MEXICO CITY (France24).- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has given the green light to a law that criminalizes hate speech in the country and imposes prison sentences of up to five years for hate crimes. The approval of this law comes in the midst of the Freedom Day celebrations in South Africa, which also mark the 30th anniversary of the election of Nelson Mandela as president of the country. The law also has its critics, who fear that the criminalization of broad categories of public speech will punish freedom of expression.
The President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, approved on Thursday, May 9, a Law that seeks to prevent and punish hate crimes and speech. The project had been approved on Wednesday by the South African Parliament. The new law comes in the middle of the celebrations for Freedom Day in South Africa, which this year commemorates 30 years since the end of the ‘Apartheid’ regime in this country and which – in addition – marks the 30th anniversary of the arrival of Nelson Mandela to the Presidency, a milestone that changed the history of the nation.
The law, called the Law on the Prevention and Fight against Hate Crimes and the Expression of Hate, prohibits such crimes and expressions and enables the prosecution of people who commit them. In addition, it imposes prison sentences of up to five years for offenders.
South Africa’s Presidency said in a statement that the law “gives effect to South Africa’s obligations under the Constitution and international human rights instruments on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance.”
The crime of incitement to hate applies to any person who intentionally publishes, communicates or shares something to one or more people in a way that can be interpreted as demonstrating a clear intention to be harmful or to incite harm and to promote or propagate hatred based on defined grounds, says the South African government.
The new law also includes exceptions to the application of regulations and penalties. Artistic creation, performance and other forms of expression are excluded from the scope of this law; as well as academic or scientific research, information or opinions that are of public interest and the defense of religious beliefs that do not constitute apology or incitement to cause harm to others.
Criticism of the new law
Non-governmental organizations and human rights groups have objected since 2017 to the enactment of an anti-hate law in South Africa, but not precisely because they defend the previous status quo.
Although these organizations have not opposed the government’s intentions to prevent or punish hate speech and crimes, some have highlighted that the scope and vagueness of some definitions could result in the regression of freedoms, especially those regarding free expression.
“Racist discourse is especially worrying given the legacy of ‘Apartheid’. Indeed, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed serious concern about the absence of legislation to address hate crimes and hate speech in South Africa and encouraged the government to pass a law that complies with international human rights standards,” says researcher Wenky Isaack, of the Human Rights Watch organization.
Isaack believes that the government can legislate about these crimes and hate speech in a way that ensures that criminal law—or punishments involving imprisonment—only applies to the most serious cases, related to criminal behavior: “the expression of controversial ideas or opinions, no matter how offensive they may be, when done without inciting violence, should be considered a legitimate exercise of the constitutionally and internationally protected right to freedom of expression,” he explains.
Since the project was presented to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services – a parliamentary committee of the National Assembly of South Africa – in April 2018, the project has been the subject of political and public contestation due to the scope of its content: at least 100,000 petitions or amendments were presented against the project, according to the organization ADF International.
A painful history of hate, racism and discrimination
Although the black and mixed-race population of South Africa was already under the colonial rule of the white minority since colonization, the laws that configured the segregationist system of ‘Apartheid’ began to govern in 1948, turning South Africa into one of the cruelest regimes. and racists of the world.
After centuries of white rule, on April 27, 1994, black South Africans went to the polls for the first time in history in a general election. This marked the official end of the ‘Apartheid’ regime, or the official segregation and discrimination of the population by the ‘Afrikaaners’, descendants of Dutch and German colonizers.
The overwhelming victory of the formation of the African National Congress, the party that supported Mandela, which obtained 63% of the votes, paved the way for just over a week later, on May 9, 1994, the newly elected South African Parliament elected Nelson Mandela as the country’s first black president.
Read alsoSouth Africa commemorates the birth of leader and activist Nelson Mandela
South Africa’s path to freedom and the end of oppression of the black population was long, tortuous and at times very bloody: thousands of black activists and students who dared to protest, both loudly and silently, were killed or silenced
Great socio-political progress has been made since Apartheid, but the legacy of racism and segregation is still clearly visible in South Africa.
According to the World Bank (WB), South Africa is the most unequal country in the world and racial disparities are the main cause of income inequality, although gender is also significant, since women receive salaries 38% lower than men. men.
With EFE, Reuters and local media
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2024-05-13 08:53:23