National Office for Combating Hate Crimes
Hate Crimes
It is the duty of the public authorities to defend the freedom and equality of individuals and of the groups they belong to, as stated in our Magna Carta.
For this reason, and in view of the important task of facilitating adequate police assistance and better coordination between public bodies, both national and international, as well as civil associations, the National Office for Combating Hate Crimes (ONDOD) was created under the General Directorate for Coordination and Studies of the Secretary of State for Security of the Ministry of the Interior.
In this sense, the ONDOD centralizes and coordinates the training and awareness-raising of the State Security Forces and Corps, as well as carrying out the necessary studies to address this problem through participation in different forums.
In this way, the ONDOD has a very active involvement within the European Union (EU) sphere through the "High Level Group on combating hate speech and hate crime" within the European Commission, as well as participating in different working groups of the FRA (European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights), among others.
In this field, it is necessary a joint and transversal work in which the collaboration between different institutions takes importance. For this reason, the Inter-institutional Cooperation Agreement on the fight against racism, xenophobia, lgtbiphobia and other forms of intolerance was created, from which working groups such as "Hate speech", "Sentencing and criminal response" and "Training and awareness-raising", among others, are derived.
The fruit of this work is reflected in the various Protocols, Agreements and good practices, which have made Spain a benchmark for tolerance and respect for diversity in all its forms within the EU.
What is a Hate Crime?
According to the OSCE, 2003, a Hate Crime is characterised by the following:
- (A) Any criminal offense against persons and/or property, where the victim or object of the offense is chosen because of his or her actual or perceived membership, sympathy, affiliation or support of the groups or collectives defined in (B).
- (B) A group is based on a common characteristic among its members, such as race, national or ethnic origin, sex or gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or disability. (OSCE, 2003).
Hate Crime Survey
The surveys conducted by the National Office for Combating Hate Crimes of the Ministry of the Interior are aimed at improving the protection and care of victims of hate crimes by law enforcement agencies.
- The 2024 Hate Crime Survey is now complete, we welcome your input.
- The National Office for Combating Hate Crimes will soon launch a new survey that aims to know your experience in relation to the so-called “hate crimes”.
