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While the security forces used disproportionate force against non-violent Catalan protesters, those protesters remained non-violent in their actions (Photo: Assemblea.cat)

Catalonia shows dangers of jail terms for non-violence

Catalonia has been marked by street violence ever since the judgment and sentencing of the nine leaders of Catalan independence movement earlier this week.

This has been grimly predictable in light of the Spanish government's overbearing criminal justice response to the non-violent self-determination movement in Catalonia.

As I have written in these pages, the Spanish governm...

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The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s, not those of EUobserver

Author Bio

Ralph Bunche is the general secretary of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation, an international association of nations and peoples denied equal representation in the institutions of national or international governance. Previously he was the European regional director for Fair Trials, the global criminal justice watchdog, and ran the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe's largest trial monitoring programme.

While the security forces used disproportionate force against non-violent Catalan protesters, those protesters remained non-violent in their actions (Photo: Assemblea.cat)

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Author Bio

Ralph Bunche is the general secretary of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation, an international association of nations and peoples denied equal representation in the institutions of national or international governance. Previously he was the European regional director for Fair Trials, the global criminal justice watchdog, and ran the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe's largest trial monitoring programme.

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