On 25th September 2023, the Granada-based Euro-Arab Foundation held the International Conference against Hate Crimes and Underreporting. The Government Delegate, Inmaculada López Calahorro; the Director of Columbares, Rosa Cano Molina, and the Director of Projects and Research at Euro-Arab Foundation, Javier Ruipérez Canales, participated in the opening ceremony. The one-day conference was organized by COLUMBARES with funding from the Ministry of Social Rights and Agenda 2030, and the collaboration of the Euro-Arab Foundation, the University of Murcia, and the European project STAND-UP.
Throughout the day, a multidisciplinary analysis of hate speech in our societies was carried out by expert speakers from universities, the Civil Guard, NGOs, associations, and social activists. Needs that currently exist to address these crimes were analyzed such as, among other topics, the role played by the media and social networks, the response given to this kind of crimes by associations and social organizations, as well as the approach and actions carried out by activists. The institutional attention given to these crimes by the Guardia Civil was also addressed and the Spanish Network against Hate Crimes and Infradenuncia, REDOI, was presented to the public.
Among the speakers were María Pina Castillo, coordinator of the project ‘Está en tu mano-Actúa’ (It’s on your hands: Act!); the MP Ismael Cortés Gómez, researcher in international Peace and Conflict Studies; the lecturer at the University of Granada, Carmen Aguilera Carnerero, expert in Islamophobia; the activists Sani Ladan, international analyst and migration expert; Xaby and Raffa, LGTBIQ+ activists, and Ignacio Paredero Huerta; Organizing Secretary of the LGTBI+ Spain Federation. Other speakers were the lieutenant of the Civil Guard, Benjamín Salas, and the psychologist, Mª Carmen Filigrana García, from the Federation of Gypsy Women’s Associations FAKALI; the researchers from the Euro-Arab Foundation, Lucía García del Moral, Daniel Pérez and Jose Luis Salido; the social educator María Ibáñez Palazón, from the project ‘Está en tu mano-Actúa’ and the journalist and social communicator, Natalia Díez from ‘Maldita.es’.
In 2022 there was an increase of almost 4%
In terms of the data collected by the Ministry of the Interior on an annual basis, in 2022 there was an increase of 3.7% in hate crimes compared to those recorded in 2020 and 2021. With 1869 hate crimes reported in the last year, those motivated by racism and xenophobia, sexual orientation, gender identity, and ideology stand out for their abundance.
Why are these crimes not always reported?
Considering the above data, we cannot forget the high percentage of under-reporting. According to the study carried out by Columbares in 2022, victims do not report for various reasons, including being in an irregular administrative situation, having limited financial resources, not repairing the damage, ignorance of the process, not disclosing sexual orientation, and lack of trust in the system.
On 26th September 2023, the Euro-Arab Foundation held the presentation of the book: The Moon is in Duala and My Destiny in the Knowledge (2023, Plaza y Janes Ed.)with the participation of the author, Sani Ladan, and Daniel Pérez García, researcher at the Foundation. The event was organized in the framework of the European project STAND-UP.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Imagine that you live in a country that does not allow you to pursue the studies you need to develop as an individual. Imagine that you have no greater dream than precisely that. Try to imagine now that, at the age of fifteen, with the cold, awakened mind of the adult you project yourself to be and the heart full of the secrets and illusions of the child you still are, you run away from home with no other aim than to achieve a purpose that starts to become truncated and violent and dehumanizing from the first stop along the way.
This story, as real as the injustice in the world we live in, is mine.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sani Ladan is an African of Cameroonian origin and anti-racist and human rights activist. He has been raising awareness and working closely with the reality of migration on the southern border of Europe for almost ten years, a phenomenon that he has experienced as a person, having gone through the same migration process from Cameroon to Spain.
He is a graduate of International Relations from the Loyola University of Andalusia, an analyst of International Relations with a focus on Africa, a Social Educator, an intercultural trainer, and president of the association Elín, in Ceuta. He collaborates as an international analyst with the television channel France 24 in Spanish. He has run a home for migrants for the Espacios Berakah Association in Seville and has created the podcast Africa in 1 click.
