Òmnium Cultural is a Catalan NGO based in Barcelona with more than 190.000 members and 60 years of history working for culture, social cohesion and civil rights. Historically, it has been a pillar for the promotion of Catalan culture and language and, over years, it has also become one of the main actors in the defense of civil, political and cultural rights in Catalonia.

Òmnium Civil Rights Europe, its Brussels branch, has been created to share this struggle with the European civil society.

CIVIL RIGHTS

Since October 2017, we have seen a worrying rise on the cases of civil rights violations in Catalonia, especially. 3.500 have suffered the Spanish repression so far, including peaceful demonstrators, civil society leaders or activists. That’s why we advocate civil rights such as freedom of speech and the right to peacefully protest

CULTURE

Since its inception, Òmnium has been committed and devoted to the spread of culture at all levels. We have many initiatives to promote the Catalan language in all levels: literature, education, use by the public, presence in audiovisual platforms… Catalan is spoken by more than 10 million in Europe, but it has been systematically minorized by the Spanish institutions.

SOCIAL COHESION

Around the world, societies with higher rates of literacy and a strong cultural sector tend to be consolidated democracies with a robust welfare system. For this reason, we carry out cultural projects in order to boost social transformations and support social cohesion through education.