Disability Hate Crime Conference
posted: 02/02/2009
Manchester is to have a Disability Hate Crime conference in March. Disability hate crimes are crimes where prejudice and discrimination were behind the main offence - so a physical attack with abuse about having HIV would be assault made worse because of the disability hate crime abuse.
The law automatically treats HIV as a disability so people living with HIV have this extra legal protection. The way the law works is if a person is found guilty of the main offence (such as assault), then the court should then consider whether there is also evidence of a hate crime. If there is evidence of a hate crime, the punishment should be increased.
The Manchester conference will look at how well the law is actually working. The problem is people rarely report any disability hate crimes, especially those involving stigmatised conditions like HIV. However there has been at least one HIV disability hate crime that did come to court in the NorthWest - a violent assault over HIV disclosure
The Crown Prosecution Service conference is a way to work with disabled people and local advocacy groups to identify what CPS Greater Manchester and other Manchester Criminal Justice Agencies can do to boost the confidence of people with HIV and other disabilities to report hate crime. It will also show how Criminal Justice Agencies are trying to support disabled people who have endured hate crimes.
On the conference agenda is the chance to
• talk about your needs and concerns
• talk about practical ways to boost confidence in reporting Disability Hate Crime.
Want to take part?
The conference is on Thursday 5 March (9:30 am – 4:00pm) at Manchester Town Hall.
To attend you need to book a place. Please complete both the booking and monitoring forms and return them to david.leighton@cps.gsi.gov.uk by Monday 16 February or call 0161 827 4715. The conference agenda is here.
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