North Macedonia
The country's Criminal Code contains a substantive offence provision and general penalty enhancements for hate crime. The data reported to ODIHR also include cases of incitement to hatred.
How hate crime data is collected
Police officers record relevant information when preparing their reports in a section titled "Indications that a hate crime has been committed". This section includes indicators that the incident was a hate crime, while also stating the relevant characteristics of the victim singled out by the perpetrator of the crime.
These characteristics include: sex, race, skin colour, gender, belonging to a marginalized group, ethnic affiliation, language, nationality, social origin, religion or religious conviction, other types of conviction, education, political affiliation, personal or social status, mental or physical disability, age, family or marital status, property status, health status or any other grounds set forth under law or international treaties.
Data about criminal charges filed under the relevant articles are entered in the electronic data system of the Ministry of the Interior. The Ministry's Unit for Criminal Intelligence and Analysis keeps national police records.
Official Data
Hate crimes recorded by police
The records below may include hate speech cases that fall outside of the OSCE's definition of hate crime. Detailed data on different types of crime or bias motivations are not available.
National developments
Amendments to the Criminal Code adopted in late 2018 entered into force in 2019. These included a hate crime definition, the introduction of specific penalty enhancing provisions for a number of offences and updates to the aggravating circumstance provision applicable to all offences in the Code. The Department for Criminal Intelligence and Analysis of the Ministry of Interior changed the hate crime recording registration form in accordance with amendments to the Criminal Code that stipulate a specific definition of hatred. The Department also amended relevant provisions and incorporated hatred as a motive for committing a number of existing crimes, with the aim of creating a comprehensive framework for monitoring hate crime trends and to improve the institutional response to hate crime in terms of recognizing, detecting and sentencing such crimes.
The Ministry of Justice has prepared a working version of the Law on Payment of Monetary Compensation for Victims of Violent Crimes. The purpose of this law is to provide monetary compensation to victims of violent crimes in accordance with the principle of social solidarity, but also to prevent the secondary victimization of victims during proceedings.
International reports
No information is available.
Key observation
ODIHR observes that the law enforcement agencies of North Macedonia have not recorded the bias motivations of hate crimes.
