London:
Scotland’s controversial new laws, which make it a crime to incite hatred against some groups, including trans people, have come under criticism after they came into force on Monday.
The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill, passed by Scottish lawmakers in 2021 but only introduced now, consolidates existing hate crime legislation while creating new offences.
Scotland’s devolved government said it was responding to recommendations from an independent review of hate crime laws and ensuring such protections are “fit for the 21st century”.
Characteristics protected under the new law include age, disability, race, religion and sexual orientation, as well as gender identity.
But Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said no one should be punished for “stating simple biological facts”.
“We believe in free speech in this country and the Conservatives will always protect it,” he said in a statement to The Telegraph.
Author JK Rowling, an opponent of much of the gender identity movement, especially in Scotland, also slammed the legislation on free speech and other grounds.
In a lengthy online criticism, Rowling said it was “vulnerable to abuse by campaigners looking to silence those of us who speak out about the dangers of eradicating single-sex spaces for women and girls”.
“I am currently abroad but if what I write here constitutes a crime under the terms of the new Act, I look forward to being arrested when I return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment,” she wrote.
Rowling believes the new law will do nothing extra to protect women and girls, particularly as the Scottish Government does not name women as one of the protected groups, despite promising future legislation aimed at tackling misogyny.
Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell called the omission of women from the legislation “astonishingly exclusionary”.
“The biggest flaw in this bill is that it does not protect women from hate,” he told BBC radio.
Elon Musk, owner of social media platform X, is among those who have expressed free speech concerns about the new law.
However, Scotland’s First Minister Humza Youssef insisted he was “extremely proud” of the new laws, saying they would help prevent an “upsurge” in hatred.
Police Scotland are being trained to enforce the legislation, although more than a third have yet to complete compulsory online courses on the law.
This has raised eyebrows among critics, but Youssef insists he is “very confident in the ability of Police Scotland to implement this legislation in the way it should be implemented”.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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