• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About DNS
  • Subscribe to DNS
  • Advertise with DNS
  • Support DNS
  • Contact DNS

Disability News Service

the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues

  • Home
  • Independent Living
    • Arts, Culture and Sport
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Employment
    • Housing
    • Transport
  • Activism & Campaigning
  • Benefits & Poverty
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
You are here: Home / News Archive / Campaigner’s hate crime files are just ‘tip of the iceberg’

Campaigner’s hate crime files are just ‘tip of the iceberg’

By guest on 2nd September 2010 Category: News Archive

Listen

A leading activist has submitted evidence of 68 violent deaths of disabled people – and more than 500 other potential disability hate crimes – to a major national inquiry into disability-related harassment.

Reports of the crimes were collected over just three years by Anne Novis, who leads on hate crime issues for the United Kingdom Disabled People’s Council (UKDPC) and is one of the coordinators of the Disability Hate Crime Network (DHCN).

Her evidence is based on reports collected from the media, blogs, internet message boards and personal experiences shared with her by other disabled people, and has been submitted to the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) inquiry.

Her Action Now report was published by DHCN, with a second report providing further details and evidence due to be published within days by UKDPC. The second report will also be submitted to the EHRC inquiry.

Some of the disabled people whose deaths are included in the new report were killed by relatives, others by “friends” or as a result of arson attacks, while some were the victims of “deliberately planned tortures and murders” and so-called “mercy killings”.

Other crimes include rapes, domestic violence, vandalism of assistive equipment, targeted hostility by neighbours, online harassment, bullying of disabled children, “fighting” breeds of dogs deliberately set on guide dogs, and public attacks on disabled people who use wheelchairs and scooters.

Novis said the evidence she had collected was “the very small tip of a very large iceberg”.

She said: “Constantly reading about such attacks has at times made me quite depressed. Some of them are such brutal incidents, and yet so few people get justice.

“I wish people would take more notice of what we as disabled people say about the level of abuse that is happening.

“The scale of it is absolutely immense. This report only covers the articles I have found. It is just a glimpse. The reality is far, far greater.”

Among her recommendations, she calls for funding for national and local disabled people’s organisations to tackle hate crime, and for refuges to be accessible for disabled victims of domestic violence.

She also calls for disability hate crime to be recognised as a crime in its own right, rather than just an aggravating factor in other offences, and for disabled people to be covered by laws on incitement to commit hate crime, which currently only cover race, religious and homophobic hatred.

And she says more should be done to challenge the justice system to ensure it does not allow so-called “mercy killings” to be used as a justification for murder.

7 September 2010

Share this post:

Share on X (Twitter)Share on FacebookShare on WhatsAppShare on RedditShare on LinkedIn
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Related

‘Muddled’ blue badge reforms ‘are to blame for renewal delays’
6th February 2015
UN debate will be reminder of true inclusive education
6th February 2015
IDS breaks pledge on PIP waiting-times, as tens of thousands still queue for months
30th January 2015

Primary Sidebar

On the left of the image are multiple heads of different colours - white, aqua, red, light brown, and dark green - all grouped together, then the words ‘Campaign for Disability Justice. Sign up to support. #OpportunitySecurityRespect’
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Access

Latest Stories

‘Disastrous’ cuts bill that leaves legacy of distrust and distress ‘must be dropped’

Four disabled Labour MPs stand up to government over cuts to disability benefits

Silence from MP sister of Rachel Reeves over suicide linked to PIP flaws, just as government was seeking cuts

Disabled people receiving care were ‘ignored by design’ during the pandemic, Covid inquiry hears

Disabled activists warn Labour MPs who vote for cuts: ‘The gloves will be off’

GB News says it has nothing to apologise for, after guest suggests starving disabled benefit claimants

SEND inspections find services in just one in four areas usually lead to ‘positive’ outcomes for disabled children

Disabled MP who quit government over benefit cuts tells DNS: ‘The consequences will be devastating’

Disabled peers plan to ‘amend, amend, amend, amend, amend’ after assisted dying bill reaches Lords

Minister finally admits that working-age benefits spending is stable, despite months of ‘spiralling’ claims

Advice and Information

Readspeaker
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Footer

The International Standard Serial Number for Disability News Service is: ISSN 2398-8924

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site map
  • Bluesky
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Threads
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2025 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web