• AI España director says next gov’t must overturn ‘Gag Law’, stop evictions
• Globally, Spain should do more than simply sign up to international accords
Amnistía Internacional España wrapped up its 42nd general assembly meeting in Bilbao over the weekend noting that there remain “serious violations of human rights” in Spain and that the country’s commitment to human rights in the world has to move beyond simply signing onto international human rights conventions without honoring the spirit of those agreements.
AI’s country director for Spain, Esteban Beltrán, told reporters following the assembly that groups and individuals concerned with human rights must work to prevail upon Spain’s next government to make respect for human rights within Spain and abroad a national priority, enacting legislation to correct the serious deterioration of basic rights in Spain under the five-year conservative Partido Popular administration of Mariano Rajoy.
Beltrán specifically cited the need to overturn Spain’s so-called “Gag Law” (Ley Mordaza), passed unilaterally in 2013 by the Partido Popular majority in Congress, in order to restore basic freedoms of expression and of the press in Spain. He also noted an erosion of the basic right to housing through more than 52,000 evictions in 2015 of homeowners behind on their mortgage payments, as well as the Rajoy government’s withdrawal of basic healthcare services to as many as 747,000 undocumented immigrants as part of cost-cutting initiatives in line with budget priorities.
► Read More in Spanish at Público, El Diario or La Vanguardia …
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