The acting Ombudsman of Spain, Francisco Fernández Marugán, ensured that the right of minorities to use their own language, to practice their religion or to develop their culture “is guaranteed by full constitutional recognition of the fundamental rights to the use of the co-official language, to education, to political participation and to the right to culture”.
This was expressed by Fernández Marugán at the 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council held in Geneva, where the conclusions of the report carried out by the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues were analysed following his visit to Spain last year.
As the Ombudsman explained, democratic progress, in the last 40 years, “has allowed legislative and institutional advances and the development of public policies into the protection of fundamental rights in regard to the respect of minorities”.
In this context, he stressed that “the use of co-official languages has been statutorily guaranteed in the territories of the Autonomous Communities where they are available; that education in the co-official language has been guaranteed in the Autonomous Community legislations; that there are national plans to better guarantee the rights of ethnic minorities; and that sign language in Spanish has been recognized and various measures have been taken to guarantee its use in areas such as communication in public media or in the justice administration”.
Roma community
He highlighted the work carried out to improve the life of the Roma community, in terms of social integration, guaranteeing schooling and regarding the image of the Roma population in Spanish society.
In relation to the schooling of Roma children, the Ombudsman pointed out that “the main problem we face is the lack of official data that allows us to objectively know the real situation of Roma students through civil society reports, because data on ethnic origin is limited by the current regulations of privacy protection”.
For Fernández Marugán, “the protection of personal data should not block the collection of disaggregated data, as is done with gender, to be aware of discrimination in Spain”.
Regarding racism, xenophobia and hate speech, the Ombudsman stated that they constitute “one of the main attacks on their human rights in Spain” and acknowledged that this problem mainly affects minorities such as the Roma community, people of African descent, migrants and the Muslim religious minority.
Schooling of minors in Melilla
Fernández Marugán also mentioned the action undertaken by the Ombudsman to protect minors of Moroccan origin, who are de facto residents of the autonomous city of Melilla in an irregular administrative situation, and who are denied registration. This fact, however, has not been analysed in the Rapporteur’s report.
The Ombudsman has once again reiterated that children in Spain ought to be in school.
Meeting with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Fernández Marugán used his visit to Geneva to hold a meeting with representatives of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
During the meeting, the situation of the countries and the Ombudsman’s Offices constituting the Ibero-American Federation of Ombudsmen (FIO) was analysed. The Ombudsman conveyed his deep concern about the current climate of violence in the Ibero-American region in general and for the attacks on the independence and work of the ombudsmen and national human rights institutions in these countries in particular.
According to FIO’s report, despite the disappearance of dictatorships and the emergence of democracies, violence in Latin America has not diminished although it has undergone a structural transformation.
The document reflects that from the “purely governmental” violence of the 1970s and 1980s, it has shifted to a “social violence” that reflects the growing economic and social problems of the region, which has high rates of marginalization of large sections of society.
This report also states that many Latin American ombudsmen responsible for defending fundamental rights are being blocked or limited in their actions on certain occasions by governments, which are precisely the ones that have to ensure respect for these rights.
