UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review - fourth cycle recommendations: Scottish Government response
This position statement provides our detailed response to recommendations issued to the United Kingdom by the UN Human Rights Council following its November 2022 Universal Periodic Review of the United Kingdom's overall human rights record.
3. Hate Crime
A) Hate Crime
Recommendation(s) and Responses
| Ref | Country | Recommendation | UK Response | SG Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 51 | Cuba | Continue updating and ensure the effective implementation of action plans on combating hate crimes | Support | Support |
| 64 | South Korea | Take stronger action to combat hate crimes which was aggravated during the COVID-19 pandemic | Support | Support |
| 83 | Bahrain | Continue developing effective remedies to protect vulnerable groups and minorities from hate speech | Support | Support |
| 95 | Kazakhstan | Continue to improve policies to combat hate crimes in communities and share its best practices with other Member States | Support | Support |
| 58 | China | Remove the mentality of colonialism and address the root causes of its systematic racism, xenophobia and hate crimes | Support | Partially Support |
| 66 | Saudi Arabia | Continue its efforts to combat hate crimes, by taking effective measures to deter hate speech and racism | Support | Partially Support |
| 69 | Uganda | Put in place mechanisms to address all forms of hate crime and racism, especially against persons of African descent | Support | Partially Support |
| 70 | USA | Take continued furthering steps to reverse the rising number of violent, and largely racially motivated, hate crimes and strengthen current policies and initiatives to combat societal discrimination against members of racial and ethnic minority groups | Support | Support |
| 113 | Bahamas | Take concrete steps to reduce rates of racially motivated hate crimes and discrimination faced by Afro-descendent and other ethnic minorities, including in Scotland and Northern Ireland, while ensuring that perpetrators do not enjoy impunity | Support | Partially Support |
| 116 | USA | Strengthen efforts to combat antisemitism and anti-Muslim sentiment by publicly denouncing hate speech and acts of violence at the highest levels of government and through policies and practices promoting religious freedom | Support | Partially Support |
| 61 | Pakistan | Prosecute hate crimes and address incidents of Islamophobia | Support | Support |
| 53 | Jordan | Adopt measures aiming at combating racism, hate crimes and Islamophobia | Support | Support |
| 55 | Malaysia | Continue to refine its policies to combat all forms of hate crimes, particularly those against racial and religious minorities | Support | Support |
| 63 | Qatar | Take further measures to strengthen countering racism, intolerance, xenophobia, religious hatred and their related crimes | Support | Support |
| 68 | Turkiye | Address racial discrimination, antisemitism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and hate crimes by further strengthening effective legislative and judicial measures | Support | Support |
| 71 | Algeria | Continue to refine its policies to counter hate crimes in communities, particularly those motivated by race and religion | Support | Support |
| 73 | Bangladesh | Strengthen efforts, including legislative mechanisms, to root out racism, racial discrimination, Islamophobia and hate crimes | Support | Support |
| 74 | Belarus | Take additional effective measures to combat neo-Nazi manifestations, discrimination on the basis of race or nationality, ensure a proper response to the increasing number of anti-Semitic incidents, including violence, attacks, threats, insults and desecration of property | Support | Note |
| 77 | North Korea | End deep-rooted racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia, as well as all sorts of hate crimes on the basis of ethnic, racial, cultural or religious background in the public sphere | Support | Support |
| 76 | Croatia | Identify and address the shortcomings in hate crime legislation with regard to combating racist and xenophobic speech and violence | Support | Support [87] |
| 84 | Azerbaijan | Take effective legislative and policy measures with the aim of eliminating and preventing the rising incidents of racist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim and anti-disabled crimes | Support | Support |
| 85 | Venezuela | Put an end to racism, provide mandatory human rights training for law enforcement against discrimination and hate speech; stop impunity and punish hate crimes, racist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, against LGBTI people, people with disabilities, and ensure the protection of victims | Support | Support |
| 166 | Lesotho | Beef up measures to curb racially motivated hate crimes and discrimination against black and other ethnic minorities in schools | Support | Support |
| 81 | Iran | Implement the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism's recommendations regarding the withdrawal of interpretative declaration under article 4 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, "[prevent] duty" and media prejudice (paras 74(a), 74(n), and 74(r) here) | Support | Note [88] |
Relevant section(s) of the Scottish Government’s October 2022 UPR Position Statement
- 2(F) – Faith and Belief
- 3(A) - The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act
- 3(B) – Working Group on Misogyny and Criminal Justice in Scotland
- 3(C) – Reporting and Recording Hate Crime
Recent Progress and Next Steps
Hate Crime Strategy
In March 2023, the Scottish Government published a new Hate Crime Strategy[89] for Scotland. The strategy has been developed in partnership with organisations with expertise in tackling prejudice, building cohesive communities and advancing human rights. Importantly, it has also been informed by people with lived experience of hate crime. The strategy provides three overarching aims:
1) Victims of hate crime are treated with fairness, compassion and in a trauma-informed manner in which their safety and recovery is a priority;
2) The nature, characteristics, and extent of hate crime in Scotland are more fully understood and effectively inform appropriate interventions and policy development;
3) Communities are empowered, inclusive and safe, and the underlying causes of hate crime are challenged.
