The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) published its 2023 Hate Crime Report ahead of the International Day for Tolerance on 16 November. The report, which includes statistical and descriptive information on hate crime incidents in states in the OSCE region, received official data from 48 of the OSCE’s 57 participating States.
The OSCE report, the most comprehensive of its kind in the world, includes information on nearly 10,000 hate crime incidents in 47 participating States, reported by 125 civil society organisations, the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and OSCE missions.
In the section of the report on Greece, it is noted that, according to the official data presented, a total of 97 hate crimes were recorded by the Greek police in 2023 and 22 prosecutions resulted in convictions.
OSCE/ODIHR indicated that incomplete or inadequate legislation is a major obstacle for prosecutors, which means that some hate crimes go uninvestigated, and underlined that making visible the bias motivation behind all hate crimes and ensuring their proper prosecution is important to protect the rights of victims, as well as to ensure effective policies to prevent and address hate crimes.
Tea Jaliashvili, Acting Director and First Deputy Director of OSCE/ODIHR, explained that ODIHR’s report on hate crimes is the largest dataset on hate crimes in the world and is used to develop truly effective responses to combat hate crimes across the OSCE region, adding that civil society plays a vital role in addressing intolerance in the OSCE region and is therefore an invaluable partner for states in responding to all forms of hatred.
The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) had realised a written contribution during the preparation phase of the report, reporting on hate-based attacks and hate speech targeting the Turkish community in Western Thrace in Greece.
In its written contribution, ABTTF had expressed the heinous attack by a foreigner on the Holy Quran inside the Ilıca Mosque in Municipality of Miki (Mustafçova) on 15 June 2023, the vandalism of approximately twenty tombstones in the Turkish cemetery in Polianthos (Narlıköy) in the prefecture of Rodopi by unknown person or persons and the hate speech against candidates and MPs belonging to the Turkish community in Western Thrace before, during and after the 2023 general elections in Greece.
Please click bellow to access the OSCE 2023 Hate Crime Report:
https://hatecrime.osce.org/greece?year=2023.
