The complaints are made within the framework of the pre-session of the Universal Periodic Review scrutinizing  human rights that Spain will have to pass next January (Attached you’ll find a summary of the reports made by these NGO). Read a summary of the reports made by these NGO: Summary – NGOs reports

Geneva, 10th of December – Coinciding with International Human Rights Day and the celebration of the pre-session organized by UPR-Info, NGOs throughout Spain have informed this Tuesday on the content of the reports submitted for the 35th session of the UPR Working Group in Geneva (Switzerland). In this session, the situation of Human Rights in Spain will be evaluated and recommendations will be issued for improvement.

The signatory entities are  taking this opportunity to denounce the increase  in violations by the Spanish authorities of the fundamental rights of different groups  as reflected by the increase in the number of reports presented to the United Nations by civil society. The United Nations Human Rights Council will make all contributions submitted available in preparation for the day of the evaluation.

In these reports, civil society exposes its concerns regarding human rights violations in each organization’s area of expertise and proposes recommendations that the state could adopt to correct them.

It should be noted that some of the topics to be discussed this year, such as those relating to the rights of expression and peaceful assembly, the Citizen Security Law, discrimination against  autochthonous languages other than Spanish, the rights to Truth, Justice, and Reparation for the victims of heinous crimes committed during the Spanish War and the Franco’s dictatorship, the rights of people with psychosocial disability, and  the right of asylum, have already been covered in previous exams and will be brought up once again, for Spain keeps failing to implement the recommendations made in the framework of the previous reviews.

The novelty is that it will be the first time that digital rights and the right to self-determination are to be discussed, as a result of the events that took place in Catalonia  on and after October 1, 2017.

Through this joint statement, many organizations  are uniting their efforts to express their concerns and herewith request the permanent state missions convey the relevant recommendations  for Spain to redirect this situation.

* Associations that have made their contributions to send their voice to the Universal Periodic Review of Spain: ActivaMent Catalunya Associació, Assemblea Nacional Catalana (ANC), Asociación Eskubideak, Associació Catalana per a la Defensa dels Drets Humans (ACDDH), Associació Catalana de Professionals (ACP), Associació Clam per la Llibertat, Associació Coordinadora de l’Advocacia de Catalunya, Associació Democràcia i Justícia per Catalunya, Associació de Juristes pels Drets Humans, Associació de juristes pels Drets Humans del Maresme, Associació Juristes de les Terres de l’Ebre per les llibertats, Behatokia, CIEMEN,Col·lectiu Praga, Coppieters Foundation, Drets, ELEAK-Libre Mugimendua, Etxerat, European Association for Renewable Energies, European Language Equality Network (ELEN), Federación Andaluza En Primera Persona, Freemuse, Fundació Catalunya Fons per a la Defensa dels Drets dels catalans, Fundació Congrés de Cultura Catalana, Fundación Galiza Sempre, Grup de Periodistes Ramon Barnils, Hierbabuena Asociación para la Salud Mental, Humanity Wings, International Trial Watch (ITW), Institut de Drets Humans de Catalunya (IDHC), Language Rights, NOVACT, Observatori del Deute en la Globalització (ODG), Observatorio Vasco de Derechos humanos, Òmnium Cultural (OC), PEN Català, PEN International, Plataforma Defender a quien Defiende, Plataforma per la Llengua, Red Ciudadana SARE, Western Sahara Resource Watch and Xnet.  

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