Comprehensive and disaggregated data critical for developing effective responses to hate crimes and intolerance, say participants in OSCE/ODIHR workshop

Civil society and community groups dedicated to countering intolerance against Muslims strengthened their ability to monitor and report hate incidents during a workshop organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) on 5 and 6 December 2016 in Warsaw.

Bringing together participants from across the OSCE region, the workshop provided an opportunity to promote good practices and disseminate lessons learned to help address the issue of intolerance by improving the collection of relevant data.

“Comprehensive and comparable data disaggregated by recorded bias motivation, type of incident and gender is critical for identifying needs and developing government policies that create effective responses to this phenomenon,” said Dermana Seta, ODIHR Adviser on Combating Intolerance and Discrimination against Muslims. “Civil society plays an essential role in complementing state data-collection efforts, countering intolerance and promoting mutual respect and understanding.”

ODIHR’s hate crime data, published annually on hatecrime.osce.org, shows that hate crimes and hate incidents against Muslims remain widely under-reported. To help counter this gap, the workshop included participants actively working on monitoring and reporting hate incidents, as well as groups that still need to build their capacity in conducting this important work.