The General Council of the Judiciary signs an agreement with Fundación Secretariado Gitano to facilitate access to justice for the Roma in Spain [editar]
The president of the Supreme Court and the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPG acronym in Spain), Isabel Perelló, and the director general of Fundación Secretariado Gitano (FSG), Sara Giménez, today signed a collaboration agreement which, in addition to maintaining and promoting collaboration between the two institutions, aims to facilitate access to justice for the Roma who require it.
The agreement establishes the lines of collaboration between the two entities which, in terms of training, include the joint organisation and implementation of activities for both initial and continuing training of members of the judiciary. It also provides for actions to disseminate matters of common interest such as equal treatment, anti-discrimination legislation, hate crimes with a special focus on addressing antigypsyism and access to justice, and in particular, attention to Roma women who are victims of gender-based violence.
Among other activities, the agreement refers to the development of guides, protocols for action and any type of publication aimed at providing tools to ensure the proper treatment of Roma people, avoiding bias and prejudice in their access to justice.
The signatory institutions also agree to carry out a specific study of sentences for sexual assaults on Roma minors and a compilation of sentences for anti-Roma hate crimes, as well as activities aimed at facilitating access to the judicial career for Roma.
The agreement, which will have a duration of four years and may be extended, will be implemented by the Observatory against Domestic and Gender Violence in coordination with the CGPG's Equality and Judicial School commissions.
Sara Giménez, director general of the Fundación Secretariado Gitano, wanted to highlight ‘an agreement such as this with the governing body of the judiciary, and therefore one of the main institutions in our country with regard to citizens' access to rights, which, of course, includes Roma people in such a special year as this, as it marks 600 years of the documented presence of the Roma on the Iberian Peninsula.’
