in the Belgian legal system, the criminalisation of hatred, violence or discrimination is criminalised by the Law of 30 July 1981 against certain acts inspired by racism or xenophobia, by the Law of 10 May 2007 to combat certain forms of discrimination and by the Law of 10 May 2007 on combating discrimination between women and men. This contribution provides an initial overview of the main lines of force, criteria and trend emerging from the practice of Belgian courts under this legislative framework. From that point of view, the authors analysed the information provided by our highest courts, but also, and above all, about 50 judgments and judgments handed down ‘on the merits’ by the misdemeanour courts and courts of appeal in the various districts of the Kingdom, both French-speaking and Dutch-speaking. The aim is to approach a representative, though not exhaustive, sample of Belgian practice in this area. Before doing so, it will be necessary to recall the main features of the relevant supranational framework, which forms part of the relevant case-law of domestic courts.