The Fernando Pombo Foundation organises the event ‘Confronting aporophobia’.

Professionals from the legal, social and academic fields agreed on the need to collaborate in the fight against aporophobia, as well as on the importance of building a ‘solid network’ between the legal profession and social organisations to fight against the rejection of people living in poverty.

The event was divided into four talks between representatives of the Arrels Foundation, HOGAR SÍ, Cáritas Madrid, San Juan de Dios Valencia and lawyers from Gómez-Acebo y Pombo and the Fernando Pombo Foundation. Fernando Fita Tortosa, partner of Mercantil and Director of the Valencia office, moderated the talks.

Other speakers were Carlos Saiz, partner in charge of the Criminal-Economic area, who identified three basic problems with under-reporting: the difficulty of access to justice, the difficulty of proving the facts and the motivation of the conduct.

On the other hand, Ana Higuera, director of the Foundation, recalled that the organisation’s mission is ‘to promote a responsible legal profession committed to strengthening the rule of law and access to justice. The creation of projects such as the legal guide ‘Confronting aporophobia’ and forums such as this one, to promote coordination between the social sector and the legal profession, should contribute to facilitating real access to justice’.

Juan Manuel Rodilla, coordinator of Care for People and Innovation at San Juan de Dios Valencia, highlighted the importance of certain indicators in cases of aggression, such as overkill, the number of attackers and the choice of victims. For his part, Juan Mira, an associate in the criminal law department, emphasised that collaboration with the legal profession helps to modernise social entities, which improves care for those in need of support.

In another exchange, Marina Sánchez, research technician of the HATEnto Observatory at HOGAR SÍ, and Marta Martínez-Almeida, also from Criminal Law, analysed a case in Gijón. Marina recounted how the aggressors mocked the possibility of people reporting their actions, believing that there were no effective ways to do so.

Eva Mª Hobeich, head of the legal department at the Arrels Foundation, together with Juan Mira, shared a case of aporophobia in which Arrels acted as a public prosecutor. Hobeich underlined their commitment to accompany people in their process until the end, which led them to decide to formalise their role as a popular accusation.

Finally, Jesús Polo, psychologist and head of the San Felipe Neri project at Cáritas Madrid, and Marta Martínez-Almeida discussed the case of a migrant person living in poverty and facing mental health problems. Jesús highlighted the challenge of building the trust of these people in institutions and anticipating possible repercussions if they decide to report, which represents a great challenge for professionals providing care.

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