Tag: hate crimes

The fear of refugees helped the Law and Justice to win the parliamentary elections of 2015. At that time, the party used to expressly promote its anti-immigration philosophy, which was soon reflected by the growing ratio of assaults on the grounds of racism and xenophobia.

Over 70 instances of hate crimes on racist, homophobic, anti-semitic, xenophobicand other grounds. This grim record is a result of Open Dialogue’s latest investigation into hate crimes in Poland. The report covers the period stretching from January to December 2019, and complements the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) annual reporting on “hate incidents” across the OSCE area. Most alarmingly, the report reveals a hate crime-conducive environment with the authorities turning a blind eye, or – worst still – being complicit in endorsing and spreading intolerance, stigmatisation, discrimination or even incitement to violence.

According to the analysis of the Ministry of Justice, in the first half of 2018, 890 cases of hate crimes were reported to Polish law enforcement agencies. Unfortunately, not all criminal acts motivated by racial, xenophobic, homophobic hatred, etc., are reported to law enforcement authorities.