According to research by the European Commission, 32 % of Romani people living in the Czech Republic have been physically assaulted or threatened with such an attack because of their nationality. Almost two-thirds of Romani assault victims never reported the attack.
Romani people are those who are the most vulnerable to hate violence in the country. The victims of such crimes also hold the key to their own protection.
Hate violence is any violence that is motivated by an assailant’s prejudices against the person targeted. The victim is attacked because of his or her disability, faith, nationality, sexual orientation, skin color or social position.
What is typical of hate crime is that the assailant usually does not know the victim – the attack is motivated by the victim’s perceived disability, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or social status. Arson or physical assault is what most often comes to mind when we think of hate crime.
However, we also encounter hate crimes that are cases of damage to homes and property, defamatory graffiti, and verbal assault, intimidation and threats, including written e-mails or Facebook posts that constitute harassment. Patrik, a victim of racist bullying, recalls what happened to him as follows:
"In September I started high school, I’m the first person in our family to attend. I had a Facebook profile. During the first six months, racist messages were sent to me through Facebook by several people. I think they were my fellow pupils, but they used faked profiles to do so."
Patrik did not want to go to school anymore because of the threats and his dream of high school became a nightmare. With the support of his mother, he reported the entire matter to police.
The threats stopped after police contacted the school. However, it will take Patrik some time to be able to attend again without fear.
For many Romani people, verbal racist attacks are a daily matter, and as is confirmed by international research, we must not resign ourselves when it comes to solving hate violence cases. Victims should take advantage of the legal means available to protect their rights in such cases.
How to recognize hate violence
Most victims know why they were assaulted, whether the attack was one of mere aggression, one based on prejudice, or one based on revenge. The testimony of the victim, as a witness to the incident, will influence whether police pay attention to investigating racist motivation.
If a victim reports a crime and believes the sole reason for the assault was ethnicity, nationality, skin color or any other similar, unchangeable characteristic, that reason must be included in the report. The most reliable indicator of hate motivation is that of verbal or written abuse that is defamatory or racist.
In many cases, however, perpetrators do not commit verbal attacks, which makes it more difficult to recognize prejudicial motivation. In such situations, it is possible to use other indicators to exclude other motivations such that the sole pretext for the assault can be recognized as the victim’s perceived ethnicity, nationality, or skin color.
For example, the context in which an attack takes place can indicate its motivation, such as a perpetrator who repeatedly vandalizes the door to an apartment occupied by a Romani family while leaving the apartments occupied by others alone. The timing of these incidents is also important.
In many cases there is a direct connection between ultra-right demonstrations (e.g., by the Workers’ Social Justice Party) and subsequent attacks on specific victims. There are also dates of significance to the ultra-right (e.g., 20 April, 1 May, 28 September, 17 November) when hate assaults occur more frequently.
We must always pay attention to cases in which the perpetrator and victim do not know one another, are of different nationalities, and there is no other obvious reason for the attack to have occurred. Some perpetrators of hate crimes are members of the ultra-right, but according to research that is applicable to the Czech Republic, such people do not constitute more than 20 % of hate crime perpetrators, and 20 % of hate crime perpetrators are themselves members of minorities.
Most perpetrators of this kind of violence, therefore, are members of the ordinary population. Some hate crime perpetrators will later report that they have committed such attacks.
The way in which hate incidents are performed is also typical. They are conspicuous in their brutality, their repetition, and their symbolism, often taking the form of arson.
Sometimes people confuse hate violence with discrimination, i.e., with behavior that denies a person access to housing, services, or work because of his or her perceived difference. In cases of discrimination it is necessary to complain to the Public Defender of Rights, to an anti-discrimination advice center, or to proceed independently according to the options afforded by the Anti-Discrimination Act.
What does the law say?
Physical attacks, intimidation, threats, property destruction, incitement to prejudicial behavior or the defamation of an ethnicity, a language, or a nation are crimes. The essence of punishing crimes and misdemeanors that are motivated by prejudice consists of the option for longer prison sentences for such acts when performed out of prejudicial motivation.
