WPG Response to Hate Crime Legislation Review Consultation

In March 2022, Raise Your Voice again joined with the Women’s Policy Group to respond to a consultation on the Hate Crime Legislation for Northern Ireland. You can read the full response below:

The existing legislation had been subject to a major review in 2020, and from that Judge-led Review a number of recommendations were made. Raise Your Voice was involved at that time in a campaign to have misogyny included and to have it recognised as a statutory aggravator. We brought motions to Councils across Northern Ireland asking Councils to support that call and to support our campaign, too, and responded to the initial consultation.

Now, the Department of Justice is looking at turning the outcomes of the Review into new legislation that will follow in the new Assembly mandate. This response is to the first of two consultations that DoJ will run, and this one is especially important for Raise Your Voice because it covers the question of whether to include misogyny as a statutory aggravator.

The WPG shares the view expressed in the Department’s Consultation Document that: “Our collective focus must always be on tackling the underlying prejudice which provides fertile ground in which hate and hate crime can flourish.” The WPG considers misogyny to be the underlying prejudice which acts as a catalyst for hate crime against women.