The Catalan National Assembly participated in the OSCE’s 2025 Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting III held in Vienna on 23–24 May under the theme “Inclusion as a way to promote tolerance and non-discrimination.” Assemblea took part in two sessions, denouncing the ongoing linguistic discrimination against Catalan speakers and the shrinking space for civil society in Catalonia.
During Session I, Maria Teresa Calveras representing Assemblea highlighted Spain’s failure to include language as a protected ground in its anti-discrimination laws, despite the commitments of OSCE participating states. She recalled that the Spanish Constitution does not recognise national minorities, and cited UN Special Rapporteur Fernand de Varennes, who has warned that such omissions may contravene international legal obligations. Calveras also denounced the repression and surveillance suffered by Catalan civil society organisations, including through the use of spyware.
In Session III, Calveras defended Catalonia’s long-standing Catalan-language immersion model in education, which has been key to building social cohesion and equality. She noted that this model is under increasing attack by the Spanish judiciary, a concern echoed by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in its most recent report. Assemblea condemned the structural legal imbalance that favours the Spanish language and called attention to the growing number of reported violations of linguistic rights.
Assemblea urged the OSCE institutions to press Spanish authorities to:
- End linguistic discrimination and comply with the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
- Protect the Catalan-language education model
- Ensure a safe, enabling environment for Catalan civil society to defend language rights and the right to self-determination
The Catalan National Assembly regularly takes part in international human rights meetings and forums as part of its international advocacy work, denouncing violations of rights by Spanish institutions against the people of Catalonia.
Watch the entire interventions here: