Violence related to race, gender & sexual orientation report
February 2013
Project: School Factory of Initiatives - Equal Citizenship
Table of contents
Spain………………………………………………………4
Violence related to race…………………………………………4
Real situation of violence related to race in Spain……………...4
Solutions………………………………………………………....7
Gender violence………………………………………………….8
Real situation of gender violence in Spain……………………...8
Solutions…………………………………………………………9
Violence against G.L.B.T………………………………………10
Real situation of violence against G.L.B.T. in Spain…………..10
Solutions…………………………………………………………10
Turkey……………………………………………………12
Violence related to race…………………………………………12
Real situation of violence related to race in Turkey……………12
Gender violence…………………………………………………12
Real situation of gender violence in Turkey……………………12
Domestic violence……………………………………………….14
Sexual assault…………………………………………………...15
Honor killings…………………………………………………...15
Sexual harassment……………………………………………....16
Trafficking……………………………………………………….16
Violence against G.L.B.T………………………………………17
Real situation of violence against G.L.B.T. in Turkey………...17
Violence against transgender people…………………………...18
Poland………………………………………………….....22
Violence related to race………………………………………...22
Real situation of violence related to race in Poland……………22
Support for the victims of race violence……………………….25
Gender based violence………………………………………….26
Real situation of gender based violence in Poland……………..26
Violence against G.L.B.T………………………………………32
Real situation of violence related to G.L.B.T in Poland……….32
Physical violence………………………………………………...33
Psychological violence…………………………………………..36
Reasons for not notifying to the police………………………...40
Greece…………………………………………………….41
Violence related to race………………………………………...41
Real situation of violence related to race in Greece……………41
Gender violence…………………………………………………44
Real situation of gender violence in Greece…………………….44
Violence against G.L.B.T………………………………………50
Real situation of violence related to G.L.B.T. in Greece………50
France…………………………………………………….52
Violence related to race in France……………………………..52
Gender violence in France……………………………………..56
Violence against G.L.B.T. in France………………………….61
VIOLENCE RELATED TO RACE: Situation today in Spain
According to a recent article coming from International Amnesty, it’s becoming a usual trend to find Police asking people for identifications while using a race profile. That meansif your color skin is different, you’ll have more chances to be asked for documents on daily basis, while you’re walking by the streets, or while you’re in an airport, or wherever. In numbers, on January 2011, about 12% of Spanish population weren´t Spanish citizens; this situation came from the prosperity years, when Spanish economy grew due to real estate boom, what brought a lot of foreign workers to our country. When global crisis finally hit our country, a big part of that people lost their jobs, having problems to stay in our country in a legal way.We’re talking about nearly 6 million persons in our country, so this type of controls is very usual, even more in big cities as Madrid or Barcelona. Sadly, racism and xenophobia have been linked lately to crisis too often, even form media sectors next to some political parties, talking like that foreign people were stealing jobs, and blaming them for the crisis. That doesn’t help to see them as people affected by the same problems than us, and sometimes leads to racist attacks. Fortunately, those are not very usual in our country.
But that doesn´t mean that racism is not a sad part of migrants’ life in our country. According to a group of surveys done by the ENS (Encuesta Nacional de Salud) or the CIS (Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas) from 2006 to 2009, all of them directed to a sample over 2,000 persons, they would have felt themselves discriminated at least one time in 29% of the cases (CIS, 2007), between 20 and 25% of the cases when the question was directed just to the last year(CIS, 2008), and between the 13% (Eurobarómetro, 2006) and the 5% (ENS, 2006) when the questions were oriented to more specific kinds of discrimination during the last year.
It’s not a secret that the Roma community is the ethnic minority that has suffered most racial segregation problems. Since Gypsies first arrived in the fifteenth century, their culture has been always in minority. They were pursued doggedly by law (more than 250 edictsdirected against them) and until the Constitution of Cadiz (1812) were not recognizedas Spanish citizens. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 ratified their equality in legal terms, but in practice all polls and surveysnote the actual discrimination against Gypsies, economically poorand linked to various forms of segregation, and prejudice coming from the rest of thepopulation.