The sentencing for such cases can be as much as one-third longer than it is for the same crime committed without such motivation. Victims themselves can help to clarify incidents motivated by hatred, as follows:
- State from the start why you believe the incident was one of hatred
- Provide police all the information you have
- Save all the important written communications you have received, such as threatening e-mails or SMS messages
- Back up a screen shot of the Facebook profile of the attacker or the messages sent to you
- Document your physical injuries (photograph them) and visit a doctor in time
What to do when you encounter hate violence
In 2014, according to official police statistics, there were 211 so-called extremist crimes committed in the Czech Republic (the term police here use for labelling hate crimes). According to expert estimates, however, the actual number of hate incidents that occur in this country is as much as 10 times higher.
Why is there such a difference between the expert estimates and the official numbers? People who encounter hate violence respond to it in different ways.
Some people keep the whole matter to themselves, others confide in their friends and loved ones, others contact the police directly. The number of people who never report an assault is high – two-thirds of victims never turn to anyone at all and keep the attack completely to themselves.
Some of these people are concerned about revenge on the part of the perpetrator. Others fear no one will believe them, don’t trust the police and the judiciary, or don’t have enough information about how and when to file a report of the crime and what the criminal proceedings will be like.
How to report a crime
- Any police station must accept a report of crime
- The report must include information about WHAT, HOW, WHY, WHEN and WHERE the crime happened, as well as WHO COMMITTED THE BEHAVIOR, if applicable.
- For hate crimes it is important that the victim also state the attacker’s MOTIVATION, including verbal displays that accompanied the assault or other important information that might prove a prejudicial motive.
- If the victim believes he or she was attacked because of his or her ethnicity, nationality or skin color, that fact must be included in the report – otherwise this important information will not be taken into consideration by police.
As of last August, crime victims in the Czech Republic have many new rights. People who have been physically assaulted because of their skin color, or who have been threatened with physical violence for that reason, are considered "particularly vulnerable" victims.
This means that during the criminal proceedings they do not have to re-encounter their alleged perpetrator and they must be deposed in a particularly sensitive way. Victims may choose to grant someone else power of attorney to represent their rights in the case and may request the support of such a fiduciary.
Anyone can act as a fiduciary and people often choose a friend or loved one to do so. The victim’s attorney, however, should be a professional who is well-oriented in criminal proceedings.
Repercussions of hate violence and options for redress
The repercussions of hate violence are varied. Usually they include harm to one’s health, loss of income as a result of ongoing medical treatment, psychological harm, property damage, and non-pecuniary damage.
"The situation kept coming back to me, when I closed my eyes I would see it all over again. I couldn’t sleep at night, I couldn’t go to work during the day. I had to take care of my daughter but I didn’t have the strength," Soňa recalls of her situation after she was assaulted.
The psychological repercussions of hate violence are often more serious than the physical injuries caused. In some cases victims fear seeking the help of a psychologist or psychiatrist because they are ashamed of their mental state.
Contacting professionals for support can help the victim ameliorate the repercussions of the attack and gradually cope with them. Redress for the damage the assailant causes can be claimed by the victim through either a civil or criminal proceeding.
If the perpetrator is never identified, or if the perpetrator is identified and has a prior criminal record, victims whose health has been harmed are entitled to financial support from the state. The victim must claim such support within two years from the time the attack occurs.
Who will help me?
Advice, attorney services, legal and psychological services for victims of hate crime are either facilitated or provided by the In IUSTITIA organization. These services are provided free of charge anywhere in the Czech Republic.
You can contact our counseling center directly or through the toll-free phone line run by ROMEA, o.p.s.: 800 307 307. You can make an appointment for in-person counseling at our center for any Monday or Thursday between 9:00 and 17:00.
We also provide counseling in the field Monday through Friday on the basis of individual agreement. We provide e-mail and telephone counseling and legal information from Monday through Friday from 9:00 to 17:00; our address is Slezská 103, Praha 3.
The author is the director of the In IUSTITIA public benefit organization and is a PhD student at the Law Faculty of Masaryk University in Brno.
