Amnesty International Report 2015/16 - Spain

Kingdom of Spain
Head of State: King Felipe VI de Borbón
Head of government: Mariano Rajoy

Freedom of assembly was curtailed by new legislation. New cases of ill-treatment and excessive use of force by police officials were reported. Security forces also carried out collective expulsions and used excessive force against individuals who attempted to enter irregularly from Morocco into the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. Impunity remained a serious concern.

BACKGROUND

In December, national elections led to a fragmented parliament. The Popular Party, led by the incumbent Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, came first but without sufficient seats to form a new government on its own.

There were fewer demonstrations against the government's austerity measures than in previous years, although the measures continued, having a detrimental effect on human rights.

FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND ASSEMBLY

Reforms to the Law on Public Security and the Criminal Code entered into force in July. Both provide for offences which may disproportionately limit the legitimate exercise of the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. The Law on Public Security imposed limitations on where and when demonstrations could take place, providing for additional penalties on those holding spontaneous demonstrations in front of certain public buildings. Police officers were given broad discretion to fine people who show a "lack of respect" towards them. The Law on Public Security included an offence of disseminating images of police officers in certain cases. Concern at the impact of such legislation was expressed in July by the UN Human Rights Committee.

TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT

In May, the UN Committee against Torture expressed concern over the continuation of the incommunicado detention regime. It recommended that Spain amend the definition of torture in its domestic law, and conduct effective investigations into all allegations of torture and other ill-treatment.

Cases of ill-treatment by law enforcement officials were reported at the border and in places of detention. Concerns arose regarding delays and the effectiveness of relevant investigations. Many cases had been closed without prosecutions taking place, including some where it was impossible to identify police officers involved due to the lack of identification tags on their uniforms.

A criminal trial against two law enforcement officers for causing serious bodily harm to Ester Quintana, who lost an eye as a result of being hit by a rubber projectile fired by police during a November 2012 protest in Barcelona, had not commenced by the end of the year. In September, the Catalonian government agreed to pay €260,000 as an out-of-court settlement to Ester Quintana.

REFUGEES' AND MIGRANTS' RIGHTS

On 3 February, six individuals from sub-Saharan Africa were summarily returned from Ceuta to Morocco. Similar collective expulsions, in which Civil Guard officers forcibly returned to Morocco groups of individuals who were within their control, without any individualized assessment of their situation and without affording them an opportunity to claim asylum, had been frequently reported in previous years, particularly in Melilla.

In March, the Aliens Law was amended to legalize the automatic and collective expulsion of migrants and refugees from the borders of the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. This provision paved the way for further collective expulsions, which are prohibited by international law. However, attempts to cross the fences separating Melilla from Morocco decreased after February, when several makeshift camps in the north of Morocco were dismantled by Moroccan authorities.

In May, the UN Committee against Torture expressed concern at the "practice of 'hot expulsion' from the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, where rejections at the border prevented access to asylum procedures.

In July, the UN Human Rights Committee called on Spain to comply with the principle of non-refoulement and provide access to effective asylum procedures.

In August, investigations in Melilla into the beating by Civil Guard officers of a migrant who had tried to cross the border between Morocco and Melilla and had been summarily returned to Morocco in October 2014 were closed. The court could not gather witness statements from other migrants, as they too had been collectively expelled in the course of the same police operation. The man was beaten by Civil Guards and then carried unconscious to the Moroccan side of the border. In spite of film evidence, the Ministry of Interior alleged that it was impossible to identify the officers involved. An appeal against the decision to close the investigation was pending at the end of the year.

In October, the investigation into the excessive use of force by the Civil Guard at the Tarajal beach in February 2014 was closed without bringing any charges. Civil Guard officers had used rubber projectiles and smoke canisters to stop around 200 people trying to swim from the Moroccan to the Spanish side of the beach; 23 people were unlawfully pushed back to Morocco and at least 14 people died at sea.

Restriction on asylum-seekers' freedom of movement continued as asylum-seekers in Ceuta and Melilla were still required to obtain police authorization to leave the enclaves for the mainland. This breaches Spain's national laws and had been ruled unlawful by several courts in Spain.

