The police statistics are retrieved using a different methodology than those of the prosecutors and courts. This contributes to the discrepancy between police records and the number of prosecuted and sentenced cases. The discrepancy is also due to the fact that a low percentage of all hate crime cases recorded by police are flagged using a specific hate crime code in the police system; only flagged cases are dealt with as hate crimes by prosecutors. The flagging percentage has increased in 2022, but still not all cases are flagged.
Cases of defamation and discrimination reported to ODIHR are not included in the breakdown below as they fall outside of the OSCE's definition of hate crime. With the consent of the Roma community, hate crimes against Roma people have been presented as a separate category below.
The Government Action Plan for Combating Racism and Promoting Good Relations between Population Groups was published by the Ministry of Justice in January 2022. The Action Plan is based on a situation assessment, and it includes eight key objectives and 52 measures to be carried out in different branches of government in 2021–2023. The Action Plan aims to dismantle structural inequalities in society, promote non-discrimination in Finnish working life, strengthen the authorities' equality competences, raise awareness of racism and its various forms – including hate crime – and develop research and data collection on the matter. The programme includes measures to tackle hate crime.
In 2022, the Ministry of Justice continued to implement a two-year project, Osaavat (Competent Actors), funded by the European Commission's Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme. The project aims to strengthen actions to combat hate crimes and harassment, especially by developing the competences of professionals in various fields. Project partners are the Ministry of the Interior, the Office of the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman and the Anti-Racist Forum. The objective of the project is to improve national co-ordination and information exchange, strengthen the competence of professionals, develop data collection and strengthen the role of civil society in work to combat hate crimes. This is done by conceptualizing a Centre of Excellence for work against hate crimes and discrimination, and by piloting the Centre's activities. The project will also assess the functioning of the concept and activities of the Centre of Excellence. The project also aims to strengthen the competence of authorities in the fields of education and law enforcement. To this end, the Ministry of Interior organized 11 training sessions for police (one in each police district). Furthermore, a training for police chiefs was organized and material published.
In 2022, hate crimes against the Russian minority in Finland were specifically monitored first on a weekly basis and later on a monthly basis. The monitoring has shown that there has been a slight increase in cases against the minority due to Russia's military attack on Ukraine.
On 1 January 2023, an amendment to the Criminal Code of Finland entered into force, adding "gender" to the list of protected characteristics.
Official data for hate crimes motivated by bias against lesbian, gay and bisexual people (91 hate crimes) and by bias against transgender people (30 hate crimes) were reported separately, but are presented together here.
The figures presented here cover the following grounds: race/colour, ethnicity/national origin, and citizenship and language. They also include hate crimes committed with an anti-Roma bias.
ODIHR recognizes Finland's efforts to improve its hate crime recording, data collection mechanisms, and local co-operation practices. However, based on the available information, ODIHR observes that Finland would benefit from raising awareness among and building the capacity of prosecutors to address hate crime.
ODIHR recalls that in Ministerial Council Decision 9/09, participating States committed to introduce or further develop professional training and capacity-building activities for law enforcement, prosecution, and judicial officials dealing with hate crimes. ODIHR stands ready to support Finland in meeting its relevant commitments through the provision of comprehensive resources and tailored capacity-building assistance for prosecution and judiciary.
🛈 Please note that the total number of incidents may be lower than the sum of incidents presented in the breakdown chart above, as some incidents involve multiple bias motivations.
🛈 ODIHR no longer presents descriptions of property attacks in the incident tables below. Data on property attacks are presented in the breakdown charts above. One property attack may target multiple properties or involve multiple types of attack.