Innokenty Grekov works in the Fighting Discrimination Program at Human Rights First , formerly known as the Lawyers Committee for International Human Rights. His primary work follows hate crimes in the member nations of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) . Before joining Human Rights First, he worked for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars , focusing on issues of racism, xenophobia, and antisemitism.

Since 2002, Human Rights First has been producing groundbreaking reports on hate crimes in Europe and North America. Grekov has contributed to the 2008 Hate Crimes Survey. A native Russian speaker, Grekov has been particularly involved in work on the Russian Federation, the UK and Eastern Europe, but has collaborated with others on all parts of the Survey. In particular, we will focus on the Roma issue in the Czech Republic, although the survey covers a wide variety of issues in the OSCE member countries--six facets of violent hate crimes were covered: violence based on racism and xenophobia, anti-Semitic violence, violence against Muslims, violence based on religious intolerance, violence against Roma, and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity bias, in all 56 countries comprising the OSCE.

How did you go about looking at the Roma issue for the survey?
We look at Anti-Roma bias as it is manifested through violence across Europe. The Roma chapter of our report last year documents violent and other forms of intolerance in eleven countries during the past two years. We’ve been finding that bias-motivated personal violence is increasing, having risen dramatically at the end of the 20th century. This trend of rising violence in the European Union (EU) continues in 2007 and 2008.

Tell us about the 2008 Hate Crime Survey. How did you collect information?
The survey itself is a continuation of Human Rights First’s work reporting on hate crimes. We’ve published several surveys since 2002. This is the most comprehensive. The new 2008 Survey examines six kinds of violent hate crimes in the 56 countries of the OSCE. It also examines government responses by looking at official systems of monitoring and reporting and by looking at criminal law in these countries. We take an in depth look at three countries: the Russian Federation and the Ukraine, which have experienced a dramatic rise in hate crimes, and the third country is the United States, because it has the most well developed framework to combat hate crimes.

We also look at national and unofficial statistics, including NGO reporting, and at the media. We profiled cases that have been covered by newspapers and magazines. There are a few of those also. And, of course, we have recommendations for all the countries we cover.

Who do you work with at the national or local level to learn about what is happening?
We reach out to various groups. At the 2008 Human Dimension Implementation Meeting of the OSCE, which brings together NGO and government representatives from the 56 countries, we did a side event on violence against Roma which we organized with the Roma Center for Social Intervention and Studies (Romani CRISS). We also regularly consult the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) . Overall our NGO partners are international and local. We try to cooperate with them as much as possible.

What did you learn about the Roma in the Czech Republic?
Well, specifically we profiled the attacks from 2007 when two, young, Roma Czechs were beaten by nationalists skinheads in the town of Olomouc. We also mentioned the anti-Roma rhetoric that is present in high profile politics. For example, the then-Deputy Prime Minister, Jirí Cunek, now reinstated as Deputy Prime Minister, was quoted as saying, “in order to be entitled to state subsidies like Roma, other people would need to get a suntan, behave in a disorderly way and light fires in town squares before politicians would regard them as badly off.” Some of the politicians even admitted that they were racists. The Czech Senator, Liana Janackova stated that problems in a Roma settlement could be resolved with dynamite and that she believed they should be held behind an electric fence. She also disagrees with the integration of Roma in Czech society.

How many countries have agreed to document hate crimes? Is the Czech Republic one of them?
The business of monitoring of hate crimes and the government responses to bias crimes have been inadequate, despite official commitments made by many countries to improve their legislation. Of course, many of them have not done anything at all. The minimum they should do is police education training and to engage communities with each other. These are usually the things that help to reduce hate crimes and xenophobia. The least they can do is provide the necessary police training and improve their legislation.

We find that over 40 states produce limited or no statistics at all. The Czech Republic actually does collect statistics. They publish an annual report on the issue of extremists in the country. We try to persuade the government to improve their monitoring. The problem in the Czech Republic is that the data is not disaggregated to reveal the characteristics of the victims. So anti-Roma crimes fall into the category of extremist crimes. The other two categories are antisemitic and anti-Muslim. Everything else is categorized as extremist. It is clear that in the Czech Republic Roma are the principal targets of extremists. Half of the bias-related murders were committed against Roma.

Moving on to the issues of hate crime legislation, out of the 56 countries, there are only 30 in which legislation treats some bias-motivated crimes as a separate crime. So an aggravating circumstance can be used to enhance penalties in those crimes. And we find that a growing number in those 56 countries are adopting laws to address violent hate crimes, mostly in the form of penalty enhancement provisions. Of course, that doesn’t mean that hate crime legislation is used in court consistently or thoroughly. When it comes to prosecutions, many times, nothing happens even when the legislation is there. So in the Czech Republic, for example, there was a report by the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance. Their Third Report on the Czech Republic stated that “implementation from criminal law provisions devoted to racially motivated crimes remains inadequate.”

As the Czech Republic takes over the EU Presidency, how do you feel it will affect the Litvinov case, particularly given the Mayor’s controversial plan for Roma ?

Our hope is that the new EU Presidency will result in political goodwill, because it is not in the politicians’ interest to demonstrate to the whole world the nationalist movement in the country. There is more scrutiny in the EU and internationally when the Czech Republic is the President. We hope to see more condemnation of violent acts. We would like the Czech authorities to speak out against violence and bigotry. It is in their best interest. It is also in their interest to reach out to Roma groups and undertake special activities designed to combat overall discrimination in housing, education and other areas, because Roma are still marginalized. They are one of the most vulnerable groups and are still victimized by hate crimes.

We find that Roma routinely suffer assaults in city streets, in other public places, and at home. The violence is directed at causing immediate harm to them and physically eliminating their presence in towns and cities in Europe generally. As you said, the Mayor of Litvinov would like to remove the Roma from the town entirely. People will attack Roma to get them to move elsewhere. That’s why combating hate crime is important.

The Czech Republic should ensure that those responsible for hate crimes are prosecuted properly. The enforcement of hate crime laws is a priority, as well as ensuring that law enforcement bodies are properly educated and instructed to deal with bias-motivated violence.

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