The Ministry for Home Affairs will create hate crime groups within the intelligence units of the National Police and the Civil Guard

2021.9.10

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The Ministry for Home Affairs will create specific groups against hate crimes within the General Information Commissariat and the provincial information brigades of the National Police, as well as in the Information Headquarters of the Civil Guard and in peripheral units.

This is one of the measures approved in the Follow-up Commission of the Action Plan to Combat Hate Crimes, chaired by the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, and which analysed the plan's action lines, which will be in force during the three-year period 2022-2024.

This new plan will establish eight priority action lines and introduce new measures complementary to the first plan approved in March 2019, in force until 2021, which provided law enforcement with tools to deal with hate crimes and incidents, with a steady growth of around nine per cent per year since 2014.

Victim assistance and support will be at the heart of the second action plan, with measures to be finalised in the coming weeks. Coordination mechanisms will also be strengthened between the State law enforcement forces and agencies and regional and local police forces, and crime prevention will be emphasised through the development of risk assessment tools, a procedure that is already applied in the VioGén system for the Comprehensive Monitoring of Gender Violence cases.

The Commission has also approved an increase in the personal resources of the National Office for Combating Hate Crimes, created in 2018.

Improving training

Initiatives already included in the first plan, which has been positively evaluated, will be maintained, such as the promotion of training and awareness-raising of law enforcement officials in the fight against hate crime.

During his speech, Minister Grande-Marlaska stressed the importance of strengthening ties with organisations and institutions from all fields and expressly thanked them for their contribution to the third sector. "Their collaboration has been key to the implementation of the first action plan and we are determined to further encourage their participation and listen to their proposals," he said. "We must also work specifically to tackle hate crimes motivated by anti-Gypsyism, which increased by more than 57% in 2020," he added.

The meeting, held at the headquarters of the National Office for Hate Crimes in Madrid, was attended by the President of the Government of Spain and the Minister for Home Affairs, the Secretary of State for Security, Rafael Pérez, the leaders of the National Office for the Fight against Hate Crimes and commanders of the National Police and the Civil Guard.

Also participating were Boti García, Director General for Sexual Diversity and LGBTI, of the Ministry for Equality; Fernando Rodríguez, coordinator against hate crimes and discrimination of the Public Prosecutor's Office; Karoline Fernández, Director of the Spanish Observatory Against Racism and Xenophobia; Carlos Daniel Casares, Secretary General of the FEMP; Esteban Ibarra, of the Council of Victims of Hate Crimes; Ana Blanco, of the Observatory for Religious Freedom; Uge San Gil, President of the Spanish Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transsexuals; Luis Cayo, President of the Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities (CERMI); and Rufino Tirado, of LGTBIpol, Agents of the Authority for Diversity.

Non official translation

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