The strategy sets out 14 commitments in support of these aims, which set out the strategic priorities for tackling hatred and prejudice in Scotland over the coming years while giving us flexibility to respond to emerging issues. The strategy will also support implementation of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021[90].
A delivery plan, setting out the Scottish Government and partners’ immediate and longer-term activity in support of the Hate Crime strategy’s commitments, will be published later in 2023.
The Scottish Government is working towards a commencement period of early 2024 for the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 in order to provide sufficient time to allow justice partners to complete a number of IT change programmes which will support implementation.
We are working with partners to develop a new public awareness campaign, to coincide with implementation of new hate crime legislation which will aim to raise awareness of hate crime and how to report.
Once in force, the Act will maintain current legislative protections against offences aggravated by prejudice against disability, race, religion, sexual orientation and transgender identity (which as present includes protection for those with variations in sex characteristics). The Act will also – for the first time – introduce new protections against offences aggravated by prejudice towards a person’s age. The Act also provides for new ‘stirring up of hatred’ offences covering all characteristics protected in the updated legislative framework, to complement the existing offence of stirring up racial hatred that has been part of our criminal law and the law of the whole of the UK for decades.
The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 makes provision requiring information about police-recorded hate crime and about convictions for hate crimes to be published annually, and with greater detail where known. We are working with Police Scotland to ensure their new crime management system will have the capability of capturing disaggregated data, where it is available, on a sustainable basis.
Baroness Kennedy’s Working Group on Misogyny[91] recommended reforming the criminal law to improve the justice system’s response to misogynistic behaviour.
The Working Group advised against adding the characteristic of sex to the hate crime legislative framework – instead recommending the creation of a standalone Misogyny and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act. The Scottish Government recently consulted on draft laws to tackle misogynistic criminal behaviours with a view to introducing legislation later in this parliament.
Reporting and Recording of Hate Crime
Published by the Scottish Government in January 2023, an Updated Study into the Characteristics of Police Recorded Hate Crime in Scotland[92] provides a detailed insight into the characteristics of recorded hate crime in Scotland. This report presents updated information on the number of hate crimes recorded by the police in Scotland during 2020-21 and 2021-22. Statistics are now also available for 2022-23[93]. The report includes new details on the characteristics of hate crime, based on a random sample of cases recorded by the police in 2020-21, and is a follow-up to the Characteristics of Police-recorded Hate Crime (published February 2021)[94].
Anti-Racism in Education Programme (“AREP”)
The Scottish Government is clear that there is no place for racism in our schools. Every child has the right to grow up fully included in their learning experience and to be treated with respect. We are working with a wide range of anti-racism organisations and education stakeholders to further strengthen resources and approaches to prevent and respond to racist incidents. This work is being delivered as part of the Scottish Government’s AREP[95] comprises ambitions and goals which align with the Education and Lifelong Learning vision and goals of the Race equality framework for Scotland 2016 to 2030.[96]
Diversity and equality are at the heart of policies that underpin education in Scotland. We have had a national approach to bullying in place since 2017 through ‘Respect for All: The National Approach to Anti-Bullying for Scotland’s Children and Young People.’[97] We have begun a review of Respect for All, which will consider the definition of bullying, prejudice-based bullying, online bullying, and the recording of incidents.
The Racism and Racist Incidents workstream[98] of the Anti-Racism in Education Programme is focussed on the support to schools and school staff to improve understanding of racism and to ensure that these issues are properly identified and addressed. The primary role of the workstream is to develop resources for schools to prevent and respond to racism and racist incidents.
Relevant National Outcomes
- We live in communities that are inclusive, empowered, resilient and safe.
- We respect, protect and fulfil human rights and live free from discrimination.
Relevant Sustainable Development Goals
- 4 - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
- 16 - Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
Contact
Email: ceu@gov.scot
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