Denouncing Violation of Rights

Today at Berria:

American Lawyers Guild denounces violation of rights

It has called on the United States Government to ask Spain to “respect the rights of Basque citizens”

Imanol Murua Uria – DONOSTIA (San Sebastian)

The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) has asked the State Department of the United States to request the Spanish Government “to respect the rights of Basque citizens.” The forum of 4,000 progressive lawyers of America has just held its yearly National Convention in Minneapolis, and has adopted a resolution denouncing the violation of certain basic rights in the Basque Country by the Spanish Government. The resolution will be forwarded to the United States State Department. The text approved in Minneapolis draws attention to the closing down of the newspapers Egin and Egunkaria, the outlawing of the political party Batasuna, and the complaints of torture, and calls on the United States Government directly “to ask the Spanish Government to respect the rights of Basque citizens as guaranteed in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.” This resolution points out that the UN Charter establishes the right “not to be subjected to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment and not to be arbitrarily arrested” and the right to the presumption of innocence. It likewise calls on the United States Government to request the Spanish Government to uphold “the freedom of opinion and expression of Basque citizens, including the right to disseminate information and ideas through the media.”

The resolution adopted last weekend has its origins in the work conducted by a group of delegates that was in the Basque Country and Spain from September 26 to October 1. In fact, a working group made up of members of the NLG and the European Association of Democratic Lawyers conducted interviews in Madrid and in the Basque Country to investigate the breach of international agreements on human rights that has taken place. In Madrid they saw Baltasar Garzon, the Spanish National High Court judge, and Maria Garcia, the deputy secretary of the Ministry of Justice, among others, and in the Basque Country they met with Martxelo Otamendi, chief editor of BERRIA, Mertxe Aizpurua, Gara’s editor, representatives of the Lawyers Guild of Bizkaia and the “Eskubideak” (Rights) Lawyers Association.

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