August Gil Matamala

August Gil i Matamala (born in Barcelona on September 19, 1934) is a Catalan lawyer specializing in human rights.

Biography

Married to Isabel Giner i San Julián and father of actor Ariadna Gil i Giner. He has had a long and prestigious career in the field of defence of human rights.[1][2] He set up the first university branch of the PSUC (Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia) in 1956 while studying for a law degree at the University of Barcelona.[3] Between 1960 and 1975 he defended trade unionists from Workers' Commissions, members of Bandera Roja and other political activists before the Francoist Tribunal de Orden Público (Court of Public Order) and he became a well-known labour lawyer.[3] After the end of the Franco regime, he represented Catalan and Basque pro-independence activists.[3] In particular, he defended those from Terra Lliure rounded up in Operation Garzón.[2][3] He chaired the Association of European Democratic Lawyers (AED), set up in Strasbourg in 1990 and dedicated to defending citizens' rights, preserving the independence of lawyers and fighting for the establishment of a democratic and progressive system of European law.[3]

August Gil i Matamala in 2021

On October 13, 2012, he was chosen to be the eighty-fifth on the list of the CUP-Alternativa d'Esquerres for Barcelona in the elections to the Parliament of Catalonia in 2012, with the aim of closing the constituency list, along with the football player Oleguer Presas and the writer Julià de Jòdar. In 2007 he was awarded the Creu de Sant Jordi and in 2013 he received the Lluís Companys Memorial Award from the Josep Irla Foundation.[4] In 2019 he was also given the Medalla d’or al Mèrit Cívic (Gold Award for Civil Merit) from the city council of Barcelona.[1]

In the 2015 municipal elections, he was candidate for the CUP-Capgirem Barcelona, once again with the aim of closing the list for Barcelona.[4]

August Gil Matamala is currently part of Barcelona City Council’s group of experts on the victims of the Franco regime in the city between 1960 and 1978.[1]

In 2017, David Fernàndez and Anna Gabriel published August Gil Matamala’s biography: Al principi de tot hi ha la guerra[5](At the Beginning of Everything is the War) with the publishing house Sembra Llibres.

References
  1. "L'Ajuntament reconeix la trajectòria d'August Gil Matamala amb la Medalla d'Or al Mèrit Cívic". Ajuntament de Barcelona. Archived from the original on 2021-10-30. Retrieved 2021-10-30.
  2. "August Gil Matamala: "El pacto de la Transición comportaba la amnesia y el olvido"". elDiario.es.
  3. "El abogado August Gil Matamala recibe la Medalla de Oro de Barcelona". La Vanguardia.
  4. "August Gil i Matamala". enciclopèdia.cat.
  5. "Al principi de tot hi ha la guerra". Sembra llibres.
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