The National Police is responsible for executing Ukraine's "Strategy promoting the realization of the rights and opportunities of persons belonging to the Roma national minority in Ukrainian society for the period up to 2030" (Order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, 22 December 2023, No. 1197-r).
The National Police of Ukraine has developed an action plan of measures to prevent offences related to the equality covering 2024-2025, which was approved by the Order of the National Police of Ukraine (No. 55, 18 January 2024). To ensure implementation, regional plans and working groups were developed by regional national police departments.
Accordingly, regional police departments have taken measures to improve the reach of patrol police in places of temporary and permanent residence of Roma persons. Communication has been established with civil society organizations, relevant services of district military administrations, city councils, and territorial communities regarding preventive work with Roma families. Moreover, to prevent anti-Roma bias in educational institutions, juvenile prevention police officers conduct lectures and conversations on topics such diversity, minority rights and hate crime prosecution.
The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) published relevant recommendations in its "Concluding observations on the combined twenty-fourth to twenty-sixth periodic reports of Ukraine".
ODIHR recognizes Ukraine's efforts to report hate crime information to ODIHR. However, based on the available information, ODIHR observes that Ukraine has not reported statistics on hate crimes to ODIHR. In the absence of official statistics, ODIHR is not able to provide further observations on hate crime data collection in Ukraine. In addition, ODIHR observes that Ukraine would benefit from building the capacity of criminal justice officials to address hate crimes.
ODIHR recalls that in Ministerial Council Decision 9/09, OSCE participating States agreed to a common definition of hate crime and 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 acts constituting incitement to hatred or acts of discrimination. Participating States 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 Ukraine 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, prosecutors, and the judiciary.
For 2024, ODIHR received reports of hate incidents in Ukraine from the following civil society organizations:
- "Insight" Public Organization
- Gender Stream
- LGBT Human Rights ‘NASH SVIT’ Center
- European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses
- NGO "Alliance.Global"
- The Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC)
To learn more about these organizations, visit the Contributors page.
In addition, one incident was reported 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 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 involved multiple biases and may be listed in multiple categories.
ODIHR’s insightsFor 2024, ODIHR received reports of 97 hate incidents that took place in Ukraine in the following bias motivation categories: anti-Christian, anti-LGBTI, anti-Muslim, gender-based, and racist and xenophobic. In addition, several incidents involved multiple biases, such as anti-Semitic and anti-Christian, gender-based and anti-LGBTI, or racist and xenophobic and anti-LGBTI. ODIHR observes that a significant number of incidents reported in Ukraine targeted the LGBTI community. Several gay men were targeted in violent attacks due to their sexual orientation and/or association with the LGBTI community. A number of these incidents were committed by organized hate groups. Several anti-LGBTI incidents were perpetrated by the victim’s neighbours. A number of physical assaults targeting trans persons were also reported. Almost all anti-Christian incidents targeted members of the Jehovah’s Witness community and included several threats and serious physical assaults. Half of the incidents targeting Jehovah’s Witnesses were reported to have been committed by military officers at conscription offices, where the victims were requesting alternative military service due to their religion. It should be noted that ODIHR did not receive any reporting on Ukraine related to disability hate incidents, and received low numbers of reporting on racist and xenophobic, anti-Muslim, anti-Roma, and anti-Semitic 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 Ukraine.
To address under-reporting, ODIHR encourages any civil society organizations or groups that monitor hate incidents in Ukraine to report these to ODIHR at hatecrimereport@odihr.pl.
To export an Excel sheet with summaries of all incidents from Ukraine click here and search by year and country.