Helsinki Committee: Hate crime on the rise, 123 incidents registered in 2018

Most of the incidents, i.e. 64,2% have been carried out on account of ethnicity, whereas 25,2% on account of political affiliation. Most of them – 67 have involved violence, 26 have involved damage to property, whereas 18 have involved bodily injuries.

According to Executive Director of the Helsinki Committee Uranija Pirovska, these figures point to the fact that there is too much talk on overcoming stereotypes, but very little action.

“It’s vital to take hate speech seriously, because not dealing with it means producing hate crime incidents and acts,” said Pirovska.

She urged the state to undertake concrete steps to overcome this situation, and the public prosecution and courts to act on the charges filed and see to their completion.

Most of the victims or perpetrators are young people, mainly minors.

“This indicates that the country is not investing enough in education, developing tolerance, understanding and coexistence, added Pirovska.

According to Hajdi Shterjova-Simonovic from the Helsinki Committee, the fact that the state mostly reacts in cases involving celebrities or politicians should also be pointed out.

The Helsinki Committee also considers as hate crime the 27 April 2017 events in Parliament, which, according to them, had been preceded by hate speech. They also consider as hate speech the murder of football fan Nikola Sazdovski.