Submission to the Independent Review of Hate Crime Legislation in Northern Ireland
Tacking incitement to hatred, in accordance with international human rights standards, is an area of priority focus for CAJ.
Partially in response to lobbying from CAJ, an independent review of Northern Ireland’s hate crime legislation was agreed by former Justice Minister Claire Sugden in 2017, before officially launching in 2019 with Judge Desmond Marrinan at the helm.
CAJ sits on the Core Expert Group of the independent review. This submission is in response to the public consultation being held as part of the review from January to April 2020.
In our submission, we advocate for strengthening current legislation on incitement to hatred in line with international human rights standards. We also advocate for an aggravated offences model, and for the addition of new protected grounds related to gender and gender identity. We call for action to be taken to effectively tackle online hate speech and hate expression in public spaces.
The submission is available via this link.