SINGAPORE – Public opinion is being sought on the brand new Upkeep of Racial Concord Invoice that can be launched by the Ministry of Dwelling Affairs (MHA) in 2024.
The proposed legal guidelines will consolidate and overview race-related offences from present legal guidelines, introduce restraining orders (ROs) in opposition to content material dangerous to racial concord and introduce safeguards in opposition to international affect by means of race-based organisations.
In a launch on April 16, MHA mentioned each racial and spiritual concord have been necessary for Singapore.
It mentioned: “Singapore’s racial and spiritual concord is of paramount significance, and arguably an existential difficulty for our society. We now have invested important effort since independence – by means of laws, insurance policies, establishments and different measures – to protect this concord.”
A key measure to cope with non secular concord was the Upkeep of Non secular Concord Act (MRHA), which was enacted in 1990 and amended in 2019.
The latest amendments to the MRHA criminalised conduct that harms non secular concord, gives safeguards in opposition to international affect in non secular organisations, and permits an individual who has dedicated offences in opposition to non secular concord to restore ties in lieu of prosecution.
MHA added the identical goals of the MRHA concerning racial concord function the motivation for the newly proposed legal guidelines.
The primary side of the brand new Invoice is the porting over and reviewing of race-related offences from present legal guidelines.
These embrace offences underneath the Penal Code that cope with threats to racial concord, similar to acts that wound the racial emotions of any particular person, promote enmity, hatred or unwell will between racial teams, or which can be in any other case prejudicial to interracial concord.
In September 2023, an area rapper was jailed for six weeks for making an attempt to advertise emotions of unwell will between totally different racial and spiritual teams in Singapore. He had made a number of on-line posts between July 2019 and March 2021 evaluating races and religions.
To discourage race-based violence, the brand new Invoice proposes a brand new offence for acts that urge violence in opposition to teams or their members on the grounds of race.
An instance given by MHA is a racial supremacist urging violence in opposition to folks with disabilities – even members of their very own race – on the grounds of “racial purity”.
The proposed penalties will take their cue from present penalties underneath the Penal Code.
The second side of the Invoice offers with content material prejudicial to racial concord.
It should allow the minister for dwelling affairs to make ROs in opposition to the manufacturing or distribution of content material that prejudices the upkeep of racial concord in Singapore.
An individual or entity who commits this may be issued an RO and be restrained from being concerned within the communication or distribution of specified info or materials; addressing a specified viewers on a selected topic; and holding workplace in an editorial board or a committee of a specified publication.
