Multicultural New Zealand supports call to collect data on hate crime

Multicultural New supports the Human Rights Commission and the NZ Jewish Council in their call for the Police to collect data on the incidence of hate crime.

Executive Director Tayo Agunlejika said that the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) had called for the government to collect statistical data on complaints, prosecutions and sentences for racially motivated crimes when it considered New Zealand’s relations performance ten years ago (2007) but a system had still not been put in place. Multicultural New Zealand has supported that call for a number of years.

“We understand that the Police have the capacity (crime categories) to record complaints of racially motivated violence and abuse and it’s just a matter of implementing the system” Mr Agunlejika said.

“We appreciate the fact that collecting the data will not solve the problem of racially and other hate motivated crime, but it will provide a tool to measure its extent and to take action to reduce it.”

“Data collection needs to be accompanied by a campaign to encourage people to report racially motivated violence and abuse. Too often victims don’t report it to the Police because they don’t think anything will be done about it. This is despite a commitment by the Police to take action.”

ENDS

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