The Scottish Parliament yesterday held a debate
on Lord
Bracadale’s independent review of hate crime
legislation
Extracts
15:11 (North East Scotland) (Con)...I
particularly commend to Parliament the example that Bracadale cites
at paragraph 10.42 of an anti-semitism case in which the affected
family wanted the offender to study the effects of the Holocaust as
part of his community sentence. The offender later reflected:
“I had ... no idea that being antisemitic had
this kind of impact. I had no idea that all these people died
during the second World War”.
As researcher and social work
practitioner Rania Hamad notes,
“developing an understanding of the harms
caused by hate crime ... is viewed as an important facet of any
rehabilitative intervention with hate crime offenders. Many
offenders are potentially not fully aware of the harm caused by
their actions at the time of committing the offence. As such, a
restorative justice ... approach may be well-placed to address
the harms of hate crime.”
15:27 John Finnie (Highlands and Islands) (Green)...
I will talk briefly about
recommendation 6. Lord Bracadale said:
“I do not consider it necessary to create a
statutory aggravation to cover hostility towards a political
entity.”
We thoroughly agree with that. It means that we can
criticise the apartheid state of Israel and that we can commend
boycott, divestment and sanctions. I hope that, as a result, the
Scottish Government will consider the negative implications of its
adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s
definition of anti-Semitism, which is seen as unhelpful.
15:49 (Glasgow) (Lab)...There must be
a broad recognition that we still have a problem in our society
with everyday sexism, everyday homophobia, everyday racism,
everyday
anti-semitism and everyday Islamophobia.
We must also recognise that we can have the greatest legal
framework in the world but the vast majority of prejudiced views
will not be criminal.
16:15 (Glasgow Provan) (SNP)...The
review contains much that is to be welcomed. It makes it clear
that hate crime has no place in the Scotland that we want to live
in, that we are a diverse and tolerant society and that the laws
that we pass in this place reflect those values. Despite all the
work that we do here and the prevalent attitudes of the vast
majority of our citizens, pockets of racism, Islamophobia,
anti-Semitism, homophobia and other forms of prejudice still
exist. We need to continue to work tirelessly to challenge those
attitudes and make it clear they have no place in a modern,
tolerant Scotland.
To read the full debate,
CLICK
HERE
Link:
Lord Bracadale’s
independent review of hate crime legislation
