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International observers have completed their "shadow" report on the Supreme Court trial of the 12 Catalan pro-independence leaders, which they will send to the UN.

The shadow report is a report on the instruction and oral trial, and of the violations of civil and political rights in Catalonia in relation to the case. The aforementioned report will be presented to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), of which Michelle Bachelet Jeria is the present High Commissioner, for consideration in the framework of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Spain during the session of the Human Rights Council of January of 2020.

 

 

The shadow reports are the written contributions that NGOs send to the different bodies and mechanisms of the United Nations in the procedures for reviewing the rights situation (either of the Human Rights Council or, as in this case, of the committees that oversee the implementation of the main human rights treaties). It is called shadow (or parallel report), because it is suggested that it includes the information that the State will not provide.

The UPR is a procedure to which all UN member states are subject, every four years. The aim of the report is a review of the situation of human rights within the State, regardless of the ratification of the international treaties. It is a basic political procedure that consists of an "interactive dialogue" between members of the Human Rights Council and the state reviewed. The procedure concludes with the formulation of recommendations of the members of the Council to the State. The State will indicate whether to accept them totally or partially or does not accept them. The only follow-up is in the context of the next UPR procedure.