Hate crime threatens the safety of individuals and groups that are targeted by it and violates their core human rights. At the same time, it undermines equality and human dignity and destroys social stability and peace, thereby threatening the very basis of democratic societies. Hate crime is a complex phenomenon to tackle. It lacks an internationally recognised binding definition and it is under-reported by victimsnd respond to hate crime within the framework of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.

The Council of Europe’s Recommendation CM/Rec(2024)4 on combating hate crime sets out what should be done to prevent and combat hate crime. It calls upon member state institutions and key stakeholders to effectively co-operate and co-ordinate with one another as well as with civil society organisations for the purposes of preventing and responding to hate crime effectively and within the framework of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. 

Council of Europe's Recommendation on Combating Hate Crime

The new recommendation on combating hate crime:

  • Understands hate crime as a category of criminal offences involving hate, bias or prejudice that relate to the (actual or perceived) personal characteristics or status of the victim.

  • Provides guidance to governments and relevant stakeholders in developing and implementing comprehensive policies, strategies and action plans for preventing and combating hate crime.

  • Stresses the importance of adopting a holistic, multi-faceted and intersectional approach to provide individuals who experience hate crime with adequate protection, support and effective access to justice.

  • Recognises that hate crime can be a consequence of the escalation of hate speech. 

What should be done?

  • Adopt effective, proportionate, and dissuasive provisions in criminal law, alongside comprehensive policies, guidelines and other measures to prevent and combat hate crime.
  • Create the conditions to encourage reporting of hate crime through:
    • Providing effective, trauma-informed support to hate crime victims throughout the entire criminal justice process – including language services and legal, medical and psychological assistance;
    • Encouraging criminal justice agencies to co-operate and co-ordinate between themselves and with civil society organisations
  • Setting up safe and effective platforms, including anonymous and online reporting, as well as emergency helplines
  • Understand and properly address hate crime and its underreporting by:
    • Collecting anonymised and disaggregated data;
    • Regularly conducting surveys, including victimisation surveys;
    • Analysing and regularly reviewing such data to improve strategies.
  • Prepare and implement effective strategies and identify and address the drivers of hate crime.
  • Engage with relevant stakeholders such as internet intermediaries, public officials, elected bodies, political parties, civil society organisations, and the media.
  • Develop a culture of inclusiveness and human rights through education systems that promote mutual respect and equality. 
Read the recommandation 
Recommendation CM/Rec(2024)4 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on combating hate crime and Explanatory Memorandum 
What is hate crime and why is it a problem?

Hate crime is a criminal offence committed with a hate element based on one or more actual or perceived personal characteristics or status.

Hate crime threatens the safety of individuals and groups that are targeted by it and violates their core human rights. At the same time, it undermines equality and human dignity and destroys social stability and peace, thereby threatening the very basis of democratic societies. Hate crime is under-reported by victims and it is a complex phenomenon to tackle.
Through Recommendation CM/Rec(2024)4, the member States of the Council of Europe have agreed that “hate crime” is understood as a criminal offence committed with a hate element based on one or more actual or perceived personal characteristics or status, where:

    a. “hate” includes bias, prejudice or contempt;   
    b. "personal characterics or status" includes, but is not limited to, “race"[1] colour, language, religion, nationality, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics.


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[1] Since all human beings belong to the same species, the Committee of Ministers rejects, as does ECRI, theories based on the existence of different “races”. However, in this document, the term “race” is used in order to ensure that those persons who are generally and erroneously perceived as “belonging to another race” are not excluded from the protection provided for by legislation and the implementation of policies to prevent and combat hate crime.

Why this definition?

The main objective of this wide definition is to enable member States to prosecute and sentence hate crime more effectively.

The definition reflects the common understanding that hate crimes are a category of criminal offences which involve hate, bias or prejudice relating to the (actual or perceived) personal characteristics or status of the victim. The “hate element” is a general term used to ensure compatibility with a variety of different legal traditions. Moreover, the definition encompasses, but is broader than, “bias motivation”, a term which has so far been used by a significant number of organisations and member States as an operational framework for hate crime. 

