Spain

Spain regularly reports hate crime data to ODIHR. Spain publishes annual reports on hate crimes.

Spain implemented ODIHR's Training Against Hate Crime for Law Enforcement (TAHCLE) programme in 2019, and the Prosecutor General's Office has established a network of dedicated hate crime prosecutors across the country. A regional TAHCLE in Valencia was implemented in 2016.

The Ministry of Interior has a dedicated protocol that regulates how law enforcement handles hate crime cases and sets out the specific rights of hate crime victims. Within the Ministry, the Spanish National Office Against Hate Crimes (ONDOD) is responsible for the Hate Crime Action Plan (adopted for 2019-2021 and 2022-2024). Currently, the Action Plan covers the areas of victim support, co-ordination among state authorities, civil society and the private sector, hate crime prevention, specialization within the police, training, awareness raising, and the allocation of adequate human resources in ONDOD.

Hate crime data collection in Spain
Support for hate crime victims in Spain
Hate crime capacity building in Spain
Spain's hate crime legislation
Download the 2015 hate crime report for Spain

OFFICIAL DATA REPORTED BY STATES

Year Hate crimes recorded by police Prosecuted Sentenced
2023 2,268 210 157
2022 1,869 191 152
2021 1,802 192 91
2020 1401 675 144
2019 1706 Not available Not available
2018 1598 Not available Not available
2017 1419 Not available Not available
2016 1272 Not available Not available
2015 1328 Not available Not available
2014 1285 Not available Not available
2013 1168 Not available Not available
2012 261 Not available Not available
2011 224 Not available Not available
2010 92 Not available Not available
2009 93 Not available Not available

About 2015 Data

    The figure presented here includes 17 hate crimes motivated by "fear of the poor" and 308 hate crimes motivated by ideology. These categories fall outside of the OSCE concept of hate crimes and are therefore not included in the breakdown by bias motivation below.

Hate crime recorded by police

National developments

In 2015, Spain introduced two new categories for recorded hate incidents to include "Ideology" and "Sex and Gender". These were introduced among the other hate and discrimination incidents in the "Statistic System of Criminality."

The Spanish Institute of Women and for Equal Opportunities (IWEO) published a Practical Guide: How to deal with discrimination cases and hate crimes. This guide, available in English, comes in two versions: one for the public and one for professionals working on hate crime issues.

The Secretary General of Immigration and Emigration of the Ministry of Employment and Social Security, through the Spanish Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia, has implemented the project "Training for the Prevention and Detection of Racism, Xenophobia and Intolerance at School" (FRIDA Project).

KEY OBSERVATION

ODIHR observes that Spain has not reported to ODIHR the numbers of prosecuted hate crime cases or information on sentenced hate crime cases.

INCIDENTS REPORTED BY CIVIL SOCIETY

INTERNATIONAL REPORTS

Racist and xenophobic hate crime

Following its Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the Spanish authorities made the commitment to examine and respond to recommendations to continue efforts to counter, effectively investigate and punish hate crimes.

In its "Concluding observations on the twenty-first to twenty-third periodic reports periodic reports of Georgia", the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) commended the country for its progress in the collection of hate crime data and the appointment of specialized prosecutors.