Sentencing figures comprise only crimes committed on the basis of a “specific motive”, i.e. hate crimes, for which a prison sentence has been handed down.
In addition to this sentencing figure, 49 other extremist crimes were committed.
The European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) reported three men physically assaulted while using racist slurs a group of Roma, including two women, who were searching through refuse.
The Observatory on Intolerance Against Christians reported one case of cemetery desecration.
The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights visited Slovakia, where he expressed concern about hate crimes targeting the Roma population. His recommendations included adopting a broad definition of “racist incident” so that police are required to investigate potential racist motivation as soon as such incidents are reported and having authorities unequivocally and publicly condemn attacks against Roma as unacceptable in Slovak society, whenever they occur. He aslo called on the authorities to address shortcomings in the implementation of the criminal law against racially-motivated violence, notably the provision that establishes racial motivation as an aggravating circumstance in respect of all crimes.