On 18 September 2024, the Seychelles National Assembly passed the Penal Code (Amendment) Act 2024. The Act, for the first time in the country’s history, allows for hate crimes to be recognised within the criminal justice system and prosecuted accordingly. It makes sure that the hate element is taken into account at the sentencing stage, when a crime is motivated by prejudice against one or more of the victim’s protected characteristics: sexual orientation, gender identity, race, religious belief, disability, sex characteristics, political affiliation or HIV/AIDS status.
Under the Act, a criminal offence is ‘aggravated’ by hate if there is enough evidence that immediately before, during or immediately after committing the offence, the perpetrator demonstrates hostility towards the victim based on one or more of the victim’s protected characteristics; or if there is enough evidence that the perpetrator committed the crime because of one or more of the victim’s protected characteristics. Where a crime is charged as aggravated, and it is proved before the court that it is aggravated by hate, the court must consider this when determining the sentence for the crime.
The Act represents a wider milestone for hate crime legislation globally, being the first hate crime law in the world that follows the “hybrid model”. This model was developed by Professor Mark Walters ,and is based on an extensive analysis of all existing forms of hate crime law across the world, their benefits and their limitations. His research shows that using the hybrid model, which enables any existing criminal offence to be charged as “aggravated” by hate, has several important impacts:
- It increases the likelihood of law enforcement agencies collecting relevant evidence of identity-based hate which can be considered by the courts.
- It has an important symbolic purpose, showing that the element of hate in a crime is recognised in law.
- It acknowledges the particularly harmful nature of hate crimes.
The Human Dignity Trust has been working with the office of the Attorney General for Seychelles since 2020, providing technical legal assistance to draft the hate crime components of the Act, together with Professor Walters of Sussex Law School. The Act also includes elements relating to hate speech, which the Trust did not assist with.
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