A/HRC/43/47/Add.1
47.
More efforts are necessary to tackle de facto instances of educational segregation
more effectively. Despite the National Roma Integration Strategy in Spain 2012–2020,
which includes a specific line of action for developing measures to avoid the concentration
of Roma pupils, there is neither a national study to detect the extent of the phenomenon nor
a plan to combat it.
48.
The Special Rapporteur therefore recommends that a new national Roma integration
strategy be adopted and that it include as a matter of priority more detailed measures,
including steps for implementation, to avoid and reduce the concentration of Roma students
in de facto segregated schools, and provisions for conducting a review to identify the
establishments in which this is still occurring.
49.
The Special Rapporteur reaffirms that specific strategies and measures are needed to
combat negative stereotyping of members of the Roma minority with more positive images.
Also needed are initiatives that raise the general public’s awareness of the rich and
numerous contributions of Roma people throughout Spanish history. The Special
Rapporteur highly recommends that a national campaign be implemented to displace the
negative stereotyping that continues to drag down members of this minority community.
Such initiatives should be an essential part of an overall national strategy for combating the
apparent rise of intolerance and hate speech against this and other minorities that has been
observed in parts of the country in recent years.
B.
Language rights
50.
The handbook entitled “Language rights of linguistic minorities: a practical guide”,
published in 2017 under the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on minority issues,
emphasizes the central role and importance of language for many minorities, and the State
obligations in that regard under various United Nations treaties and other instruments. The
competence of autonomous communities in the fields of education, social services and
other areas has led to the adoption of a variety of models and practices in the use of
different languages in education and in access to public services, which reflect diverse
contexts, populations and expectations.
51.
One concern encountered on a number of occasions in meetings with civil society
organizations and others from the Balearic Islands, the Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia
and the Valencian Community was the feeling, particularly in the areas of education, law
enforcement and the judiciary, that there was a disconnect between the claimed status of coofficial languages and the extent of their actual use and of the implementation of legislation.
For example, it was pointed out that judges and law enforcement officials, such as the
national police, are not subject to any requirement of knowledge of a co-official language
even when based in an autonomous community. It has been suggested that this leads to a
significant number of grievances and to frustration in some of those communities, and to
unfortunate misunderstandings and even denial of or discrimination in access to public
services.
52.
As a general proposition, the human rights obligations of States regarding the use of
minority and other languages in public services, including in public education, are based on
the prohibition of discrimination on the ground of language. As outlined in the abovementioned handbook, where State authorities can practicably use a particular minority
language in a specific territory, and in the absence of any reasonable basis to exclude such
use of a minority language, it would be discriminatory in international law to forbid the use
of a minority language in administrative, judicial and other public services. 11
53.
Spain made huge strides from the 1970s, as it moved towards a full-fledged
democracy, in removing the previously existing prohibitions on the use of minority
languages by State authorities, including the prohibition of personal names in non-Castilian
languages. However, the Special Rapporteur was advised in the areas inhabited mainly by
linguistic minorities in the Basque Country, Galicia, Navarre, Valencian Community,
Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and others that in recent years judicial interpretation and
11
Special Rapporteur on minority issues, “Language rights of linguistic minorities: a practical guide”
(Geneva, 2017), p. 23.
11