Tackling hate crime is not “political correctness” but necessary to increase diversity and community cohesion across Scotland, the Lord Advocate has said.
Work to reduce crime motivated by race, religion, sexuality and disability was praised at a hate crime conference in Glasgow but senior figures believe more still needs to be done.
Frank Mulholland said it is important to send a message of support to immigrants and refugees who settle in Scotland that the country will not tolerate prejudice against them or any other community.
After a meeting with refugees in Glasgow the Lord Advocate asked the Crown Office to create a brief guide to Scots law that has now been translated into more than 10 languages to allow people new to the country to learn the law and how to report potential crimes.
Mr Mulholland said: “This is not political correctness, it is dealing with the darker sides of society. The direction of travel is to take zero tolerance to all forms of hate crime and to stand up and speak out against it.
“As a result we are seeing societal attitudes change.
“I don’t have a rose-tinted view of this country, you can never have such a view as Lord Advocate, you see the worst side of humanity. I’m not naive but I do believe we have come a long way in dealing with hate crime and attitudes are changing – it is being marginalised and reducing but we still have a fair distance to go and we need to keep up the vigilance of the last few years.”
He said: “Refugees and asylum seekers have come here for a better life and they have the same right to be protected by the law as people who lived all their lives in Scotland.”
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also addressed the conference.
She said: “Scotland is a nation of immigrants and also a nation of emigrants, with Scottish people living in every corner of the planet. Therefore, we perhaps more than many other people should understand the importance of welcoming those who come here from other parts of our world.”
The conference follows the launch of a new Scottish Government Race Equality Framework designed to promote more diversity in public and private sectors employers.
The First Minister called on Police Scotland to lead the way.
She said: “We will work with Police Scotland to encourage minority ethnic entrants into the workforce.
“At the moment only 1% of the police workforce comes from a minority ethnic background, now let me say that Police Scotland is not the only employer that needs to increase it’s diversity and I know it is doing important and valuable work but we need to do more in terms of recruiting members of different faith groups and ethnic minorities.
“It’s a vital part of ensuring that our police service is representative of the communities that it serves.”
Chief Constable Phil Gormley agreed, saying: “There is work to be done, I want Police Scotland to be an employer of choice for peoples of all faith and communities.
“We are on a journey with encouraging signs but we have to keep reaching out.
“Culturally, different communities may perceive the police differently from people who were born and brought up in the UK, so we need to deliver a service that is relevant to everyone and that requires us to reflect the communities we serve and have access to language skills and other insights that we perhaps don’t necessarily have.”