Hate Has No Home Here But Are We Challenging All of It?

What happens when victims report?

Justice Minister Naomi Long has called on Northern Ireland to stand together against hate crime. We welcome that call.

But standing against hate must mean more than encouraging victims to report it. It means asking what happens when they do, whether they feel protected, and whether our laws recognise the hostility they experience.

In her statement on 12 October, the Minister highlighted a 28% increase in referrals to the Hate Crime Advocacy Service in 2025/26 compared with the previous year. That is significant. But are more people experiencing hate, are more people coming forward, or are we getting better at connecting victims with support? These explanations can overlap. The referral figure alone does not tell us how much each contributes. We need to understand the difference.

And there is another question we believe deserves an answer.

Why is sex still excluded?

Why does Northern Ireland's proposed hate crime legislation still exclude sex as a protected characteristic?

We have an Executive strategic framework dedicated to ending violence against women and girls. We regularly hear political commitments to challenge misogyny. Judge Marrinan's independent hate crime review recommended including sex/gender, as recorded in the Bill's explanatory memorandum. The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission has also expressly recommended including sex.

Yet sex remains outside the statutory aggravation provisions in Clause 33 of the Criminal Justice (Sentencing etc) Bill as introduced. That clause lists hostility relating to race, religion, sexual orientation and disability.

Including sex would require the relevant hostility to be established; it would not make every crime against a woman a hate crime. The protections already proposed for other groups remain essential.

It is about consistency. If an offence involves hostility towards someone because they are a woman, or a man, why should that hostility be treated differently under the proposed law?

We recognise that further consideration of additional protected characteristics is planned. Clause 35 would also allow further kinds of hostility to be added through regulations, subject to Assembly approval. But when the evidence has already prompted recommendations for inclusion, it is reasonable to ask what is preventing progress, what concerns remain to be resolved, and when a decision will be made.

Measure commitments by what changes

At Voice and Justice Alliance, we believe political commitments should be measured not simply by what is said, but by what changes.

Reporting matters. Legislation matters. But so does what happens to victims afterwards, and whether our institutions are willing to recognise and address the gaps in their own responses.

If hate truly has no home here, our commitment to challenging it must be reflected in the protections we provide, not just the statements we make.

Voice and Justice Alliance