It is estimated that in Spain there are around 650,000 people gypsy spreadthroughout Spain, but especially in Andalusia (38% of the whole), Madrid(11%), Catalonia (10%) and Valencia (9%). The average age ismuch younger (27.6 years in 2005) than the general population of Spain (39.5years, according to the 2001 census).
According to the Eurobarómetro on Discrimination (2008), 2% of the total population, both in Spain and in all 27 countries of the European Union,admitted having personally suffered discrimination or harassment in the past 12months because of their ethnicity, this includes the Roma minority (1.4% of thepopulation of Spain) and immigrants (13% of the total population), two variants that European survey does not allow to demarcate here. However, the rate of 2%acknowledging having suffered discrimination or harassment is in the case of Spain more700,000 people of the collective between 15 and 16 years old, really an important volume of people.
On the other hand, 17% of Spanish and 14% of Europeans say they have witnessed an act of discrimination or ethnic related harassment of any kind in the last twelve months, which means that more than six millionSpanish report having witnessed such direct discrimination.
From the point of view of the Roma community itself, there are several studies that make possible to measure the extent of their experiences of discrimination.One is a survey of the Centre for Sociological Research (CIS) to 1610 gipsy persons, the other a survey on discrimination andxenophobia, applied by Colectivo IOE between Roma and foreign immigrants to theEuropean Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (Vienna) with a sample of1019 adults (351 Roma, 337 Moroccans and 331 Latin American) . Themain results are as follows:
- According to the CIS survey, the most felt by the Roma -raised as free-response questions are unemployment (38'1%), the discrimination or distrust of the gypsy (23'6%), racism (23'0%) and housing (18.5%). If we add the problems of "discrimination" and "racism", the experience of being rejected by “payos” becomes the biggest problem of the Roma community (49%). Similarly, poverty would be anothermajor problems if we add "Economic problems", "employment”," marginalization "," poverty "and "social problems "(between all of them, 20.5%).
- The main experiences of discrimination, for the respondents or for a family member, have been: to find work (55'2%), accessing to any public or local service (42'6%) and being in stores or warehouses (33.1%). Similarly, they have felt discriminated 33.6% of those who havetried to rent a home and 22.7% of those who have tried to buy it.
- As for discrimination felt in their relationship with public administrations, they have been most discriminated by the following institutions: police (25.9%), schools (20.3%), the courts (18.4%) andhealth services (16.3%).
- The survey conducted by Colectivo IOE lets you know the proportion of Roma women and men who suffered in the last twelve months discriminatory treatment "for being Gypsies" in 18 situations of social relations; also lets you compare the suffered discrimination rate for those which are in the same situation while being foreign immigrants (Moroccan and American). The results of discriminatory treatment by sex are shown in the graphic next page. You can see that the highest rates of discrimination occur in access to employment, entry to restaurants and access to household. Roma women have much higher rates of discrimination than men in three situations: the entrance to shops, harassment of neighbors and harassment in the workplace, while men are more discriminated against in cases of police custody, at the entrance to restaurants and access to employment. If we compare the experiences of Roma and the immigrant collective, that presents an overall average of discriminatory treatment (24.2%), considerably higher than the Latin American immigrants (19.6%) and slightlysmaller than the Moroccans (25.4%).
VIOLENCE RELATED TO RACE: Solutions
Reality is that this kind ofbehavior against other race’s people goes against a big group of laws, first of all our Constitution (article 14th); however, at the same time, Government creates laws and judicial tools to promote this kind of activities from the police.Of course, there are plenty of police officers not too happy about this way of working, just because they’re so repetitive, degrading and, even worse, not really effective when it comes to chase the real offenders out there; at the same time, not all the population agree with those methods. So, the only way this situation could be changed in a close future would be through the education. We need to show our children that their grandparents had to leave their country behind them, just like these persons, in order to get a job and raise their families. Sure there are some of those persons with hidden purposes, people that should be under vigilance, but not more than a blonde haired, blue eyed, white skinned terrorist.
