Hate crime due closer scrutiny advice to Govt

In the United States, hate crimes are recorded by the FBI.

The response to hate crimes is ‘‘insufficient’’ and more needs to be done to understand the extent of the issue, the Human Rights Commission says.

In a briefing to incoming Justice Minister Andrew Little, the commission said ‘‘steps currently being taken by police are insufficient’’ when it came to dealing with hate crimes.

There was no central system for recording and collating details about crimes motivated by hatred and racism, which made it difficult to understand the scale and extent of these types of crimes, and how to deal with the issue.

‘‘Unless these events are captured and analysed, the day-today victimisation experienced by people because of their ethnicity is largely invisible.’’

The commission urged Little to put in place systems to gather data on hate-motivated crimes, disaggregated by race and other characteristics, in order to better understand the extent of the problem.

Media reports have highlighted seemingly isolated incidents, like the abuse of a Muslim woman in Huntly earlier in the year, and a racist attack on an Auckland man and his family in October.

But the extent of the problem, and any trends, were impossible to identify without more data.

In the United States, hate crimes are recorded by the FBI. It was one of the questions police asked when responding to a job, and the data allowed officials to track trends.

Any crime motivated by biases based on race, gender, gender identity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and ethnicity was considered a hate crime, and these were referred to the FBI.

The number of hate crimes in the US in 2016 was 6121 – about a 5 per cent jump from 2015. About half of those incidents were motivated by race. And that upward trend was expected to continue in 2017.

Auckland University professional teaching fellow and Islamic expert Zain Ali said New Zealand was not immune to this type of sentiment, largely thanks to the global society and social media.

‘‘There’s an assumption that New Zealand is a fairly welcoming and tolerant society,’’ Ali said.

And while most people were, there was no doubt some New Zealanders were victims of hate crimes, pointing to Muslims being abused for wearing scarves, and ‘‘Asian drivers’’.

The housing situation in Auckland was a potential breeding ground for xenophobic sentiment, with immigrants frequently being blamed for the housing shortage and high prices.

Following the Huntly incident (which resulted in charges and a guilty plea), Police Commissioner Mike Bush said police were in discussions with the commission over whether hate crime legislation was needed.

Bush said he was concerned by the rise in hate crimes, and while current laws could cover some cases, police wanted to assess whether it would be better to have ‘‘a more relevant and specific piece of legislation’’.

However, the former National government said it saw no need for new laws.

And the commission called for the establishment of a religious/ interfaith ministerial portfolio to deal with issues relating to religion and religious diversity.

Recent high-profile examples, like the establishment of the Auckland University European Students Association, and an Iran diplomat’s anti-Israel speech – which was classified as hate speech – showed this was a growing issue.

The commission also urged the Government to create a national strategy, and take strong leadership, on preventing violent extremism.

‘‘New Zealand is not isolated from the threat of violent extremism.

‘‘There is an urgent need for social sector and communitybased strategies and programmes to support citizens and communities to reduce the risk of radicalisation, as well as a national strategy focused on prevention of violent extremism.’’

The commission urged Little to create a strategy that aligned prevention, inclusion and rehabilitation programmes.