The breakdown below includes offences committed with the following bias motivations: anti-Roma hate crime; anti-Semitic hate crime; and anti-LGBTI hate crime. This number differs from the total number provided in government reports on extremism and prejudicial hatred, as the methodology used to collect data for the reports does not allow for a full breakdown by bias motivation.
In 202, amendments to the Criminal Code were developed to cover the following characteristics: disability, gender, sexual orientation, age or membership of a certain social group. The amendments also expand the range of crimes for which prejudicial motive is considered as a circumstance, determining the application of a higher penalty rate. Finally, the amendments unify the approach in the Criminal Code by abandoning the "hostility model" in favour of the discriminatory selection model. These changes are expected to come into effect on July 1, 2025.
ODIHR recognizes the Czech Republic's efforts to strengthen the legal framework to effectively punish hate crimes. However, based on the available information, it observes that the country's mechanisms for recording hate crime data and statistics do not sufficiently distinguish hate crimes from other crimes. In addition, ODIHR observes that the Czech Republic would benefit from raising awareness among and building the capacity of police to respond to hate crimes.
ODIHR recalls that in Ministerial Council Decision 9/09, OSCE participating States agreed to a common hate crime definition and also committed to collecting reliable data and statistics on hate crimes. To that end, hate crimes need to be distinguished throughout the recording and data collection process from crimes of incitement to hatred and other hate speech offences. Participating States have also committed to introducing or further developing professional training and capacity-building activities for law enforcement, prosecution, and judicial officials dealing with hate crimes. ODIHR stands ready to support the Czech Republic in meeting its relevant commitments through the provision of comprehensive resources and tailored assistance in the area of hate crime recording and data collection, as well as by providing further resources and tailored capacity-building assistance for police.
For 2024, ODIHR received reports of hate incidents in the Czech Republic from the following civil society organizations:
- In IUSTITIA
- European Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses
To learn more about these organizations, visit the Contributors page.
In addition, some incidents were recorded as part of ODIHR’s ongoing monitoring across the OSCE region.
All incidents submitted by the above organizations have been analysed by ODIHR. Those that were broadly considered to be hate crimes within the OSCE definition (criminal offence committed with a bias motive) are listed in the tables below according to the bias motivation category. Some incidents involved multiple biases and may be listed in multiple categories.
Please note that incidents reported here are based on voluntary civil society submissions and as such might not reflect the actual number of incidents or the most targeted communities in the Czech Republic.
To address under-reporting, ODIHR encourages any civil society organizations or groups that monitor hate incidents to report to ODIHR at hatecrimereport@odihr.pl.
To export an Excel sheet with summaries of all incidents from the Czech Republic click here and search by year and country.