Data on bias motivations are not recorded by prosecution and courts.
The breakdown below does not include offences that were reported to ODIHR but fall outside OSCE’s hate crime definition. Specifically, two hate crimes motivated by bias against political opinion were excluded.
Malta's Victim Support Agency (VSA), in collaboration with SOS Malta, is currently implementing an EU-funded project entitled ‘Hatedemics’. This pilot research initiative aims to develop an innovative online database that identifies and categorizes annotations, verbal expressions, and written content commonly associated with hate speech. Through this project, the VSA seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of how hate speech manifests online and offline, ultimately supporting more effective prevention strategies, educational outreach, and policy development in this area.
This category presents six racist and xenophobic hate crimes, one hate crime based on bias against ethnic origin (originally reported separately) and two hate crimes based on bias due to language (originally reported separately).
This category includes five hate crimes based on bias against sexual orientation and one based on bias against gender identity.
ODIHR recognizes Malta's efforts to develop an innovative approach to understand hate online. However, based on available information, ODIHR observes that Malta does not collect data and statistics on hate crimes at the stage of prosecution and sentencing. In addition, ODIHR observes that Malta would benefit from raising awareness among and building the capacity of prosecutors and judges to record and address hate crimes.
ODIHR recalls that in Ministerial Council Decision 9/09, OSCE participating States committed to collecting reliable data and statistics on hate crimes. 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 Malta in meeting the relevant commitments through its comprehensive resources and tailored assistance in the area of hate crime recording and data collection, as well as through its resources and tailored capacity-building assistance for the prosecution and judiciary.
For 2024, ODIHR did not receive any reports of hate incidents in Malta from civil society organizations. This is not an indication that hate crimes are not taking place, only that they have not been reported to civil society or to ODIHR.
To address under-reporting, ODIHR encourages any civil society organizations or groups that monitor hate incidents in Malta to report these to ODIHR at hatecrimereport@odihr.pl.