National developments

Within the framework of an EU-funded project aimed at improving hate crime recording, the Ministry of Interior conducted study visits to Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Slovakia. The Ministry also held 15 scientific field interviews with police officers  and 17 meetings with various CSOs. The purpose of these meetings was to improve the system for recording hate crimes and to build trust. Furthermore, the Ministry of Interior launched an online training programme for its staff. At least 17,000 police officers had participated in the training programme by 19 October 2020. A further 200 police officers from the Federal Provinces were trained to deliver training events to front-line officers and to serve as contact points for CSOs and victim support organizations. On 1 November 2020, a new "flagging" system was introduced in the online police recording database, enabling the police to record bias motives related to age, handicap, gender, colour of skin, national or ethnic origin, religion (including subcategories), sexual orientation, social status or world view. The interfaces of the police and Ministry of Justice databases were also synchronized, so that the flagged hate crime data are also visible to prosecutors once the investigation reports are sent. Moreover, a resource for police on conducting interrogations now highlights the need to undertake a hate crime victim assessment before the interview. Information about hate crimes have been widely disseminated among the police force, and the country’s first representative victimization survey on hate crime is expected to be completed by the end of February 2021.