Racism is prejudice or hostility towards a person's race, colour, language, nationality, or national or ethnic origin. While some communities are particularly vulnerable, any ethnic group can be the target of racism. Intolerant discourse in the media or from politicians can lead to increased racist sentiments towards migrants and other minorities, including in the form of scapegoating in times of economic crisis. ODIHR's annual reporting on hate crime in the OSCE area has demonstrated that racist attacks can take a range of forms, targeting people from diverse groups across the region. Violent attacks by groups of perpetrators against migrants and ethnic minorities, as well as damage to businesses and property owned by or associated with established ethnic communities are common features of this type of crime.
The OSCE has long recognized the threat to international security posed by racism, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance. Participating States condemned racial and ethnic hatred as early 1990. At the Ministerial Council meeting in Maastricht in 2003, participating States committed themselves to combat hate crimes fuelled by racist or xenophobic propaganda and to publicly denounce such crimes.
Most participating States reported that they record hate crime data according to at least one category related to racism and xenophobia, such as "race"/colour, nationality/ethnicity/national origin, citizenship or language. The differences in recording and reporting policies among participating States present a number of challenges for ODIHR when interpreting and verifying information received. Data from different participating States can be incomparable due, for example, to inconsistencies about which groups are legally protected and monitored. There is also a risk that the same data might be double counted in general statistics. For example, anti-Semitic hate crime might be reported separately or included under the broader category of racist hate crime, or both. While the number of NGOs reporting to ODIHR has increased, victims' negative experiences in police responses and a lack of capacity of NGOs to monitor and report on the phenomenon contribute to the problem of under-reporting.
The two incidents under the category of "Threats" were classified as the criminal offence of incitement of ethnic, racial and religious hatred, discord and hostility.
The "Unspecified" category includes two cases that were classified as the criminal offence of War Crime (article 91. of the Criminal Code).
This category consists of crimes motivated by bias against language, nationality, ethnic origin, community, race and colour.
This category includes crimes committed due to bias based on nationality, ethnicity, "race", skin colour and other related grounds.
The figures presented here cover the following grounds: race/colour, ethnicity/national origin, citizenship and language.
The data provided for racism and xenophobia also relate to crimes committed based on an actual or perceived membership in a religion. Incidents listed separately as anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim and anti-Christian are therefore also included in this set of data.
This category includes crimes registered in the SDI database and committed on the grounds of race/skin colour, ethnicity, bias against Roma and Sinti, nationality, language, anti-Semitism, bias against Muslims and bias against members of other religions.
The "Unspecified" category includes one case of domestic violence and two cases of the bullying and maltreatment of minors.
Hate crimes recorded in this category can include offences targeting any group defined by race, colour, nationality or ethnic or national origin, including countries within the UK, and "Gypsy or Irish Travellers". It also includes persons targeted because they are an asylum seeker or refugee.
This category includes hate crimes committed on the grounds of race, ethnicity and ancestry.
The United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) published relevant recommendations in its "Report from the thirty-fifth session: Compilation on Armenia."
The United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) published relevant recommendations in its "Report from the forty-fourth session: Compilation on Armenia."
The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) published relevant recommendations in its "Sixth report on Austria."
The Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe published relevant recommendations in her "Report following a visit to Bulgaria.
The United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) published relevant recommendations in its "Report from the Thirty-sixth session: Compilation on Bulgaria."
The Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers published relevant recommendations in its "Decision adopted at the 1377th meeting, on execution of the Court's judgments."
The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) published relevant recommendations in its "Sixth report on the Czech Republic."
The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) published relevant recommendations in its "Conclusions on the Implementation of the Recommendations in Respect of Denmark."
The Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers published relevant recommendations in its "Resolution on the implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities by Denmark."
The Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers published relevant recommendations in its "Resolution on the Implementation of the Framework Convention for the protection of National Minorities by Finland."
The Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers published relevant recommendations in its "Resolution on the Implementation of the Framework Convention for the protection of National Minorities by Georgia."
The United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) published relevant recommendations in its "Report from the Thirty-seventh session: Compilation on Georgia."
The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) published relevant recommendations in its "Sixth report on Germany."
The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) published relevant recommendations in its "Concluding observations on the combined fifth to ninth reports of Ireland."
The Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers published relevant recommendations in its "Resolution on the Implementation of the Framework Convention for the protection of National Minorities by the Netherlands."
The Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers published relevant recommendations in its "Resolution on the implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities by Poland."
The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) published relevant recommendations in its "Sixth report on Slovakia."
The United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) published relevant recommendations in its "Report from the thirty-fifth session: Compilation on Spain."
The United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) published relevant recommendations in its "Report from the thirty-fifth session: Compilation on Sweden."
The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) published relevant recommendations in its "Sixth report on Switzerland."
The United Nations Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity published relevant recommendations in his "Report on the visit to Ukraine."
The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly published relevant recommendations in its "Prevention of violence and discrimination against religious minorities amongst refugees in Europe."
The European Parliament published relevant recommendations in its "Report on the situation of Fundamental Rights in the European Union - Annual Report for the years 2018 - 2019."
The European Parliament published relevant recommendations in its "Strengthening Media Freedom: the Protection of Journalists in Europe, Hate Speech, Disinformation and the Role of Platforms."
