In recent months, concepts such as “military spending”, “defense budget” and “military service” seem to have re-entered our common vocabulary. At a time when Europe appears to have recovered old ghosts and the drums of war are beating with an intensity not seen for decades, the Catalan pacifist movement finds itself at a political and social crossroads. “Historically, Catalonia has been a great promoter of peace, an antimilitarist country”, highlights Montse Santolino, a member of Lafede, the benchmark federation of Catalan entities working in the fields of peace, human rights, and development. Proof that the Catalan pacifist movement is still alive is the collective Dones x Dones, which, on the first Thursday of each month, has been protesting in silence in Plaça Sant Jaume for four years to protest against wars.

Five years ago, a bill for the creation of a Catalan Center for Business and Human Rights was introduced in the Catalan Parliament. The bill, promoted by Lafede and the Catalan Roundtable for Peace and Human Rights in Colombia, proposed creating, through a decree law, a body to ensure compliance with the 2014 foreign action law, which requires that all activity and money leaving Catalonia guarantee human rights. Although it began to be discussed in 2015 and was first brought to Parliament in 2020, the continuous changes in parliament have delayed the bill, which has now been admitted for processing for the third time—the second time in 2021—with the votes in favor of the PSC, Comuns, ERC, Junts, and the CUP. The proponents' goal is "for it to be approved before the end of the year."