Scottish 'Hate Speech' Bill Could Limit Freedom of Religion
The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 came into force on April 1, 2024. The Act could criminalise expressions of religious convictions, religious and human rights groups fear.
The amandments of the Hate Crime and Public Order Act inlcude an extension of the offence of ‘stirring up hatred’ to the newly added ‘protected characteristics’ of sexual orientation, transgender identity, variations in sex characteristics.
The Scottish 'Hate Speech' Bill criminalises a broad range of activities, like behaving or communicating “to another person material that a reasonable person would consider to be threatening, abusive or insulting” (Part 3, Section 4, §1a). Furthermore, a crime does not depend on the direct intention of the perpetrator. Even if the perpetrator doesn’t have the intention to 'stir up hatred', the act will be regarded as a criminal offence if “a reasonable person would consider the behaviour or the communication of the material to be likely to result in hatred being stirred up against such a group" (Part 3, Section 4, §1b). The law contains a reversed burden of proof, which means that the victim has to proof their innocence: “It is a defence for a person charged with an offence [...] to show that the behaviour or the communication of the material was [...] reasonable.” (Part 3, Section 4, §4)
The main points of critique by human rights groups are the vague wording, the long prison sentence of up to 7 years if convicted, the chilling effect on freedom of speech and the potential criminalisation of religious views on gender identity and family.
Update - April 15, 2024: In the first week of the Scottish ‘hate speech’ bill coming into force, the Scottish police has recieved 7,327 hate crime complaints. However, only 240 cases could be determined as ‘hate crimes’ making up just 3 percent of all complaints. There were also 30 'non-crime hate incidents’ recoreced.
General Secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, David Kennedy, said: “It’s a financial disaster in the making and at no time was any financial provision afforded to the service when the law came into force. The amount of police time that is being wasted is not proportionate to the outcome.”
The president of the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents, Rob Hay, commented on the bill’s effects warning that it could draw officers into “ill-tempered, abusive spats” between ‘fringe activists’. He said that Police Scotland “must focus on those crimes and offences that cause the most harm and represent the highest risk to public safety. Should this new legislation result in a sustained increase in reported incidents, this will only be made harder, especially if those reports are spurious or misunderstand the extent of the legislation.” Financial Times, The Christian Institute
Sources: Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 - legal text, Scottish Parliament, Scottish Government, Christian Institute
Media Articles: The Guardian, BBC, New York Times
Image: Wikimedia Commons
