The report highlights the fact that that although hate crimes remain a serious problem in the OSCE Region, there is a lack of adequate and reliable data. Nevertheless, it does provide an overview of developments in national legislation and projects launched to combat hate crimes in 2008. This publication includes separate sections on certain types of hate crimes and victim groups that are specifically mentioned in OSCE commitments. These include racist and xenophobic crimes, anti-Semitic crimes and crimes against Roma, Muslims, Christians and members of other religions. Crimes against other groups such as persons with disabilities and crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons are also addressed.