The right to self-determination of the peoples in the Catalan parliamentary protodiplomacy: the Palestinian and Saharaui cases
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14422/cir.i11.y2018.004Keywords:
Parliamentary paradiplomacy, protodiplomacy, self-determination of the peoples, Parlament of Catalonia, political parties, Palestine, Western SaharaAbstract
This study addresses the Catalan parliamentary paradiplomacy through the concept of the right to self-determination. However, it is not about the self-determination of Catalonia nor the claims of independence. This is about how this concept is discussed in the Parlament (regional parliament) in relation to other claims of that kind, namely, those in Western Sahara and in Palestine. Therefore, the document begins with a discussion about concepts and definitions. Next, we will analyse the Catalan paradiplomacy in general and, in particular, its parliamentary protodiplomacy at the level of the Generalitat (regional government) and also in its Parlament. The following part evaluates in detail how the issues of Western Sahara and of Palestine have been discussed in the Parlament within the broader context of this proto-diplomacy. The study shows that there are discrepancies among the political parties at the Catalan level on how and if they instrumentalize the notion, the concept and the right to self-determination in other independence movements along Catalonia's own debate about its future. And there is a conclusion.
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