17 November 2021
The Oireachtas Justice Committee has heard of the devastating impact of hate crime on affected communities from three members of the Coalition Against Hate Crime Ireland. The Committee met as legislation to outlaw hate crime and review incitement to hatred provisions is being prepared.
Martin Collins, Co-Director of Pavee Point Traveller & Roma Centre, said:
“Pavee Point has advocated for many years for effective legislation which acknowledges that hate speech and hate crime exist in Ireland with devastating impacts for victims. Travellers, Roma, and other groups need protection under the law and this protection must be meaningful and effective”
Fiona Hurley, Policy and Communications Manager at Nasc Migrant and Refugee Rights, said:
“Nasc have a long history of anti-racism work and have been actively engaged in calling for Hate Crime and Hate Speech legislation for over a decade. We are pleased to see progress being made on legislation however, this legislation is only one step towards tackling racism and other prejudices in Irish society.”
Dr Jennifer Schweppe European Centre for the Study of Hate stated:
“In our research we have consistently shown that the absence of hate crime legislation in Ireland has led to what we refer to as the ‘disappearing’ of the hate element of a crime through the criminal process. We have also found that courts have treated offences as racially aggravated in the absence of any evidence that racism was involved in the commission of the offence.”
The OSCE ODIHR has released its annual data on hate crime in participating States. Once again, no official data was made available by Ireland while both the UN and the Council of Europe called for the introduction of an improved mechanism to collect disaggregated data on hate crime in Ireland. Coalition member INAR (Irish Network Against Racism) recorded 159 incidents of hate crime looking only at racialised and ethnic groups, through their alternative reporting mechanism “iReport” in 2020.
Prof Amanda Haynes of the European Centre for the Study of Hate stated:
“We must learn from the experiences of other jurisdictions and draw on international best practice, but equally recognise the need to adapt those lessons to an Irish context, and ensure legislation in this country is appropriate for our legal, policy, and social contexts.”
ENDS/
Follow the Oireachtas Justice Committee discussion from 5:30 here: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/oireachtas-tv/cr4-live/
Find the OSCE ODIHR data on hate crime in Ireland in 2020: https://hatecrime.osce.org/incidents?country=IE&year=2020
Find the Coalition Against Hate Crime’s submission to the Oireachtas Justice Committee:
The Coalition Against Hate Crime Ireland is comprised of: Age Action Ireland; BeLonG To; Doras; Dr. Lucy Michael (academic researcher); European Centre for the Study of Hate, University of Limerick; Immigrant Council of Ireland; Inclusion Ireland; Independent Living Movement Ireland; Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL); Irish Network Against Racism (INAR); Irish Traveller Movement (ITM); LGBT Ireland; LGBT Travellers; Nasc – Migrant and Refugee Rights Centre; National LGBT Federation; National Traveller Women’s Forum; National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI); Pavee Point Traveller & Roma Centre; Sports Against Racism Ireland (SARI); Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI)
For comment: Martin Collins or Fiona Hurley or Dr Jennifer Schweppe/Amanda Haynes For media queries: sinead.nolan@iccl.ie