Plataforma per la Llengua asks the United Nations to intervene so that governments and technology platforms protect linguistic diversity and punish hate speech

The organisation recalls that the wave of internet hate suffered by footballer Aitana Bonmatí is not an isolated case, and deplores the fact that Spanish nationalist discourse often includes hate speech against Catalan and Catalan-speakers

Maria de Lluc Muñoz, Plataforma per la Llengua's officer responsible for international affairs, took part in the 17^th session of the Forum on Minority Issues in Geneva on Thursday and Friday

The resolution, presented by Plataforma per la Llengua, has been approved at the General Assembly of the European Language Equality Network (ELEN), which took place last weekend in Bilbao

The text considers that the court rulings against language immersion in Catalan are a cause for concern, and asks Spain to comply with the commitments of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML)

Plataforma per la Llengua has submitted a petition to the Strasbourg Court after exhausting all legal avenues in Spain to appeal against the exclusion of organisations protecting Catalan from the judicial process that ended with a decision to impose 25% teaching in Spanish.

The High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) refused to allow organisations protecting Catalan to take appear in the case, claiming that it was concerned with the use of Spanish as a teaching language, and nothing to do with Catalan. For this same reason, it allowed Asamblea por una Escuela Bilingüe and Hablamos Español to take part

Plataforma per la Llengua maintains that Spain has breached three articles of the European Convention on Human Rights: one that prohibits discrimination, another establishing the right to a fair trial and a third guaranteeing effective remedy

Alongside this, the organisation has submitted an appeal to the TSJC against its decision not to consider the recusal of the court which this July provisionally suspended the Decree on language in the education system promoted by the Catalan Department of Education

Plataforma per la Llengua has presented a report listing the violations of linguistic rights in Spain and noting the country's failure to comply with other States' recommendations

The organisation makes seven recommendations for other States to pass on to Spain, including adding Catalan speakers as a protected group in the signing of the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, punishing language discrimination, and allowing children to be taught entirely in Catalan in schools

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a mechanism of the UN Human Rights Council under which States assess each other to analyse their level of respect for human rights

Plataforma per la Llengua celebrates the content of the committee's report, based on which the Council of Europe's Council of Ministers will issue its final recommendations to Spain

The experts' report lists reverses for Catalan throughout the areas in Spain where it is spoken in key areas such as education, justice, administration and the media

In January, Plataforma per la Llengua met the group of experts and provided them with an analysis of all the breaches of the European Charter of Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) committed by Spain in recent years

The assembly of delegates of the European network FUEN agrees to ask member States to vote in favour of Catalan being given official status in the European Union and to demand that the Spanish and European institutions ensure that language immersion is maintained in Catalan schools

Maria de Lluc Muñoz, head of the Plataforma per la Llengua's International section, attends the 68^th Congress of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN), one of the main organisations protecting national and language minorities

The Congress celebrates FUEN's 75^th anniversary and gives delegates the chance get to know the Frisian minority in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein

The president of the organisation, Òscar Escuder, highlights the recent negotiations the Spanish president has been able to unblock and calls for the same effort for official status for Catalan

Escuder calls on Sánchez to achieve official status if he wants to show that he upholds the linguistic plurality of Spain in a real way that goes beyond mere rhetoric

The organisation emphasises that the distribution of senior positions is a bargaining space that can be used for making Catalan official

The Spanish government holds the key to unblocking the situation and has failed to keep its promise, notes Plataforma per la Llengua

The organisation calls for the official status of Catalan to be put to a vote, regardless of the opinion of the EU Council's legal services

Marc Guevara, head of Education and Universities of Plataforma per la Lengua, describes the court decisions against the Catalan language school in Catalonia as a "strategy orchestrated by the Spanish State to wear down Catalan schools and to question the vehicularity of our language"

The international conference "Protecting Education in Minoritised Languages, Strengthening Language Rights: How to Progress?" took place at the headquarters of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans and was attended by representatives of the Council of Europe and the UN

Starting this June, Plataforma per la Llengua has achieved special consultative status with the UN's Economic and Social Council, one of its six main bodies

With this recognition, the organisation will be able to access UN facilities, give advice, and participate in the events of the body that coordinates the IMF, WHO, UNESCO and the ILO

Plataforma per la Llengua believes that this status will give greater political weight to the protection of the rights of Catalan-speakers and allow it to establish more international alliances