For several years, he has been giving lectures on migration and geopolitics in Africa at various universities, anti-racist circles, and human rights organizations. He has participated as a researcher in the elaboration of several reports on migration and in 2019 he was a speaker at TEDxTarragona.
The Hate Crime and Hate Speech Victims Support Handbook will be presented at the event ‘FIGHTING HATE SPEECH AND HATE CRIME AT THE EU LEVEL: An overview of the rising crisis’ on 9th June in Brussels, within ALDA’s General Assembly.
This event will be a dissemination of the project’s outcomes and how the European Institutions welcome the deliverable, what are the positive impacts of the Handbook as support to the victims. The presence of European institutions and international stakeholders will add value to the project and its outcomes, setting the stage for a more detailed discussion on discrimination perpetrated against different groups, such as minorities or women. Participants will have the opportunity to contribute with questions, comments or good practices in countering hate speech and hate crimes.
The first part of the event will focus on Hate crime/hate speech and discrimination in Europe. The second part will consist of a round table on hate crime and hate speech with the aim of advancing the debate on how different minority groups are affected by hate crime. Four different perspectives will be addressed:
1) Gender and Women; 2) the LGBTIQ+ community; 3) Roma Sinti and Travellers and 4) Refugee and Migration.
Speakers will be Nataša Vučković, ALDA’s Governing Board Member and Director of the Foundation for Democracy, Belgrade (Serbia); Federico Terreni, Policy Officer for the European Movement International and Alessandra Brigo, Winning Narratives Centre Coordinator at the IPPF European Network. The event will be introduced by Camila Vedovato, ALDA’s Gender, Inclusion & Human Rights Hub Coordinator, and moderated by Giulia Meco, ALDA’s Gender Inclusion and Human Rights Junior Project Manager.
The event will take place at Maison Hap of the municipality of Etterbeek in Brussels, from 14:00h to 15:30h. You can register using this Google Form. You can find more information about this event in this Agenda.
The STAND-UP project held 4 webinars in february: 3 national webinars developed by the partners Euroarab Foundation (FUNDEA) from Spain, Fondazione Agenfor Internacional from Italy, and the European Public Law Organization (EPLO) along with the Greek National Comission for Human Rights from Greece, and a final pan-european webinar with the participation of the STAND-UP partners and all the case studies discussed.
All the webinars explained the use of technological tools as OSINT software and Falkor platform to monitor online hate speech and hate crimes. As well, each regional webinar focused on a particular case to investigate.
The Spanish webinar by FUNDEA presented “Narratives and right-wing hate speech and Islamophobia in Spain” with two case studies: the World Cup in Qatar and narratives of the right-wing on two controversial dates in Spain.
The Italian webinar managed by AGENFOR spoke about “Contrast and tracking of hate phenomena in Italy: Veneto Front Skinheads and anti-semitic climate”, focus on antisemitism and right-wing extremism in Italy.
The Greek seminar lidered by EPLO along with the Greek National Comission for Human Rights held the topic “Confronting Hate Crimes & Hate Speech through OSINT” analyzing xenophobia in Greece.
Here you can find all the reports exposed in the webinars:
Using digital intelligence tools for monitoring hate speech
The STAND-UP Webinars foreseen for this month aim to promote and present the use of technologically advanced tools to combat and prevent hate speech, starting from the analysis of online hate speech, with a view to cooperation between public sector-Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) mainly-and the private sector (associations, NGOs and research centres).
Discriminatory behaviours, intolerance and hate are widespread in Europe towards individuals or entire communities based on biased motivations – race and ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, religion, disability, or other peculiar features identifying those individuals. According to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), Amnesty International and the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs, the hate and discriminatory climate towards other minorities or sensitive groups grew significantly during the Covid-19 pandemic[1], which exacerbated social tensions and hate sentiments – against Asian people primarily, but also against Jewish, for instance, always put in the spotlight by conspiracy theories.
Analysing the available data, despite the high number of hate crime incidents, “victims continue to avoid reporting” to LEAs (only one out of ten in Spain, for instance), together with a rise of hate speech, in particular in the online environment, resulting in companies and governments applying increasingly strict regulations.
