ด้วยกฎหมายฉบับนี้ เรากำลังส่งสัญญาณชัดเจนไปยังผู้ที่พยายามแบ่งแยก ว่าเราจะไม่ให้พื้นที่แก่ผู้ที่ใช้วาจาแห่งความเกลียดชังและพฤติกรรมอื่นที่ปลุกระดมหรือข่มขู่ให้ใช้ความรุนแรงในสังคม
กฎหมายฉบับใหม่จะช่วยป้องกัน Hate Speech ได้อย่างไร?

เลขาธิการสหประชาชาติ อันโตนิโอ กูแตร์เรส (Antonio Guterres) กล่าวว่า “โลกได้เห็นแล้วว่าวาจาแห่งความเกลียดชังนั้น คือตัวการที่จะนำไปสู่การก่ออาชญากรรมร้ายแรง” Source: Getty / Richard Drury
จากการอ้างอิงตามรายงานขององค์การสหประชาชาติ รัฐบาลทั่วโลกกำลังเผชิญความยากลำบากในการรับมือกับวาจาแห่งความเกลียดชัง
spk_0
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Olivia
From SBS Examines, I'm Olivia Di Iorio. SBS Examines is here to dispel misinformation and disinformation impacting social cohesion. Back in 2019 the United Nations launched a Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said, “the world has seen hate speech as a precursor to atrocity crimes.” He said Governments are struggling to prevent and respond to orchestrated online hate, and proclaimed the 18th of June as the International Day for Countering Hate Speech. The day invites us to consider how we can identify, address and counter hate speech. In this episode, we ask how Australia’s new Hate Speech laws aim to deal with the impact on our society, and what else can be done.
Nadia Saeed
I was in the car. I was at a red light, and I had a man in a ute start to verbally abuse my sister and I.
Olivia
Nadia Saeed is talking about an incident last year when she experienced hate speech as a Muslim woman. A warning, what she says happened next is distressing,
Nadia Saeed
And he started putting the finger up following me in the car at one point and he was getting very aggressive yelling out ‘go back to where you came from, Muslims don’t belong here’, and he became very heavily abusive and my main focus at that point in time was to get away from him. So I didn’t even think to take down the number plate or to record the situation.
Olivia
As a community leader, Nadia says the impact of hate speech on not only herself but her community is significant.
Nadia Saeed
I’m someone that’s always been very outspoken, never been afraid to walk out with my hijab on, but I find that nowadays I’m a little bit hesitant. I prefer to go to certain places with another person rather than going alone. There's a lot of frustration, there's a lot of fear, and there's a lot of disappointment as well because as a community, we thought we'd really built amazing bridges we've built relationships with communities. And unfortunately the rhetoric is not really that great at this point in time.
Olivia
In February, Federal Parliament passed the Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill, making changes to the existing hate crime provisions in the Criminal Code Act of 1995. The Bill was introduced to Parliament last year, by Federal Labor MP and former Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus. He said the new protections will support law enforcement’s ability to intervene early to prevent acts of violence.
Mark Dreyfus
They will better enable our law enforcement agencies to disrupt, investigate and protect against the harms caused by those who foster hatred, extremism or incitement to violence.
Olivia
Its purpose is to strengthen Australia’s existing laws, in response to recent spates of antisemitic violence.
Mark Dreyfus
With these laws, we are sending a clear signal to those who seek to divide us. There is no place in this country for hate speech and other hateful conduct that urges or threatens violence against others.
Olivia
Sarah Schwartz is the Legal Director of the Human Rights Law Centre. She says it was already a criminal offence to urge force or violence against specific groups.
Sarah Schwartz
And those groups weren’t just limited to race, religion or national origin, but also included sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status and disability. The government changed the intention requirement from intentionality to recklessness so a bit of a lower threshold.
Olivia
Dr. Nicole Shackleton is a socio-legal researcher at RMIT University. She says although these laws are welcomed, more needs to be done.
Nicole Shackleton
there's questions about how effective these laws will actually be at providing results for the communities that are often targeted by hate speech. Secondly, this targeted approach towards hate speech doesn't include any civil laws.
Olivia
She says civil laws would give targeted communities more power, to better counter hate speech.
Nicole Shackleton
While these criminal laws do send a strong message to the community that hate speech is unacceptable, there is less agency or power in the hands of the victims to make complaints or engage in supported, meaningful dialogue with the people who have subjugated them to this hate speech. And civil laws are able to do that.
Olivia
Nadia Saeed says her community in Brisbane welcomes the new laws.
Nadia Saeed
It feels like it's an added layer of protection, and it's actually saying that we're hearing the voices of victims of hate speech, and we acknowledge you, and we will stand up against this as a country.
spk_1
This episode was produced by SBS Examines. In future episodes, we'll look further into how we can counter hate. For more information, visit SBS.com.au/sbsexamines.



