Spain has experienced a wave of hate crimes in recent years, with an increase of more than 45% in this type of crime since they began to be accounted for in 20131 until the last report published by the Spanish Ministry of the Interior in 20192.
This is not a particular and exclusive case of Spain. In Europe, according to the FRA (Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union), only 17 states3 collect this type of crime. By not breaking them down, it prevents improvement in the protection of victims and makes invisible a social problem that only increases year by year.
An example of the wave we are experiencing is in the report collected by the British Home Office, which indicates that in the last report (2019/20) 105,090 hate crimes were registered by the police in England and Wales, an increase in 8% compared to the previous report4. Although these increases may be due in part to the improvement in data collection, the truth is that many times this type of crime is invisible due to the lack of reporting or, as Lucía Gori, an Italian police member of the Security Observatory points out, against OScAD Discriminatory Acts, “there are many reasons for not reporting. Sometimes it happens that, although the victim goes to the police, they do not provide an adequate response (re-victimization) or do not detect the motivation of hate/discrimination”, which could hide a problem of greater dimensions5.
Discrimination does not exist only in the streets and social networks, it also affects various groups in access to basic services by supporting discriminatory attitudes by officials, employees and administrations. According to SOS Racismo Galicia in its latest report, for discriminatory agents: 46% of the racist behaviors were initiated by a public entity or civil service, in 34% of the cases it had to do with a private entity and in 17% with private people6.
Despite the advances made by some states in recent years, hate speech that is given a loudspeaker from the mass media7 and that allows political formations to incite hatred with impunity in a systematic way or that is even sanctioned by of some courts8 are a clear setback that endangers the entire population by creating a breeding ground that can turn into a wave of uncontrolled violence. To stop this we must denounce, make visible and educate to put an end to the discourses that only seek the conflict to gain political and economic profit, #TurnOffTheHate
1 http://www.interior.gob.es/documents/642012/3479677/Informe+sobre+los+delitos+de+odio+en+Espa%C3%B1a+2013.pdf/6f10f526-80f7-47a0-911b-d27c61c6cf40 2 http://www.interior.gob.es/documents/642012/3479677/informe+evolucion+2019/631ce020-f9d0-4feb-901c-c3ee0a777896 3 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/ES/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52014DC0027 4 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/925968/hate-crime-1920-hosb2920.pdf 5 http://www.mujeresenigualdad.com/files/portalcontenidos/1940/documentos/InformeOdioWEB.pdf 6 https://www.sosracismogalicia.org/download/4154/ 7 https://spanishrevolution.org/2020/01/29/desmontando-a-eduardo-inda/ 8 https://www.eldiario.es/madrid/justicia-avala-cartel-electoral-vox-menores-extranjeros-dice-son-evidente-problema-politico-social_1_8105171.html
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