[WATCH] Ridiculing people with their disability to become hate crime, Julia Farrugia Portelli says

Ridiculing people with their disability and propagating hatred against them will become a crime punishable by imprisonment, Inclusion Minister Julia Farrugia Portelli said in parliament.

Cabinet approved the proposed changes to the Criminal Code and Farrugia Portelli put forward the First Reading in parliament on Monday afternoon.

The changes will give disabled persons, greater protection at law and respond to numerous calls that have been made in the past by the Commission for Disabled Persons to make hate speech against disabled people a criminal act.

The law currently provides protection against hate crimes to various groups and minorities in society but makes no reference to disabled persons.

Farrugia Portelli said in parliament that it is unacceptable to have politicians like Norman Lowell, who demonised disabled people and their families in the last European Parliament election, or cases like those of Raisa and PN MP Kevin Cutajar who suffered verbal abuse because of their disability.

“It is not OK for a person with a disability to be ridiculed, attacked or humiliated because of their disability,” the minister said, adding the legal changes will give the police the tools to take criminal action when such cases crop up.