CAJ Submission of Written Evidence to the Committee for Justice of the NI Assembly on the Justice Bill
CAJ’s submission focuses on the urgent need to include a new statutory duty within the Bill, in line with Recommendation 15 of the 2020 Independent Hate Crime Review led by Judge Marrinan. This recommendation calls for a legal obligation on public authorities—such as local councils, the Department for Infrastructure (DfI), and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive—to take all reasonable steps to remove racist and sectarian hate expression from their own property and, where relevant, from broader public spaces.
The evidence highlights the growing problem of hate expression used to intimidate people from minority backgrounds, particularly through flags, graffiti, and threatening posters aimed at deterring migrants and ethnic minorities from accessing housing. CAJ documents specific cases where such materials were used to facilitate racial and sectarian intimidation, with public bodies frequently unwilling to act without “community consensus”—a policy approach CAJ argues is ineffective and unlawful.
The submission critiques existing non-intervention practices by key public authorities, particularly the PSNI and DfI, for failing to meet their human rights obligations under both domestic and international law. Although the PSNI has begun revising its operational guidance in response to legal pressure, DfI has not altered its policy, prompting ongoing legal engagement from CAJ.
CAJ underscores that a statutory duty to remove hate expression is both legally necessary and practically overdue, especially in light of the 2024 findings by the UN Anti-Racism Committee, which urged Northern Ireland authorities to act decisively against paramilitary-linked racist intimidation. The submission also clarifies that Recommendation 15 is not a blanket censorship proposal but rather a targeted effort to remove the most harmful and threatening material from shared public environments.
The evidence concludes with a firm call for the Committee to amend the Justice Bill to include this statutory duty, arguing that without such a provision, public authorities will continue to abdicate responsibility in the face of intimidation, and the rights of vulnerable communities will remain unprotected.
You can read the full submission here.
An appendix to the submission can be found here.