HOW TO DEAL WITH CASES OF DISCRIMINATION AND HATE AND INTOLERANCE CRIMES PRACTICAL GUIDE HOW TO DEAL WITH CASES OF DISCRIMINATION AND HATE AND INTOLERANCE CRIMES: PRACTICAL GUIDE Authored by: CIDALIA Consultora en Diversidad S.L.L., Ignacio Sola Barleycorn and Pablo López Pietsch. Coordination: Subdirectorate-General for Equal Treatment and Non-Discri- mination: Rosario Maseda García and Iván Carabaño Rubianes. Translation into English by: Oliver Carrick Translation revised by: Pablo López Pietsch EDITED BY: Instituto de la Mujer y para la Igualdad de Oportunidades Condesa de Venadito, 34 – Madrid 28027 [email protected] www.inmujer.es Graphic Design: Socialco Layout and production: Imprenta Nacional de la AEBOE NIPO: 685-15-031-0 (on line edition) Catálogo de Publicaciones de la Administración General del Estado http://publicacionesoficiales.boe.es Production of this report was supported by the EU’s PROGRESS (2007–2013) programme. This programme is implemented by the European Commission. It was esta- blished as a means of financially supporting achievement of the European Union’s objectives in the spheres of employment, social issues and equal opportunities. In addition, it is intended to support achievement of the objectives for these spheres set out in the Europe 2020 Strategy. This seven-year programme is aimed at all relevant partners collaborating on development of appropriate and effective employment and social legis- lation and policy among the EU 27, the EFTA-EEA countries and candidates and potential candidates for accession. For further information, see: http://ec.europa.ue/progress The information contained in this publication does not necessarily reflect the European Commission’s position or opinion. CORE , Conociendo la discriminación, Reconociendo la diversidad (Progress JUST/2013/PROG/AG/AD) Presentation Equality is, together with liberty, justice and political pluralism, one of the superior values of our legal order and enjoys the highest legal protection, both as a fundamental right of our Constitution and the Charter of Fundamen- tal Rights of the EU and as a human right in the European Convention on Human Rights and in the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ratified by Spain. Hence, achieving a real and effective equality and repairing any discrimination arepermanent tasks of all public powers. Nevertheless, all surveys on discrimination that were conducted during recent years, both at Spanish and at EU level, reach the same alarming diagnosis, calling for an immediate response of public institutions: on one hand discriminations on different grounds and in different areas of society against people belonging to social minority groups (immigrants, homosexuals, people with disabilities, elder persons, etc.) take place every day but on the other hand there is a major disproportion between the number of discriminations effectively produced and the number of incidents actually reported or denounced. That is, an ample majority of existing discriminations pass unknown because those who are discriminated against don’t complain or report them. There are a variety of rea- sons for this phenomenon known as «underreporting»: some discrimination victims think that reporting would be useless, others state that they do not know very well what exactly their rights are in this regard and that in any event they wouldn’t know where to report the discrimination suffered, and others again consider that discrimina- tion is something too normal and embedded in our social practices to report it. This lack of trust in the institutional response to any discrimination complaint often results in impunity of the perpetrators, a fact that in turn reinforces the impression that discrimination comes for free and that there is no use in denouncing it. To break out of this vicious circle, information activities for all citizens are needed, along with a reinforcement of the response capacity of institutions and with training activities for professionals who have to deal with the discrimination complaints. Considerable progress has been made during the last years in this regard, with the elaboration of police protocols aiming at identifying and handling adequately discrimination cases, the creation of specialized services within all provincial Prosecutors’ Offices and the improvement of the legal regulation of hate and discrimination crimes. However, undoubtedly there is still a long way to go until we reach a generalized social conscience that discriminations are banned by the law, that whoever is discriminated against can resort to effective instruments that will allow him or her to see his or her rights restored and that who commits discrimination is risking being sanctioned for it. This Practical Guide is to be understood as a further step in that direction, as it synthesizes the most relevant in- formation on which actions are discriminatory, which legal norms apply and to which institutions or organizations to resort in order to denounce the discrimination suffered. In addition, the Guide offers a number of key recom- mendations to be borne in mind in order to ensure as much as possible that the complaint is effective in achieving its goals and that the right to equality of the victim is restored and the damage suffered repaired. This Guide is part of the activities carried out by the Institut of Women and for Equal Opportunities during the last years in its efforts to advance the principle of equal treatment and non discrimination with two priority workstreams: on the one hand, to improve evidence, that is, expert knowledge about discrimination, through the collection of data and the preparation of guides and instruments that allow to disseminate information about citizen’s rights and about existing resources for those who want to report a discriminatory incident; and on the other hand, to promote the consolidation and acknowledgement of existing strategies for the promotion of equal treatment and non discrimination. This has taken place in the framework of the CORE-project: Knowing Discrimination, Acknowledging Diversity co-financed by the European Unionunder the PROGRESS programme. Last but not least, we wish to express our sincere gratitude to the representatives of Public Administrations, trade unions and non governmental organizations that have generously joined the contrast group for the preparation of the guide. Without their expert knowledge and valuable contributions it would not have been posible to produce this Guide. All of them have ratified the interest of this project and their institutional support to the defence of equality and non discrimination. Rosa Urbón Izquierdo Director of the Institute of Women and for Equal Opportunities 0. Table of contents 4 PRACTICAL GUIDE 1. WHAT IS DISCRIMINATION? ........................................................................... 6 2. DISCRIMINATION GROUNDS, AREAS AND TYPES OF DISCRIMINATION. .. 8 3. THESE ARE YOUR RIGHTS: BASIC LEGISLATION ON EQUAL TREATMENT AND NON-DISCRIMINATION .......................................................................... 711 3.1 European Union Law .................................................................................................... 12 3.2 Spanish Law .................................................................................................................... 13 4. REAL SITUATIONS OF DISCRIMINATION AND PRACTICAL RECOMMENDA- TIONS FOR TAKING ACTION ........................................................................... 15 4.1 Discrimination in employment ................................................................................... 16 4.2 Discrimination in access to entertainment venues ............................................... 18 4.3 Discrimination in public spaces and security ......................................................... 21 4.4 Other areas of discrimination (education, health, access to other goods and services) ........................................................................................................................... 23 5. HATE CRIMES ................................................................................................... 27 5.1 Hate crimes through the Internet and social networks ...................................... 29 5.2 Practical recommendations for taking action in cases of hate crimes ............ 30 ANNEX 1. WHERE TO GO IN THE CASE OF A DISCRIMINATORY INCIDENT? .. 32 Annex 1.1 Resources for discrimination at State level .................................. 34 Annex 1.2 Regional and local resources for discrimination ........................ 35 Annex 1.3 Regional Ombudsmen ...................................................................... 36 Annex 1.4 Directory of offices of the Assistance Service to Victims of Discrimination of the Council for the Elimination of Racial or Ethnic Discrimination ......................................................................... 37 Annex 1.5 Offices for the Assistance to People with Disabilities ....................... 38 ANNEX 2. WHERE TO REPORT HATE CRIMES. RESOURCES FOR VICTIMS OF HATE CRIMES ...................................................................................... 41 Annex 2.1 Where to report hate crimes ........................................................... 42 Annex 2.2 List of Services of the Provincial Prosecutors for Legal Protec- tion of Equality and against Discrimination ................................. 43 Annex 2.3 Offices