- Conference
- 2017 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 13 October 2016
- Decision
- Carried
Conference believes that all forms of hate crime are abhorrent.
Conference notes that following the toxic debate on EU membership last year, reported hate crime increased. The spike in hate crime against those perceived to be migrants or asylum seekers is well documented.
Conference further notes the findings of the latest hate crime report by LGBT anti-violence charity Galop, published in October 2016, which shows a less anticipated spike in homophobic, biphobic and transphobic hate crime around the time of the referendum. Attacks rose 147% in the three months after the vote. Levels of disability hate crime are also intolerable: the Equality and Human Rights Commission has a programme of work to tackle it.
Conference welcomes developments in addressing misogyny as a hate crime, with Nottinghamshire Police becoming the first force in the country to recognise and record it as such. It applies to a range of incidents reported to the police, from street harassment through to physical intrusions on women’s space. It is defined as ‘Incidents against women that are motivated by an attitude of a man towards a woman and includes behaviour targeted towards a woman by men simply because they are a woman.’ It does not change the offence but the misogyny category acts as a flag or ‘qualifier’ on the incident log. For example an incident of anti-social behaviour would become anti-social behaviour with a ‘misogyny hate crime qualifier’.
Conference is concerned, however, that hate crimes are still likely to go unreported and unrecorded and there have historically been low levels of prosecution. This is made worse by cuts to hate crime advice and support services.
Further, despite years of campaigning, the five recognised strands of hate crime are not equally protected in law in either England and Wales or Scotland, for both the aggravated offences and the stirring up of hatred offences. The highest prison sentence a court can give for homophobic, biphobic, transphobic assault is six months, while there is a maximum sentence of two years for race and faith assaults. Disparities in law and sentencing policy suggest a ‘hierarchy of hate crime’ that undermines confidence.
Finally, conference welcomes UNISON’s campaign on standing together against hate and challenging prejudice, which encourages us all to start workplace conversations on stereotypes and discriminatory attitudes, helping to build trust, respect and solidarity.
Conference calls on the national women’s committee to:
1) Raise awareness of the seriousness of hate incidences and encourage women to report them, either directly to the police or via third party reporting such as the True Vision website;
2) Publicise Nottinghamshire police’s work on tackling misogynistic hate crime, calling for this to be taken up by other police services;
3) Publicise and support the development of National Hate Crime Awareness Week #NHCAW, which takes place in October, across the UK;
4) Continue to campaign for levelling up of all hate crime protections, noting that women can experience any type of hate incident, and for adequate funding of hate crime services;
5) Publicise and promote UNISON’s campaign materials on standing together and challenging prejudice, and resources for branches on tacking hate crime in the workplace.