{"id":25133,"date":"2025-08-06T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/?p=25133"},"modified":"2025-08-04T15:40:57","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T13:40:57","slug":"the-human-rights-committee-urges-spain-to-protect-freedom-of-expression-and-human-rights-defenders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/the-human-rights-committee-urges-spain-to-protect-freedom-of-expression-and-human-rights-defenders\/","title":{"rendered":"The Human Rights Committee urges Spain to protect freedom of expression and human rights defenders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In July, the <strong>Human Rights Committee<\/strong> of the United Nations adopted the seventh <strong>periodic report<\/strong> on Spain, in which it highlighted <strong>key recommendations<\/strong> to strengthen the protection of <strong>fundamental rights<\/strong>, especially those related to <strong>freedom of expression<\/strong>, <strong>peaceful assembly<\/strong>, and <strong>association<\/strong>, as well as the protection of <strong>human rights defenders<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Committee expressed deep concern over allegations of <strong>surveillance<\/strong> of human rights defenders, activists, and politicians, allegedly carried out by the <strong>police<\/strong> and <strong>intelligence services<\/strong>. Between 2017 and 2020, it was reported that at least <strong>65 Catalan public figures<\/strong> were subjected to monitoring through technologies such as the <strong>Pegasus<\/strong> and <strong>Candiru<\/strong> programs, allegedly linked to the <strong>National Intelligence Center (CNI)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Committee laments the absence of a rigorous <strong>official investigation<\/strong> and the inaction of the <strong>Attorney General<\/strong> in judicial proceedings related to these events. It also expresses concern over the recognized practice of using <strong>\u201cinfiltrated intelligence agents\u201d<\/strong> in social groups outside the criminal framework, backed by the <strong>Official Secrets Act of 1968<\/strong>, without legal guarantees or judicial oversight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To guarantee the full and safe exercise of the rights to <strong>freedom of expression<\/strong> and <strong>peaceful assembly<\/strong>, the Committee urges Spain to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Take all necessary measures so that politicians, journalists, human rights defenders, and other members of civil society can carry out their work without fear of <strong>reprisals<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Review the <strong>Official Secrets Act<\/strong> and ensure that all forms of surveillance respect the right to <strong>privacy<\/strong> under <strong>Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Guarantee that surveillance, including digital surveillance and the use of infiltrated agents, strictly complies with the principles of <strong>legality<\/strong>, <strong>necessity<\/strong>, <strong>proportionality<\/strong>, and includes effective mechanisms for <strong>accountability<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Thoroughly investigate all allegations of <strong>illegal surveillance<\/strong> and ensure effective remedies for victims.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The Committee also warns of structural challenges in the implementation of the <strong>Transparency Law<\/strong>, which partially excludes the <strong>judicial<\/strong> and <strong>legislative branches<\/strong>, lacks effective sanctions, and has a low number of requests. It further expresses concern about the lack of measures to <strong>decriminalize<\/strong> <strong>slander<\/strong> and <strong>libel<\/strong> offenses, and about the possible misuse of criminal and administrative rules (such as <strong>Article 578 of the Penal Code<\/strong> and the <strong>Organic Law on Citizen Security<\/strong>) to restrict fundamental rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this regard, it recommends:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Considering the decriminalization of <strong>slander<\/strong> and <strong>libel<\/strong>, limiting criminal intervention to serious cases.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Strengthening the legal framework for access to <strong>public information<\/strong>, effectively applying it to all branches of government and establishing sanctioning mechanisms.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ensuring that laws and regulations are not used to improperly limit <strong>freedom of expression<\/strong> and <strong>peaceful assembly<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Reviewing the <strong>Organic Law on Citizen Security<\/strong> and future reforms in consultation with involved stakeholders to ensure full compliance with international standards.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The Committee reminds that any restriction on the rights to <strong>freedom of expression<\/strong> and <strong>assembly<\/strong> must strictly comply with the requirements of <strong>legality<\/strong>, <strong>necessity<\/strong>, and <strong>proportionality<\/strong>, guaranteeing a legal framework that protects <strong>pluralism<\/strong> and <strong>democratic participation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From <strong>FIBGAR<\/strong>, we welcome that the United Nations Human Rights Committee recognizes the importance of strengthening the protection of <strong>freedom of expression<\/strong> and the rights of those who defend <strong>human rights<\/strong> in Spain. We consider it essential that the State urgently adopts these recommendations to guarantee a safe environment free of <strong>illegal surveillance<\/strong> that allows active and plural participation in democratic life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In July, the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations adopted the seventh periodic report on Spain, in which it highlighted key recommendations to strengthen the protection of fundamental rights, especially those related to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association, as well as the protection of human rights defenders. The Committee expressed deep concern&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[586],"tags":[1091,1092,851],"class_list":["post-25133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-freedom-of-expression","tag-spain","tag-united-nations"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Human Rights Committee urges Spain to protect freedom of expression and human rights defenders - FIBGAR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In July, the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations adopted the seventh periodic report on Spain, in which it highlighted key recommendations to strengthen the protection of fundamental rights, especially those related to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association, as well as the protection of human rights defenders.The Committee expressed deep concern over allegations of surveillance of human rights defenders, activists, and politicians, allegedly carried out by the police and intelligence services. Between 2017 and 2020, it was reported that at least 65 Catalan public figures were subjected to monitoring through technologies such as the Pegasus and Candiru programs, allegedly linked to the National Intelligence Center (CNI).The Committee laments the absence of a rigorous official investigation and the inaction of the Attorney General in judicial proceedings related to these events. It also expresses concern over the recognized practice of using \u201cinfiltrated intelligence agents\u201d in social groups outside the criminal framework, backed by the Official Secrets Act of 1968, without legal guarantees or judicial oversight.