Jail for misogyny? UK govt advised ‘gender’ should be added to ‘protected characteristics’ under hate crime laws

Article here. Excerpt:

'Sex or gender should be made legally "protected" characteristics in England and Wales, particularly to provide more protection to women, the Law Commission – a government advisory body – has said in a report.

Hate crime laws in England and Wales should be extended to ensure equal protections for all the existing "protected characteristics" and to include some new ones. The report issued on Wednesday proposed extending protection to women "for the first time" in history.

The Law Commission is an independent statutory body tasked with advising the government on legal reforms. It is set to hold public consultations on the issue following the publication of the report.
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Gender should be added to the list, the commission said, urging the government to consider some additional criteria such as "age." It also called on the government to create a unified legal protection mechanism for all existing and future characteristics to ensure that a hate crime against any of them would carry the same penalty.

Under the existing laws, a hate crime component is seen as an aggravating factor in a criminal case, and certain crimes such as assault, harassment or infliction of bodily harm carry longer sentences if proven to have been committed out of hatred for a particular "protected" group.'