UK:
Tabloid
Press
Gets
Tough
on
Political
Correctness
10/8/99
Kerie Sprenger for DRCNet, [email protected] The Equal Treatment Bench Book may have an innocuous name, but some members of the British government and press believe it might hold a more sinister content than its name suggests. The guidelines, which were released last week by the Judicial Studies Board and are endorsed by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine and the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Bingham, are intended to inform justices of the differences in religion and ethnicity within the communities over which they preside. Since 1997, some five judges in Britain's courts have been reprimanded for unacceptable racial comments. The Equal Treatment Bench Book is an attempt to provide clearer understanding of a defendant's motivations, from a cultural or religious perspective. All seemingly very innocent, but there are people who don't think so. On October 1, the Daily Mail reported that the guidelines contained suggestions that the legal system should be lenient on Rastafarian cannabis users, as cannabis is a sacrament in that religion. Home Secretary Jack Straw got involved when he saw the Daily Mail's article, stating that he did not agree with the guidelines. He was not actually aware of their existence until the article was printed. The guidelines explain in one section how ganja is a sacrament to Rastafarians. This passage is clinical, and reads like an entry in a college anthropology text. In another section entirely, the guidelines suggest that justices should take into account religious and cultural beliefs and practices. Taken in the context they are written, these statements are a long way from condoning lighter sentences for Rastafarians as compared to other users of cannabis. Marcel Berlins, writing for the Guardian, said, "Only by an astonishing feat of verbal legerdemain can this be turned into an exhortation, say, to rule that a man is not guilty of murder because, under his religion, it's okay to kill an adulterous wife, or that Rastas should get away with a criminal act that non-Rastas would be punished for." In a statement issued to The Week Online, Lord Irvine said, "The Judicial Studies Board, with my endorsement and the Lord Chief Justice's, are determined that everyone who comes before our courts is guaranteed a fair and equal hearing. The Judicial Studies Board have therefore worked on a Bench Book to inform Judges about the ways of lives of people who come before them from all parts of the community. The laws in our country apply to everyone equally. Rastafarians are subject to our cannabis laws as everyone else." The statement went on to say, "Nothing in the book condones the use of illegal drugs or suggests that any section of the community should receive a lighter sentence for using them... These are totally inaccurate reports and are based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the book." In a letter to the Evening Standard, Allan Percival, the Lord Chancellor's Director of Communications, revealed that the passages of the guidelines in question have remained unchanged from the previous edition issued in 1995. He called the allegations that the Lord Chancellor and Lord Chief Justice were sending out signals of leniency for Rastafarians "nonsense."
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