ECRI Report, (fifth monitoring cycle). Published on 16 September 2014
Country
Slovakia
Year
Type of publication
Geographical coverage
National
Area/location of interest
Type of Institution
Council of Europe body
Institution
Main Thematic Focus
Racism & xenophobia Discrimination Ethnic profiling
Target Population
Muslims Migrants Ethnic minorities People with migrant background Refugees & asylum seekers
Key findings
There is no general provision that racist motivation constitutes an aggravating circumstance for all criminal offences. • Roma – the most targeted groups. foreign migrants are also victims of violence and have few contacts with the State institutions to report such violence or to receive support. This experience is more frequent among members of visible minorities, such as Africans, or among the Muslim community. Low awareness of existing legal tools by vulnerable groups, combined with a generalised distrust of the police, make underreporting of racist violence, as well as racist verbal abuse, perpetrated by police, an acute problem in Slovakia. • Hate speech is recurrent on the Internet and in part of the traditional media (also in social networks).
• Certain tabloids use ‘coded’ language which might disseminate prejudice and hatred.
• Hateful and racist statements have been reported on the Internet (also in social networks). They mainly target the Roma community and to a lesser extent the Hungarian historical minority and non-nationals. Regarding the spread of racist ideologies through the Internet, a study has demonstrated a worrying tolerance of such practice by the public (study by Open Society foundation 2012).
• Nearly 500 active members of neo-Nazi groups and several thousand sympathisers in Slovakia.
Methodology (Qualitative/Quantitative and exact type used, questionnaires etc)
The working methods for the preparation of the reports involve documentary analyses, a visit to the country concerned, and then a confidential dialogue with the national authorities.
Sample details and representativeness
ECRI’s reports are analyses based on a great deal of information gathered from a wide variety of sources.