What are hate incidents and hate crime?

What are hate incidents and hate crime?

Hate incidents and hate crime are acts of violence or hostility directed at people because of who they are or who someone thinks they are.

For example, you may have been verbally abused by someone in the street because you’re disabled or someone thought you were gay.

If you’ve experienced a hate incident or hate crime you can report it to the police.

Read this page to find out more about hate incidents and hate crime.

What are hate incidents?

Even though these isn’t an agreed a common definition of hate incidents, usually it constitutes a hate incident if the victim or anyone else think it was motivated by hostility or prejudice based on one of the following things:

disability
race
religion
gender identity
sexual orientation
other personal status.

This means that if you believe something is a hate incident it should be recorded as such by the person you are reporting it to. All police forces record hate incidents based on these personal characteristics.

Anyone can be the victim of a hate incident. For example, you may have been targeted because someone thought you were gay even though you’re not, or because you have a gay friend or family member.

What type of incidents can be a hate incident?

Hate incidents can take many forms. Here are examples of hate incidents:

verbal abuse like name-calling and offensive jokes
harassment
bullying or intimidation by children, adults, neighbours or strangers
hoax calls, abusive phone or text messages, hate mail
online abuse for example on Facebook or Twitter
graffiti
throwing rubbish into a garden
malicious complaints for example over parking, smells or noise.

When is a hate incident also a hate crime?

When hate incidents become criminal offences they are known as hate crimes. A criminal offence is something which breaks the criminal code of Kosovo.

According to Kosovo Criminal Code, hate crimes are defined as any crime committed against a person, group of persons, or property, motivated upon the race, color, gender, gender identity, language, religion, national or social origin, relation to any community, property, economic condition, sexual orientation, birth, disability or other personal status, or because of their affinity with persons who have the aforementioned characteristics, except if one of the enumerated characteristics constitutes an element of a criminal offense.

Examples of hate crimes

Here are examples of hate crimes:

assaults
criminal damage
harassment
murder
sexual assault
theft
fraud
burglar

What can you do about a hate incident or crime?

If you’ve experienced a hate incident or crime you can report it to the police. You can also report a hate incident or crime even if it wasn’t directed at you. For example, you could be a friend, neighbour, family member, support worker or simply a passer-by.

When reporting the incident or crime you should say whether you think it was because of disability, race, religion, transgender identity, sexual orientation or a combination of these things. This is important because it makes sure the police record it as a hate incident or crime.

If you’re worried about the police not taking you seriously

You may be unsure whether the incident is a criminal offence, or you may think it’s not serious enough to be reported. However, if you are distressed and want something done about what happened, it’s always best to report it. Although, the police can only charge and prosecute someone when the law has been broken, there are other things the police can do to help you deal with the incident.

It’s also important to keep in mind that some hate crimes start as smaller incidents which may escalate into more serious and frequent attacks - so it’s always best to act early.

Need free Legal Advice or/and representation

Contact a specialized CSO - There are several CSO that are specialized in working with LGBT or HIV positive persons who also provide free legal advice and representation. CSGD is a non governmental organization, established in 2003 that promotes, protects the rights of LGBTI people in Kosovo. It also seeks to empower the LGBTI people through advocating, provision of services that improve their welfare, and raising the awareness of the Kosovar society. The online platform is designated to offer services for vulnerable groups to have access to justice by receiving online free legal aid. Expanding the reach of the free legal aid services in places where they do not have access through both community visits by free legal aid staff and remote access tools using phone or internet.

Hire a lawyer - Depending on your financial situation, you should consider to go to a lawyer, if you can afford it. You can decide whom to hire (and fire) as your lawyer. However, remember that when you fire a lawyer, you may be charged a reasonable amount for the work already done. When you agree to hire a lawyer and that lawyer agrees to legally represent you, a two-way relationship begins in which you both have the same goal - to reach a satisfactory resolution to a legal matter. To this end, each of you must act responsibly toward a lawyer-client relationship, acting responsibly involves duties on both sides. Every lawyer must act carefully and in a timely manner in handling a client’s legal problem. You can find the names and contact information of licensed lawyers in this link: http://www.oak-ks.org/sq/lista-e-avokateve.
Contact Free Legal Aid Agency -But if you can’t afford a lawyer or you are not interested on reaching out to an CSO or hiring a lawyer you can go to the Free Legal Aid Agency. The Kosovo Constitution guarantees the right to free legal assistance. In 2012, the Kosovo Assembly adopted the Law on Free Legal Aid (the Law), which guarantees free legal aid during criminal proceedings for individuals charged with a criminal offence who do not have sufficient financial means pay for legal representation. For more information about Free Legal Aid Agency go to https://anjf.rks-gov.net/ . By clicking on the following link, all citizens now have the opportunity to apply online for free legal aid, respectively in the municipality / region where they come from: https://ndihmajuridike.com/ .