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Headway made in combating discrimination
Assessment of the Criminal Code reform
The Organic Law reforming the Criminal Code intro-
duces important amendments and one of the most
noteworthy has to do with the very structure of the
Code, i.e. the elimination of Book III corresponding to
misdemeanours.
The Equal Treatment and Anti-discrimination Depart-
ment would like to say a few words about this most
recent reform of the Criminal Code, highlighting some
articles relating to racial or ethnic discrimination and
hate crime.
1.
Discrimination on the basis gender as an aggravating
circumstance with criminal liability has been introdu-
ced (CC Article 22[4]);
2.
The crime of harassment or stalking is now descri-
bed and regulated (CC Article 172[b]);
3.
Misdemeanours have been eliminated such that the
current misdemeanour of making threats is now a
minor crime (CC Article 171[7]) and the misdemeanour
of coercion is now also a minor crime (Article 172[3]);
4.
Minor incidences of slander and unfair humiliation are
no longer considered criminal offences except in ca-
ses of gender-based violence where they are listed
as minor crimes (CC Article 173[4]);
5.
We would draw special attention to CC Article 510
regarding incitement to hatred, violence or discrimi-
nation and CC Article 607(2) on the dissemination of
ideas justifying genocide which have been merged.
The new version of this Article, which features verbs
such as “foster, promote and incite” (CC Article 510[a]),
is clearly a major legislative change and will enable more
effective persecution of this type of crime and will also
extend action in criminal proceedings thus circumvent-
ing problems of interpretation. We are also satisfied to
see the inclusion of natural persons as victims of the
offence.
Regarding the glorification of genocide it states as fol-
lows: “Those who publicly negate, seriously trivialise or
glorify crimes of genocide and crimes against human-
ity shall be sentenced to between one and four years
imprisonment and a fine of between six and twelve
months.” (CC Article 510[c])
Regarding Internet crimes, CC Article 510(3) provides
that the upper half of the sentences envisaged in the
preceding sub-paragraphs be applied where these acts
are perpetrated through social media, over the Inter-
net or through information technology, i.e. acts made
accessible to a large group of people. It likewise pro-
vides that the judge or court shall order the destruc-
tion, deletion or cancellation of books, files, documents,
articles and all other media used in the commission of
the crimes referred to in the preceding sub-paragraphs.
Where the offence is committed through information
and communication technologies, content shall be re-
moved. In cases where the sort of content referred to
in the preceding paragraph is the only or accounts for
most of the information disseminated through an Inter-
net portal or information society service, an order must
be issued to block access to or discontinue that site.
These articles will facilitate the persecution of hate
speech on the Internet and social networks, speech that
frequently targets the Roma community