At the 144th session of the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva, the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) jointly addressed the systematic violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) committed by Spain against the Catalan people.
Speaking during the formal NGO briefing, ANC former President and UNPO’s Vice president Elisenda Paluzie along with UNPO’s Secretary General Mercè Monje, outlined Spain’s failure to uphold several key articles of the ICCPR, and the political roots of the ongoing repression.
Self-Determination at the Core
The ANC and UNPO reaffirmed that Article 1 of the ICCPR, which guarantees the right of all peoples to self-determination, is fundamentally violated by Spain’s constitutional framework. The Spanish Constitution’s emphasis on the “indissoluble unity” of the state (Article 2), and its designation of the Armed Forces as guarantors of that unity (Article 8), create structural barriers to the exercise of this right in Catalonia. The violent repression of the 2017 independence referendum, a peaceful expression of this right, remains a critical turning point.
Legal and Political Persecution
The briefing highlighted multiple areas of concern:
- Article 14 – Right to a fair trial: A politicised judiciary continues to bring unfounded charges, including accusations of terrorism, against Catalan activists. The 2024 Amnesty Law, meant to end this persecution, has been selectively applied, benefiting police officers more than pro-independence advocates.
- Article 17 – Right to privacy: Violations persist through spyware surveillance, like the Catalangate, despite UN and EU warnings. Victims still lack access to legal remedies.
- Articles 19 and 21 – Freedoms of expression and assembly: Laws criminalising “glorification of terrorism” and “defamation of the Crown” are used to silence dissent, with no reforms despite international pressure to reform the “Gag Law”.
- Article 25 – Political participation: The UN Human Rights Committee has already ruled that Spain violated this right by suspending President Puigdemont and other MPs from office. Additional cases are pending both in the HR Committee and in the ECHR.
- Article 27 – Cultural rights: The Spanish Supreme Court’s ruling imposing 25% of classes in Spanish threatens the Catalan language immersion model and undermines decades of multilingual education.
Recommendations
ANC and UNPO urged the Committee to:
- Press Spain to align its legal framework with international human rights standards.
- Repeal or reform repressive laws.
- Guarantee effective remedies for victims of political repression and surveillance.
- Restore and protect Catalonia’s language immersion model.
This intervention is part of Assemblea International’s broader advocacy to raise awareness of Catalonia’s situation at the global level. As a full member of the UNPO since 2019, the ANC continues to defend Catalonia’s right to self-determination and denounce the democratic regression taking place within a member state of the European Union.
Read the full report submitted to the UN Human Rights Committee:
https://unpo.org/unpo-and-anc-submission-to-the-human-rights-committee-developments-in-catalonia-under-the-iccpr/
