Human Rights – Spain

History of Human Rights in Spain

19th Century (January 1801 – December 1900)

 Human rights were conquered by means of constitutions under different governments.
 After centuries of absolute monarchies, certain rights were claimed for the first time in the Bayonne
Constitution in 1808.
 Napoleon Bonaparte, French Statesman and military leader, intending to spread the French Empire,
granted it to Spain after the abdication of the king. It was accepted by the Bayonne Cortes on July 7.
Napoleon’s brother, Joseph Bonaparte, was proclaimed king of Spain in Madrid on July 25.
 This constitution followed the spirit of French Revolution. Thus, certain freedoms and rights for the
population arose with Joseph I with this first Spanish Constitution, chiefly:
 Inviolability of residence
 Abolishment of torture
 However, the French occupation brought about the Independence War which started with the “Dos
de Mayo Uprising” on May 2, 1808 and finished on April 17, 1814.
 The Spanish population, fighting their freedom as an independent nation, managed to write their
own constitution some years later: the Constitution of Cadiz in 1812.
 It established some individual rights which had already appeared in the previous constitution of
Bayonne with the addition of other rights:
 Inviolability of the residence
 Prohibition of torture
 Freedom of press
 It was not widely recognized until Spain recovered its independence from France and Ferdinand VII
came back as king. However, it did not last much since the constitution was uncomfortable for the
renewed Spanish absolute monarchy. 6 weeks after returning to Spain, Ferdinand VII abolished the
constitution.
 It was in 1868, after the deposition of Queen Isabella II, Ferdinand VII’s daughter, when the Glorious
Revolution took place. A Court was created democratically to defend the interests of everybody and
the crown was given to Amadeo I who swore to uphold a new Spanish Constitution.
 The Constitution of 1869 brought some more rights:
 Right to universal suffrage
 Freedom of expression, press, assembly, and association
 Religious freedom
 Again, this constitution did not last much because in 1873, with the abdication of Amadeo I, the first
republic was declared, although it ended in 1874 with the restoration to the throne of the Bourbon
monarchy proclaiming Alfonso XII king.
 The Constitution of 1876 was written and enforced during the whole restoration period and it
meant: The establishment of a constitutional monarchy in which there was an upper house, the
Senate, and a lower house, the Congress of Deputies.

20th Century (January 1901 – December 2000)

 Still in the restoration period, the 20th century started showing great political instability under the
reign of Alfonso XIII. After successive crises, the Second Republic was established in 1931.
 A new institution was enforced, keeping some of the individual rights previously mentioned but,
moreover, adding a new one:
  Universal suffrage, including women
 Eventually, after a lot of debate about it, gender equality was recognized and women were allowed
to vote for the first time in 1933.
 However, this republic and its constitution would not last. In 1936, the civil war started. It ended in
1939 when Franco’s dictatorship was established, which meant the loss of basic rights conquered
along the years.
 The modern history of Spain started with the death of the dictator in 1975. The accession of king
Juan Carlos I to the throne and the establishment of the parliamentary monarchy in 1978 was when
the current constitution was written and enforced.
 The new constitution, still in force, grants the rights lost during the dictatorship and those
considered human rights.
 Along the years, new laws have been passed to increase the rights granted to the Spanish
population. Some of those laws are:
 Divorce law in 1981
 Abortion law in 1985
 Conciliation of work and family life of working people in 1999
 Homosexual marriage law in 2005
 Comprehensive plan for family support, which takes into account the needs of new family
models.

Human Rights Issues in Spain

Reports from Amnesty International – World’s largest Human Rights Organization:

Human Rights Report for Spain (2015-2016)

Amnesty International’s human rights report for years 2015-2016 declared that the year saw a global
assault on people’s basic freedoms, with many governments brazenly breaking international law and
deliberately undermining institutions meant to protect people’s rights – including that of Spain. The
report states that Spain also participates in this tendency to cut back on liberties and rights.

The following are the biggest human rights concerns Amnesty International has for Spain:
1. Freedom of Speech
Spain implemented a public security law in July 2015, dubbed the "gag law" for its crackdown
on peaceful protests, social media and even photographing police. Fines range from €100 up to
€600,000 for violations. The laws “provide for offenses which may disproportionately limit the
legitimate exercise of the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly,” Amnesty
International wrote in the report. The law was pushed through by the conservative Popular Party of
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy after years of mostly peaceful anti-austerity protests.

