Škorjanec v. Croatia, No. 25536/14, ECtHR (Second Section), 28 March 2017

Assault with racial overtones. Obligation to carry out effective investigations. Link between racist attitudes and acts of violence. Hate crimes' definition and field of application.

Art. 3 ECHR 
Art. 14 ECHR

1. For an act to be classified as a hate crime, it is not necessary that it has been based solely on a victim’s characteristic. As a matter of fact, perpetrators may have mixed motives, being influenced as much or more by situational factors as by their biased attitude towards the ethnocultural group to which the victim belongs. Moreover, Article 14 ECHR, in the light of its objective and the nature of the rights which it seeks to safeguard, also covers instances in which an individual is treated less favourably on the basis of another person’s status or protected characteristics. It accordingly follows that the obligation on the authorities to seek a possible link between racist attitudes and a given act of violence – which is part of the responsibility incumbent on States under Article 3 taken in conjunction with Article 14 ECHR – concerns not only acts of violence based on a victim’s actual or perceived personal status or characteristics but also acts of violence based on a victim’s actual or presumed association or affiliation with another person who actually or presumably possesses a particular status or protected characteristic.
2. Indeed, some hate-crime victims are chosen not because they possess a particular characteristic, but because of their association with another person who actually or presumably possesses the relevant characteristic. This connection may take the form of the victim’s membership of or association with a particular group, or the victim’s actual or perceived affiliation with a member of a particular group through, for instance, a personal relationship, friendship or marriage (case in which the competent national authorities emphasised the fact that the applicant – romantically linked to a person of Roma ethnicity – was not of Roma origin herself and could therefore not be considered a victim of a hate crime).