Annual Report Discrimination 2015

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Discrimination and the Roma community, 2015
2. Awareness-raising actions
Practical Guide:
“How to deal with cases of discrimination,
hate crimes and intolerance”
All of the studies conducted in recent years on dis-
crimination and hate crime, both in Spain and across the
European Union, indicate that a large number of discrim-
inatory incidents and even hate crimes occur every day
but no one every finds out about them because they
are never reported.
There are a number of reasons for this phenomenon
commonly referred to as under-reporting: some vic-
tims of discrimination are not aware of their rights in
this regard and wouldn’t know how to go about filing
a complaint. Others believe that the public institutions
entrusted with protecting citizens’ rights lack the nec-
essary training and sensitivity to effectively protect
them and sometimes fear possible reprisals. They feel
that discrimination is so accepted and deeply rooted in
our social practices that reporting it is a waste of time.
In order to break this vicious circle caused by lack of
knowledge of their rights, failure to report, the result-
ing impunity and lack of trust in the ability of public
institutions to act effectively in cases of discrimination,
in 2015 the Women’s Institute for Equal Opportunities
published the PRACTICAL GUIDE: HOW TO DEAL WITH
CASES OF DISCRIMINATION, HATE CRIMES AND INTOL-
ERANCE This practical guide succinctly presents the
most relevant information regarding acts constituting
discrimination, the laws prohibiting the latter and the
institutions or social organisations available to help
people lodge a complaint concerning discrimination
suffered. The Guide also includes practical examples,
judgments handed down in discrimination cases and
the key points to keep in mind to increase the likelihood
that the complaint filed will receive the attention it de-
serves and award the victim the equality he or she was
denied, redress the damage caused and, where appro-
priate, sanction the offender. The chapter devoted to
hate crime also includes a specific section on trafficking
in human beings and how to deal with victims of this
sort of crime.
The publication of this Guide is fruit of the work that
the Women’s Institute for Equal Opportunities has been
doing in recent years as the driving force behind en-
forcement of the equal treatment and non-discrimina-
tion principle mainly through the project called CORE:
knowing discrimination, recognising diversity, funded
by the European Union through the Programme for Em-
ployment and Social Solidarity (PROGRESS).
Two versions of this guide were published, one is an
abbreviated version for the general public while the
other is more in-depth targeting jurists and profes-
sionals working in the field of equality and non-dis-
crimination. Both are available on the website of the
Women’s Institute for Equal Opportunities in Spanish
and English:
NovedadesNuevas/GuiasInstituto.htm
The guide is also being translated into the co-official
languages of Spain and these versions will be available
on the same web page..