International crimes [1]

Law 1964:169 on genocide.

Incitement to hatred / Dissemination of racist ideas [2]

Chapter 16 Section 8 of the Criminal Code prohibits racial agitation. The criminal act consists in a disseminated statement or communication, threatening or expressing contempt for a national, ethnic or other such group of persons with allusion to race, colour, national or ethnic affiliation or religious belief. Dissemination through an organisation or similar group is also punishable under the law. Agitation is also punishable when the act is committed through the printed word, film, sound recording and other such media, including via the Internet. The provision also covers communications in pictorial form or gesture: thus, the Supreme Court ruled in 1996 that the bearing of symbols that can be associated with the Nazi persecution of the Jews and other persons can constitute racial agitation.

The provision does not protect individuals but only groups of people defined as a collective.  An amendment in January 2003 provides that incitement may be defined as a serious crime with a penal scale ranging from 6 months to 4 years imprisonment.  Fines are imposed if the offence is "of little gravity", a concept which the Criminal Code does not define.

Chapter 16 Section 12 of the Penal Code penalises the distribution to young people or children of a writing, picture or technical recording which through its content could brutalise or otherwise involve serious danger to the moral nurture of the young. This provision has been used to penalise the distribution of racist propaganda to young people through, for example, the sale of CD recordings, without impediment from the provisions contained in the Fundamental Law on Freedom of Expression.

Holocaust denial [3]

Personal violence

Destruction of property

Civil rights violations

Chapter 16 Section 9 of the Penal Code criminalises discrimination by a person during the conduct of his or her business, or in organising a public assembly or gathering, against another person on the basis of race, colour, national or ethnic affiliation, religious belief or homosexual orientation. The provision, which carries a penalty of up to one years’ imprisonment, also applies to those employed in public service or having a public duty.

Racist organizations [4]

Racist cyber-crime

Aggravating circumstances

Common offences with a racist motive

Chapter 29 Section 2 (7) of the Penal Code provides for the racist motives of offenders to be taken into account as an aggravating circumstance when sentencing in cases of criminal acts such as assault, unlawful threat, molestation and inflicting damage. The aggravating circumstances include: “a motive for the crime was to aggrieve a person, ethnic group or some other similar group of people by reason of race, colour, national or ethnic origin, religious belief or other similar circumstance.”

Bias types [5]

Nationality, ethnicity, race, colour, religion, other.