The hate phenomena are inextricably connected, originating from hateful socio-cultural conduct based on a discriminatory foundation, marginalizing and harming – either physically or verbally – the targets.
However, the specificities of hate crimes and hate speech need to be distinguished, especially concerning the features of the online environment which shape how those phenomena manifest themselves. The criminal component can also lie in a comment on social media or in a text: the web analysis, in this sense, results prominent, not only in thoroughly understanding hate phenomena but also in preventing the escalation from online hate speech to offline hate crime.
The Regional OSINT Report drafted within STAND-UP will offer an insight into the partners’ countries, specifically investigating selected topics: xenophobia in Greece, Antisemitism in Italy and islamophobia in Spain.
The choice of the categories affected is the result of the debate rise during each national Focus Group, providing a broad perspective of the southern hate climate. While migrants and refugees are the most affected group, selecting hate incidents based on religion offers a socio-cultural framework of Italy and Spain which is inherently related to their historical roots. Moreover, both antisemitism and islamophobia actually cover other individuals’ features, as intersectional phenomena: from the religious aspect, they also encompass ethnicity and gender.
STAND UP Seminar at the European Parliament. September 2022
A significant number of contributions made by European experts from the legal and police fields, civil society organisations, NGOs, policy makers and academia, were discussed in Brussels at the seminar “Standing Up Against Hate Crime”. The seminar was organised by the STAND-UP project at the European Parliament on 28 and 29 September.
The meeting aimed to find a common definition of “hate crime” in order to support the RIPP-cycle (reporting-investigating-prosecuting-preventing) and ensure the highest level of victim assistance within the framework of multi-agency cooperation.
During the two days of the workshop, relevant case studies across Europe were analysed during the meeting, including results obtained in the focus groups held in Greece, Italy and Spain. Proposals for standardised reporting procedures focus on using technology were also presented. In addition, experts discussed bias motivations behind hate crimes, the environment in which the hatred occurred and the application of intersectional approaches.
Giovanni Gasparini, Deputy Public Prosecutor of Venue – Italy- and Eva Tzavala and Katerina Charokopou, Legal Advisors, Greek National Commission for Human Rights (GNCHR)
Defining Hate Crime: Towards a common European Definition / Wednesday 28th
The meeting held opened with a round table of experts on hate crimes. Giovanni Gasparini, Deputy Public Prosecutor of Vecine on behalf of Sandro Raimondi, Public Prosecutor’s Office of Trento (TNJudPol) presented the STAND-UP project, followed by the summary of STAND-UP Deliverable D3.3 “Defining Hate Crime Report” by Eva Tzavala and Katerina Charokopou, Legal Advisors (Greek National Commission for Human Rights, GNCHR).
Following this introduction, the first day was divided into three sessions. The first one focus on tackling Hate Crime and Hate Speech. With this aim, Viktor Kundrak (OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights) debated around the question of ideal hate crime legislation, analysing substantive offences versus sentencing enhancement provisions. The following presentation by Tina Stavrinaki, Vice-Chair of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) defined bias motivation of hate crimes.
Viktor Kundrak, Hate Crime Officer, OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Tina Stavrinaki, Vice-Chair UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
The session closed studying mechanisms for countering hate speech in the area of particularly serious crimes and the online context by Menno Ettema, Programme Manager / Co-Secretariat of the former Committee of Experts on Combating Hate Speech (ADI/MSI-DIS), Council of Europe.
Menno Ettema, Programme manager / Co- secretariat to the former Committee of Experts on Combating Hate Speech (ADI/MSI-DIS), Council of Europe
The second session paid attention to the international, regional and national framework on hate crimes, with special references to the need of harmonizing EU definitions and norms for countering hate crimes. This table included the presentation of Niels Letsrade, EU Internet Referral Unit (Europol), and Christel Mercade Piqueras, Officer, DG Justice (European Comission).
