17/01/2019
FSG Igualdad y Lucha Contra la Discriminación
The new government´s plan of actions to deal with hate crime includes training actions aimed at police forces and other key agents, and cooperation with civil society organizations specialized in this type of crime.
As of 2020, anti-Gypsyism will be included among the categories of victims of hate crimes.
The Spanish Interior Minister, presented on January 15, the 1st Hate Crime Action Plan, a strategic guide that outlines actions the government will take to prevent and respond to discrimination and hate speech against vulnerable groups on the grounds of their national or ethnic origin, sex or gender, ideology, sexual identity, religion, intellectual or physical conditions and socioeconomic status.
Although these crimes do not represent a significant percentage of the total number of criminal offenses committed in Spain, they are a priority for the Government because they constitute a particularly serious attack on human rights and undermine the values of diversity and plurality on which our democracy is founded.
The action plan is based on the conviction that the impact of hate crime spreads far beyond the immediate victim, since by attacking a member of a group susceptible of being victimized because of their specificities, they are spreading fear and stopping people from playing a full part in their communities.
With the purpose of giving a fresh impetus and strategic direction to the fight against hate crime, Spain´s Interior Minister has launched this plan that includes 47 actions and 13 objectives under four lines of action: Improving training for police and the wider criminal justice system to recognise and respond to hate crime, prevention of hate crime, support for victims, and offering a legal response to hate crime.
The collaboration with civil society organizations and specialized associations has been key to identify the specific needs of vulnerable communities and reflect them in this plan. The document establishes the bases to continue this cooperation through a permanent agenda of meetings with relevant civil society groups that will serve to update their proposals and demands.
To achieve these objectives, it is vital to have a deep knowledge of the dynamics of hate crime and its propagation mechanisms. To this end, the plan aims to improve the reporting and recording processes. In this sense the Plan incorporates a new element that affects the Roma community; the introduction in the Hate Crime Annual Report of "anti-Gypsyism" as a new category of as of 2020. This will give more visibility to a reality of anti-Gypsyism. This was one of the demands of the FSG during the elaboration of the Action Plan.
The action plan will extend until 2020 and 472,500 euros of funding has been allocated to the delivery of this action plan during 2019.
The work of Fundación Secretariado Gitano (FSG) in the field of the prevention and fight against discrimination and hate crime takes place in several strategic areas. On one hand, we provide direct assistance to victims of anti-Gypsysm motivated hate crime and discrimination, we support them throughout the reporting process and sometimes undertake strategic litigation. We have reported over 15 cases to the hate crime and discrimination public prosecutors and have brought some of them to court. The FSG has a line of representation and defence before the Courts, given that we believe that we must advance in the legal response to certain cases and establish jurisprudence in this matter.
FSG undertakes strategic litigation, we identify and pursue legal cases as part of a strategy bring about broader social change. These cases set important legal precedents by publicly exposing injustices, raising awareness and bringing about changes in legislation, policy and practice, enabling also individuals to seek remedies for the harm suffered
The work with the potential victims is also key. Thanks to the Calí programme and the Assistance and Guidance Service Victims of Racial or Ethnic Discrimination, we have provided training to over 1000 Roma women to make them aware of their rights and how to act in cased prejudice motivated crime and discrimination. The empowerment of Roma people in the defence of their fundamental rights is a key element to combat hate crime, and to avoid the underreporting of these cases.
Providing training to key agents (such as the police and the wider criminal justice system, member of associations, etc.) to improve recognition of and responses to hate crime with an emphasis on Roma victims is also part of our work, we raise awareness among key agents about the fact that the Roma community is often subject to this type of racist crime, and for police reports, prosecutorial investigations and sentences to adequately capture the anti-Gypsysm bias of these crimes. Networking with specialized prosecutors and National Police contact points on hate crimes is also bearing its fruits in the prevention and handling of cases.
Another important line is our advocacy work, both at national and European level. In Spain, we participated in the inter-ministerial Committee on hate speech, and we have collaborated with the Ministry of Interior in the consultation process that has preceded the elaboration of the new "Hate Crime Action Plan” that has just been launched. We are also members of the Council for the Elimination of Racial or Ethnic Discrimination. In Europe we are members of the EU High Level Group on racism and intolerance, where we monitor cases of anti-Gypsy hate speech on social networks, and where we have managed to include the category of "anti-Gypsyism" in the hate speech classification system of the Commission. We also actively participate in several European forums that fight hate crimes (FRA, Council of Europe, ECRI, European Commission, OSCE, etc.).
We also monitor the national and international regulations in this area, from the reform of the criminal code to the European directives and their proper transposition, highlighting at present the follow-up that we are carrying out of the Project of the Integral Law of Equality of Treatment and not Discrimination that is currently being debated in Parliament.
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