Sinn Féin’s spokesperson for the arts, youth affairs and LGBT rights has welcomed a new report that highlights how the State is falling behind Europe in protecting vulnerable communities from hate crime.

 

  Senator Fintan Warfield was commenting on Lifecycle of Hate Crime, a comparative report published this month by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL).

 

  “The State is the only western European jurisdiction without standard hate crime legislation,” the senator said. “This means, in reality, we have no way of bringing specified charges against individuals who target minorities with racist, homophobic or bigoted biases.

 

  “This brings with it a lack of broad statistics or analysis on hate crime, a means of dealing with it on a policing level or rehabilitative measures or restorative justice responses.”

 

  Senator Warfield said the ICCL report “has laid out, in a succinct fashion, that the State is failing our vulnerable communities, the longer we lack robust hate crime legislation.

 

  “This report should act as yet another wake-up call following a lengthy period of Government inaction on this issue.”