The Centre for the Temporary Accommodation of Migrants in Melilla was severely overcrowded. Asylum-seekers usually waited at least two months in Melilla, or even several months in some cases, before being transferred to the mainland. The waiting period in Ceuta was longer.

As of the end of November, 12,500 asylum applications were filed in Spain. In October, Spain agreed to relocate 14,931 asylum-seekers by 2016 under the European relocation scheme. It offered only 130 resettlement places in 2015.

Almost 750,000 undocumented migrants were living in Spain without adequate access to health care. Several UN bodies recommended that Spain guarantee universal access to health care.

COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY

In October, amendments to the Procedural Criminal Law failed to remove the use of incommunicado detention, despite the concerns of international human rights bodies that such detention violated Spain's international obligations. Improvements were limited to excluding the application of incommunicado detention to children under 16.

In July, the Human Rights Committee recommended again that Spain provide Ali Aarrass with an effective remedy for the torture and ill-treatment he suffered in Morocco. Ali Aarrass was extradited by Spain to Morocco in 2010, despite fears that he would be at risk of torture there and despite interim measures requested by the Committee that he not be expelled while they examined the case.

In July, sections of the Criminal Code related to terrorist acts were amended, including a broad definition of what constitutes an act of terrorism. The UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression noted that the amendments could criminalize behaviours that would not otherwise constitute terrorism and could result in disproportionate restrictions on the lawful exercise of freedom of expression, among other limitations.

DISCRIMINATION

The new Law on Public Security stipulated that identity checks should be carried out by police without discriminating on ethnic and other grounds.

In May, an Observatory on discrimination for reasons of gender or sexual orientation was established by the government. The Observatory was created to receive complaints from victims and witnesses and provide a rapid response to acts of discrimination on these grounds.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

According to the Ministry of Health, Social Policy and Equality, 56 women were killed by their partners or former partners as of mid-December.

In July, the CEDAW Committee urged Spain to ensure that women victims of gender-based violence have access to redress and protection, that officials dealing with them are adequately trained, and that perpetrators are prosecuted.

At the end of the year, the government was still refusing to provide reparation to Ángela González Carreño. She had been a victim of gender-based violence and her daughter had been killed by her ex-partner in 2003, having received no adequate protection despite reporting previous instances of domestic violence.

IMPUNITY

The definitions of enforced disappearance and torture in Spanish legislation continued to be inconsistent with international human rights law. Restrictions on the exercise of universal jurisdiction led to the closure of major international cases. In particular, the Audiencia Nacional Court decided in July to halt its investigation into torture and other ill-treatment at the US detention centre in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. This was despite the submission in May of documents indicating that Spanish agents had been implicated in interrogations of detainees at the detention facility. An appeal was pending at the end of the year.

Also in July, a military court closed investigations into the torture of two prisoners committed by five Spanish soldiers at a Spanish military base in Iraq in 2004, on the basis that it had not been able to identify either the perpetrators or the victims. Questions remained on the thoroughness of the investigation by the military court.

The rights to truth, justice and reparation continued to be denied to victims of crimes committed during the Civil War and the Franco era (1936-1975), as Spanish authorities failed to adequately co-operate with the Argentine judiciary investigating such crimes. In March, the government rejected a request by the Argentine courts for the extradition of 17 people. Subsequently, a group of UN experts urged Spain to comply with its obligations to extradite or prosecute those responsible for grave human rights violations.

SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

Legislation adopted in September required girls under 18 and women with mental disabilities to obtain parental or guardian consent before they can access safe and legal abortion services. Both the CEDAW Committee and the UN Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice called on Spain to refrain from restricting women's and girls' access to safe and legal abortion. The UN Human Rights Committee also recommended Spain to ensure that no legal barriers force women to resort to clandestine abortion, putting their lives and health at risk.

HOUSING RIGHTS

According to statistics published in March by the General Council of the Judiciary, 578,546 foreclosure procedures were initiated in Spain between 2008 and 2014. In the first nine months of 2015, 52,350 new foreclosure procedures were initiated.

Measures adopted by the government in previous years to improve the situation for people at risk of losing their home were failing to ensure an effective remedy for those whose right to housing may have been infringed.

In June, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights asked Spain to ensure access to legal remedies for people who face foreclosure proceedings.