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This Urgent Opinion was prepared by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) folllowing a request from the Chair of the Justice and Human Rights Committee of the Sejm of Poland.

This Opinion was prepared by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) following a request from the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Moldova for an assistance in the effort to strengthen institutional and individual integrity of the Parliament and parliamentarians as well as public accountability, including by providing a legal review of the relevant legislative proposals when they become available, to assess their compliance with international human rights standards and OSCE human dimension commitments.

January- March 2024

It is important to know what a hate crime is. When a hate crime is committed, one or more perpetrators target the victim, which can be one or more people or property, because of a protected aspect of the victim's identity, such as religion or ethnicity, race, sexual orientation or disability. Similarly, a hate incident is an act of hostility motivated by prejudice or bias that does not necessarily reach the threshold of a criminal offence, or the criminal nature of which is yet to be determined. A hate crime is any crime where the perpetrator is driven by prejudice or bias. Criminal offence + bias motive = hate crime.

Information Exchange on Anti-Personnel Mines and Explosive Remnants of War