The United Nations Human Rights Committee (CCPR) published a momentous decision in Spanish on 15 May 2023, dated 14 March 2023, for Spain, finding that the Spanish state violated a key human right of legitimate Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, in violation of Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The decision was issued following a human rights complaint by the legitimate Catalan president, whose re-election Spain had unlawfully prevented in 2018.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee is the international equivalent of the European Court of Human Rights. Its decisions are binding on the Spanish state, which has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and recognised it as a superior ius cogens (mandatory law).
The following is a quote in (our own) English translation from the decision of the United Nations Committee on Civil and Political Rights:
«16.12 In the light of the foregoing, the Committee considers that the State party has not demonstrated that the application of article 472 of the Criminal Code, and the consequent application of article 384 bis of the Criminal Procedure Act, by the domestic courts, meets the requirement of foreseeability required by article 25 of the Covenant. Likewise, in the circumstances of the present case, an application of domestic law that automatically results in the suspension of elected officials for alleged offences on the basis of public and peaceful facts, prior to the existence of a conviction, precludes an individualised analysis of the proportionality of the measure and cannot therefore be considered to meet the requirements of reasonableness and objectivity. In conclusion, the Committee finds that the State party violated the author's rights under article 25 of the Covenant, insofar as the decision to prosecute the author for the crime of rebellion which automatically resulted in his suspension from his position as a member of parliament, prior to a conviction, was not on grounds provided for by law, which are reasonable and objective.
17. The Human Rights Committee, acting under article 5, paragraph 4, of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, finds that the information before it under the author's second claim discloses a violation of article 25 of the Covenant.
18. In accordance with article 2, paragraph 3 (a), of the Covenant, the State party is under an obligation to provide the author with an effective remedy. This requires full reparation to individuals whose rights have been violated. The Committee considers that, in the present case, its Views on the merits of the claim constitute a sufficient remedy for the violation found. The State party is also under an obligation to take all necessary measures to prevent similar violations in the future.
Bearing in mind that, by becoming a party to the Optional Protocol, the State party has recognized the competence of the Committee to determine whether there has been a violation of the Covenant or not and that, pursuant to article 2 of the Covenant, the State party has undertaken to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the Covenant and to provide an effective and legally enforceable remedy in case a violation has been established, the Committee wishes to receive from the State party, within 180 days, information about the measures taken to give effect to the Committee's Views. The State party is also requested to publish the Committee's Views and to disseminate them widely.»
Source: Comité de Derechos Humanos: «Dictamen aprobado por el Comité a tenor del artículo 5, párrafo 4, del Protocolo Facultativo, respecto de la comunicación núm. 3165/2018» — CCPR/C137/D/3165/2018, 15 de mayo de 2023, versión avanzada sin editar.
Already in 2018, any observer of the situation in Spain could note the multiple violations of law and human rights by Spain, which in October 2017 dissolved a democratically elected parliament for the first time since the Second World War in Western Europe and prosecuted peaceful, democratically elected representatives of the people with all the means of a politicised judiciary.
In the meantime, several decisions of the competent bodies of the United Nations as well as the ECJ and the European Court of Human Rights have already ruled in favour of the Catalans who are politically persecuted by Spain as a minority.
Spain will soon have to decide whether it will follow its international obligation to respect human rights and the requirements of its own constitution or whether it will drop the mask of an apparently constitutional democracy and finally show its true face in the Catalonia conflict.
Now it is up to the states of the European Union and the European Union itself to take action against the permanent, serious human rights violations in one of its member states and, if necessary, to use the sanction mechanisms provided for this purpose.
But unfortunately one still has to observe: Europe remains silent and looks the other way!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnHV62jUI4Q