OSCE releases 2024 Hate Crime Report
The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) published its 2024 Hate Crime Report on Monday, 17 November, to mark the International Day for Tolerance.
The report includes information on 12,714 hate incidents recorded across 47 participating States, as reported by 125 civil society organizations, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), and OSCE field missions.
In the section concerning Greece, official data indicate that the Greek police recorded 154 hate crimes in 2024. Of these, 111 cases proceeded to prosecution, and 23 resulted in convictions.
The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) submitted a written contribution during the preparation phase of the OSCE report, documenting hate-motivated attacks and hate speech targeting the Turkish community of Western Thrace in Greece.
In its submission, ABTTF highlighted two key issues observed in 2024:
The Friendship, Equality, Peace (DEB) Party, which won the highest number of votes in the June 9, 2024 European Parliament elections in the regions of Rhodope and İskeçe, was subjected to stigmatization and hate speech in both politics and the media.
A young child belonging to the Western Thrace Turkish community was physically attacked by a racist group in the city of Gümülcine.
The OSCE/ODIHR stressed that there is an urgent need to develop systematic, long-term training programs for police officers and prosecutors across the OSCE region—programs that explicitly include targeted communities—to ensure effective hate-crime response and meaningful access to justice for victims.
ODIHR Director Maria Telalian emphasized that hate crimes have a devastating impact not only on individual victims but also on entire communities. She underscored that education lies at the heart of combating hate crimes, stating that every police officer, prosecutor, and judge must have the tools and skills required to identify hate crimes, protect victims, and hold perpetrators to account.
The section of the OSCE 2024 Hate Crime Report concerning Greece is available at the OSCE's official hate crime reporting portal.