GENDER VIOLENCE: Situation today in Spain
Using recent studies, more than 6 hundred women would have been killed by their couples or former couples since 2003, according to data provided by the Ministerio de Sanidad, Servicios Socialese Igualdad, that started to record these series of data nearly one decade ago.During this period, 2008 became the worst one, when 76 deaths were registered due to gender violence and, that time, 16 of theaggressorscommitted suicide.
On the other side, 2009 were the year with less deaths, 56, thoughthis figure went up again during the next two years. Other year, with similar numbers of deaths was 2005, when there were 57 women dead by gender violence, according to the statistics.
However, we don´t have data about violence of women against men, in part ‘cause this kind of situation could be seen, for some of the victims, like a weakness; or maybe ‘cause violence of women against men takes other kind of shapes, less visible than the physical attack, like psychological attacks, false abuse complaints looking for getting judicial advantages, etc.
One of the keys in order to reduce the amount of this deaths is to inform about any kind of this violence,something that it’s not only up to the women/men that are suffering them, ‘cause most of deaths related to gender violence were linked to women that didn´t make a complaint against their aggressors.
Under age boys and girls are becoming a big part of the problem, too. In fact, the number of boys and girls from 14 to 17 years old indicted by gender violence’s offenses rises to 778 since 2007, a number that represents a percentage increment of 23.7from 2007 to 2011, according to the last statistical data from theObservatorio contra la Violencia Doméstica y de Génerofrom theConsejo General del Poder Judicial (CGPJ).
About 92% of the offenders, 716, received educational measures ‘till the internment. In any case, the president of the Observatorio, Inmaculada Montalbán, warned that"these data are telling us that we have to join in the learning process of young people,in order to avoid male chauvinist or domination behaviors".
Another key part of that inform was the high number of women that, since 2007, have turned down judicial processes against their offenders, about 84935 times (11.5% from the total). This date has increased 29 %, bigger part coming from 2009.
Gender violence’s courtrooms have been working since 7 years ago. However, International Amnesty denounces the “lack of dedication” in many trials, what turns into"serious vulnerability"for girls and women suffering this kind of violence.
This association has documented cases in which evidences brought by women were denied by the judge ‘cause they’re considered unnecessary ones, being the cases dismissed at the same time,even when there were girls that had suffered sexual abuses. According to data from the CGPJ, in 2011, this happened at least 40,000 times.
During the last weeks, a controversy has appeared due to the lift of the legal expenses announced by the Government, ‘cause form some political parties and associations that measures have been heavily criticized, understanding that those high prizes will go against gender violence’s victims, even demanding theDefensora del Puebloto file an unconstitutionality expedient against the Ley de Tasas Judiciales.
According to Europa Press, quoting sources from the Ministerio de Justicia, those women with salaries lower than two times the minimum wage will pay the legal expenses with money coming from the marriage, or they will be paid by the husband when they’re divorcing or into a legal breakup.
GENDER VIOLENCE: Solutions
To solve this in a close future is pivotal to incorporate the new generations. That’s why the Government has created advertising campaigns related to that, with the participation of famous actors andsportsmen from our country. But the most important task should come from homes and educational centers; just an adequate education should be enough to make this kind of violence a sad remainder of the past one day.
VIOLENCE AGAINST LGBT: Situation today in Spain
According to a recently done poll, 80.1% of young gays, lesbians, transsexuals and bisexuals, livingin Spain, have a strong desire of creating a family in the future. The poll we’re talking about, named “Young LGBT”, was created bythe Federación Estatal de Lesbianas, Gays, Transexuales y Bisexuales (FELGTB).
The poll was done in 2008, between July & September, using a website,and included to 325 persons, no heterosexualsunder 25 years old.
At the same time, poll shows that 22% of these youngsters have suffered physical or psychological violence into their own families; about 56,2% at their educational centers, (though that number is even higher if you only take the men), and about 67.2%in the street.
