Racial and Religious Tolerance
Legislation
Overview
Racial and
religious tolerance laws have been enacted around the world, increasingly
so in recent
years. Sometimes they are called 'hatred' laws or 'vilification' laws. Most countries that have introduced such laws
have ONLY introduced racial hatred laws.
However, in
recent years we have seen an increasing number
of countries introduce religious vilification laws. The most controversial of these was in Victoria,
Australia. [More on those laws below...]
Prior to the recent spate of such laws, influenced by UN
Charters and treaties, the focus of the law was to criminalise ACTIONS
- such as assault, abuse etc - that could be
measured and assessed by the criminal justice system; by judges or
juries.
Salt Shakers opposes vilification laws as
they seek to criminalise thoughts and repress responsible freedom of
speech.
Australia
Australia introduced a Racial
Hatred Act
in 1995, introducing the notion of vilification
based on race into the law. There is no law regarding religious
discrimination or vilification at the federal level - although HREOC, the Human
Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission - now called the Australian Human Rights
Commission
, has
long advocated for such an Act.
With a federal Labor government, under Kevin Rudd,
Australia is more likely to introduce racial and religious vilification
laws.
In December 2003, the then Shadow Attorney-General Robert
McClelland introduced a Private Members Bill titled the Racial and
Religious Hatred Bill.
Labor, in 1994,
flagged such a Bill but dropped it when it was opposed by Christians. It forms
part of the Labor Party platform . . .
HREOC/AHRC has a page
outlining the racial vilification laws in Australia.
States
The laws on racial vilification are
outlined on the Racism
NO Way website. This also includes references to religious vilification laws.
Victoria
The Bracks Labor
government released a Discussion Paper and a proposed 'Model Bill' in December
2000, proposing vilification laws based on race and religion.
These documents attached below.
The Discussion Paper proposed making it an offence
to “offend, insult or humiliate” someone on racial or religious grounds. Motive
was to be irrelevant.
Sadly, some Christians thought we should not be concerned about this proposal
and others actually supported it. After much lobbying, including some 5,000
submissions against the legislation, mainly from individuals, the final bill was
watered down and passed in mid 2001. The Act does not define what ‘vilification’
actually is, but says that one cannot incite hatred, severe
contempt or severe ridicule against someone on the basis of their race
or religion. There is an exemption for religious discussion ‘done reasonably and
in good faith’.
The law is in two parts – the first is under the Equal Opportunity Commission
and then, if conciliation is unsuccessful, a hearing at the Victorian Civil and
Administrative Tribunal. The complaint is being heard under this section of the
Act. Section 8 of the Act (Part 2, Division 1).
A second section
in the Act that is for criminal activities – this applies when
there is intent to incite hatred etc or when physical
violence is involved. It is this section of the Act that carries prescribed
fines of $6000 for individuals and $30,000 for corporations. Serious
Religious Vilification in Section 24 (Part 4).
See
Racial
and Religious Tolerance Act 2001.
Several cases have been taken against Christians using this law - see tabs at
left.
NSW
The first state in Australia to
introduce vilification law was NSW but they had it race and for homosexuality
and AIDs - not for religion.
In 2005, then NSW Labor Premier Bob
Carr openly
opposed religious vilification laws.
Queensland
TheQueensland government passed a
similar law to the
Victorian Racial and Religious called the
Anti-Discrimination
Amendment Act 2001 (available in pdf) which extended the law to outlaw racial and
religious vilification. Sexuality vilification was later added.
Tasmania
Following on from Victoria, Tasmania passed vilification
or 'inciting hatred' laws on the groundws of religion, race,
disability and sexual orientation. This is included in the Anti-Discrimiantion
Act 1998
. (S 19)
South
Australia
The
South Australian government proposed racial and
religious
vilification laws in 2003. Due to opposition from churches and
the community, based on the negative experiences of such laws in
Victoria, this proposal was dropped.
Western
Australia
The WA government launched a Consultation Paper
proposing racial and religious vilification laws in early August 2004.
Submissions were invited from the public - due on September 3,
2004.
Churches geared up to ask the government not to
introduce these divisive laws.
The government proceeded to
enact stricter racial vilification laws - however, they dropped the
proposal for religious vilification laws.
Overseas
For
further details, see tabs on the left.
