A total of 1,300 hate crimes were originally reported to ODIHR. The number of individual crime reports was 910, 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.
The authorities have been implementing the National Action Plan on Fundamental and Human Rights for 2017–2019, which includes projects on hate crimes and hate speech.
The Ministry of the Interior has designed a new Police Preventive Work Strategy, which sets hate crime as a priority. The National Police Board is currently developing an Action Plan to implement the strategy, including measures against hate crime.
The Ministry of Justice has continued implementing an EU-funded project, "Against Hate". One of the main objectives of the project is to further develop the national reporting mechanisms, especially regarding statistics on the prosecution and sentencing of hate crime. The project also aims to enhance the capacity of the police, prosecutors and judges to counteract hate crime and hate speech, and to develop support services for victims of hate crime.
The figure presented here covers the following grounds: race/colour, ethnicity/national origin, citizenship and language.
This category also includes hate crimes committed between Shia and Sunni Muslims.
Official data were reported separately for hate crimes motivated by bias against lesbian, gay and bisexual people (56 hate crimes) and by bias against transgender people (seven hate crimes), but are presented together here.
The Council of Europe's Ad Hoc Committee Of Experts On Roma And Traveller Issues (CAHROM) published relevant recommendations in its "Thematic Report on Roma and Travellers' Access to Justice (with a gender focus)."
The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) published relevant recommendations in its "Fifth Report on Finland."
ODIHR observes that Finland has met most OSCE commitments on hate crime data collection and reporting.