Connected to Catalonia's Democratic Independence Referendum in 2017, Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues received reports of hate speech, vilification, vandalism, physical threats and even assaults against members of the Catalan minority, and Spanish authorities are not investigating it enough.
The Kingdom of Spain does not protect the rights of minorities, and doesn't make sure that policies are implemented or have positive effects. On top of that, there is no accountability for growing hate speech in social media platforms.
The Special Rapporteur expresses grave concerns about restrictions, criminal charges against, and the subsequent trials and sentences of Catalan political figures and protesters. Non-violent political dissent by minorities should not give rise to criminal charges.
The Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues notes the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention & International NGOs statements that the purpose of the criminal charges against Jordi Sànchez, Jordi Cuixart and Oriol Junqueras was to intimidate them because of their political views.
"Spain has legal obligations to protect the human rights of the Catalan minority, especially in relation to freedom of expression, including political expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Fundamental Freedoms & participation in public life".
Concerning linguistic rights of the Catalan minority, the Special Rapporteur points out that Spain's Judges and law enforcement are not required to have knowledge of a co-official language. This leads to a significant number of grievances and discrimination in access to public services.
The 70's removal of Franco's prohibition of minority languages has not solved the access to public services in these languages. Art.231 of the Spanish organic law on the judiciary is a main obstacle: "in judicial procedures, judges, magistrates, prosecutors, clerks and other officers are to use Castilian, and that co-official minority languages will be allowed only if no party objects".
The Catalan school system is based on a linguistic immersion approach for all children that privileges Catalan as the main, but not exclusive, language of instruction. All children in the system effectively acquire fluency both co-official languages.
The Special Rapporteur recognizes the commendations that Catalonia has received for its highly successful immersion model, and recommends avoiding to reduce the proportion of teaching that is carried out in the Catalan minority language in public schools. Finally, the Special Rapporteur on Minority Issuesconcludes that "Minorities have the right to freely and peacefully express their views on their position within the polity of Spain"
Please, check the full report here.
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