UN Human Rights Committee finds that the Spanish State violated Catalan political prisoners’ political rights

The United Nations confirms the political persecution and repression against pro-independence Catalan leaders after the 2017 referendum

The United Nations Human Rights Committee has published a document today confirming that the Spanish State violated the Catalan political prisoners’ political rights after the 2017 independence referendum. The Catalan leaders were suspended from public duties prior to any conviction which clashes with Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This document confirms that Catalonia’s pro-independence leaders were the object of political persecution and repression on ideological grounds.

Following the 2017 independence referendum, the Catalan Parliament was immediately dissolved by the Spanish Government. In the aftermath, former Catalan Vice-President Oriol Junqueras and three Ministers were prosecuted, together with other officials. The remaining Catalan political leaders were forced into exile, where they currently remain. The prosecuted leaders were charged with the crime of rebellion, a charge based on calling for a violent uprising against the constitutional order’ and as a result they were,  suspended of their political rights and from carrying out public duties. Today, the UN notes that “the four complaints had urged the public to remain strictly peaceful”, so they consider that “the decision to charge them with the crime of rebellion was not foreseeable and therefore not based on objective grounds provided by the law”.

You can read the original UN Human Rights Committee document through the following link: DOCUMENT