2. Mistreatment of refugees and immigrants

Despite Spain’s pledge to take in nearly 15,000 asylum-seekers under a European Union plan
to redistribute refugees that arrive in member states, Spain offered just 130 resettlement places in
2015. Amnesty criticized Spain for its poor treatment of immigrants and refugees trying to enter the
country, particularly in its North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. There, Guardia Civil officers
have been conducting collective expulsions, forcing groups back to Morocco “without any
individualized assessment of their situation and without affording them an opportunity to claim
asylum,” Amnesty wrote. Part of the gag law reforms also paved the way for migrants caught illegally
entering Melilla or Ceuta to be collectively expelled, which is "prohibited by international law.”

The report also condemned investigations into Guardia Civil officers who were caught on
video beating a migrant trying to climb over a border wall between Melilla and Morocco and then
dragging him to the Moroccan side. The investigation was closed because officials said they could not
identify the officers and an appeal has been pending.

Amnesty also criticized an investigation into Guardia Civil officers who fired rubber
projectiles and smoke canisters at 200 migrants trying to swim from Morocco to Spain at Tarajal
beach in Ceuta. At least 14 people drowned, and officers denied that their actions contributed to the
deaths. The investigation was closed without any charges. Asylum seeker accommodations in Melilla
and Ceuta are also a problem. Many wait at least two months before they can be transferred to the
mainland and facilities are overcrowded with poor medical and psychological care.

3. Violence against women

Spain's Ministry of Health reported that 56 women were killed by current or former partners
in 2015. Domestic violence is a major concern in Spain as the country has fought to combat its
“machista” reputation. More than one million cases of domestic violence have been dealt with by the
Spanish courts since 2007 and judges have handed down jail sentences to 148,000 men. Amnesty
encouraged Spain to offer women more in terms of redress and protection and to train officials
better in dealing with victims of domestic violence. It also echoed the UN's call to compensate a
woman whose seven-year-old daughter was killed by her abusive father after authorities failed to act
on numerous complaints from the mother.

4. Harsh counter-terrorism measures

Amnesty argues that Spanish law includes a too broad definition of what constitutes an act of
terror and “could result in disproportionate restrictions on lawful exercise of freedom of expression”.
This issue came to a head when puppeteers in Madrid were detained after using play-on-words on
banned Basque separatist group Eta. The two were later released under conditions following public
outcry. “What happened with the puppeteers is an example of how the broad definition of terrorism
can impose a disproportionate limit on the freedom of expression,” said Amnesty International
Spain’s director Esteban Beltrán in a statement. Amnesty also denounced Spain's “incommunicado”
detention for holding terrorism suspects, which entails limited access to a lawyer, family members or
an independent doctor. Human rights groups like Amnesty and Human Rights Watch have said that
this method may even facilitate torture.

5. Abortion laws
The Spanish Senate passed a law (2015) that requires girls under 18 and women with mental
disabilities to have a parent's permission before getting an abortion. Amnesty reiterated concerns
from the UN and other groups that Spain should instead “ensure no legal barriers force women to
resort to clandestine abortion, putting their lives and health at risk.”

6. Evictions
Evictions have been a major topic of discussion in Spain since the economic crisis hit the
country particularly hard. More than 570,000 foreclosure procedures were launched between 2008
and 2014 and 52,350 new foreclosure cases were started within the first nine months of 2015.
 Amnesty wrote that government measures meant to improve the situation were “failing to ensure an
effective remedy for those whose right to housing may have been infringed.” Amnesty later on
launched an Anti-Eviction campaign in Spain.

Human Rights Report for Spain (2017-2018)

The rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly of Catalan (citizens of Catalonia, an
autonomous community in Spain) independence supporters were disproportionally restricted. Dozens of
people were prosecuted for “glorification of terrorism” and “humiliation of victims” on social media.
Law enforcement officials used excessive force against demonstrators peacefully resisting the
enforcement of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia's ruling stopping the Catalan independence
referendum. Spain relocated fewer asylum-seekers than it had pledged to under the EU relocation
scheme, and resettled fewer refugees than it had committed to. Thousands of people continued to face
forced evictions. The authorities continued to close investigations into crimes under international law
committed during the Civil War and the Franco regime.

Background
Two violent attacks took place in Catalonia in August, leaving 16 people dead and several others
wounded. The armed group Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility. Six people believed to be
responsible were killed by security forces, and four others were arrested and prosecuted for being
implicated in the attacks and as members of the group that carried out the attacks.

