All of us have to deal with behaviour in our lives that we are upset by, find offensive or disagree with. A barbed comment, a joke that cuts too close, a heated argument.
Hate crime is completely different.
It is behaviour motivated by hatred or prejudice towards particular features of a victim’s identity or a group’s identity. It harms individuals and can incite hatred and further harm to others.
As a politician you grow a thick skin but I seriously considered giving up politics after receiving racist and Islamophobic abuse threatening me and my family.
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These weren’t merely offensive words but threats to firebomb my house, to stab me, to kick me in the face until I bleed, all because of my colour of skin and the religion I belong to.
Police Scotland recorded 6,736 hate crimes in 2017-18. Of these, 886 – an average of around 17 a week – were common assaults with a hate crime aggravator.
So the victims of hate crime face both mental and physical harm. The consequences are severe and can be insidious; taking away from its victims the fundamental freedoms and rights that we should all enjoy.
They are also lasting – to be attacked or targeted simply because of who you are is a frightening experience.
These crimes do not reflect the inclusive, progressive Scotland that the vast majority of people living in Scotland I know aspire to. Hundreds of hate crimes every month – that is a stark reminder of why hate crime laws are necessary. The new bill is needed to modernise and consolidate hate crime legislation and provide clarity.
It brings together the various piecemeal additions and changes to the law made over time and recognises there is a need to clamp down further on this horrendous behaviour.
The Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee has just published the organisational responses to their call for evidence on the bill. The Scottish Government will consider each of them very carefully, but from initial reading there is clear support behind the need for the bill.
Equality and human rights campaigners, and those supporting victims of crime, have welcomed our plan to legislate.
Also backing the principles of the new bill are those keeping Scotland’s communities safe on the frontline of the justice system, they agree too it is time to consolidate hate crime laws.
I recognise there are some concerns about the implications of parts of the bill – particularly around freedom of expression.
Those who read the detail of the bill will know it does not prevent people expressing controversial, challenging or offensive views, in fact the word “offensive” isn’t even mentioned in the bill.
As well as updating and consolidating existing hate crime laws, the bill provides for new stirring up of hatred offences.
These offences would apply to age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity and variations in sex characteristics.
There have been offences of stirring up racial hatred as part of Scots law since the 1960s. Indeed, all other parts of the UK, unlike Scotland currently, have laws in place criminalising stirring up hatred in relation to religion and sexual orientation. Northern Ireland’s law also covers disabilities.
The bill does not criminalise religious beliefs or practices. Nor does it seek to stifle criticism or rigorous debate in any way.
What it does aim to do, is seek to achieve an appropriate balance between protecting those who suffer from the scourge of hate crime while respecting people’s freedoms.
All of us have a role in challenging prejudice, to be part of an inclusive and respectful society. This is an issue around which the Scottish Parliament can and must come together.
As with all legislation, the Government will continue to engage with MSPs and a wide range of other interests as the bill moves through Parliament. I have taken numerous bills through Parliament and I hope I have demonstrated a willingness to co-operate, and where necessary compromise, to find as much consensus as possible.
I am resolute in the need for improved hate crime legislation but I am also very alive to the need to consider carefully the concerns that have been raised.
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I am speaking to many of the key interests who have raised legitimate issues that have to be considered.
All of the concerns will be considered, but already I can see there will need to be a key focus on how the new set of stirring up hatred offences operate.
There is a lot of attention on the fact they operate on the basis of hatred likely to be stirred up and I am sure that listening to stakeholders with views on all aspects of hate crime law will allow the necessary common ground to be found.
With goodwill on all sides, we can agree how best to strengthen the law to tackle hate crime in a way that protects the rights of everyone to live their lives free from harm or fear.
In the meantime it is important that victims and witnesses of hate crime continue to report these incidents to the police or through a third party reporting centre.
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