People belonging to the Roma minority have up to ten times more likely to be stopped by the police that those people of Caucasian appearance and of North African appearance, up to seven times more. This is one of the data provided by the first study done in Spain on experiences and attitudes regarding police actions, prepared by the Human Rights Institute of the University of Valencia (HDI), which is presented on Friday 22 November as part of a seminar on ethnic profiling police identification. The seminar will feature the participation of academics, prosecutors and police, and it will take place at 11:00 in the Aula Magna of the building of La Nau (C/Universitat, 2).
The report, whose full title is 'Police Identification by ethnic profiling in Spain: report on experiences and attitudes regarding police actions', is a document, developed by researchers at the Human Rights Institute of the University of Valencia and the Oxford University, which analyses the results of two surveys conducted in April 2013 by the company Metroscopia supported by the Open Society Justice Initiative. This is the first survey in Spain comparing police experience among the majority Caucasian population and the different ethnic and racial minorities in Spain. The study published in the collection 'Derechos Humanos' (Human Rights), publisher Tirant lo Blanch, with a prologue by Professor Javier de Lucas and coordinated by Professor José García Añón, fully responds, with scientific data, the following questions: Is there some kind of discriminatory bias in police checks, such as identifications or searches?, does the skin colour or ethnic look affect these police actions?, are – with regard to the discovery of illegals - these police practices effective?, and do they have any impact on the legitimacy of the police and the confidence of the different groups in this institution?.
Created in 2005 and currently directed by Professor Consuelo Ramón, the Human Rights Institute of the University of Valencia has received from the Spanish Ministry of Education the Excellence Mention for his doctoral program Human Rights, Democracy and International Justice.
+ Info: http://idh.uv.es/
Last update: 21 de november de 2013 12:22.
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