Barcelona (Catalonia) Spanish Kingdom, september 25, 2025 (Lasvocesdelpueblo).- Mondiacult 2025 | A group of Catalans protest outside the Mondiacult against discrimination against the Spanish language in Catalonia. Protesters held signs with messages against discrimination in the Spanish language in Catalonia and read a manifesto in spanish and english during the first day of the UNESCO international conference (Mondiacult 2025), bringing together the world’s ministers of culture: «Spanish language is persecuted by catalans politcians»; «Spanish is culture too»; «la cultura no es censura»; «sentences are carried out, they are not hidden»; «la lengua une, Salvador Illa Roca divide»; «lenguage should unites, not divide»; «stop discrimination against spanish speakers»; «No policy to silence Spanish»; «Enough of imposition, we want choice».
VÍDEO. SEPTEMBER 29, 2025
MANIFESTO
Open Letter to the Organizing Committee of the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development (MONDIACULT 2025) in Barcelona and to all attending Ministers of Culture [READ THE OPEN LETTER IN SPANISH HERE: LETTER]:
The systematic exclusion of Spanish as an official language in the public sphere and as a vehicular language in the educational system of Catalonia, with the resulting negative impact on cultural diversity, academic performance, and social cohesion in the Catalan region, has led us to denounce this situation before UNESCO on the occasion of the MONDIACULT 2025 Conference in Barcelona.
First of all, we would like to express our satisfaction that MONDIACULT 2025, the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development, is taking place in such a vibrant and plural city as Barcelona. On the occasion of this conference, dedicated to promoting culture as a global public good, the undersigned entities wish to bring to your attention the situation of linguistic and cultural discrimination existing in Catalonia.
The purpose of this communication is to highlight the profound contradiction we observe in the context in which the conference is held. While MONDIACULT promotes cultural diversity and multilingualism as pillars for peace and development, in Catalonia, the host region, we live a systematic exclusion of one of its official languages, Spanish, as a language of instruction in the educational system and of normal use in public administration.
Spanish, the mother tongue of more than half of Catalonia’s population and official throughout Spain, is spoken by nearly 600 million people worldwide and represents a first -rate cultural heritage. Despite this, the so-called «linguistic immersion» model, mandatory in Catalonia, relegates Spanish to a mere subject, preventing thousands of children and young people from being educated in their mother tongue. This situation is unique in the world —no country excludes the official language of the State from public administration and education— is the reason why more than half of the population feels like foreigners in their own country. This contributes to academic failure, as demonstrated by international studies and comparative studies with the rest of Spain. It also causes Catalan schoolchildren to only have adequate competence in the regional Catalan language, which is not useful as a communication tool outside the region. This leads to a considerable loss of professional opportunities and social mobility for the most disadvantaged sectors, as social and political elites systematically send their children to private schools that do not apply the so-called «linguistic immersion.» These non-immersive schools are beyond the reach of the vast majority of the population.
This policy not only contravenes the recommendations of countless pedagogical experts on the benefits of education in one’s mother tongue, the best according to UNESCO doctrine, but also violates fundamental rights recognized by the Spanish Constitution and the consolidated jurisprudence of its highest courts. It is worth noting that the Spanish Constitution does not mandate knowledge of Spain’s regional languages. On the contrary, knowledge of the Spanish language is mandatory. Thus, the political practices of the Catalan region completely subvert constitutional rights and duties in this area, from the perspective of a fractional nationalism that seeks to use linguistic policy as a means for secession. More importantly, from the perspective of the values UNESCO defends, this exclusion impoverishes the cultural capital of students and creates social division by denying the bilingual reality of our community.
With great regret, we have observed that the MONDIACULT agenda has not given a voice to civic entities like ours, which work to defend the linguistic rights of Spanish speakers in Catalonia, as well as the right of all students to acquire adequate competence in the only official and common language throughout Spain. Spanish represents invaluable cultural and communicative capital and serves as a unifying link among all Spanish citizens, promoting social cohesion. We would have greatly appreciated the opportunity to contribute our testimony and analysis in such a qualified forum to illustrate how a cultural policy can paradoxically undermine the very diversity it supposedly seeks to protect.
We believe that the conclusions of a conference on cultural policies held in Barcelona cannot be complete if they ignore such a flagrant violation of linguistic and cultural rights affecting millions of citizens precisely in the territory hosting the event.
For all the reasons stated above, we formally request that this letter be taken into account by the organizers and participants of MONDIACULT 2025.
Convocan manifestación ante MONDIACULT: «Stop discriminación hispanohablantes»
We are fully available to provide all documentation, pedagogical reports, and judicial rulings that substantiate the situation described herein. We trust that UNESCO, as a guarantor of cultural diversity and educational rights worldwide, will take this reflection with the seriousness it deserves.
Barcelona, September 25, 2025
Aixeca’t – Levántate, AMES (Teachers’ Union), Asamblea por una Escuela Bilingüe, Asociación de profesores por el bilingüismo, Asociación por la Tolerancia, Cataluña Suma, Convivencia Cívica Catalana, Escuela de Todos, Espanya i Catalans, Impulso Ciudadano, Sociedad Civil Catalana, and Unión de Brigadas Vanguardia Española
Contact addresses
Antonio Jimeno (AMES) ames@ames-fps.com
Francisco Oya (Asociación de profesores por el bilingüismo) espyfoc@gmail.com
Marita Rodríguez (Asociación por la Tolerancia) asociacion.tolerancia@gmail.com
VÍDEO. SEPTEMBER 29, 2025
