Legislating Against Hate
Criminalising hate: Legislation which has the aim of combating hate crime has become a familiar part of the criminal code. Here, we explore the scope and purpose of hate crime legislation and particularly seek to promote the utility of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers Recommendation on Combating Hate Crime as a core standard to address hate across societies and member States. Our research to date has explored the policy and practice consequences of the absence of legislation in Ireland, through the Out of the Shadows (funded by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties) and Lifecycle of a Hate Crime (funded by the European Commission DG JUST) research.
The Lifecycle of a Hate Crime project sought to understand and explore the Lifecycle of a Hate Crime across five jurisdictions of the European Union and had as its central aim the examination of the manner in which a hate crime is addressed through the criminal justice process at various stages – investigation, prosecution, court proceedings, and sentencing – to determine how best to ensure that the hate element of a crime is appropriately treated by the court.
This theme draws upon the comprehensive framework developed by the Council of Europe to combat hate, set out in its Recommendations on combating hate speech (2022) and combating hate crime (2024). Our Director, Prof Jennifer Schweppe was a member of the Council of Europe Expert Committee on hate crime, and SHINE values our ongoing relationship with the Council of Europe in embedding the Recommendation into practice.
The study, ‘Public Understandings of Hate Crime: Ireland, North and South project’, was funded by the Irish Research Council New Foundations programme and the Department of An Taoiseach Shared Island initiative and undertaken by researchers at University of Limerick and Queen’s University Belfast.
The research establishes the perception of the public of the prevalence of hate crime on the island of Ireland, the physical and emotional harms of hate crime, the impact on minority communities, reporting mechanisms, and the role of legislation in addressing hate crime.
The research was carried out by Professors Amanda Haynes, Ross MacMillan and Jennifer Schweppe of the University of Limerick Dr Kevin J Brown of Queen’s School of Law. The findings are based on a survey of 2,000 respondents distributed simultaneously in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in February 2023.
