A group of eight winners of the Nobel Peace Prize have called for dialogue and mediation between Spain and Catalonia through an open letter. Among the signatories are the Yemeni activist Tawakkol Karman, the Guatemalan Rigoberta Menchú and the former president of East Timor, José Ramos-Horta.
In the letter, the Nobel laureates say they have watched with "growing concern the rising tension between Madrid and Catalonia" and call for ways to be found to allow for freedom of expression. They say that "neither side is free of errors" and, after warning that they "do not take a position on constitutional issues", say that "mature democracies find ways to allow freedom of expression".
Under the title Whither Now Democracy in Spain?, the signatories also recall the cases of Quebec and Scotland and warn Mariano Rajoy's government that violent responses only cause more disaffection.
"A people who feel repressed seldom go quietly into the night", they say and that, as such, they feel that "mediation and negotiation toward a peaceful resolution" to the conflict is needed.
So far to have signed are Rigoberta Menchú, José Ramos-Horta, and Tawakkol Karman alongside Adolfo Pérez Esquivel from Argentina, Jody Williams from the US, Mairead Maguire and Betty Williams from Northern Ireland and Shirin Ebadi from Iran.
The letter comes the day after the association The Elders, chaired by Kofi Annan, and including Jimmy Carter, Ban Ki-Moon and Desmond Tutu, among others, released a statement also calling for negotiation between the two governments.