What is a 'hatecrime' AS defined within the ROME STATUTE into articles 31-33 of the VIENNA CONVENTION on the LAW OF TREATIES (1969 -- and to which South Africa also (still) remains a signatory?
(South Africa's government does not maintain statistics on 'hatecrimes' as specified above). The reason for this omission is unknown, as this lack of statistics on hatecrimes makes it impossible for criminal analysts to examine the ethnicity-links to hatecrimes in South Africa. However while the South African government maintains no "crime-related' archives or statistics linked to ethnic-groups whatsoever, this government DOES maintain extensive racial-statistics regarding the jobs which white minority-group members are being barred from under the government's more than 110 laws regerring the 'black economic empowerment' and 'equal opportunity' legal Acts.
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WJHAT IS THE INTERNATIONALLY-ACCEPTABLE LEGAL DEFINITION OF A HATECRIME?
--- The Legal definition of hatecrime is 'a crime motivated by racial, religious, gender, sexual orientation, or other prejudice."
--- "Hate crimes are based on the accused persons beliefs regarding a particular status of the victim.
--- In the USA, there are three types of hate-crime statutes. Two provide for punishment; the third type mandates only the collection of hate-crime data.
ETHNIC HATE CRIMES:
Under Ohio's statute, for example, any person who commits menacing, aggravated menacing, criminal damage or criminal endangerment, criminal mischief, or telephone harassment "by reason of the race, color, religion, or national origin of another person or group of persons" is guilty of the hate crime termed ethnic intimidation (Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 2927.12 [Baldwin 1996]).
-- The gravity of ethnic intimidation is always one degree higher than a base offense.
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/hate+crime
Recommended expert reading:
"The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court' by author Leena Grover defines more than ninety crimes that fall within the ICCourt's jurisdiction: genocide, other crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression.
How these crimes are interpreted contributes to findings of individual criminal liability, and moreover affects the perceived legitimacy of the Court. And yet, to date, there is no agreed-upon approach to interpreting these definitions. This book offers practitioners and scholars a guiding principle, arguments and aids necessary for the interpretation of international crimes. Author Leena Grover surveyed the jurisprudence of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda before presenting a model of interpretive reasoning that integrates the guidance --- within the ROME STATUTE into articles 31-33 of the VIENNA CONVENTION on the LAW OF TREATIES (1969) (1969).
https://books.google.nl/books?id=trm1BAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
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