Current events: news and press releases

Catalan Ombudswoman calls for country-wide agreement to transform the Catalan Government:

18/03/2026

Today, the Catalan Ombudsman office presented the annual report for the year 2025, a document that records all its supervisory activity over the public authorities and the state of citizens' rights.

The report states that the current Government is at the end of an era and that it is therefore essential to rethink the model to adapt it to the new social, demographic and technological challenges of present-day Catalonia: "It is not a matter of taking isolated measures. We are talking about a profound transition – structural, cultural and long-term – so that the Government can recover its raison d'être: to be at the service of citizens", the Ombudswoman stated.

An unequivocal sign that the current Government is not responding to current needs is that the institution has received more complaints than ever. During 2025, more than 25,000 actions were recorded, the highest volume in the institution's history, with 13,646 complaints, 11,428 enquiries and 213 ex officio actions.

This growth is particularly significant regarding social rights which, for the first time, account for more than half of the complaints, 50.1%:

• Social services, a 61.6% increase in complaints
• Housing, 52.4%
• Health, 43%
• Childhood and adolescence, 40.1%
• Education, 19.1%

Also worth highlighting is the increase recorded in transport and mobility (51.6%), especially complaints related to the operation of the Rodalies commuter train (578 complaints, 136% more than in 2024). Regarding complaint resolution, irregularities were detected in 43.3% of the complaints, and the Government has accepted 92.3% of the recommendations and suggestions, either fully or partially.

A system under strain in the face of more complex social needs

The report highlights several paradoxes in how the Government currently functions. To begin with, despite the increase in resources allocated to social policies, the pressure on assistance services and the feeling of being overwhelmed among professionals in basic public services (basic social services, primary healthcare and educational centres, among others) has grown.

In many cases, administrative procedures remain complex and slow, resulting in delays in accessing rights and benefits. Furthermore, in some areas, waiting lists have increased and waiting times have lengthened compared with 2024. For example, in the health sector, there are 4% more patients waiting for surgery (with a waiting time of 148 days) and 8% more patients waiting for diagnostic tests. As for older people and people with disabilities, waiting lists have also increased: by 7% in elderly care homes (583-day wait) and by 6% in residential services for people with disabilities (1,991-day wait). The processing time for the citizens' guaranteed income has increased from 76 to 122 days.

Administrative controls, which have multiplied, have also been criticised. Although they constitute a guarantee of legality, in some cases they have become obstacles to real effectiveness. They can become an unbearable burden for citizens and public servants, who spend 30% of their working day on bureaucratic tasks, and this is to the detriment of the public service.

The report also warns that many social benefits do not reach everyone who needs them. Around 60% of people in a situation of extreme material deprivation receive neither the minimum basic income nor the citizens' guaranteed income.

Another indication that the current Government has reached the end of an era is the slowness with which major transformations are advancing. For example, the single window in the field of social services is still not a reality, despite being scheduled for 2025. In environmental matters, a decisive push is also lacking to deploy renewable energies. And in housing, a stable social housing stock has not been sufficiently promoted (there are 40,000 dwellings, but nearly 120,000 people on the Social Housing Applicants Register) nor is there a housing stock to address residential emergencies (the number of families awaiting the allocation of a home has increased by 23.4%). However,  some structural policies were initiated in this area in 2025 to resolve this problem in the medium and long term.

Another element that merits mention is that, under the current Government, organisational considerations often take precedence over the public interest. An example of this is that staff stabilisation processes – an exceptional mechanism designed to reduce temporary employment by making temporary posts permanent – and internal transfer schemes have left many teams short-staffed or without personnel with specialised training, which has had a direct impact on citizens. Thus, the management teams of many highly complex centres and child protection services have been left under-resourced. The management of the citizens' guaranteed income has also been affected, and this has resulted in further delays.

Another symptom of this end of an era is that certain situations have become commonplace, which, in the institution's view, should not be normalised: approximately 300 children under the age of six under the guardianship of the Government live in residential care facilities; nearly 5,000 people with disabilities and more than 2,000 people with a mental illness are on a waiting list to access a residential care service, with waits of over five and three years, respectively; more than one in ten employed people is at risk of poverty...

The phenomenon of homelessness is also increasingly present in our cities (more than 6,700 people live on the streets or in an encampment in Catalonia). Faced with this situation, at the end of 2025, the institution launched the Taula Institucional per a l’Abordatge del Sensellarisme (Institutional Board for Combatting Homelessness), which seeks to encourage all stakeholders to act in a coordinated manner to find effective solutions to this problem.

On a positive note, the 2.7% decrease in the crime rate is worthy of mention. Furthermore, we are a safe country in terms of the most serious crimes, such as homicides, which has us trailing behind other European countries. The largest share of crimes is theft and robbery, although these have also fallen by 4.5%. Despite this, the Ombudswoman has expressed her concern about the number of femicides recorded in 2025.

A new administrative transition

Faced with this scenario, the report highlights the need for a new transition so that the Catalan Government can recover its original mission. This profound transformation must be based on the simplification of procedures, personalised attention, being in touch with citizens and the ethical and efficient use of technology.

In the Ombudswoman's opinion, this transformation can only be carried out with a far-reaching, country-wide agreement: a consensus among political, institutional and social stakeholders to build 21st-century public authorities, capable of effectively guaranteeing the rights of 21st-century citizens.

