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3.2.2 Poland
In Poland information on legal proceedings and convictions with regard to hate crimes is collected by the Ministry of Justice. The offenders, if convicted at all, are usually punished pursuant to »regular« Criminal Code provisions, for example, »acts of vandalism« under Art. 115 Sect. 21. Only in exceptional or high-publicity incidents (see Chapter 1) do the perpetrators of hate crimes face long prison sentences. As previously noted, the Polish Criminal Code does not contain any penalty enhancement provisions for bias-motivated offenses. One of the few official sources currently available on court cases and convictions related to racist hate crimes and hate speech is a report compiled as part of the »National Program for Counteracting Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance 2004-2009« (see Chapter 1). It contains information on legal procedures and final court decisions related to xenophobic crimes (Art. 119 Sect. 1, Art. 256 and 257 of the Polish Criminal Code). It was prepared by the Ministry of Justice in cooperation with the Government Plenipotentiary for the Equal Status of Women and Men. (7)
The following statistics are based on research done by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, which collected and compiled the following information from the Police Headquarters Office, the public prosecutor and the Ministry of Justice. It was published in their most recent report on »Xenophobic and Ethnic Discrimination in Poland« in February 2008:
Table 7: Legal proceedings in cases of racist offenses 2004-2006
| Year | Number of offenses (Art. 118, 119, 256 and 257 Criminal Code) | Proportion of requested indictments | Proportion of discontinuation due to failure to identify the perpetrators | Number of convictions |
| 2006 | 94 | 47% | 34% | 35 |
| 2005 | 68 | 71% | 21% | 22 |
| 2004 | 42 | 64% | 31% | 18 |
Source: Mikulska, Agnieszka 2008: Xenophobia and Ethnic Discrimination in Poland—Outline of the Situation, Helsinki Foundation for Human Right, Warsaw, p. 12. Based on data from the Police System of Crime Statistics Temida (Policyjny System Statystyki Przestępczości “Temida”).
While the Ministry of Justice declared only recently that the figures of prosecution and jurisprudence once again prove the marginal nature of the hate crime phenomena in Poland, some NGOs have repeatedly pointed to the fact that incidents of violence and hate speech are still downplayed by law enforcement and other governmental agencies by all too frequently applying the principle of »insignificant social harmfulness« of an act (see Chapter 2). Existing legislation is in place to prosecute xenophobic or anti-Semitic hate crimes, but as supranational bodies such as ECRI and the European Roma Rights Center have criticized, police departments and public prosecutors hardly make use of it. Further public attention and research as to why they neglect using it is needed. (8)
7. Mikulska, Agnieszka 2008. Xenophobia and Ethnic Discrimination in Poland: Outline of the Situation, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Warsaw, p. 12.
8. European Roma Rights Center 2002. The Limits of Solidarity: Roma in Poland after 1989, European Roma Rights Center, Country Reports Series, Nr. 11, Budapest/London, p. 74-87.
(OPP)
