LEAVING sex open for debate in Jersey’s proposed hate-crime legislation is “troubling”, according to the chair of the Violence Against Women and Girls Taskforce.
Kate Wright called for explicit recognition of hatred directed at women because they are women, while warning that any new law must also protect against public sexual harassment where hatred cannot be proved.
Her comments follow the launch of a 12-week consultation proposing tougher sentences for crimes motivated by hostility towards protected characteristics and new offences of stirring up hatred.
Race, religion, sexual orientation, disability and gender reassignment are proposed for inclusion, while whether sex should be covered remains open for discussion.
Ms Wright said: “I really welcome the consultation, but I do find it troubling that sex remains an open question when other characteristics are proposed for inclusion.
“Hatred directed at women because they are women deserves explicit recognition. Misogyny can intimidate women, silence their voices and restrict their freedom to participate in everyday life.”
However, she cautioned that including sex would require careful consideration, particularly in domestic-abuse and sexual-violence cases.
Abuse often involved power, control and entitlement without an explicit expression of hatred, she said.
“We must avoid creating a hierarchy in which abuse accompanied by a misogynistic slur is regarded as more serious than equally harmful abuse without one,” she added.
The consultation itself raises concerns that proving hostility based on sex could complicate investigations and prosecutions, alongside potential overlap with existing domestic-abuse and sexual-offences laws.
Ms Wright distinguished between recognising hostility when sentencing an existing crime, criminalising attempts to stir up hatred against women, and protecting women from public sexual harassment.
She said these required separate consideration and could not simply substitute for one another.
“For Jersey, a particularly important question is what happened to the proposed protection against public sexual harassment in the VAWG Taskforce’s report, which was deferred into this wider work,” she said.
“We need assurance that the new law will close that gap, including where hatred cannot be proved.”
She called for survivors and specialist services to help shape the legislation, adding: “The test must be whether it makes women and girls safer and improves their access to justice.”
Home Affairs Minister Helen Miles has said the consultation will help shape Jersey’s response to crimes motivated by hostility and prejudice while safeguarding freedom of expression.
She told the JEP that progressing the issue early in the new political term was one of her priorities.
“I was involved with the original public order law, which was going to be public order and prejudice, and for various reasons we dropped the prejudice element from that. So we have already consulted on this in 2019, but we’re going out to consultation again.
“From my perspective, it’s just very important that everybody who lives here is protected. And I think there are elements of hate crime legislation that are lacking in our suite of offences that can tackle that type of offending.”
The minister played down concerns that hate crime legislation would face similar pressures to new laws protecting women and girls, which require more staff and resources amid warnings of rising caseloads and an overstretched forensic laboratory.
Senator Miles said: “The [hate crime] consultation is designed to see what the legislation is going to look like.
“We won’t necessarily have a separate hate crime law; it might be that we just need to have a set of offences that we can put into other legislation to tackle this sort of offending – it doesn’t mean that there’s going to be a great cost to implementing this law.”
In launching the consultation, Senator Miles said she wanted to hear from all sectors of society and admitted there was “a very fine balance” to be struck.
“What this law isn’t going to do is criminalise people’s beliefs or certain perspectives on things,” she said. “What it will do is tackle occasions when this tips over into criminal behaviour.”
The consultation closes on 12 January 2027, before any law is drafted.