On 1 October, the government of Catalonia, an autonomous region in the northeast, held a

referendum on the region’s independence, in defiance of several Constitutional Court rulings. On 17
October, the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional the regional law on which the referendum
was based and confirmed its precautionary measure which it had adopted on 7 September, aimed at
preventing the referendum. On 27 October, the pro-independence political groups in the Catalonian
regional parliament unilaterally declared the independence of Catalonia. On the same day, the Senate
authorized the Spanish government to adopt measures pursuant to Article 155 of the Spanish
Constitution, effectively suspending the region’s autonomy. On 21 December, new regional elections in
Catalonia took place. The party which obtained more votes than any other single party was a non-
independence party, but overall the elections delivered the majority in the regional parliament to the
combined pro-independence parties.

Freedom of Expression and Assembly

Following the Constitutional Court decision of 7 September aimed at preventing the referendum,
some authorities disproportionately restricted the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful
assembly. Courts in Madrid and Vitoria in the Basque country prohibited two public assemblies aimed at
supporting the referendum. The municipality of Castelldefels in Catalonia adopted a blanket ban on the
use of public spaces for assemblies aimed at supporting or protesting against the referendum.

On 16 October, a High Court judge ordered the pre-trial detention of Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sànchez,
the presidents of two pro-Catalan-independence organizations. They were detained and charged with
sedition, a broadly defined offence, in connection with protests they organized in Barcelona on 20 and
21 September to, according to a judge, oppose a lawful police operation. In November, the Supreme
Court took charge of the proceedings against Jordi Sánchez and Jordi Cuixart. The Supreme Court
extended the investigation against them to the offense of rebellion.
 Dozens of people were prosecuted for “glorification of terrorism” and “humiliation of victims” on
social media networks. In many instances, authorities pressed criminal charges against people who had
expressed opinions that did not constitute incitement to a terrorism-related offence and fell within the
permissible forms of expression under international human rights law. Twenty people were convicted in
the course of the year. In March, Cassandra Vera was convicted and given a suspended sentence of one
year’s imprisonment for “humiliation of victims of terrorism”. She had published jokes on Twitter about
ETA´s 1973 killing of Carrero Blanco, a Prime Minister under the Franco regime.

In January, the investigating judge dismissed charges of incitement to hatred against Alfonso Lázaro
de la Fuente and Raúl García Pérez, professional puppeteers who in February 2016 were subjected to
pre-trial detention for five days on charges of “glorifying terrorism” and incitement to hatred. The
charges of “glorifying terrorism” were dismissed in 2016.

Administrative penalties continued to be imposed on private individuals, human rights activists and
journalists on the basis of the Law on Public Security, which could constitute unlawful restrictions on the
rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and information.

Mercé Alcocer, a journalist at Catalunya Radio, was fined EUR601 for disobeying a police order. She
crossed an unmarked police line in her attempt to interview a witness when she was covering a
corruption case which was being investigated by the High Court. She appealed, arguing she had stepped
back when told to and that her account could be substantiated by footage from security cameras. The
footage was not admitted as evidence, and her appeal was pending at the end of the year.

Torture and other Ill-treatment

In September, the High Court dropped the request for the extradition from Switzerland of Nekane
Txapartegi. The term for enforcing a December 2009 conviction against her had expired. In April, the
Special Rapporteur on torture had urged the Swiss authorities to oppose the extradition. Nekane
Txapartegi said she was subjected to torture and other ill-treatment when she was held incommunicado
for five days in a police station in Madrid in 1999. She had been arrested on suspicion of terrorism-
related offenses and of being an ETA member. Investigations into her torture allegations had not been
conducted thoroughly in the past.

In May, the Constitutional Court declared admissible an appeal by the government against a Basque
Parliament law on the recognition of and reparation for victims of human rights violations in the Basque
Country.

Excessive Use of Force

Law enforcement officials policing protests on 1 October in Catalonia used excessive force against
peaceful protesters who were opposing a police operation. The police fired blank cartridges and rubber
bullets, seriously injuring one person and causing him to lose the sight in one eye.

