Poland
Poland regularly reports hate crime data to ODIHR. Several public bodies are involved in monitoring and/or collecting data on hate crimes, primarily the police and the Prosecutor's Office. Hate crime data are regularly published.
There is a high degree of hate crime specialization in both police and prosecutor structures. More than 100 specialist hate crime prosecutors have been appointed, and a network of hate crime co-ordinators was established in the police in 2014. In 2015, following a request by the lower house of parliament, ODIHR provided a legislative review of proposed changes to the Criminal Code of Poland, including on hate crime provisions.
Poland has implemented ODIHR's Training Against Hate Crime for Law Enforcement (TAHCLE) programme since 2012. In 2018, the Ministry of the Interior, ODIHR and the EU Fundamental Rights Agency co-organized a workshop on understanding and improving hate crime recording and data collection based on ODIHR's Information Against Hate Crimes Toolkit (INFAHCT) programme. Poland also developed and piloted a methodology for conducting victimization surveys as part of ODIHR's project on "Building a Comprehensive Criminal Justice Response to Hate Crime". In 2019, ODIHR co-operated with the Commissioner for Human Rights in Poland to issue a report on the nature and scale of unreported hate crimes against members of selected communities in Poland.
OFFICIAL DATA REPORTED BY STATES
Year | Hate crimes recorded by police | Prosecuted | Sentenced |
---|---|---|---|
2022 | 1,180 | 440 | 312 |
2021 | 997 | 466 | 339 |
2020 | 826 | 374 | 266 |
2019 | 972 | 432 | 597 |
2018 | 1117 | 397 | 315 |
2017 | 886 | 320 | 260 |
2016 | 874 | 281 | 236 |
2015 | 263 | 229 | 195 |
2014 | 778 | 179 | 127 |
2013 | 757 | 116 | 53 |
2012 | 266 | 76 | 39 |
2011 | 222 | 43 | 24 |
2010 | 251 | 30 | 28 |
2009 | 194 | 29 | 27 |
About 2012 Data
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Two sets of data are reported to ODIHR: The overall number of hate crimes is provided by the police and broken down by type of crime but not by bias motivation (it is presented as “unspecified” bias motivation below). Ministry of Interior reports a number of hate crimes disaggregated by bias motivation, but not by crime type. Most of the cases reported by the Ministry of Interior are included in the overall figure (although due to technical limitation, they are also displayed separately below). Reported data include crimes of incitement to hatred.
Hate crime recorded by police
KEY OBSERVATION
ODIHR observes that Poland has not reported on hate crimes separately from cases of hate speech.
INCIDENTS REPORTED BY CIVIL SOCIETY
Incidents reported by civil society, international organizations and the Holy See
INTERNATIONAL REPORTS
Racist and xenophobic hate crime
The UN Human Rights Council, in its Universal Periodic Review, encouraged Poland to consider strengthening legislation on hate crimes, institute a national mechanism on hate crime data collection, and to ensure immediate, adequate and independent investigations of racially motivated crimes.
It also recommended that Poland strengthen measures to prevent racist violence, especially against people of African origin.
Anti-Roma hate crime
The Human Rights Council, in its Universal Periodic Review, recommended that Poland strengthen measures to prevent racist violence, especially against Roma people.
Anti-Semitic hate crime
The UN Human Rights Council, in its Universal Periodic Review, encouraged Poland to enact public-awareness campaigns and government training on discrimination and hate crimes in order to decrease anti-Semitism.
Anti-Muslim hate crime
The UN Human Rights Council, in its Universal Periodic Review, recommended that Poland strengthen measures to prevent racist violence, especially against Muslims.
Anti-LGBTI hate crime
The UN Human Rights Council, in its Universal Periodic Review, encouraged Poland to recognize sexual orientation and gender identity as protected grounds for discrimination and hate crimes and for law enforcement to do outreach with LGBT communities in order to increase reporting of hate crimes.