A/HRC/35/41/Add.1 availability of legal assistance specialized in indigenous rights; difficulties in producing proof, especially in civil proceedings; and most importantly the prejudice of judicial officers. 68. The obstacles in gaining access to fair and impartial justice are also experienced by migrants. Recently, a first jurisdiction magistrate in La Plata considered the status of foreign national to be an aggravating circumstance in his sentencing, and in clear contradiction to constitutional provisions. He argued that the State holds fewer obligations to migrants than it does to nationals. The defendant in question was a transgender Peruvian national. The Special Rapporteur notes that transgender migrants have also experienced high levels of prejudice, discrimination and criminalization. He notes with appreciation the actions taken by the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism to address that specific case. 69. The Ministry of Public Defence provided a long list of cases involving indigenous peoples or migrants in which provincial and national courts had failed to rule, delayed the consideration of cases or not followed due process. Some cases had been pending for a long time before the Supreme Court. In that regard, the Rapporteur notes with concern the lack of acknowledgement by the National Supreme Court of racial discrimination as a cause of denial and violation of rights. 70. According to the data produced by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, between 2004 and 2013, no sentences were handed down relating to the violation of the anti-discrimination law. 25 Similarly, the Ministry of the Interior reported that it had not collected sufficiently disaggregated data on the 194 cases relating to violations of the antidiscrimination law between 2012 and 2013. This may also reflect the lack of access to justice by groups that are discriminated against. 71. The Public Prosecutor’s Office reported that, between 2013 and 2016, 32 cases had been registered with a violation of article 2 of the anti-discrimination law. Of those 32 cases, 21 had been filed in first jurisdiction courts and 11 had been dismissed. Over the same period, 47 cases had been registered for the offence of promoting or inciting persecution or hatred against a person or group of people because of race, religion, nationality or political ideas, but no disaggregated data was provided on the respective grounds of discrimination. 72. The Special Rapporteur notes with appreciation the programme on cultural diversity established by the Ministry of Public Defence in 2008 with a view to removing the obstacles to gaining access to free public legal representation for vulnerable groups, especially indigenous peoples. The sensitization of public defenders to a set of fundamental principles should be emulated by other judicial actors. C. Racial profiling 73. The Special Rapporteur was informed about a trend whereby the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Police and Argentine Federal Police enforce profiling in identity checks on the streets. The practice disproportionately affects migrants and people of African descent. It appears that racial profiling has increased following a 2015 decision by the Buenos Aires Superior Court of Justice to revoke a ruling that had declared null and void detention linked to identity checks, arguing that the Federal Police could randomly stop people for identification checks without any suspicion of crime, invoking the Organic Law of the Argentine Federal Police. This legislation confers to the Federal Police broad implicit powers to act according to its discretion as long as its exercise is essential “for urgent motives of general interest regarding public order and security and the prevention of crime”.26 25 26 See annex to State party report, http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=INT%2fCERD%2f ADR%2fARG%2f22733&Lang=en. See Decree 6580/58 of 31 July 1958, Chapter V. 15