The number of prosecuted cases refer to all hate crime cases for which article 82A of the Penal Code or Law 927/1979 were implemented by the Public Prosecutor. The same applies to the number of sentenced cases. Furthermore, the numbers of prosecuted and sentenced cases also include hate crimes committed in years other than 2022 due to the timeframe of police investigations.
Incidents presented in this section may involve more than one crime. Hate speech offences are excluded from the breakdown below.
In 2022, the Office of Collection and Processing of Judicial Statistics Data in the Central Service of the Ministry of Justice was established with the Presidential Decree, tasked with the systematic collection of statistical data on hate crimes.
Article 16 of Law 4356/2015 was amended to make representatives of the Ministry of the Interior, of Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Culture and Sports permanent members of the National Council against Racism and Intolerance (Article 32 of Law 4990/2022 (Government Gazette A' 210/11.11.2022)). The Council is tasked with designing policies to prevent and address racism and intolerance, oversee the implementation of legislation against racism and intolerance, and promotion and co-ordination of actions to address these phenomena in an effective manner. The Council involves civil society organizations (CSOs), such as the Network for Recording Incidents of Racial Violence (in which 52 CSOs participate) and the National Confederation of Persons with Disabilities.
The Prosecutor's Office of the Supreme Court issued Circular No. 8/2022 regarding the maltreatment of foreigners. The document called for the immediate legal intervention of the Prosecutor's Office in cases of prohibited discrimination, maltreatment or abuse and in general violation of the human rights of any person, regardless of origin.
On 21 February 2022, ODIHR' held an online diagnostic workshop to assess the national structures and services for hate crime victim support in Greece. The workshop resulted in several practical recommendations on improving protection and support to hate crime victims.
In 2022, the Headquarters of the Hellenic Police organized a seven-week training programme for police officers on hate crimes, domestic violence and the protection of rights of vulnerable persons and the LGBTQI+ community. Each training course lasted one week and was attended by police officers from all over Greece.
In the first half of 2022, the Greek authorities distributed approximately 2,000 copies of the Guide for the rights of victims of racist crimes among the prosecution authorities, CSOs, police departments, public hospitals, reception centres, and asylum offices located across the country. The Guide is available in ten languages.
The "Unspecified" category includes ten incidents of exercising illegal violence and three incidents of torture. A further 26 cases of hate speech were reported but are not presented here. Police also recorded potential hate crime cases with the following basic crimes (committed separately or together with other crimes), not presented here:
4 cases of exposure to danger; 4 cases of breach of duty; 1 case of kidnapping; 1 case of explosion; 2 cases of filing a false accusation; 1 case of violation of the Law for the protection of personal data; and 1 case of illegal detention.
One case of hate speech and one case of non-payment of wages were reported but are not presented here.
One case of hate speech and one case of false accusation were reported but not included here.
This number consists of 18 homophobic and five transphobic crimes. A further 20 cases of hate speech and one case of violation of court order were reported but are not presented here.
A further five cases of hate speech and two cases of discrimination were reported but are not presented here.
ODIHR recognizes Greece's efforts to improve hate crime recording and data collection mechanisms and to enhance national hate crime victim support mechanisms. However, based on the available information, it observes that Greece has not made hate crime data public. In addition, ODIHR observes that Greece would benefit from raising awareness among and building the capacity of prosecutors and judges to address hate crime.
ODIHR recalls that in Ministerial Council Decision 9/09, OSCE participating States committed to making reliable and detailed data and statistics on hate crimes public. Participating States also committed to introducing or further developing professional training and capacity-building activities for law enforcement, prosecution and judicial officials dealing with hate crimes. ODIHR stands ready to support Greece in meeting its relevant commitments through the provision of comprehensive resources and tailored assistance, as well as further resources and capacity-building assistance for the prosecution and judiciary.
In addition to incidents submitted with detailed descriptions, this graph includes 1 anti-Muslim and 1 racist and xenophobic incident reported as statistics by the Racist Violence Recording Network (RVRN).
🛈 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.