Poland

Poland regularly reports hate crime data to ODIHR. Poland's Criminal Code contains several substantive offences. Data reported to ODIHR include cases of incitement to hatred. Hate crime data are collected by the Department of Control, Complaints and Petitions of the Ministry of the Interior, the General Police Headquarters, the Internal Security Agency, the Preparatory Proceedings Office of the General Prosecutor's Office, the Ministry of Justice, the Institute of National Remembrance – General Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, and the Ombudsman's Office. Hate crime data are regularly published. 

How hate crime data is collected in Poland

How hate crime data is collected in Poland

Several public bodies are involved in monitoring and/or collecting data on hate crimes. The main actors in this field are the police and the Prosecutor's Office. Each has a separate recording system and methodology for this task. Since 2015, the police and the Ministry of the Interior and Administration have jointly developed and shared a hate crime data collection system.

All offences committed against people because of their racial, national, ethnic or religious background are classified as hate crimes. While there are no general guidelines on hate crime recording, police officers are required to establish whether the perpetrator was acting out of bias motivation. Bias indicators such as behaviour and statements during the act, circumstances of the crime and characteristics and circumstances connected with the victim are used to determine the motive.

Hate crimes are flagged on the incident form as well as in the police force's electronic database.

Special co-ordinators at both the central (the National Hate Crime Co-ordinator in the Criminal Bureau of the General Police Headquarters) and local levels (police headquarters in every Voivodeship and the Metropolitan Police Headquarters) are responsible for preventing and investigating hate crimes, as well as for compiling data from their district and reporting them monthly to the National Police Information System (KSIP). Monthly reports are forwarded to the Ministry of the Interior and Administration. The same structure is also used to monitor hate speech incidents, which are crimes under the Polish Penal Code. However, these can be separated in the reporting. Data from the police are available on request.

Prosecutors record hate crimes when bias motivations are identified in the proceedings or are implicit in the crime. Guidelines on conducting proceedings for hate crimes cases, issued by the prosecutor general in 2014, unify practices for the prosecution and reporting of hate crimes. Every prosecuted hate crime should be reported to a superior Prosecutor's Office. The cases are also monitored by the Department of Preparatory Proceedings of the National Public Prosecutor's Office, which issues a report on all cases to the Prosecutor General and provides recommendations to subordinate Prosecutor's Offices. The National Public Prosecutor's Office publishes data on hate crime online every six months. Published data contain excerpts from reports on investigations conducted in the organizational units of the prosecutor in a given period of time.

The Division of Statistical Management Information in the Department of Strategy and European Funds of the Ministry of Justice is responsible for organizing, co-ordinating, supervising and preparing statistical reports, including information on hate crimes. The data are obtained from two sources: statistical reports prepared by courts every six months, and the electronic database of the National Criminal Register. The data are published online.

Besides collating the reports from police and receiving information on judicial outcomes from the courts, the Ministry of the Interior and Administration also conducts its own independent monitoring activities.

Access more information at the Legislation Online website Legislationline TANDIS Access more information at the Tolerance and Non-Discrimination Information System (TANDIS) website

OFFICIAL DATA

Year Hate crimes recorded by police Prosecuted Sentenced
2019 972 432 597
2018 1117 397 315
2017 886 320 260
2016 874 281 236
2015 263 229 195
2014 778 179 127
2013 757 116 53
2012 266 76 39
2011 222 43 24
2010 251 30 28
2009 194 29 27

About 2011 Data

    Figures include crimes of incitement to hatred.

National developments

Poland continued with the implementation of ODIHR’s law-enforcement training programme on hate crimes, resulting in a total of 115 expert trainers on hate crime by the end of 2011. Local training sessions on hate crimes also continued, bringing the total number of police officers trained on hate crimes to 38,000. These also included the national launch and distribution to police officers of leaflets on hate crime and common hate symbols.

On the basis of an audit review concerning criminal cases based on racism or xenophobia, the Preparatory Proceedings Office of General Prosecutor’s Office conducted an analysis of hate crimes and outlined methodological guidelines for prosecutors who lead or supervise preparatory proceedings in hate crime cases. This analysis was sent to all appeals prosecutor’s offices with a request to further distribute it to subordinate prosecution units.

Incidents reported by civil society, international organizations and the Holy See

Reports

Racist and xenophobic hate crime

Never Again reported one case of damage to property involving a car, and two cases of physical assault against football players of African descent.

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Anti-Semitic hate crime

The Kantor Center reported one case of graffiti on a Holocaust memorial.

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Anti-LGBTI hate crime

The Campaign Against Homophobia reported one case of homophobic graffiti on a car owned by a gay man; one threat against a woman at an LGBT event in Warsaw; four physical assaults, including two in a domestic setting, one on a tram, and one involving serious injury against a man leaving a gay-friendly club; and a series of assaults at gay pride events in Wroclaw, Łódź and Kraków involving physical assaults and objects being thrown at participants.

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INTERNATIONAL REPORTS

No information is available.

KEY OBSERVATION

No information is available.