Hate crime legislation should be introduced as soon as possible to address an escalation in racially motivated crimes and help build a safer society for Irish citizens, the UN rapporteur on the elimination of racial discrimination in Ireland has said. Efforts are also needed to tackle the prevalence of hate speech on social media which has become increasingly rampant, Prof Verene Shepherd warned this week. A spokesman for the Department of Justice told The Irish Times its review of hate speech and hate crime was being finalised and is due for publication in the coming weeks. “If we understand that we have a collective role to end racial discrimination we can work towards truly creating a better world. Ms Gibney underlined the “urgency in addressing longstanding inadequacies in Ireland’s approach to hate crime and hate speech” and noted that the Government’s approach to these issues should not purely focus on criminal sanctions.

Source: The Irish Times November 16, 2020 00:56 UTC