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 such 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 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 2994, flagged such a Bill but
dropped it when it was opposed by Christians. It forms part of the Labor Party
platform . . . More details at left -
NSW
The first
state to introduce vilification law was NSW but they had it race and for homosexuality
and AIDs - not for religion.
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.
South
Australia
Since
then, the South Australian government has proposed racial and religious
vilification laws (2003). Due to opposition from churches and the community,
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 dropped the proposal.
Overseas
For
further details see tabs on the left.
