holyrood.com - The Business of Politics - Hate crime anger at Labour

Home

Hate crime anger at Labour

Monday, 23 April 2007

Labour has come under attack by human rights groups for its refusal to commit to introducing a specific statutory aggravation for hate crimes against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people as well as disabled people if it is re-elected.

The SNP, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens have all pledged to give attacks on people because of their sexuality or disability equal legal standing with attacks on people motivated by racial or sectarian reasons.

The previous Labour-led Executive had promised to institute aggravations for attacks on LGBT or disabled people in its previous term, but failed to bring appropriate legislation onto the books in 2006, to the dismay of groups such as Amnesty International and Stonewall Scotland.

Amnesty International campaigner Naomi McAuliffe attacked the situation that left Scotland the only part of the UK without specific homophobic hate crime laws.

“This is an issue that all parties should take a strong stand on and we welcome the commitment to legislate against homophobic and disability- related hate crime made in some of the manifestos.

During this election campaign, Amnesty has become increasingly concerned by the homophobic rhetoric from some of the emerging minor parties intent on inflaming discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The commitment of the major parties to LGBT rights as well as leadership on equalities issues is vital in the face of such ignorance and intolerance.

“Scotland is currently the only part of the UK without this protection for the victims of homophobic hate crime, which unwittingly, sends the message that hate crimes against LGBT and disabled people are considered less of a crime,” she said.

Labour says its manifesto commitment to clear sentencing guidelines will ensure all hate crimes are treated equally.

Its manifesto says: “Scottish Labour is committed to improving transparency and consistency in sentencing. Scottish Labour will establish a judicially led Sentencing Guidelines Council to set out clear sentencing guidelines for judges and courts to use across the country to bring more consistency to sentencing. The sentencing guidelines will ensure consistency in sentences that take account of aggravated factors such as racism, sectarianism and other hate crimes.”

Stonewall Scotland campaigner Josef Church said: “Regardless of what the various party manifestos do and don’t say, we want to see a government in Scotland which stands up for lesbian and gay Scots when they come under attack.

“If the new government does not introduce statutory aggravation on the basis of sexual orientation, it will be sending out the message that anti-gay hate crime is less serious than hate crime aggravated by race or religion, and that Scotland is less concerned with tackling homophobic hate crime than the rest of Great Britain.”

No one has commented on this article.

J! Reactions 1.09.01 • Professional Site License
Copyright © 2006 S. A. DeCaro