The Framework of Criminal Law

Legislation on Bias-motivated Violence

Bias-motivated Violent Crimes as Specific Offenses	Bias as an Express General Aggravating Factor	Bias as an Aggravating Factor in Specific Common Crimes
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Bias Types Covered by Provisions on Aggravating Circumstances

Race/National Origin/Ethnicity	Religion	Sexual Orientation	Gender	Disability	Other
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Bias as an Aggravating Factor in Specific Common Crimes

The Criminal Code of the Slovak Republic, which entered into force on January 1, 2006, contains provisions on aggravating circumstances in the commission of certain crimes determined by law.

Section 140 of the code deals with “special biases” and stipulates that crimes committed with such biases result in the imposition of higher penalties. Section 140(d) refers to motives based on “national, ethnic or racial hatred or hatred because of skin color.” These special bias provisions apply to the following sections of the Criminal Code.

Section 144(2)(e) – premeditated murder;
Section 145(2)(d) – murder;
Section 147(2)(b) – manslaughter;
Section 155(2)(c) – serious bodily injury;
Section 156(2)(b) – moderate bodily injury;
Section 359 – violence against a group of inhabitants and against an individual. More specifically, this section deals with persons who threaten a group of inhabitants with death, serious bodily harm, or other serious harm or with causing of extensive damage, or who use violence against a group of inhabitants.
Section 360(2)(d) – serious threats. This section deals with persons who threaten others with death, serious bodily harm or other serious harm, or with causing extensive damage to an extent which may raise justifiable fears.
Section 365(2)(b) – desecration of a place of eternal rest. This section deal with persons who destroy, damage or desecrate a grave, an urn with the ashes of a deceased person, a memorial or a gravestone, or who destroy or damage a burial site or other place of eternal rest, or persons who commits other abusive or dishonoring, indecent act.
Section 366(2)(b) – Desecration of a dead body. This section deals with persons who abuse or desecrate a dead body, or without lawful authority carry out the exhumation of ashes, take ashes away from the burial site, or dispose with ashes against a generally binding legal act.[1]

Little was done to implement criminal code provisions concerning bias-motivated violence before 2006. In its Third Report on Slovakia, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) describes a “problematic” situation of a consistently high level of violence and inertia in the criminal justice system.

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[1] Official response of the government of the Slovak Republic to a Human Rights First questionnaire, received on August 31, 2006.