As with the previous year, you can consult the explanatory web page for the report [in Catalan], with access to the institution's open data.

The Catalan deputy for children, newly elected president of the ENOC Bureau

23/09/2025

The Catalan deputy for the defence of children's and adolescents' rights, Aida C. Rodríguez, has been elected president-elect of the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children (ENOC) for the 2025/2026 term. The election took place during the 29^th ENOC General Assembly, held in Bucharest on 17 and 18 September. This assembly focused on the right to physical health of children and adolescents.

Young advisers from Catalonia, Andalusia, the Basque Country, Croatia, Cyprus, Iceland, Italy, Malta, Montenegro, Northern Ireland, Poland, Scotland, Slovakia and Ukraine attended this year's edition. They all met in early July in Croatia to draw up a series of recommendations on the right to physical health, which they have now presented to ENOC members.

ENOC is a network of independent institutions that defend children's rights. Its main tasks are:

• promoting the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child;
• supporting groups that work to defend children's rights;
• sharing information and strategies among its member states; and
• promoting the development of ombudsman offices for children.

Founded in 1997, it currently has 43 member institutions from 34 states.

ENOC organises an annual meeting, attended by all its members as well as guest observers, such as ombudsman offices, organisations like UNICEF, and institutions such as the European Union and the Council of Europe. 

It is urgent to stop the violations of children's rights in the Gaza Strip

22/08/2025

Alarmed by the serious violations of children's rights in Gaza, the Catalan Ombudsman office (Síndic de Greuges), endorses the institutional statement by the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children (ENOC) and calls for the protection of these children's rights.

As a member of the ENOC board, the Catalan Ombudsman office shares the points set out in the statement and urges national governments, the European Union, the United Nations and the relevant international bodies to take immediate, coordinated and decisive action to promote a ceasefire in the region and enforce international law. This is necessary to protect the lives, integrity and rights of children and adolescents in Gaza. ENOC recalls that the protection of children is an inescapable legal and moral obligation, not a subject for political debate.

The dramatic and ongoing situation in Gaza constitutes an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, the international community's insufficient response and the lack of protection for the most vulnerable call the validity of human rights as a fundamental universal value into serious question.

Children in the Gaza region are victims of violations of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, including rights to life, survival and development, access to healthcare, protection from violence, freedom from inhuman treatment, and the rights to education and play.

For these reasons, the ombudswoman, as defender of the rights of children and adolescents, supports this statement and calls for an urgent and forceful international response to put an end to this serious humanitarian catastrophe.

• Statement

We have participated in the Athens Democracy Forum to discuss the challenges of democracy in the age of artificial intelligence

03/10/2024

The institution of the Catalan Ombudsman participated in the Athens Democracy Forum, a space for debate that this year reflects on the role of democracy in the age of artificial intelligence, fake news and social networks. The aim was to bring together leaders, intellectuals and experts from around the world to address the key challenges facing democracy today.

Anna Piferrer, from the Catalan Ombudsman’s Area for Children and Adolescents, accompanied Giada and Ferran, young advisers and students from two secondary schools in Catalonia, the Josep Lladonosa secondary school, in Lleida, and the Maristes Anna Ravell secondary school, in Barcelona. In total, young advisors from eleven European regions, including Catalonia, the Basque Country and Andalusia, participated in the Forum.

The Forum, now in its 12th year, was held in Athens, the capital of Greece and the birthplace of democracy. The event took place from 1 to 3 October and was organized by The Democracy & Culture Foundation, in collaboration with the New York Times.

The Catalan ombudswoman argues that restorative amnesty is important to resolve the Catalan conflict

26/10/2023

The Catalan ombudswoman, Esther Giménez-Salinas, has travelled to Luxembourg to participate in the seminar “Crisis management: what is the role of the ombudsperson?”, organised by the Association of Ombudsmen and Mediators of the Francophonie (AOMF), which has taken place on 24 and 25 October.

The main mission of the AOMF is to promote the role of ombudsperson institutions in French-speaking countries in Europe, America and Africa, and to encourage the development and consolidation of independent mediation institutions.

The seminar was organised around the role of ombudsperson institutions in three specific situations: a health crisis, a national crisis and a climate crisis.

During the round table on national crises, which also included the ombudswomen of Burkina Faso and the Principality of Monaco, Esther Giménez-Salinas has spoken about the conflict between Catalonia and Spain, which intensified after the referendum of 1 October 2017. This referendum had a number of consequences, such as the application of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution to the Catalan government and administration (which started the process of suspending the region’s self-government), and the imprisonment and exile of those accused of organising it.

The Catalan ombudswoman has given a historical overview of the conflict, which in her opinion began with the amendment of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia in 2006. She also wanted to denounce the criminal dimension that this conflict has taken on, despite it being an eminently political crisis: "The judicialisation of political conflicts is not a good option, not even for justice itself", she said.

She has also stressed the importance of the granting of pardons, which were a first step towards normalisation, but she has pointed out that "there is still a long way to go and many open wounds". She has also welcomed the removal of the crime of sedition from the Penal Code, as "it was an outdated crime, not in line with European legislation and with excessively high penalties".

She has concluded her speech by saying that the amnesty route may sometimes seem unfair, but it is necessary. For it to be possible, it must incorporate the principles of restorative justice and meet three conditions: it must bring social peace, it must have positive consequences that outweigh the harm, and it must be supported by a broad majority.