Author: AYUSHI MENDHIRATTA , PANJAB UNIVERSITY REGIONAL CENTRE HOSHIARPUR
SUBJECT TO WHICH THE TITLE RELATES: CRIMINAL LAW
ABSTRACT: – In recent years, the emergence of hate crimes across the globe has been a grave challenge to safeguard the rights and liberties of minority communities. Hate crimes or biased motivated crimes demonstrate the criminal conduct of an individual, organization, or sometimes government to athwart other social groups on the grounds of race, sex, language, ethnicity, caste, color, or gender identity. With the increasing climate of scapegoating and the influence of hate crime groups, the bifurcation between hate crime and terrorism began to blur. The author of this paper delineates the composition and cardinal fundaments of hate crimes while assessing damage to the individual or its body in addition to vandalization of one’s property.
The paper further delves into the evolution of hate crimes across the world, emerging from the 16th-century European Colonization, targeting the native Americans to the recent attack on a busy Christmas market in Germany by a Saudi doctor. . Lastly, the paper outlines the repercussions of hate crimes, laws adopted in various countries to combat the issue of biased violence, and suggested measures to address the issue.
The global community must address these issues, spread awareness, support organizations advocating for minority rights, and demand policies to ensure the safety and dignity of all individuals
KEYWORDS: – Hate crimes, Bias, Ethnic violence, Religious centrism, Race, Caste, Gender identity.
INTRODUCTION: –
To embark, we all dwell at a place (Earth) with multidimensional cultures, values, beliefs, ethnicities, and religions. The United Nations discerns 195 countries as sovereign states out of which almost 193 countries have a constitution that proclaims equality and non-discrimination as their guiding principle imbibed in their preambles. Despite that, people across the countries acknowledge widespread genocidal calls against Muslims, Jews, Christians, and blacks highlighting the communal and racial differences. Besides this, we are the spectators of chauvinism, inequity against transgenders, Scheduled castes and tribes. This exhibits that the law-enforcing agencies have succumbed to non-state actors and have failed to protect the rights of minorities residing across the globe. The proactive and derogatory speeches across the world by fundamentalists to provoke and compel the splinter groups to abandon their rights, beliefs, and values seem to be a snag for democratic countries like India.
Thus, this article calls for the growing need for an hour of collaborative efforts amongst administrators, judges, law experts, religious communities, and NGOs to combat the issue of rising hate crimes and their repercussions.
WHAT ARE HATE CRIMES?
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) defines hate crimes as any criminal offense that is perceived to be motivated by hostility or prejudice.
The expression “hate” indicates or defines the bias against individuals owing to their peculiar characteristics such as race, caste, ethnicity, age, gender, religion, and culture.
The term “crime” denotes broader implications from conspiring or abetting individuals to the use of actual force or violence such as assault, murder, lynching, vandalism, etc.
Consequently, hate crimes allude to a criminal offense or violence that objectifies or targets a person because of their perceived distinct features such as gender, colour, age, values, norms, and religion. To exemplify: – Pejorative speeches by Yati Narasinghanand Saraswati, priest of Dasna temple against the Muslims or use of threatening slogans along with the spread of cow dung in Gururam against the ‘Friday Namaz’.
Additionally, in 2021 the brutality against the Christians in Karnataka on the declaration of “anti-conversion bills” by leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The ferocity included physical and sexual assaults on women, church vandalism, etc.
.
EVOLUTION OF HATE CRIMES ACROSS THE WORLD: –
The biased view of one social group against the other social group creates a world full of hatred and animosity.
The term hate crimes originated in the 1980s nevertheless racist or ethnoviolence has been repeatedly seen in human history since the 16th century when the Europeans began to colonize the world targeting the Native Americans. Gradually a remarkable shift was seen in 1994 where nearly 4 out of 10 hate crimes were reported as ‘anti-black’. The upswing of cross-burning by white segregationists to intimidate blacks was seen as a tool of oppression. In the case of Virginia vs black (2003), the Supreme Court opined that the act of intimidation must be proved distinctly with the act of cross burning to constitute it as a hate crime.
Later, we experienced the Nazi slaughter of Jews as Nazis who Adolf Hitler led, believed in the racial superiority of Aryans and saw Jews as an epigram of destroying their racial purity.
Hopping to the recent incident of 2012 (Florida case) where a 6 ft wooden cross was burnt to intimidate an interracial couple to flee from the neighbourhood was marked as a horrific incident of hate crime.
