The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) published relevant recommendations in its "ECRI Report on Latvia (sixth monitoring cycle)".
The UN Human Rights Committee published relevant recommendations in its "Concluding observations on the fourth periodic report of Latvia".
ODIHR observes that Latvia has not reported information and statistics on hate crimes to ODIHR since 2016. ODIHR observes that Latvia has not nominated a National Point of Contact on hate crimes. In addition, ODIHR observes that Latvia would benefit from reviewing its existing legal framework in order to ensure that bias motivation can be effectively acknowledged and appropriate penalties can be imposed on perpetrators.
ODIHR recalls that in Ministerial Council Decision 9/09, participating States committed to periodically report reliable information and statistics on hate crime to ODIHR. Participating States also committed to enacting specific, tailored legislation to combat hate crimes, providing for effective penalties that take into account the gravity of such crimes. ODIHR stands ready to support Latvia 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 through its relevant resources and tailored legislative advice.
For 2024, ODIHR received reports of hate incidents in Latvia from the following civil society organizations:
- European Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses
To learn more about these organizations, visit the Contributors page.
All incidents submitted by the above organizations have been analysed by ODIHR. Those that are 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 have multiple biases and may be listed in multiple categories.
ODIHR’s insightsFor 2024, ODIHR received reports of 14 hate incidents in Latvia, the majority of which were motivated by bias against Christians, including several repeated incidents targeting the home of Jehovah's Witnesses. It should be noted that ODIHR did not receive any reporting on Latvia related to anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, anti-Roma, anti-LGBTI, gender-based or disability hate incidents. This indicates potential gaps in the information reported here. |
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 Latvia.
To address under-reporting, ODIHR encourages any civil society organizations or groups that monitor hate incidents to report these to ODIHR at hatecrimereport@odihr.pl.
To export an Excel sheet with summaries of all incidents from Latvia click here and search by year and country.