Finally, the third session focus on analysing hate crime in another context. On the one hand, an analysis of hate crime in the African context was presented by Fabrizio Lobasso, Deputy Director for Sub-Saharian African countries at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. On the other hand, Alberto Izquierdo Montero (Intercultural Education Research Group, Faculty of Education UNED) focused his presentation on visibilising the mechanisms of hate speech to critically read the wor(L)d in education. This session ended with Concluding Remarks by Eva Tzavala and Katerina Charokopou, Legal Advisors GNCHR.
Fabrizio Lobasso, Deputy director for Sub-Saharan African countries at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Speech by Alberto Izquierdo Montero, Intercultural Education Research Group, Faculty of Education UNED – Spain.
“Defining Hate Crime Reporting: Cooperation between LEAs and CSOs” / Thursday 29th
The second day started with the opening presentation of STAND-UP focus on hate crime reporting forms by Giovanni Gasparini, Deputy Public Prosecutor of Venice (VEJudPol).
As on the previous day, the Seminar was organized on three sessions. The first one, analysed the definition of Hate Crimes based on the three Focus Group held in Greece, Italy and Spain in framework of the STAND-UP project. Alessandra Brigo, Project Manager and Coordinator of the Gender, Inclusion and Human rights HUB at ALDA- European Association for Local Democracy, discussed about the challenges and models for fighting against hate at national level in these three countries. This presentation was followed by a panel about “Best Practices to counter Hate Speech/Crime Between Penal Proceeding, Administrative Prevention and Mediation. A blueprint towards public-private cooperation and new training models” with Giovanni Gasparini, Deputy Public Prosecutor of Venice (VEJudPol), Viviana Gullo, Junior Project Manager (AGENFOR), Yuval Sanders, Managing Director of Falkor, and Sergio Bianchi, Senior Researcher (AGENFOR).
Sergio Bianchi, Senior Researcher, trainer (AGENFOR); Katerina Charokopou, Legal Advisors, Greek National Commission for Human Rights (GNCHR); Giovanni Gasparini, deputy Public Prosecutor of Venice (VEJudPol); Yuval Sanders, Falkor CEO and Viviana Gullo, Junior Project Manager (AGENFOR).
To conclude this session, a round table about “Coordinated responses to tackle hate crimes and the role of civil society organisations (CSOs)” took place with Vasiliki Artinopoulou, European Public Law Organisation (EPLO) and member of the SPT, United Nations as main speaker. The following discussants added key notes for understanding the importance of involving CSOs in a multi-agency cooperation model for countering hate in the EU: Garyfallia Anastasopoulou, Racist Violence Registration Network; Lucía García del Moral, EuroArab Fundation -Spain (FUNDEA) and Sergio Bianchi, Senior Researcher AGENFOR – Italy.
Vasiliki Artinopoulou, European Public Law Organization (EPLO) and Member of SPT, United Nations.Lucia García del Moral, Research Euro-Arab Foundation Foundation – Spain (FUNDEA)Garyfallia Anastasopoulou Racist Violence Recording Network – GreeceSergio Bianchi, Senior Researcher (AGENFOR) Italy.
The second session addressedthe topic of technology to prevent hate speech/hate crimes. Luigi Ranzato and Nicola Cordeschi, Judicial Police of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Trento (TNJUDPOL) explained technology to prevent hate speech and prosecute hate crimes in the framework of public-private cooperation.
Luigi Ranzato and Nicola Cordeschi, judicial police of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Trento. Italy (TNJUDPOL).
Lastly, the final session approached to religion and race in the context of hatred. Cristina Rodríguez Reche, Autonomous University of Barcelona, spoke on “Islamophobia as a challenge in a diverse Europe: the importance of the gender perspective” and Carmelo Ruberto, former Public Prosecutor of Rovigo, focused his speech on “Sinti ethnicity in the context of hatred: murder of C.E., of Sinti ethnicity, by her minor son (perpetrator) and G.A. (moral accomplice). 4 February 2022”.
Cristina Rodríguez Reche, Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona- Spain.
The seminar concluded withsome final remarks stated by Viviana Gullo, Junior Project Manager (AGENFOR) and Sergio Bianchi, Senior Researcher, trainer (AGENFOR).
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