About the discrimination map, the study revealed that people from rural areas or small towns tend to suffer more aggressions than the ones living in bigger cities, and 75%feels than men are more homophobic than women.
About support coming from their relatives, 55% affirms that they don´t have their mothers’ support; 68% that they don´t have their fathers’ one; 76.4 % that they don´t have their teachers’ one, and 81.2%that they don´t have their usual doctor’s help. Ando only the 2.8% affirms that they receive help from their teachers in order to solve questions about sexuality or affectivity.
VIOLENCE AGAINST LGBT: Solutions
It’s pretty clear than, at it happened in the two cases before, the solutions should come through a better understanding of GLBT’ situation, maybe using sensitization campaigns, but even more important using an adequate sexual education since early school.The ones that are children today will be the men and women of tomorrow, so if this themes are able to go deep into their minds, their attitude in the future will be much more open-minded and natural, and this problem will have a lower incidence in the years to come. The same way, some special situations(like labor discrimination related to transsexuals) need help in terms of more adequate laws and legal tools, the same way others like homosexual marriage and kids adoption by gays & lesbians have gone a long way in the right direction during the last years in our country.
VIOLENCE RELATED TO RACE: Situation today in Turkey
Ethnic groups in TurkeyEthnic groups / Percent
Turks / 70-75%
Kurds / 18%
Others / 7-12%
We have different minorities living in Turkey peacefully so we don’t have any violence incidents related to race in contemporary Turkey. Each community has their rights protected by laws. With recent arrangements the rights of ethnic groups are getting far better within social life, education, the use of mother tongue in education. There might be some very rare individual incidents but those don’t represent the country’s policy about the issue because Turkish Laws strictly forbids discrimination and violence against race.
GENDER VIOLENCE: Situation today in Turkey
Domestic violence is a devastating reality that affects over 42 percent of women in regions across Turkey, and over 47 percent of the women in the country’s rural regions (Hacettepe University Institute of Population Studies, 2011). Unfortunately, of these who experience what they identify as domestic violence, only eight percent seek help. In another study, it is reported that only three percent of the victims report their experience to a police officer, a prosecutor, or a lawyer (Ibid 89). The magnitude and severity of domestic violence in Turkey is appalling and often lasts for decades. Various forms of domestic violence have been reported including rape, stabbings, kickings in the stomach during pregnancy, fractured skulls, being starved, being locked up with animals, and severe psychological violence. Domestic violence against women in Turkey infringes upon multiple human rights guaranteed for its population. Turkey is a member of the Council of Europe, an organization that upholds specific human rights standards for its member states. Furthermore, Turkey has both signed and ratified the European Convention on Human Rights, the international treaty that established the European Court of Human Rights.
Source: Human Rights Watch
Population of women: 37,688,700/75,705,100
Life expectancy of women (at birth): 75
School life expectancy for women: 11
Women's adult literacy: 81%
Unemployment of women: 9.4%
Women engaged in economic activity: 24%
Due in large part to the efforts of an energetic and well-organized women’s human rights movement, Turkey has made significant strides in addressing violence against women, chiefly through the modernization of its laws to provide greater protection. NGOs have praised the government’s willingness to take action, observing that “women, who during the 1980s organized in protest actions against the state,have in more recent times begun to seek dialogue and cooperation with the state”
Yet, despite positive developments in the legal framework, domestic violence, sexual assault, honor killings, and trafficking persist in Turkey. Constitutional amendments and updated legal codes have paved the way, but a major investment of effort and resources is needed to translate aspirations into concrete change. As recently observed by two women’s rights activists, “While it is disconcerting that the gap between the laws on paper and implementation remains vast, it should also be taken into consideration that all these reforms happened within a ten-year time frame, and there is yet time and room for more effective implementation. However, an institutionalized political will, and a coordinated comprehensive policy that includes all ministries with specific targets to eliminate violence against women within a defined time frame are essential to this process”