The hate crimes prosecutor warns that most cases are not reported: gypsies or North Africans, among the victims

He stresses that it is not a problem of "specific groups": We will all end up dealing with age, illness or disability

MADRID, 7 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The new room prosecutor against hate crimes and discrimination, Miguel Ángel Aguilar, has indicated that, although in Spain the rise in cases registered in 2022 is not "alarming" (3.7%), the truth is that there is a very high "underreporting" figure --international organizations place it at 80%-- which affects groups such as the homeless, North Africans or gypsies.

In an interview with Europa Press, Aguilar, who took office on June 26, wanted to "send a positive message" because "we have a diverse, rich society that, in general, respects the different", along which adds that "Spain has a good legal framework to deal with hate crimes and discrimination".

For this reason, he maintains that the increase detected last year is not "alarming". "It's not a topic to be worried about, but it is busy," she sums up. Among the possible causes, he refers, on the one hand, that "little by little the trust of the public is gaining" and, on the other, that there are certain groups with greater "visibility", also for "intolerant ones".

In fact, regarding the increase in hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity to almost 500, he recalls that "the LGTBIQ collective is the most aware", for which reason "it has a better organizational structure and, therefore, fewer barriers to filing complaints.

Asked if among those possible causes are also the speeches launched from the public sphere, Aguilar answers that it cannot be affirmed at this time, because it has not yet been studied in depth. "But it is true that those who exercise social, political leadership, etc... Of course, these messages can generate prejudices or stereotypes and lead to the commission of acts," he adds.

However, he warns that the known facts are only the tip of the "iceberg". "We have to start from the basis that in terms of hate crimes there is a very high hidden figure, a hidden figure that international organizations place at around 80%, and in some grounds of discrimination it can reach 90%," he specifies. .

Among the groups most affected, Aguilar mentions "foreigners who do not have their situation regularized in Spain, who do not even know our language, who do not know what their rights are", because "they come from countries that do not protect their rights and those fears and insecurities drag them" to Spain, alluding specifically to North Africans.

It also targets people of gypsy ethnicity. "I have spoken with many Roma women who tell me: 'They won't let me into a supermarket because I'm a Roma'," she says, explaining that when they are informed that these behaviors can be denounced, they reply: "This has happened to me all my life, I know that I can't go to this supermarket and I can go to this one".

It draws attention to a third group, that of the homeless, whom --he details-- they have hit, spit on and robbed. "These people are in the most absolute social exclusion, in the most absolute poverty, they don't even have a home. Can you imagine a person filing a complaint for these events?" can't even locate them.

Aguilar explains that there are "many victims" who need to assimilate what has happened to them, be aware that "they have been discriminated against", and then take the step of denouncing. For this reason, he emphasizes that the fact that "they report later does not mean that they are lying." "And this also happens in gender violence," she adds.

In this context, it encourages those who "feel attacked, coerced or threatened" for "the fact of being different" to make a complaint, highlighting in this regard the importance of civil society organizations and institutions dedicated to protecting and defending these people to "empower" these victims and serve as "antennas" for the Prosecutor's Office.

On the other hand, it expresses its concern about the "barriers" that certain victims find in their access to Justice. Specifically, Aguilar speaks of older people "who may be in a situation of solitude" or "whose disability prevents them from telling what is happening to them."

In addition, he wanted to make it clear that "not everything that is hateful must necessarily be a hate crime." Thus, he clarifies, "it is necessary to think that defending certain positions can form part of the free game of the democratic positions that each political party defends."

Setting the border between what is a crime and what is not "is very difficult" because "it will depend on what is said, who says it, how it is said and to whom it is said", although he comments that there are clear signs when it is directly incites violence or when, although "the material result is objectively slight", the facts "as a whole are very humiliating for the victim due to that component of gratuitousness -of rejection for the mere fact of being different- and doing so publicly."

He confesses a special concern "when content that incites hate is disseminated massively through the Internet, social networks or the media." "Before, a racist comment was made, perhaps in a group of friends having a beer in the bar on the corner. That has no criminal significance. Now, if you publish it through a social network, with indiscriminate dissemination , since the affectation of the injury to the dignity of the person is greater", he illustrates.

In any case, it celebrates that since the entry into force of the equal treatment law, acts that are not serious enough to be penalized, but that "are equally reprehensible", can be prosecuted through administrative channels. "Isn't it true that if you skip a traffic light they don't take you to the criminal court but someone fines you because that's wrong?" He exemplifies.

In order to "investigate and sanction those behaviors that do not have to go to criminal proceedings," the law provides for the creation of an Independent State Authority for Equal Treatment, a "very important" task that Aguilar advances that will fall into the hands of the next Government .

The prosecutor is aware that, to combat these crimes, "a rapid administration of justice" is needed, with more means and "agile procedural laws so that complaints circulate." And, from his new area of ​​competence, he is committed to promoting specialized sections on hate crimes and discrimination in territorial prosecutors.

However, he emphatically affirms that the best weapon against this phenomenon is education, in "bold, capital letters and underlined": "Education in values, in transmitting to society the wealth that diversity implies."

He emphasizes that it is not a matter "of specific groups - some even stigmatize them and call them 'lobbies'" - but that "hate crimes should concern us all". First, "because they directly affect coexistence, the daily living of each one of us"; and, second, because "anyone who thinks that he does not belong to a group susceptible to discrimination, sooner or later will be because he will come into contact with age, illness, disability".

"It is a matter of Human Rights. A society that is diverse, that exercises its rights with full security, that exercises equality, is a happier society. And, therefore, cultivating that awareness, cultivating it through education, cultivating it from the values, from the messages that are transmitted by administrations, politicians, journalists, from all social sectors, contributes to a better society", he asserts.