OSCE: Over 5,000 hate crime incidents reported in 2016

By Merve Aydogan

ANKARA

The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) on Thursday published its 2016 hate crime data, including 5,998 incidents.

"On the International Day for Tolerance, this is our contribution to support the important fight against intolerance and discrimination in the OSCE region," said ODIHR Director Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir in a written statement Thursday.

"We want to see participating States addressing all acts and manifestations of hate, including hate crimes, vigorously and in earnest. We stand ready to assist them, and the more they report hate crime information to ODIHR, the better we are able to do so,” Gisladottir added.

According to a statement by ODIHR, 2,154 racist and xenophobic incidents were reported in 2016 followed by 1,661 anti-Semitic incidents and 371 reports of "bias against Muslims".

The 2016 national contributors to the data included countries like Turkey, the U.S., the U.K. and Russia. The 2016 regional contributors included organizations such as the Ankara-based Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

The data includes official information from 48 participating states, 125 civil society contributions, official statistics from 34 states and police statistics from 18 states.

"Incidents reported by civil society are also an essential element of our reporting. To properly reflect the richness of the data we receive, we have created a platform this year that allows users to filter and download data directly from our website," said Gisladottir.

The ODIHR is the principal institution of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.