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/the-human-rights-committee-urges-spain-to-protect-freedom-of-expression-and-human-rights-defenders\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Human Rights Committee urges Spain to protect freedom of expression and human rights defenders - FIBGAR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In July, the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations adopted the seventh periodic report on Spain, in which it highlighted key recommendations to strengthen the protection of fundamental rights, especially those related to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association, as well as the protection of human rights defenders.The Committee expressed deep concern over allegations of surveillance of human rights defenders, activists, and politicians, allegedly carried out by the police and intelligence services. Between 2017 and 2020, it was reported that at least 65 Catalan public figures were subjected to monitoring through technologies such as the Pegasus and Candiru programs, allegedly linked to the National Intelligence Center (CNI).The Committee laments the absence of a rigorous official investigation and the inaction of the Attorney General in judicial proceedings related to these events. 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Between 2017 and 2020, it was reported that at least 65 Catalan public figures were subjected to monitoring through technologies such as the Pegasus and Candiru programs, allegedly linked to the National Intelligence Center (CNI).The Committee laments the absence of a rigorous official investigation and the inaction of the Attorney General in judicial proceedings related to these events. 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It also expresses concern over the recognized practice of using \u201cinfiltrated intelligence agents\u201d in social groups outside the criminal framework, backed by the Official Secrets Act of 1968, without legal guarantees or judicial oversight.","og_url":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/the-human-rights-committee-urges-spain-to-protect-freedom-of-expression-and-human-rights-defenders\/","og_site_name":"FIBGAR","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Fibgar","article_published_time":"2025-08-06T08:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/POST-GENERICO-11.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Fibgar","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@fibgar_","twitter_site":"@fibgar_","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fibgar","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/the-human-rights-committee-urges-spain-to-protect-freedom-of-expression-and-human-rights-defenders\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/the-human-rights-committee-urges-spain-to-protect-freedom-of-expression-and-human-rights-defenders\/"},"author":{"name":"Fibgar","@id":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/4a7e0cad2b7af0b8051fe6609b753361"},"headline":"The Human Rights Committee urges Spain to protect freedom of expression and human rights defenders","datePublished":"2025-08-06T08:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/the-human-rights-committee-urges-spain-to-protect-freedom-of-expression-and-human-rights-defenders\/"},"wordCount":546,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/the-human-rights-committee-urges-spain-to-protect-freedom-of-expression-and-human-rights-defenders\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/POST-GENERICO-11.png","keywords":["Freedom of expression","Spain","United Nations"],"articleSection":["Articles"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/the-human-rights-committee-urges-spain-to-protect-freedom-of-expression-and-human-rights-defenders\/","url":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/the-human-rights-committee-urges-spain-to-protect-freedom-of-expression-and-human-rights-defenders\/","name":"The Human Rights Committee urges Spain to protect freedom of expression and human rights defenders - FIBGAR","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/the-human-rights-committee-urges-spain-to-protect-freedom-of-expression-and-human-rights-defenders\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/the-human-rights-committee-urges-spain-to-protect-freedom-of-expression-and-human-rights-defenders\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/POST-GENERICO-11.png","datePublished":"2025-08-06T08:00:00+00:00","description":"In July, the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations adopted the seventh periodic report on Spain, in which it highlighted key recommendations to strengthen the protection of fundamental rights, especially those related to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association, as well as the protection of human rights defenders.The Committee expressed deep concern over allegations of surveillance of human rights defenders, activists, and politicians, allegedly carried out by the police and intelligence services. Between 2017 and 2020, it was reported that at least 65 Catalan public figures were subjected to monitoring through technologies such as the Pegasus and Candiru programs, allegedly linked to the National Intelligence Center (CNI).The Committee laments the absence of a rigorous official investigation and the inaction of the Attorney General in judicial proceedings related to these events. It also expresses concern over the recognized practice of using \u201cinfiltrated intelligence agents\u201d in social groups outside the criminal framework, backed by the Official Secrets Act of 1968, without legal guarantees or judicial oversight.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/the-human-rights-committee-urges-spain-to-protect-freedom-of-expression-and-human-rights-defenders\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/the-human-rights-committee-urges-spain-to-protect-freedom-of-expression-and-human-rights-defenders\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/the-human-rights-committee-urges-spain-to-protect-freedom-of-expression-and-human-rights-defenders\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/POST-GENERICO-11.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/POST-GENERICO-11.png","width":1600,"height":900},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/the-human-rights-committee-urges-spain-to-protect-freedom-of-expression-and-human-rights-defenders\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Human Rights Committee urges Spain to protect freedom of expression and human rights defenders"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/","name":"FIBGAR","description":"Fundaci\u00f3n Internacional Baltasar Garz\u00f3n","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/#organization"},"alternateName":"FIBGAR","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/#organization","name":"Fundaci\u00f3n Internacional Baltasar Garz\u00f3n","alternateName":"FIBGAR","url":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/cropped-fibgar-icono.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/cropped-fibgar-icono.jpeg","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Fundaci\u00f3n Internacional Baltasar Garz\u00f3n"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Fibgar","https:\/\/x.com\/fibgar_"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/4a7e0cad2b7af0b8051fe6609b753361","name":"Fibgar","url":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/author\/fibgaradmin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25133"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25136,"href":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25133\/revisions\/25136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fibgar.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}