• Human Rights in Spain

    Widespread protests against austerity measures were marred by excessive use of force by the police. Concern rose that austerity measures disproportionately affect vulnerable groups, as education budgets suffered deep cuts and health services for undocumented migrants were curtailed. The government suspended evictions for defaulted mortgages only for certain categories of families, with advocates arguing for broader measures. In two important cases, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Spain for failing to investigate allegations of a racially abusive identity check, and for violating fair trial standards by retroactively lengthening prison sentences for members of the armed Basque nationalist group ETA.

  • Judge Baltasar Garzón leaves the Spanish High Court in Madrid on April 14, 2010.
    © 2010 Reuters
    Spain: Garzón Trial Threatens Human Rights
    The upcoming trial of the Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón for investigating abuses from Spain’s past threatens the concept of accountability in Spain and beyond.
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  • Eternal Emergency
    No End to Unaccompanied Migrant Children’s Institutionalization in Canary Islands Emergency Centers
  • Returns at Any Cost
    Spain’s Push to Repatriate Unaccompanied Children in the Absence of Safeguards
  • Unwelcome Responsibilities
    Spain’s Failure to Protect the Rights of Unaccompanied Migrant Children in the Canary Islands
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Spain

  • Divided We Fall: Intolerance in Europe Puts Rights at Risk
    Feb 14, 2013
    An Afghan migrant is stabbed in the heart on the streets of Athens. Black-shirted paramilitaries linked to Hungary’s third-largest political party march through a Roma neighborhood shouting, “You will die here.” A neo-Nazi gang commits a string of murders of Turkish immigrants in Germany. An ideologue driven by hatred of “multiculturalism” kills 67 mostly young people on a Norwegian Island.
  • EU: Human Rights Sidelined Amid Crisis
    Jan 31, 2013
    National and European Union (EU) leaders failed to address serious human rights concerns in the region amid economic and political crisis in 2012, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2013. Human Rights Watch documented human rights concerns in the EU, highlighting events in 10 member states and EU-level developments in migration and asylum, discrimination and intolerance, and counterterrorism policy.
  • NATO: Clarify Response to Deaths at Sea
    Mar 26, 2012
    NATO and its member states should provide information to help clarify the chain of events that led to the death of 63 boat migrants in the Mediterranean a year ago.
  • Joint NGO Letter to the Spanish Minister of Defense Regarding Investigations into Boat Incident from March-April 2011
    Mar 26, 2012
    We are writing to inquire about internal investigations into the fatal boat episode of March-April 2011, in which a disabled boat filled with migrants fleeing Libya drifted for two weeks in the Mediterranean before landing back in Libya on April 10, 2011. Sixty-three out of the 72 people on board died.
  • Statement at the Human Rights Council on accountability for civil war victims in Spain
    Mar 8, 2012

    A military rebel group takes power through a bloody civil war and imposes a dictatorship. Over 100,000 people are "disappeared," the great majority in unmarked mass graves which still litter the country today 

  • EU: Rights Abuse at Home Ignored
    Jan 22, 2012
    The European Union and member governments proved unwilling to tackle human rights abuse at home during 2011, even as they proclaimed the issue’s importance in inspiring the Arab Spring, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2012.
  • Spain: Garzón Trial Threatens Human Rights
    Jan 13, 2012
    The upcoming trial of the Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón for investigating abuses from Spain’s past threatens the concept of accountability in Spain and beyond.
  • Global: Flawed Policies Expose Migrants to Abuse
    Dec 12, 2010
    Many governments’ immigration policies and protection gaps expose migrants to abuse, Human Rights Watch said in a report today in advance of International Migrants Day, December 18, 2010. The abuses include labor exploitation, violence, trafficking, mistreatment in detention, and killings, yet the nations involved offer limited recourse to seek justice.
  • Statement to the Human Rights Council on Spain
    Sep 24, 2010
    During the review of Spain, five countries raised the question of impunity, particularly in regard to crimes, such as "disappearances," committed during the Franco dictatorship. Mexico, for instance, recommended that Spain "investigate, punish and provide reparations for the crime of enforced disappearances, regardless of the passage of time."
  • Spain: Migrant Children at Risk
    Jun 22, 2010
    Canary Islands government’s decision to keep more than 250 unaccompanied migrant children in unregulated emergency shelters puts the children at risk and threatens their well-being.
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