The collaboration between the Catalan Association of Democratic Jurists and the FCCSM: an unexpected and fruitful response full of dignity

 

Someone from a mental health foundation called.

– Ooh, ooh, ooh, and what do they want

– Although they say they are very concerned about the issue of refugees trying to reach Europe via the Mediterranean, about the refugee camps…

But why were they calling us?.

They tell me that because they are very worried, they want to do something.

– Ah, very good, and why are they calling us?.

– I don't understand it either, they say we should do something together.

– Junts? And what did you say they were called.

– I have here noted Foundation of something..., Foundation Catalan Congress of Mental Health.

– Wow, what a strange name. But do you think they're serious?

 

And so it began in 2016, an experience that served us all, the refugees undoubtedly, but also fundamentally all of us, who grew and managed to abandon, for the duration of the project and adventure, our little “refuge” or mental stronghold, created by the rigidities of our respective professions.

What could a group of psychologists and psychiatrists want from us? What could people dedicated to the mind, and especially to mental health problems, want from us who are so concerned with legal matters, without finding the time to worry about the problems of the mind: I remember one of us saying “Watch out, they might make us worry in the end.”.

With some distrust, we entered into a series of meetings with some endearing, humane people eager to mobilize society's sensitivity, at least that of some jurists to whom this collaboration between branches, not opposed but permanently distant when it came to the problems affecting our society, seemed very strange. Our colleagues from the FCCSM had it clearer; their daily dedication to mental health issues allowed them to have the patience to know that collaboration between different branches, visions, and sensitivities would eventually bear fruit. They knew what they were doing, or at least they could intuit it.

They really hit the mark. They managed to get us all to work, they managed to get us all to bring a project to life, which, by leveraging the knowledge, contributions, and sensitivities of each of the fields of study that until then lived in isolation, and above all, by leveraging the union of all of this, became a creative project that helped us face and better understand the harshness of an inhuman phenomenon that, if it existed and continues to exist, is precisely because the society of which it is a part tolerates it. For this primary reason, it was and is so important to become aware and get involved, something we wouldn't have done on our own.

It must be said that as a consequence of the proposal, the enthusiasm and empathy of the FCCSM people, we managed, in addition to holding various events and conferences that served to raise social awareness, to carry out one of the most original, creative, interesting, and valuable actions in recent years in the legal field. This consisted of filing an exceptional appeal before the Court of Justice of the European Union, requesting the annulment of the Report "Agreement between the EU and Turkey" which sought to externalize the refugee problem and suffering to Turkey. Beyond the outcome of the appeal, which is always difficult, the action was one of the most dignified a society could take in the face of the indignity of governments incapable of showing the slightest empathy for the weakest. We will always be grateful to the FCCSM, but we will also miss what we did in those days.

Andrés Pérez Subirana
President of the Catalan Association of Democratic Jurists from 2012 to 2017