Hate crimes continue to be a serious problem across the OSCE region, concludes a report released by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) today, on the International Day for Tolerance.
According to the report, which covers the year 2010, there were numerous instances of intimidation, threats, vandalism, arson, assault and murder, targeting individuals or groups because of their ethnicity, religion or other status.
The report, entitled “Hate Crimes in the OSCE Region – Incidents and Responses”,(PDF) is based on the analysis of data received from the 33 participating States that responded to ODIHR’s information request, as well as reports of hate crime incidents from 93 non-governmental organizations.
It includes separate sections on racist and antisemitic crimes, violence against Roma and Sinti, Muslims, Christians and members of other religions, as well as crimes based on other bias motivations.
The report notes the global economic crisis and intolerant discourse as factors contributing to the occurrence of hate crimes.
While the quality of data received from participating States has improved, it remains difficult to identify trends and obtain a complete picture of the true extent of the problem due to remaining significant gaps in data collection and the use of different definitions across the region.
