Unfortunately, change.org has deleted the formatting of the early updates of this petition as well as some of the links to various websites in all languages of the petition, so that the older texts are sometimes difficult to read. Also deleted were the many comments posted by supporters of the petition on the different updates.
The updates of the first three months of the English thread of the solidarity petition with Catalonia, which have been supplemented by some updates that were published in other language threads of the petition but not in English at the time, are now available in book form on Amazon:
Axel Schönberger: Catalonia's Path to State Sovereignty in the Mirror of a Petition on change.org, Volume 1: October to December 2017, 2024, 237 pages, ISBN 979-8-3400-1410-8 (hardcover edition) or 99-8-3366-6477-5 (paperback edition).
https://www.amazon.de/Catalonias-sovereignty-mirror-petition-change-org/dp/B0DJ2WLBN1
The book contains an extensive preface, the English text of the petition together with three annexes and 55 updates from October to December 2017. Since this is a documentation of the original updates of the petition in 2017, the texts were left as they were published at the time, even though, as is well known, some things initially turned out differently than expected in some of the texts due to the shameful betrayal of the European Union and its member states towards EU citizens of Catalan nationality.
The following years of the English thread of the petition, as well as further parts in other languages, will also be published in book form.
On 1st October 2017, the Catalan nation exercised its right to self-determination and opted for state independence from the Spanish monarchy in the form of a democratic republic (República Catalana).
In response to the massive human rights violations committed by Spain against the Catalan people and its political leaders on 1st October 2017 and subsequently in order to prevent the exercise of the human right to self-determination, a solidarity petition was published on the same day on change.org, which has since been signed by over half a million supporters and whose updates have since provided information about the conflict between Spain and Catalonia and its further development in thirty languages.
The right of peoples to self-determination is a collective human right and, thanks to the Spanish Constitution of 1978 and the publication of the two major civil covenants of the United Nations in the Spanish Official Gazette, a mandatory right of the Spanish legal system. According to Spanish law, no institution, not even the Spanish Constitutional Court, may restrict or in any way hinder the right to self-determination of the Catalan people.
Prof. Dr. iur. Dr. phil. Alfred de Zayas states:
«Denying a people the right to express themselves on the issue of self-determination, denying the legality of a referendum, using force to prevent the holding of a referendum, and cancelling the limited autonomy of a people by way of punishment constitutes a violation of Article 1 of the ICCPR and of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Alternatively, addressing the aspiration of peoples to self-determination in a timely fashion is an important conflict prevention measure, as is evidenced by the countless wars that have occurred since 1945 that found their origin in denial of self-determination. Dialogue and political negotiation should be encouraged to prevent violence.»
«The Spanish Government appears to invoke the principle of territorial integrity to justify forceful attempts to silence political dissent and aspirations of self-determination. While the principle of territorial integrity is important, as understood in many United Nations Resolutions, including GA Resolutions 2625 and 3314, it is intended to be applied externally, to prohibit foreign threats or incursions into the territorial integrity of sovereign States. This principle cannot be invoked to quench the right of all people, guaranteed under Article 1 of the International Covenants on Human Rights, to express their desire to control their futures. The right of self-determination is a right of peoples and not a prerogative of States to grant or deny. In case of a conflict between the principle of territorial integrity and the human right to self-determination, it is the latter that prevails.»
Mr. Alfred de Zayas (United States of America) was appointed as the first Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order by the Human Rights Council, effective May 2012. He is currently professor of international law at the Geneva School of Diplomacy.
This volume publishes the English thread of the year 2017 of the petition, which represents an important and much-noticed international counter-publicity to the powerful propaganda of the Spanish state.
In 2024, the Catalan Revolution is only just beginning. The Catalan proclamation of independence was only the first step. Now the peaceful and democratic realisation of Catalonia's independence from Spain is on the agenda.
Further volumes in English and other languages are in preparation.
https://www.amazon.de/Catalonias-sovereignty-mirror-petition-change-org/dp/B0DJ2WLBN1