- 19% of hate crimes in Spain are directed against the LGTBI collective. Of those, more than 50% are committed through the Internet and social networks
- The act has been closed by the Minister of Economy and Business, Nadia Calviño, who has claimed a digital transformation that guarantees the equality of all citizens
- Secretary of State Francisco Polo has defended the need for greater awareness and awareness in Spain, as well as new actions to combat discrimination
The Secretary of State for Digital Advancement, under the Ministry of Economy and Enterprise, today organized a conference on the protection of the rights of LGTBI people on the Internet. This group receives 19% of hate crimes in Spain, of which more than half are committed through the Internet and social networks, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior.
The day, framed in the 50th anniversary of the first manifestation of the LGBTI Pride, has been closed by the acting Minister of Economy and Business, Nadia Calviño, who has invited to work on the reflection on how to undertake a digital transformation that guarantees equality of rights of all citizens. In the words of the minister, digital development must occur with the utmost respect to article 14 of the Spanish Constitution, which establishes that all people are equal before the Law. In this sense, the minister has expressed the commitment of the Government to the equality and inclusion, and has exposed some of the actions undertaken during the last legislature. Among them, has cited the reform of the Organic Law on Data Protection, which in Title X seeks to strengthen the rights of people in the digital domain, such as the right of universal access to the Network, the right to digital security, the right to digital education and the protection of minors on the Internet, as well as the right to rectify and update information on the Internet, or the right to be forgotten.
In her speech, the minister also highlighted the participation of the Ministry of Economy and Business in the 'Digital Future Society', an initiative of the Mobile World Capital Foundation that allows Spain to become a pole of reflection on the humanistic dimension of digitalization .
For his part, the Secretary of State for the Digital Advance in functions, Francisco Polo, has highlighted in the opening speech of the day that "the protection of the rights and social freedoms of the collective LGTBI benefits the whole society" and that " in the defense of human rights the distinctions can not fit ". Also, Polo has defended the need for greater awareness and awareness, as well as new actions so that "discrimination does not go unpunished."
Best practices against discrimination
The day has had a round table on best practices for the inclusion and protection of LGTBI rights, in which they have participated Rubén López, director of the Madrileño Observatory against LGTBfobia; Carlos Morán Ferrés, head of service of the National Office of Fight against the Hate Crimes of the Ministry of the Interior; Montse Ramírez, responsible for Communication of Campaigns and Projects of FELGTB; Y Laura Díez Bueso, Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Barcelona and international expert on Human Rights of the United Nations. The table has been moderated by Marta Fernández Herraiz, founder of the Lesworking platform and co-director of REDI, the business network for LGTBI diversity and inclusion in Spain.
Subsequently, they have given lectures Juan Carlos Pereira Kohatsu, author of Hater Net, and Almudena Sanz Olivé, data scientist of Graphext, two technological tools of reference in the detection of hate speech on the Internet.
The presentation has been completed with a round table in which the legal scope of the challenge of protecting the rights of people on the Internet has been deepened. Your moderator has been Nicolás Marugán, member of the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination of the UN between 2016 and 2018, and participated in it Miguel Luengo-Oroz, chief data scientist of UN Global Pulse; Carmen Girón Tomás, technical advisor of the Spanish Observatory of Racism and Xenophobia; Patricia Rodríguez Lastras, prosecutor attached to the Office of Computer Crime; and Ignacio Sola, General Director of Equality of Treatment and Diversity of the Ministry of the Presidency, Relations with the Courts and Equality. "Young people are the main recipients and emitters of hate speech. We have to work so that they become the active agents of change ", Sola pointed out, to conclude:" The hate speech precedes the commission of a crime. If we wait for that crime to occur, we will have failed. "