  • This broad definition is designed to overcome the specific difficulty associated with proving factors that are internal to the offender in criminal law. The proof of bias motivation presents exactly this difficulty, as the state of mind of a hate crime offender can often not be known, but may have to be inferred, either by explicit statements attesting to the presence of a sentiment, or contextually by other hate indicators such as the nature, timing, object, purpose of associated message and meaning attaching to the commission of the offence. These are sometimes referred to as “bias indicators”, which suggest that the offender’s actions were motivated, in whole or in part, by any form of bias. Using the definition above, proof of an internal bias motivation is no longer necessarily required, but proof of other objective hate elements through evidence of broader “hate indicators” is sufficient to secure conviction of an offender. 
     
  • This definition is also designed to be compatible with the range of definitions of hate crime in Council of Europe member States and the different legislative models used, notably, both “animus” and “demonstration” models of hate crime. The “animus” model uses proof of bias or hate motivation as the legal test. By contrast, whilst the discriminatory selection (or “group selection”) model requires that the offender intentionally selected his or her victim from the protected group, it is not necessary to formally establish proof of prejudice, bias, hostility, or hatred for a conviction to ensue. Thus, the term “hate element” ensures that hate crime legislation based on the animus model as well as legislation based on the discriminatory selection model are covered and avoids ambiguity in the Recommendation. 
  • Finally, Recommendation CM/Rec(2022)16 on Combating hate speech recognises that certain categories of hate speech which constitute the most serious expressions of hatred should be criminalised. They constitute hate crime, as they are covered by the hate crime definition of CM/Rec(2024)4. The categories of hate speech that should be criminalised, as outlined in paragraph 11 of CM/Rec(2022)16 are as follows: 

Member States should specify and clearly define in their national criminal law which expressions of hate speech are subject to criminal liability, such as:

a.    public incitement to commit genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes;
b.    public incitement to hatred, violence or discrimination;
c.    racist, xenophobic, sexist and LGBTI-phobic threats;
d.   racist, xenophobic, sexist and LGBTI-phobic public insults under conditions such as those set out specifically for online insults in the Additional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime concerning the criminalisation of acts of a racist and xenophobic nature committed through computer systems (ETS No. 189);
e.   public denial, trivialisation and condoning of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes; and
f.   intentional dissemination of material that contains such expressions of hate speech (listed in a-e above) including ideas based on racial superiority or hatred.

Here, the “hate element” often is a constituent and operating element of the offence, for example in the case of incitement to hatred or holocaust denial. A “bias motivation” may not necessarily be an element of the offence. The broader definition of “hate element” thereby allows consistency between these two recommendations, in line with the will to adopt a comprehensive approach to tackling hate. 

Overall, the definition aims to facilitate the prosecution of hate crime and improve the rate of conviction by providing leeway to member States to base the criminalisation of hate crimes on a large range of hate elements, without being limited to requiring proof of motivation. This is important to overcome difficulties in tackling hate crime at a number of stages of the process, including in investigation, prosecution and sentencing, but also as regards under-reporting by victims and data gathering and monitoring. Enabling member States through this wider definition to prosecute hate crime more effectively is particularly important as hate crime not only threatens the safety of individuals and groups that are targeted by it and violates their core human rights, but it undermines equality and human dignity and destroys social stability and peace, thereby threatening the very basis of democratic societies.

IMPLEMENTATION OF CM/REC(2024)4

The CDADI established a working group (GT-ADI-HS/HC) to prepare deliverables relating to the implementation of Recommendation CM/Rec(2022)16 on combating hate speech and CM/Rec(2024)4 on combating hate crime. 

During its current mandate (2024-2027), the CDADI prepared a compilation of existing resources for the implementation of Recommendation CM/Rec(2024)4, the Online database of resources on hate crime.

Adopted documents