Hate crime legislation: an intersectional approach to ensure victims’ rights
Hate crime legislation in EU countries is often ill-equipped to ensure the rights of victims of intersectional hate crimes. ENAR’s brief outlines why it is important to have an intersectional approach to victims’ rights.
Intersectional discrimination has become increasingly recognised in EU policy discourses. In this vein, the Guidance Note on the practical application of the EU Council Framework Decision on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia requires authorities to “(…) be able to identify the protected characteristic(s) on account of which the crime was perpetrated, including where these may be multiple or intersectional.” On member state level, however, legislative provisions developed to tackle hate crimes are often underequipped to ensure the rights of victims of intersectional hate crimes. Based on the data of ENAR’s Shadow Report on racist crime and institutional racism in Europe, this brief offers a frame to understand institutional failures in 24 EU Member States. It presents good practices in Member States and outlines the importance of an intersectional approach to: – Design legal frameworks that protect and provide remedy to those experiencing hate crimes on intersecting grounds; – Implement recording practices that capture the complexity of hate crimes; – Conduct investigations that consider different nuances of harm and needs of victims; – Develop policies that cater to the needs of people positioned at the intersection of protected groups. Read the brief: Hate crime provisions in EU member states: the importance of an intersectional approach to ensure victims’ rights intersectionality_and_hate_crime_briefing_final-2.pdf