In January 2024, In the United Kingdom, a 17-year-old boy from a London Jewish free school was halted by 2 teenagers who forced him to murmur the words ‘FREE PALESTINE’ in a heated ‘Israel – Palestine’ Conflict.
Besides this, in August 2024, after the resignation of Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina attacks began on the homes, properties, businesses, and shops of Hindu minorities which now comprise only 8% of Bangladesh’s population. During the incident residential area of 157 Hindu families was attacked, looted, and vandalized.
These incidents demonstrate that the law-enforcing agencies have succumbed to non-state actors and have failed to protect the rights of minorities residing across the globe. .
INDIAN PERSPECTIVE: –
India is renowned as the largest democratic country in the world after adopting the principles of federalism, and parliamentary democracy in its constitution. The constitution of India came into effect on 26 January 1950 and imbibed in itself the primary features such as democratic, socialist, secular, sovereign country. It also guaranteed several rights and liberties namely the right to equality, the right to freedom of the press, the right to information, right to profess any religion.
Article 15 of the Constitution prohibits discrimination against citizens based on caste, colour, religion, race, and sex.
Nevertheless, after 40 years of independence, we have seen politicians use religion as a tactic to gain momentum in Lok Sabha polls. The amalgamation of religion in politics has proved to be fatal for India a secular country.
Incipiently, in 1991 a riot transpired on Ram Navami in the Bhadrak district of Orrisa which was dominated by the Muslim population giving rise to stone-throwing, destruction of public property, etc. Secondly, attacks on the Christian population in Dang’s district of southern eastern Gujarat in 1998. 97% of the district also known as ‘Kashmir of Gujarat’ was populated by tribal people who converted to Christianity and gradually became targets of
Hindu Jagran Manch (HJM), Bhartiya Janata Party, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), and Bajrang Dal.
Leaping to the year 2020, a 19-year-old DALIT woman was gang raped by 4 men on a farm where she went to collect fodder. The girl suffered a paralysis attack and a severe spinal cord injury as she resisted their attempt to rape her. As a result, the girl died because of blunt force trauma. Consequently, people condemned and protested against the YOGI ADITYANATH government. On 2nd March 2023, the district court gave a verdict in favour of the accused charging one of them with culpable homicide not amounting to rape and provisions under the
SC/ST act along with a fine of Rs 50,000.
CAUSES OF HATE CRIMES: –
A host of factors create a climate for individuals and organizations to indulge in biasmotivated crimes which are as follows: –
1) Fundamentalism or Religiocentrism – people who perceive their religion as superior to other religions often engage themselves in bias-motivated crimes to uphold their superiority and purity.
2)Titillation – victims of hate crimes are attacked by perpetrators who are customarily adults or teenagers engaging in brutality for excitement and thrill against other social groups. 3)Unequal resource distribution – mobsters lure themselves in ethnoviolence due to unequal benefits and resource distribution in society.
To illustrate – there has been ongoing brutal and threatening conflict in Manipur amongst the 2 ethnic groups (Meitei and Kuki communities) over control and use of land, resources, and certain other benefits.
4)Political Discourse or upheavals – political parties and candidates tend to boon a particular religion and caste for electoral gain leading to clammy bifurcation amongst different strata of society. This often undermines the secular and democratic setup of a country ceding oppression and hate crimes.
- Education: – education fosters critical thinking skills in an individual. Without proper education, one may often fear the unknown and criticize the ideologies, cultures, values, beliefs, and norms of another social group that yonder hate crimes.
GROWING RACIAL, TRANSGENDER, AND SEX-BASED VIOLENCE: –
Despite the efforts to combat hate crimes, there has been a tremendous increase in hate crime incidents worldwide affecting minority communities as a whole.
At the outset, there has been enlarging racial unrest in the United States starting from the year 2020 following the murder of George Floyd (46-year-old black American) By Derek Chauvin (a white police officer). Fitly, a massive protest and riot broke out against the racism policy in America.
The Human Rights Watch in its WORLD REPORT 2024 criticized the Indian government for undermining the democratic setup and for being inconsistent and negligent towards oppressive violence in the states of Manipur and Haryana. Explicating, the devastating outcome of BJP’s Hindu majoritarian politics scheme led to a riot in Haryana on 31 July 2024 in which a person being affiliated to BJP govt. was accused of murdering 2 Muslim men, and was encouraging people to become part of a Hindu procession. As a result, massive destruction occurred in which both communities suffered immense injuries leading to the death of 6 people.