Refugees and Migrants’ Rights

Spain failed to meet its commitment to relocate 15,888 asylum-seekers under the EU emergency
relocation scheme; 1,328 were relocated by the end of the year, of which 592 were Syrian nationals.
Spain also failed to meet its commitment to resettle 1,449 refugees from the Middle East and North
Africa; 1,360 refugees were resettled, all Syrian nationals, except one refugee from Palestine, by 31
December.
 Between January and December, 25,853 asylum claims were submitted, and 34,655 applications
were still pending at the end of October. Asylum-seekers continued to face delays in receiving decisions
on their claims. For many, the period during which they were entitled to access government support
pending the outcome of their asylum application expired long before the decision was reached.

According to the EU border agency FRONTEX, there were 21,663 irregular border crossings via the
Western Mediterranean route up to September, more than double the figure for the same period in
2016. In October, the European Court of Human Rights held that the immediate return to Morocco of
sub-Saharan migrants who were attempting to enter Spanish territory in Melilla in 2014 amounted to a
collective expulsion of foreign nationals.

Counter-Terror and Security

Judicial authorities continued to use counterterrorism legislation disproportionately. Three of the
seven people detained and charged with terrorism-related offenses for their alleged participation in an
attack against two off-duty civil guards and their partners in Alsasua (Navarra) in a pub in October 2016,
were in pre-trial detention pending a hearing due in April 2018.

Violence against Women

According to the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality, 48 women (and eight children) were
killed by their partners or former partners. In September, Parliament approved a plan to combat gender-
based violence, encompassing a review of legislation and other measures to meet the obligations
enshrined in the Istanbul Convention on violence against women.

Right to Housing
Thousands of people were forcibly evicted without adequate judicial safeguards or provision of
alternative accommodation by the state. These included 26,767 rental evictions and 16,992 mortgage
evictions. Public spending on housing continued to decrease, even though the demand for affordable
social housing remained high. Single mothers and survivors of gender-based violence were particularly
affected by the lack of affordable alternative housing. In July, the UN Committee on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights upheld a complaint against Spain for not having provided an evicted family with
alternative housing.

Impunity
Spanish authorities continued to close investigations into crimes under international law committed
during the Civil War and the Franco regime. They argued that it would not be possible to investigate the
crimes reported, such as enforced disappearances and torture, in view of, among other things, the
Amnesty Act and the statute of limitations. The authorities continued to fail to take measures to locate
and identify the remains of victims of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions, leaving
families and organizations to undertake exhumation projects without state support.

In February, Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office started an investigation into the socalled “stolen
babies” case, making Mexico the second country to investigate crimes under international law
committed in Spain during the Civil War and the Franco regime. The investigation concerned the case of
a woman born in Spain in 1968 and handed over to a Mexican family, reportedly after having been
abducted from her family. In September, the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary
Disappearances stated that this case constituted a new opportunity for Spain to fully co-operate in the
investigations carried out by other states into enforced disappearances which occurred in Spain.
 The 2014 amendments to universal jurisdiction legislation were invoked by the Spanish judiciary to
not investigate crimes under international law, such as enforced disappearances and torture, committed
in Syria and Venezuela in 2017 against Spanish nationals.

*Rights International Spain also said that 2017 was a bad year for rights and liberties in Spain

Some Human Rights Groups in Spain

 Rights International Spain (RIS)

 non-governmental and independent organization composed by lawyers specialized in
international law
 created the group with a mission to promote and defend human rights and civil liberties
 identity violations of civil rights and liberties and work so that the authorities address such
violations, in order to secure full enjoyment of human rights for all
 seek a better understanding and application of international human rights law in their
country
 Asociacion Pro Derechos Humanos De Espana (APDHE)
 Human Rights Association of Spain
 Member organization of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), which is an
international human rights NGO federating 184 organizations from 112 countries that has
been defending all civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights as set out in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
 Federacion De Asociaciones De Defensa y De Promocion De Los Derechos Humanos (FADPDH)
 Federation of Defense Associations and Promotion of Human Rights
 Also a member organization of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).
 Business and Human Rights (BHR)
 focused on improving corporate human rights impacts worldwide
 based in Barcelona and Bogota but work all around the world

Sources:
https://issuu.com/carthagoissuu/docs/history_of_human_rights_in_spain

https://www.thelocal.es/20160224/six-human-rights-problems-spain-amnesty-report

https://www.fidh.org/en/about-us/What-is-FIDH/

http://www.rightsinternationalspain.org/en/areas/2/security-and-civil-rights

https://www.bandhr.com/

https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/europe-and-central-asia/spain/report-spain/