NO PLACE FOR HATE

On October 29, 2024, the Criminal Justice (Hate Offences) Act was signed into law, marking the culmination of years of advocac y and campaigning by civil society groups. NXF Board Director and Chair of the Coalition Against Hate Crime, Adam L ong, recounts the legislation’s journey and outlines what must come next. Photo by Dolf Patijn.

For the National LGBT Federation (NXF)—one of over 20 organisations that comprise the Coalition—this has been a firm priority since at least 2016, when our Burning Issues 2 research revealed hate crime laws to be the leading policy demand for the LGBTQ+ community post marriage equality. Indeed, official figures indicating a year-on-year rise in reported hate crimes only further underlined the necessity of this legislation. Ireland is now, thankfully, no longer the outlier in Europe and much of the Western world in failing to acknowledge the reality of hate crime in our laws.

The journey towards enactment was certainly not a smooth one. The initial Bill sought to not only legislate against hate crime for the first time in Ireland, but also update largely toothless hate speech laws dating from 1989 and make them fit-for-purpose for the online age.

The legislation received overwhelming cross-party support when it was passed by Dáil Éireann in early 2023. However, it then became subject to a targeted campaign of misinformation and ‘culture war’ driven false narratives that sought to portray its provisions as an attack on ‘free speech’, among other disingenuous claims. This effort, unrepresentative of public opinion and attempting to drown out the voices of communities actually impacted by hate, also attracted the attention of bad actors like Elon Musk and Donald Trump Jr, adding an international dimension to the whole debate.

The Bill then faced repeated delays in being brought back to the Oireachtas to complete its legislative journey. Later in 2023, we witnessed the grim spectacle of far-right extremists inciting the Dublin riots, resulting in renewed promises from government leaders to prioritise the passage of the legislation. This opportunity was lost, however, and the Bill continued to languish in a kind of abeyance for much of 2024.

As part of the NXF Pride Series of political interviews, this author stressed to both the Minister for Equality, Roderic O’Gorman, and Sinn Féin leader, Mary Lou McDonald (whose party had u-turned in its support for the Bill and now wants to see it repealed), that passage of the Hate Offences law continued to be a vital policy ask for the LGBTQ+ community and other affected communities.

Come September, we had the announcement from government that due to what was termed a “lack of political consensus”, and with a general election fast approaching, they were going to remove the elements that sought to modernise and make fit-for-purpose our hate speech laws and instead just proceed with the hate crime provisions. The Coalition Against Hate Crime expressed our clear disappointment at this and reminded the political world that Ireland was still legally obliged to transpose into national law a 2008 EU Directive concerning incitement to hatred and violence. Indeed, in recent weeks, the European Commission launched infringement proceedings against the Irish State for failing to do just that.

The Coalition did welcome the commitment to finally bring the Bill back before the Oireachtas and proceed with the much-needed hate crime protections, which passed all legislative hurdles in late October before receiving President Michael D Higgin’s signature.

It’s crucially important, however, that comprehensive awareness training for those tasked with enforcing the provisions accompany the legislation, to ensure that the rights of victims are truly vindicated and hate perpetrators are held accountable for a crime that instils fear in the wider community that shares the victim’s actual or perceived characteristic. A public information campaign should also follow.

The Hate Offences Act represents a win for our communities, albeit an unfinished one. Ahead of the general election in November, the LGBTQ+ sector published the #VoteWithPride manifesto, in which we outlined our key asks for the next term of government. One of those key asks is for the hate speech legislation to be revisited and enacted as a matter of priority.

Several parties committed to the policy in their election manifestos. Others outlined their opposition to modernising legislation in this area and even pledged to repeal the Hate Offences Act, while misrepresenting its purpose, which is highly disappointing.

The Coalition Against Hate Crime, representing a large swathe of civil society, has committed to continuing its advocacy and looks forward to engaging with the incoming government to progress outstanding priorities.

At a time of rising hate and global extremism, the safety and wellbeing of our communities should be prioritised over ‘culture wars’ and political populism.