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Alternative Report on Hate Crime and Related Issues to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on Hate Crime
Date
2019-12
Abstract
Hate crime impacts on the daily lives of people in Ireland. EU Fundamental Rights Agency data indicates that Ireland has some of the highest rates of hate crime in Europe among some of the most commonly targeted groups. As we will show, data from the 2016 Survey of Minorities and Discrimination in the EU shows that Ireland ranks (joint) highest among 12 EU member States surveyed with respect to the percentage of respondents from a Sub-Saharan African background reporting that they had experienced physical attacks due to ethnic or immigrant background in the past five years. Ireland ranks highest among the 12 EU Member States surveyed in respect to the percentage of respondents from a sub-Saharan background reporting having experienced 6 or more physical attacks due to their ethnic or immigrant background in the 5 years preceding the survey (21% compared to the 12 country group average of 9%). In an earlier FRA study, the EU LGBT survey of 2012, Ireland ranked second with respect to the percentage of trans respondents who reported having been physically or sexually assaulted or threatened with violence because of their identity n the 12 month period prior to the survey, (13% of trans respondents in Ireland compared to the 28 country group average of 8%).The current approach of the Irish criminal justice system has been described by globally renowned scholar Barbara Perry as a legislative ‘permission to hate’. This has contributed to a situation whereby the hate element of a crime has been evidenced by researchers as being ‘disappeared’ from criminal proceedings throughout the process. In spite of these lacunae, the State has had the current legislative regime - which criminalises incitement to hatred, but does not address hate crime - under review for nearly two decades without taking action. The ongoing absence of a legislative framework, although recommended by CERD in its first set of Concluding Observations on Ireland in 2005, impacts on minority communities’ access to justice, and may be related to the demonstrably lower levels of trust of minority groups in the criminal justice process in Ireland. In addition to examining hate crime and incitement to hatred, we look at two other associated and inter-related topics, racial profiling, and training in the criminal justice process. The evidence presented herein will demonstrate that the current legislative provisions and policing policies regarding hate crime and related issues in Ireland are inadequate and unsustainable. For this reason, the Coalition thought it would be useful to highlight this topic in a separate and discrete Alternative Report to the Committee. We hope this Report is of use to the Committee in its deliberations.
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Coalition Against Hate Crime
Citation
Coalition Against Hate Crime
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Schweppe_2019_Alternative
Adobe PDF, 4.66 MB
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Funding Information
Sustainable Development Goals
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International