The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights urged Spain to observe the rights of Catalans amid reports on detentions and searches in numerous public agencies, including the local government ahead of the region’s independence referendum.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Madrid has to observe the rights of the people of the Spanish northwestern region of Catalonia ahead of the region’s independence vote, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a statement on Thursday.

In early September, Catalonia’s Parliament passed a bill enabling an independence referendum to be held on October 1. Madrid subsequently challenged the motion in the Spanish Constitutional Court, which ruled the plebiscite unconstitutional.

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