“Is voting banned?” asks Puigdemont in tense debate in Geneva
The Catalan leader took part in an academic event dealing with importance of independence in the 21st century
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UN High Commissioner asked to explore violations of rights in Catalonia
The Catalan Ombudsman says international authorities are worried about "the lack of investigations on what is going on" in the country, after meeting UN representative
UN urges Spain to protect children from bullfighting’s ‘harmful effects’
Committee on the Rights of the Child says under-18s should not attend or participate in bullfighting events
Observers and experts speak out against police violence and in favor of dialogue
Dutch diplomat in Catalonia on October 1: ‘Obama or Koffi Annan could mediate’
Spain must respect fundamental rights in response to Catalan referendum, say UN experts
They call for "restraint" in the coming days in order to avoid violence and "ensure peaceful protests"
UN critical about Spain’s inactivity on historical memory, sees progress in Catalonia
The upcoming report from the UN Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances reaffirms the lack of progress in Spain when it comes to historical memory, justice, search and identification of Spanish Civil war and Francoist dictatorship victims. The text, which is to be approved at the next group meeting between May 8 and May 17 in Geneva and officially published in September, confirms that a vast majority of the United Nations’ demands presented to Spain in 2013 “are still pending”. “Regretfully, there have not been any changes,” said the head of the mission to Spain, Ariel Dulitzky, in an interview with CNA. Indeed, the only improvements the UN experts have observed are at the regional level. “In Catalonia we have already seen some advancements, which have continued after our visit. When taking into account the Spanish government’s inactivity, the initiatives at an autonomic level are even more relevant,” underlined Dulitzky in the interview with the Catalan News Agency. Over the last several months, the Generalitat has launched a program of identification and opening of mass graves, and another program on genetic identification of the remains, aimed at helping families find their loved ones.
Catalan Minister at the UN headquarters: “I am a member of a government working to become an independent state”
Catalan Minister for Planning and Sustainability Josep Rull is at the UN Headquarters in New York, together with over 100 representatives of local and regional governments from around the world, in order to prepare ‘Habitat III’, the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, which will be held in Quito, Ecuador in October. In his intervention, Rull emphasised Catalonia’s push for independence and the legitimacy of such a process in front of the international community. I am a member of a democratically elected government that is working to become an independent state. Earlier, Rull greeted the Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon “on behalf of Catalonia”. The Catalan Minister also expressed the Government’s point of view regarding the draft of the New Urban Agenda, a compilation of pledges and new obligations which set in place a new global strategy on urbanisation for the next two decades and which is expected to be approved at the Quito summit.
A Catalan-North Korean Official ensures that “the government will be collective” for some years, until Kim Jong-un becomes the “Great Leader”
Alejandro Cao, born in Catalonia, is the Chairman of the Korean Friendship Association, part of the hermetic regime’s body promoting North Korea’s image abroad. Cao is one of the few North Korean top officials who travel abroad and talk to the press. The sudden death of Kim Jong-il found this “special representative” of North Korea’s Foreign Affairs Ministry in Catalonia, visiting relatives. He shared his views on the regime’s future leadership with CNA.
United Nations University to open in 2012 in Barcelona
The university will be located in the historic Hospital de Sant Pau area, an Art-Nouveau gem and a hospital until two years ago. The United Nations University will centre on research in education, migration, youth and the role of media.