Hate Crimes in the OSCE Region - Incidents and Responses: Annual Report for 2009

Hate Crimes in the OSCE Region – Incidents and Responses is prepared annually by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) as part of the OSCE’s efforts to combat hate crimes.

Despite the continuing efforts by the OSCE and participating States, this report shows that hate crime remains a significant problem in our region, with the potential to escalate into wider social conflict. In 2009, a large number of people were killed,
injured or otherwise targeted for no other reason than being seen as belonging to a specific ethnicity, “race”, religion or other group. Combating hate crime must, therefore, remain a priority. Addressing hate crime effectively requires that we more accurately identify the nature and extent of the problem, a challenge made more difficult by the scarcity of data, by the way in which analysis of available data is complicated by the different systems for its collection and recording, and by the fact that hate crimes are generally under-reported.