17 December 2020
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has broadly welcomed a Department of Justice report signalling its intention to draft legislation against crimes motivated by hate and prejudice. ICCL has been calling for such legislation for some years, after our 2017 research revealed that the hate crime element of crimes is often filtered out by the time it gets to court or sentencing.
ICCL’s Senior Research and Policy Officer Doireann Ansbro said:
“No one in Ireland should experience hate crime and those that do should be confident that the justice system will respond appropriately. We are now one step further towards this goal.”
We also note that the same legislation is intended to replace the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act of 1989, which many stakeholders have deemed inadequate. While we agree that the Act is inadequate, we are cautious about the possible conflation of hate speech with hate crime.”
Ms Ansbro said:
“When it comes to legislating against any type of speech, we must always be cautious. Freedom of expression, even when it is offensive, is a core human right and democratic principle. We welcome the commitment by the Government to include strong protections of freedom of expression in the proposed legislation.”
Under international law, there is a distinction between extreme hate speech which must be prohibited; hate speech which may be prohibited; and deeply offensive speech which is problematic but should not be prohibited. This is known as the hate speech pyramid.
ICCL does not support criminalising hate speech, except in the most extreme circumstances such as incitement to genocide or hateful violence, or propaganda for war. We are encouraged that the Department has expressed its intention to undertake non-legislative steps to counter less extreme forms of hate speech, which nevertheless can cause harm and can itself infringe on the right to freedom of expression where people are forced out of public spaces.
These steps include robust public policies aimed at countering stereotypes, ending all forms of discrimination, and promoting equality. Education, monitoring, training, ethical codes and facilitating counter-speech should all form part of the government strategy in tackling deeply offensive speech and non-extreme hate speech.
ENDS/
Notes for editors:
Find our submission to the Department of Justice public consultation here:
Since our inception in 1976, ICCL has defended the right to freedom of expression. That has included campaigning against Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act and against the censorship of publications advocating LGBTIQ+ rights. We continue to call for the repeal of the Censorship of Publications Act. In 1978, ICCL was the first body to call for Freedom of Information legislation. We championed the repeal of legislation criminalising blasphemy and we continue to criticise Irish defamation laws because of their chilling effect on free expression. We advocate the same free expression rights both online and off.
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties is Ireland’s oldest independent human rights campaigning organisation. We monitor, educate and campaign to secure human rights for everyone in Ireland.
For comment: Doireann Ansbro, Senior Research and Policy Officer
For media queries: sinead.nolan@iccl.ie 087 4157162