By COSLA Community Wellbeing Spokesperson, Councillor Maureen Chalmers

This Hate Crime Awareness Week, we have an opportunity to send a clear message: hate has no place in Scotland’s communities.

Everyone should be able to feel safe, respected and valued in the place they call home. Yet we know that hatred and prejudice continue to affect people and communities across Scotland.

Hate crime can have a devastating impact on the person who experiences it. But its effects can also reach much further. It can create fear, undermine people’s sense of belonging and damage the relationships and trust that hold communities together.

This message feels particularly important given the heightened tensions and protest activity we have seen in our communities in recent years. At the same time, the latest figures show that 7,115 charges containing at least one element of hate crime were reported in Scotland in 2025-26, an increase of 17% on the previous year and the highest number since comparable figures began in 2003-04. Behind every statistic is a person and, often, a wider community affected by fear, uncertainty or a diminished sense of belonging.

That is why tackling hate crime and strengthening community cohesion must go hand in hand.

Strong, inclusive communities do not happen by accident. They are built through the connections we make with one another, through opportunities for people from different backgrounds to come together and through ensuring everyone feels that they have a voice and a place within their community.

Scotland’s councils are central to that work.

Local Government works alongside communities and partners every day to tackle prejudice and inequality, support people who experience hate and create places in which people can connect and participate. Councils also have an important role in prevention, addressing the factors that can contribute to division, and helping to build understanding before prejudice has the opportunity to escalate.

Last year, COSLA and the Scottish Government launched the Understanding Hate Crime Toolkit, providing local authorities with practical information on hate crime and reporting, alongside examples of good practice from councils across Scotland. The resource was developed with local authority stakeholders and is designed to support councils in tackling hate crime and promoting community cohesion.

One of the clearest messages emerging from engagement with local authorities in developing the toolkit was the importance of prevention. The toolkit recognises that preventing hate crime from happening in the first place is the most effective way of tackling it and highlights the importance of collaborative approaches to addressing the underlying causes of hatred and prejudice.

That work is particularly important because community cohesion is about much more than responding to moments of tension. It is about the relationships we build every day.

It means creating opportunities for people to meet and understand one another. It means listening to communities and ensuring that people feel able to participate in the decisions that affect them. It means challenging prejudice and misinformation, celebrating the diversity of our communities, and ensuring that nobody feels isolated because of who they are.

And this is not work that councils can do alone.

National Hate Crime Awareness Week, which takes place from 10 to 17 October 2026, is intended to bring together communities, councils, government, businesses and the voluntary sector to take action against hate crime. That partnership approach is essential.

Community organisations, public services, schools, businesses and individuals all have a role to play. Sometimes that means challenging prejudice when we encounter it. Sometimes it means listening to and supporting someone who has experienced hate. And sometimes it can be as simple as reaching out, starting a conversation and helping someone feel that they belong.

At COSLA, we are committed to working with Scotland’s councils, the Scottish Government and our partners to help build strong, safe and inclusive communities and to ensure that local government has the tools it needs to prevent and respond to hate crime. COSLA also participates in the Scottish Government's strategic partnership arrangements on hate crime, supporting a multi-agency approach to delivering Scotland's Hate Crime Strategy.

This Hate Crime Awareness Week, we should all take the opportunity not only to speak out against hate, but to think about what we can do to strengthen the connections within our own communities.

Because when people feel connected, valued and that they belong, our communities are stronger. By standing together against prejudice and division, we can help build a Scotland where everyone feels safe, respected and welcome.