Sentencing figures represent the number of persons sentenced for offences where a 'specific hate motive' was indicated, pursuant to Article 140(e) of Slovakia's Criminal Code.
The breakdown below presents the number of bias motivations and not the number of incidents recorded (one incident can involve more than one bias motivation).
In 2024, Slovakia launched a pilot project to incorporate victim feedback mechanisms into hate crime investigations, aiming to better assess victims’ experiences of the criminal justice process and improve procedural responsiveness. This initiative involves co-operation between law enforcement agencies and victim support organizations.
Slovakia has developed a conceptual framework for countering radicalization and extremism by 2024, which includes activities to address negative stereotypes about minorities and to raise awareness of groups targeted by radicalism and extremism. Civil society organizations participate in preparing a monitoring report on the state of extremism in Slovakia, which also monitors the implementation of the conceptual framework and proposes new activities.
In 2024, Slovakia continued its work to clarify the definitions of hate crime in the country's Penal Code and to harmonize judicial approaches to hate crimes.
This category presents homophobic hate crimes. No crimes motivated by gender identity bias were reported.
ODIHR recognizes Slovakia's efforts to enhance cooperation between law enforcement and victim support organizations. In addition, ODIHR observes that Slovakia would benefit from further developing its victim support system to ensure effective access to justice, assistance, and protection for hate crime victims.
ODIHR recalls that in Ministerial Council Decision 9/09, OSCE participating States committed to collecting reliable data and statistics in sufficient detail on hate crimes and to reporting such data periodically to ODIHR. Furthermore, participating States committed to providing hate crime victims with access to counselling and legal assistance, effective access to justice, as well as to ensuring positive interactions between police and hate crime victims by training front-line officers, including on providing referrals for victim assistance and protection.
ODIHR stands ready to support Slovakia in meeting its relevant commitments through the provision of comprehensive resources and tailored assistance in the area of hate crime recording and data collection, as well as by providing further resources and assistance in the area of hate crime victim support.
For 2024, ODIHR received reports of hate incidents in Slovakia from the following civil society organizations:
- Human Rights League
- Jehovah’s Witnesses
- The Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC)
- Islamic Foundation in Slovakia
To learn more about these organizations, visit the Contributors page.
All incidents submitted by the above organizations have been analysed by ODIHR. Those that were broadly considered to be hate crimes within the OSCE definition (criminal offence committed with a bias motive) are listed in the tables below according to the bias motivation category. Some incidents involved multiple biases and may be listed in multiple categories.
ODIHR’s insightsFor 2024, ODIHR received reports of seven incidents that took place in Slovakia in the following bias motivation categories: racist and xenophobic, and anti-Christian. ODIHR observes that two of the racist and xenophobic incidents reported in Slovakia targeted Ukrainian refugees, while a third targeted an Asian victim and linked them to the Covid-19 pandemic. Three of the anti-Christian incidents targeted Jehovah's Witnesses. It should be noted that ODIHR did not receive any reporting on Slovakia related to anti-Roma, anti-LGBTI, gender-based, or disability hate incidents. This indicates potential gaps in the information reported here. |
Please note that incidents reported here are based on voluntary civil society submissions and as such might not reflect the actual number of incidents or the most targeted communities in Slovakia.
To address under-reporting, ODIHR encourages any civil society organizations or groups that monitor hate incidents in Slovakia to report these to ODIHR at hatecrimereport@odihr.pl.
To export an Excel sheet with summaries of all incidents from Slovakia click here and search by year and country.