The number of indictments and sentences provided by the Ministry of Justice may be much lower than actual indictments and sentences due to the fact that the Prosecutors and Courts do not have a tracking system.
Cases of defamation and discrimination reported to ODIHR are not included in the breakdown below as they fall outside the OSCE definition of hate crime. With the consent of the Roma community, hate crimes against Roma people have been presented as a separate category below.
On 1 January 2023, a legislative amendment to make a gender-based motive an aggravating circumstance entered into force (Chapter 6, section 5 of the Criminal Code). The amendment was approved by the Finnish Parliament in December 2022.
In 2023, the Ministry of Justice co-ordinated a number of EU-funded projects aimed at combating hate speech and hate crime, including "Peer Action against Hate", designed to improve the effectiveness of addressing racism, discrimination and hate crimes through peer learning with the support of authorities and civil society actors. Project partners are the Ministry of Social affairs and health, Seta – LGBTI Rights in Finland, the Irish Network against Racism, and the Centre for Peace Studies (Croatia). As part of the project, the Ministry of Justice co-ordinates a network of authorities and CSO's working to combat hate speech and hate crime. Other activities include collecting information on the availability, adequacy and accessibility of support services to victims of hate crimes in Finland. The project also organizes trainings for professionals on preventing hate speech and hate crime, as well as on supporting hate crime victims.
As part of another EU-funded project ('Osaavat') co-ordinated by the Ministry of Justice, a study was conducted by the Institute of Criminology and Legal Policy to examine the characteristics of hate crime perpetrators based on international research literature and data obtained from Finnish registers.
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.
Official data for hate crimes motivated by bias against lesbian, gay and bisexual people (139 hate crimes) and by bias against transgender people (26 hate crimes) were reported separately, but are presented together here.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence published relevant recommendations in its "Visit to Finland and Sweden. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, Fabián Salvioli".
The UN Committee against Torture (CAT) published relevant recommendations in its "Concluding observations on the eighth periodic report of Finland".
ODIHR recognizes Finland's efforts to improve coordination among authorities and civil society actors, and to strengthen access to support services to hate crime victims. However, based on the available information, ODIHR observes that Finland would benefit from raising awareness among and building the capacity of prosecutors to address and record 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.