Additionally, there has been ongoing brutal and threatening conflict in Manipur amongst the 2 ethnic groups (Meitei and Kuki communities) over control and use of land, resources, and certain other benefits. Indian government occupying a passive role in resolving conflict dismayed the trust and hope of society in its democratic setup.
Besides this, a recent sex-based violence incident made a horrific remark on the lives of
Indian society in which a 31-year-old junior doctor at RG KAR MEDICAL COLLEGE,
KOLKATA was viciously gang raped outraging the society, leading to large-scale protests. Lastly, a terrible act by a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who, after being disappointed by the treatment of the German govt towards the refugees from Saudi Arabia, intentionally drove into a busy Christmas market in Magdeburg leading to the death of at least 5 people including a 9-year-old kid.
The global community must address these issues, spread awareness, support organizations advocating for minority rights, and demand policies to ensure the safety and dignity of all individuals.
RAMIFICATION OF HATE CRIMES: –
Hate crimes create devastating and long-term repercussions not only on individuals who become victims of hate crimes but also on society as a whole. Some of the immediate impacts of hate crimes are as follows: –
- Societal bifurcations and retaliations: – hate crimes create a spiral of violence against the other communities who victims tend to blame for the origin of crime. This culminates in social instability in the society, triggering a country’s unification.
- Psychological impact – sufferers of hate crime experience shame, low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, and post-trauma stress syndromes. It can also create a catastrophic impact on their critical thinking skills affecting their education and jobs.
3) Repercussions on personal bonding and relationships: – victims of biased crimes develop a fear of revictimization, thus inducing gap and trust issues in creating new relationships or sustaining pre-existing bonds.
LAWS TO COMBAT HATE CRIMES: – Each country has passed significant laws to bridle hate crimes or bias-motivated crimes, which vary from each other as indicated below: –
- INDIA – section 103 (2) of Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 prohibits mob lynching which specifies an act of murdering by a group of 5 or more people on the grounds of race, ethnicity, religion, sex, place of birth, and language etc. Each member of the group can be punished with imprisonment for life or death. Sec 117 (4) deals with crimes leading to grievous hurt.
- UNITED STATES – (i) Civil Rights Act of 1968 – the act prohibits and prosecutes those who intimidate or cause harm and injury to any individual on the basis or grounds of discriminatory practices.
(ii) Hate Crime Prevention Act of 2009 – this act prosecutes and punishes a person up to life imprisonment for causing harm or damage to a person or his property on the grounds of race, caste, ethnicity, gender identity, or disability.
- CANADA- Section 318,319,320 of the criminal procedural code of Canada deals with hate crimes laws. The laws hinder the promotion and dissemination of wrongful or hateful information opposing or contradicting the interests of other social groups.
In the case of R vs Keegstra (1990), the Supreme Court gave the ruling which upheld the validity of sec 1 of the Canadian Charter of Rights And Freedoms which imposes the restriction on exercising the Right to freedom of speech and expression.
SUGGESTED MEASURES: – The following are some of the suggested measures to overcome the issue of rising hate crimes: –
- Strict laws and penalties – Every country should make strict laws and impose penalties on the perpetrators who incite or commit hate crimes or bias-motivated crimes on grounds of religion, race, caste, ethnicity, sex, or language.
- Proper implementation – Besides making strict laws and imposing severe penalties, the country should attain an efficient administrative system to execute and implement laws dealing with ethnoviolence or religious centrism.
- Collaborative efforts – Various stakeholders, including NGOs, Government, Civil society organizations, Judges, religious authorities, and law experts, should collaborate and work together in combined efforts to overcome and address this issue.
- Policies to overcome the vicious cycle of poverty – The government should make effective and efficient policies and programs like taxation to assist people in overcoming the cycle of poverty and inferiority which aids in turning down the risk of hate crimes.
- CONCLUSION: – To extrapolate, hate crimes can culminate from one or multiple biased incidents. It can be an amalgamation of various factors conjoined together, which further influence each other. In dispensing hate speech, one excites or provokes hatred towards an individual or an organization, even if there is no physical conduct on the part of the perpetrator. In contrast, hate crimes imbibe in their definition the actual or violent conduct that is perceived as harmful or disheartening for other social groups. The crime involves the damage to the property of an individual or the use of physical force, assault, harassment, slurs, offensive graffiti, and letters, etc. . Being the victim of hate crimes underpins societal stigma. People, at times, are deterred from reporting hate crimes or biased incidents to save themselves from family and societal humiliation a degradation.
The global community must address these issues, spread awareness, support organizations advocating for minority rights, and demand policies to ensure the safety and dignity of all individuals.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:-
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