IRELAND IS WORST IN EU FOR HATE CRIMES
Report finds transgender people and africans suffer most abuse
IRELAND has the EU’S highest rate of hate crimes against transgender people and those of African heritage, a report revealed yesterday.
Emily Logan, the chief Commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, said Ireland must do more to rectify the problem.
The findings of Lifecycle of a Hate Crime was funded by the European Commission and co-ordinated by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties.
The Irish study was conducted by researchers at the University of Limerick. Ms Logan said: “Hate crime has an oppressive and damaging effect on those who fall victim to it.
“It can cause people to withdraw from society and avoid expressing their identity.
“It has the power to act as a ‘message crime’ – the ability to send out a message to an entire community – to warn off those who stray from the norm. It can also cause people to alter their lives to avoid further victimisation, including moving neighbourhood or job.
“It is not the responsibility of victims to avoid being targets. The State has a responsibility to send a clear message to society that hate crime is not tolerated.”
Report author Dr Amanda Haynes, said: “From the moment of reporting a hate crime, to the moment where the judge sentences an offender, the hate element of a crime is progressively filtered out of the justice system.
“There is no way of recording that an offender has committed a hate crime, meaning there is no way of addressing this type of offending behaviour and no way of recognising recidivists. ‘Hate crime’ simply is not part of the language of the Irish criminal justice process.”
Fellow author Jennifer Schweppe added: “States are obliged to ensure a hate element is properly investigated in all cases.
“The criminal justice process in Ireland does not provide the tools to ensure these obligations are met.”