ODIHR supports research on unreported hate crimes and hate incidents in Poland

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), in partnership with the Office of the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights, surveyed people of African descent and Muslims in Warsaw, and Ukrainians in Krakow in a study designed to provide a better understanding of the scale of unreported hate crimes against respective communities in Poland. Results of the research were presented at an event in Warsaw on 27 June 2018.

In the analysed period of 2016 – 2017, the most common incidents were insults (16.6 per cent of Ukrainians, 6.7 per cent of Muslims and 38.4 per cent of people of African descent said they were targeted by insults) while 17 per cent of people of African descent, 2.3 per cent of Ukrainians and 1.7 per cent of Muslims experienced a breach of bodily integrity.

The perpetrators were usually strangers (42 per cent) or football hooligans (12 per cent), and attacks occurred near the victim’s place of residence or work (27 per cent), on the street or in another public place (25 per cent), in the workplace (12 per cent), in public transport (10 per cent) and at school or university (8 per cent).

“Insufficient reporting of hate crimes to the authorities constitutes a major obstacle in developing an adequate policy to address the issue,” said Katarzyna Gardapkhadze, ODIHR First Deputy Director. “Obtaining reliable data on the scale and nature of hate crimes in Poland is crucial for providing a targeted response to the problem. Hate crimes must be recognized as a major human rights concern and addressed in a comprehensive manner.”

As the reasons for not reporting a crime, more than one-quarter of respondents indicated that in their opinion it was not worth reporting, while 22 per cent said they believed the police would not be able to do anything. More than one-fifth of respondents indicated that they did not have evidence of the crime.

“Results of the research not only show the scale of the problem in Poland, but also provide unique insights into the experiences of the victims of hate crimes,” said Sylwia Spurek, Deputy Human Rights Commissioner for Equal Treatment in Poland. “More efforts need to be undertaken to protect these vulnerable groups within the Polish society and to build trust in state institutions to facilitate reporting of hate incidents.”

The study was based on an innovative Respondent Driven Sampling methodology. It rests upon a snowballing principle of respondents recruiting other people from the same community to participate in the study. It aims to reach hidden communities within the population, such as the victims of hate crimes who otherwise would not report the incidents to the police and would not be covered by the statistics available to the authorities.

The study was conducted as part of ODIHR’s project Building a Comprehensive Criminal Justice Response to Hate Crime. The lessons learnt will become part of a toolkit applicable throughout Europe and the broader OSCE region.