UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL Forum on Minority Issues Geneva, 28-29 November 2019 SESSION I 28 November 2019 10:00 – 13:00 Human rights and minority language education Intervention of the Catalan National Assembly (Civil Society Organization) Thank you, Mr. Moderator, My name is Eva Riera, and I speak on behalf of the Catalan National Assembly, the grass-roots organization defending the right to self-determination of the Catalan people. Since 1992, teaching in Catalan became the educational model throughout Catalonia. An education system that is based on an immersion program that fixes Catalan as the vehicular language for all subjects taught, except for Spanish and English. So that schools could have the tools they needed, the Government of Catalonia promoted all legal and budgetary measures necessary so that this could be made effective and real. It is a model capable of bringing pupils together, regardless of the language they speak at home, preparing them to be competent in the world of work, allowing equality of opportunity, without any kind of exclusion. No one is marginalised due to language issues. We can say right now that we have the resources and the know-how to run our educational system in Catalan successfully. But then, where is the problem? Why are we speaking here?