Press Release: International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Movement against Intolerance

PRESS RELEASE                                03.20.2011

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

(March 21^st)

The Movement against Intolerance calls for the rejection of xenophobic populism, the shutting down of racist websites, the creation of a Special Prosecutor against hate crimes, and the reform of the Penal Code to put an end to impunity for these crimes.

The Movement against Intolerance warns that in this time of economic crisis, certain politicians attempt to respond to the complex realities raised by populists and xenophobes by criminalizing some of society´s most vulnerable groups, such as immigrants, gypsies, and citizens of social and religious minorities. Therefore, it calls for democratic political parties to permanently renounce the use of xenophobic populism and intolerant discourse in their electoral campaigns in order to win votes, and it demands that they work to reduce the prevalence of rejection of immigrants and gypsies that is reflected in the polls.

The Movement against Intolerance requests that the government shut down racist and xenophobic websites so that “what is illegal outside of the Web is also illegal on the Internet.” It also calls for the government to not authorizeneo-Nazi concerts and to eradicate racist groups from among the extreme soccer fans. The relationship between hateful, intolerant speech and violence against vulnerable groups is an indisputable fact, as has already been jointly warned by the European Union, the OSCE, and the European Council.

Extreme violence against vulnerable groups requires more specific penal tools to confront hate crimes. Therefore, we remind the government of the necessity of reforming the Penal Code in order to adhere with the Framework Declaration of the European Union, which is still pending. The Movement against Intolerance also calls for the creation of Prosecutors specializing in hate crimes and discrimination in each of the provinces of Spain, in order to officially persecute hate crimes and crimes of intolerance in response to the numerous cases of latent impunity and to promote the training of legal workers and security forces with regard to racism, intolerance, and hate crimes.

On this international day, instituted by the United Nations in memory of the events in Sharpeville (South Africa, 1960), where a racial massacre shook the world, the Movement against Intolerance encourages society to eradicate xenophobic behavior and requests decisive institutional political action for the protection of its victims, the comprehensive prevention of hate crimes, and the promotion of awareness and diffusion of values of Tolerance y Human Rights.