Slovakia

Slovakia regularly reports hate crime data to ODIHR. Slovakia has implemented ODIHR's Training Against Hate Crime for Law Enforcement (TAHCLE) programme since 2017 and the Prosecutors and Hate Crime Training (PAHCT) programme since 2018. In 2018, the Ministry of Interior co-organized with ODIHR and the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights a workshop on understanding and improving hate crime recording and data collection, based on ODIHR's Information Against Hate Crimes Toolkit (INFAHCT). There is a high degree of hate crime specialization in both police and prosecutor structures in Slovakia.      

The Committee for the Prevention and Elimination of Racism, Xenophobia, Anti-Semitism, and Other Forms of Intolerance was established as a Government advisory body. The Committee established working groups on hate speech on the internet and anti-Semitism, in line with the Memorandum on Cooperation between the Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic and the Federation of Jewish Communities in Slovakia. The working groups include representatives of the police and prosecutor's office, as well as civil society organizations focusing on human rights, anti-Roma racism, and anti-Semitism. 

Hate crime data collection in Slovakia
Support for hate crime victims in Slovakia
Hate crime capacity building in Slovakia
Slovakia's hate crime legislation
Download the 2009 hate crime report for Slovakia

OFFICIAL DATA REPORTED BY STATES

Year Hate crimes recorded by police Prosecuted Sentenced
2023 46 Not available 5
2022 28 16 12
2021 20 13 15
2020 20 16 6
2019 50 38 8
2018 41 20 15
2017 34 16 10
2016 10 9 3
2015 6 30 2
2014 3 Not available 4
2013 7 Not available 7
2012 102 Not available 16
2011 242 Not available 16
2010 Not available Not available 10
2009 132 Not available 18

About 2009 Data

    Police figures include crimes of incitement to hatred and hate speech offences (“extremist” crimes), while sentencing figures comprise hate crimes only.

Hate crime recorded by police

National developments

The criminal code was amended in 2009. Article 424 covers incitement to national, racial and ethnic hatred and criminalizes, in certain specific situations, the act of threatening an individual or group of people based on their race, nation, nationality, colour of skin, ethnicity, origin or religion, if the threat is motivated only on these grounds. The acts criminalized under Article 424 are subject to a term of imprisonment of up to three years, or from two to six years in the presence of certain aggravating circumstances (commission of the act in association with a foreign power or agent, publicly, for a special bias, in the capacity of a public official, as member of an extremist group or in a crisis situation).

KEY OBSERVATION

No information is available.

INCIDENTS REPORTED BY CIVIL SOCIETY

INTERNATIONAL REPORTS

Racist and xenophobic hate crime

The UN Human Rights Council, in its Universal Periodical Review, encouraged Slovakia to improve the investigation and prosecution of racist crimes.

Anti-Roma hate crime, Anti-Semitic hate crime

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) expressed concern about the increase in racially-motivated physical and verbal attacks over the past few years against members of ethnic minorities, including Roma. It also expressed concern about anti-Semitism.

Anti-Semitic hate crime

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) observed manifestations of anti-Semitism in Slovakia.