Amendments to Section 140 of the Criminal Code of Slovakia on the aggravation of penalties in cases of bias-motivated crime entered into effect in 2013. The amendment includes sexual orientation among the protected characteristics listed in the provision.
The Ministry of Interior and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung organized two trainings for 50 police officers, including police officers with a Roma background, serving in areas with substantial Roma populations whose primary responsibility in autumn 2013 was to liaise between the local Roma population and the police. The trainings also addressed the issues of bias-motivated crimes and current forms of violent extremism.
The Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians reported one incident of the desecration of a church.
Initiative Otherness reported one incident that took place during Rainbow Pride, during which a large group threatened and threw eggs and bottles of water at attendees.
In its fifth report, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) observed the amendments to the Slovak Criminal Code’s aggravating circumstances provision and, in that context, reiterated the need for detailed statistical data on racist, homophobic and transphobic crimes.
The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) recommended that Slovakia take action to ensure the effective investigation and prosecution of hate crimes, and that the state provide the Committee with comprehensive hate crime statistics.
ODIHR observes that the law enforcement agencies of the Slovak Republic have not recorded the bias motivations of hate crimes.