You are here

Report Data – Serbia – 2018

Official Data

Year Hate crimes recorded by police Prosecuted Sentenced About these data
2019 86 14 10
2018 61 12 7
2017 5 0 0
2016 9 1 2
2015 79 7 19

National developments

In 2019, the National Strategy for Exercising the Rights of Victims and Witnesses of Crimes, for the period 2019-2025, as well as the Action Plan for the first three years of the Strategy's implementation were drafted.

The Public Prosecutor's Office, the Judicial Academy and the OSCE Mission to Serbia continued organizing training events for public prosecutors in 2019, with the aim of improving the investigation and prosecution of hate crimes. These events included the presentation of the Guidelines for the prosecution of hate crimes in the Republic of Serbia, developed jointly by the Public Prosecutor's Office, the OSCE Mission to Serbia and civil society representatives, as well as examples of practical actions of the competent bodies concerning hate crimes, and the practice of the European Court of Human Rights.

ODIHR Recommendations 

ODIHR observes that the law enforcement agencies of Serbia have not recorded the bias motivations of hate crimes.

National Developments 
Description Type 
Developments
Organization Report 

In a first judgment expressly applying the hate crime provision in Serbian Criminal Code, a defendant received an enhanced sentence for a hate crime motivated by bias against sexual orientation, following arguments to that effect by the public prosecutor.

The Republic Public Prosecutor's Office, jointly with the OSCE Mission to Serbia and civil society, developed and published the Guidelines for Criminal Prosecution of Hate Crimes. The Guidelines, to which ODIHR contributed expert input, were disseminated and trainings for prosecutors are being conducted to solidify their principles into prosecutorial practice.

Pursuant to the Compulsory Instruction issued by the Republic Public Prosecutor, all Prosecutor's Offices have appointed a specialist hate crime prosecutor to monitor and record hate crime cases, liaise with case prosecutor and police officers, as well as with the victims and civil society organizations supporting them.