DEALING WITH HATE CRIME IN MACEDONIAN SOCIETY

Abstract

Hate crime is new to our criminal law, but this is not a new phenomenon and its roots can be seen in the Roman law. The history itself gives many examples of hate crimes: the suffering of Jews, Roma and Slavs during the Second World War,as the suffering of African-American people in the United States in the middle of the last century. It is important to emphasize that these crimes are not authorized by the behavior of the victims, rather than their inherent characteristics. Hate crime is based on prejudice and can occur everywhere. No society is immune to the crimes caused by prejudice and intolerance. Hate crime consists of two elements, firstly the act must be recognized as a crime in the Criminal Code, and the motive for that actmust be based on a particular prejudice or biase. To qualify crime as a hate crime it does not necessarily mean that a perpetrator feels hatred agais the victim, it is enough that the motive is based on prejudice. Hate crime leads to various consequences, such as a verbal attack on an individual or group, property damage, physical violence and murder. The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union from 2000, it its Articles 1, 10, 21 and 47 guarantees the rights of human dignity, freedom of opinion and expression, religion, nondiscrimination and the right to effective remedies and fair trial.

Key words:hate crime, violence,intolerance