Romania launches platform for reporting racist incidents

The Romanian government announced that it launched the Stop Racism platform, an online service designed to facilitate the reporting of hate-related incidents. The platform became operational last week, on October 8.

Citizens can submit reports through a structured form on stoprasism.ro without creating a permanent user account. Based on the information provided, the system automatically sends the report to the authority considered competent to handle it.

According to the government, if the case falls outside that institution’s jurisdiction, the report can be redirected to another authority, with an explanation provided for the decision. Users can subsequently track the status of their reports through a two-step verification system.

The platform also provides information about applicable legislation, victims’ rights, and official studies and reports. It includes further resources such as international documents and details about grants and non-repayable funding opportunities.

The government stressed that the service does not replace existing legal procedures or emergency-reporting channels. Anyone facing an emergency should continue to call the 112 emergency number.

The authorities also plan to use anonymised information gathered through the platform to improve statistics on antisemitic, anti-Roma, and xenophobic incidents and develop more effective prevention policies.

The platform was developed by Romania’s National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics in cooperation with public institutions including the National Council for Combating Discrimination, the Ombudsman, the Interior Ministry, prosecutors, and the Justice Ministry.

Its launch is part of Romania’s 2024-2027 national strategy for preventing and combating antisemitism, xenophobia, radicalisation, and hate speech.