President Pere Aragonès’ executive considers that the opinion may be decisive in the verdicts of the European courts

Catalonia’s Generalitat government called on its Spanish counterpart on Tuesday to take “immediate” measures to guarantee that the breach of the political rights of any citizen of Catalonia would not be repeated, after analysing the opinion of the UN Human Rights Committee released last week. The UN committee stated that the Spanish judiciary had violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by suspending the political rights of Oriol Junqueras, Raül Romeva, Josep Rull and Jordi Turull, having been accused of rebellion.

“The Government considers that the Spanish government is taking much too long to proffer such a guarantee, since it has assured they would do things rather differently from their predecessors” said the spokeswoman for the Executive Patrícia Plaja in a press conference. “Real, urgent and effective measures must be taken for the comprehensive and effective reparation of breached political rights and to ensure that this does not happen again”, she insisted.

The Catalan government considers that the UN opinion constitutes an important document regarding doctrine, to be taken into account in the interpretation of article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, since it establishes the requirements for restriction of rights very clearly. Although the opinions of the UN Human Rights Committee are not judgments and are not binding on states, they are taken into account by both the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU). In this regard, the government believes that the finding may be decisive in the verdicts of the European courts.

The Executive has also demanded the repeal or amendment of the article of the Criminal Procedure Law providing the automatic suspension of public functions or appointments, as well as the repeal or amendment of other rules that may be related concerning the reparations for the damages caused, and in particular, to prevent repetition in the future.