data reported to ODIHR do not present cases of hate crime and hate speech separately. Hate crime data are collected by the Provincial Agencies for State Protection and Counter Terrorism and the Federal Agency for State Protection and Counter Terrorism (BVT) of the Interior Ministry, as well as by the Ministry of Justice. Hate crime data are regularly published.

SELECT YEAR

OFFICIAL DATA

Year	Hate crimes recorded by police	Prosecuted	Sentenced
2020	156	436	169
2019	125	421	191
2018	307	407	208
2017	302	Not available	Not available
2016	425	Not available	Not available
2015	395	Not available	Not available
2014	186	Not available	Not available
2013	110	Not available	Not available
2012	91	Not available	Not available
2011	59	38	1
2010	101	1	1
2009	62	Not available	Not available

Download official data

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

Reports

Hate crime against Christians and members of other religions

The Holy See reported three arson attacks against churches that took place on the same night; 74 cases of church desecration including 55 that also involved theft of church property and collection money. Austrian authorities reported back that religious bias motivation has not been registered in those cases.

Racist and xenophobic hate crime

The Centre for Work against Ethnic Discrimination (ZARA) reported two cases of threats, against an African man and a Peruvian woman; seven physical assaults, including against a man of Turkish origin by a group; a Peruvian woman who was with her daughter; a Chechen family, also involving a threat with a knife; a couple in a café; a Jamaican man; and against a man of Turkish origin, which included a threat using a dog.

Anti-Semitic hate crime

The Forum Against Anti-Semitism reported 32 cases of graffiti, two cases of damage to property, six physical assaults and 38 cases of threats by email or telephone.

Anti-Muslim hate crime

The Centre for Work against Ethnic Discrimination (ZARA) reported one case where six pigs’ heads were left outside a mosque and the prayer area was sprayed with pig’s blood.

INTERNATIONAL REPORTS

Racist and xenophobic hate crime

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) recommended that Austria increase efforts to prosecute and punish forms of discrimination, including hate crime, and to intensify the training for prosecutors, judges, lawyers, other judicial and police officers in the criminal justice system on the principles of the Convention.