New amendments to the criminal code have included bias motivation as an aggravating circumstance. Furthermore, the amendments added sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protected characteristics.
In its "Concluding observations on the combined twenty-third and twenty-fourth periodic reports of Cyprus," the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) recommended that local authorities enforce legislative provisions to prosecute perpetrators of hate crimes to deter further crimes and prevent impunity of perpetrators. CERD also recommended raising awareness of available complaint mechanisms, and to continue training law enforcement officers on the investigation of hate crimes.
ODIHR observes that Cyprus has not reported reliable statistics on hate crimes to ODIHR.