A/HRC/44/53/Add.1 training and increased protection measures. The Independent Expert notes, however, a sharp increase in non-violent offences, with mercenary motives recorded, such as extortion, blackmail and disclosure of personal information on a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity. He is concerned that, pushed into secrecy, a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity may increasingly be used for the purposes of blackmail and extortion by both police and private actors. The Independent Expert is greatly concerned about the extreme violence of homophobic and transphobic hate crimes compared with crimes motivated by other reasons. The State reported, for example, that hate crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse persons represented 40 per cent of all physical assaults and homicides recorded by the police in 2018.20 40. Underreporting of homophobic and transphobic incidents is a serious problem. For 2018, the police registered 15 criminal offences against lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse persons, compared with 358 cases of violence, discrimination and other violations motivated by homophobia and transphobia recorded by civil society organizations.21 This discrepancy may indicate that hate crimes motivated by bias against such persons are either not reported to the police, or not recognized as such by it. Reasons invoked for underreporting include a lack of legal literacy among the community, the fear that the victim’s sexual orientation and gender identity will be disclosed and a lack of trust in the police and the judiciary and, particularly, that an investigation will be carried out with objectivity and independence, or result in any charges. 41. Indeed, the Independent Expert notes that incidents of homophobic and transphobic violence are rarely investigated or prosecuted by the authorities. Motives of homophobia and transphobia are often not taken into consideration by investigators or qualified as lesser offences without aggravating circumstances. In addition, very few criminal proceedings for hate crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse persons have been brought to court, and the vast majority of the perpetrators are indicted for ordinary offences rather than hate crimes. 42. All the interlocutors the Independent Expert met with concur in saying that the existing criminal legislation is not suitable to adequately qualify hate crimes on grounds other than those explicitly stated in the Criminal Code of Ukraine – that is, on the basis of race or national or religious intolerance.22 The vast majority of crimes in which the police see motives of bias are classified under article 161 of the Criminal Code (“Violation of citizens’ equality based on their race, nationality, religion, disability and other grounds”), which has an open-ended list of grounds; however, there are no general or specific references to grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity. 43. As a result, crimes that should be considered as hate crimes, in the event they are investigated, are often characterized as lesser offences, such as hooliganism or infliction of injuries. Some amendments to the Criminal Code envisaged in the human rights action plan were meant to address this gap. The Independent Expert was nonetheless informed that, even though the relevant bill had been developed by the National Police, it has not yet been submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers for approval. 44. Yet, a number of measures implemented through the human rights action plan and other public policies are positively impacting on the number of hate crimes recorded by the police,23 the number of cases registered under article 161 of the Criminal Code, 24 and the number of cases prosecuted,25 including: 20 21 22 23 24 25 See http://hatecrime.osce.org/ukraine?year=2018. Nash Mir Centre, LGBT Situation in Ukraine in 2018. See arts. 115, 121–122, 126–127 and 129. See https://hatecrime.osce.org/ukraine. According to information provided during the visit, for the first quarter of 2019, there had been 85 such cases, including 3 involving sexual orientation, compared with only 3 cases in 2012. Prosecutions for hate crimes have seen a sharp increase in the past three years, rising from 76 in 2016 to 149 in 2018. 9