PROTECTING MINORITY RIGHTS – A Practical Guide to Developing Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Legislation ‘since any racially motivated offence undermines social cohesion and society as a whole’ and often inflicts greater individual and societal harm. Furthermore, the State party’s refusal to investigate the racial motive also deprived the petitioner of his right to an ‘effective protection and remedies against the reported act of racial discrimination’.” The Committee recommended that the State party grant Mr. Belemvire adequate compensation for the material and moral injury caused by the violation of the Convention, and further urged that the State party review its policy and procedures concerning the prosecution of cases of alleged racial discrimination or racially motivated violence, in the light of its obligations under the Convention.1125 The term “hate crime” applies to forms of behaviour prohibited under the criminal law that are bias motivated. In some understandings, hate crime includes not only acts of discriminatory violence as described above, but also acts such as the destruction of property on racial or other discriminatory grounds. Hate crimes require recognition and remedy under criminal law. The Human Rights Committee, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities have all criticized the absence of comprehensive hate crime prohibitions in the legal frameworks of States.1126 The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has recently ruled that criminal punishment that lacks explicit recognition of a bias motive violates article 6 of the relevant Convention on the right to effective remedy for discrimination.1127 States have a positive obligation to explicitly recognize bias motivation of criminal acts on the basis of all grounds of discrimination recognized under international law as set out above. However, the need to ensure foreseeability in the criminal law requires that the list of grounds in criminal law provisions governing hate crimes must be closed (i.e. not include the category “or other, similar status”). This contrasts with the requirement for comprehensive anti-discrimination law to have an open-ended list of grounds. There is no consensus as to whether it is better for (a) criminal codes to include stand-alone provisions on hate- or bias-motivated criminal acts or, alternately, (b) provisions governing particular criminal acts (assault, murder etc.) to include clauses recognizing that they are aggravated if carried out for reasons of bias or related animus. In some States, recognition of hate- or animus-motivated bias informs the judgment at the point of sentencing. What is beyond question, however, is that States must ensure that bias motivation is taken into account in the penalization of all crimes and misdemeanours and that a finding of such motivation results in an enhanced penalty.1128 170 1125 Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Belemvire v. Republic of Moldova (CERD/C/94/D/57/2015), paras. 7.3–10 (footnotes omitted). 1126 CCPR/C/EST/CO/4, para. 12; CERD/C/QAT/CO/17-21, para. 13; CEDAW/C/SVK/CO/5-6, para. 40; E/C.12/BIH/CO/2, para. 11; and CRPD/C/GBR/CO/1, para. 39 (b). 1127 Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Belemvire v. Republic of Moldova (CERD/C/94/D/57/2015), paras. 7.3–8. 1128 The European Union requires that national criminal law in its member States guarantee that bias is accounted for in relation to all crime. The European Commission has initiated infringement proceedings against member States for failing to do so: “The Belgian and Bulgarian legal frameworks do not ensure that the racist and xenophobic motivation is taken into account by national courts as an aggravating factor for all crime committed, therefore failing to ensure hate crimes are effectively and adequately prosecuted.” See European Commission, “February infringements package: key decisions”, 18 February 2021. Available at https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ INF_21_441.