Isabel Valriberas, Grupo Social ONCE and Rubén Vigil, awarded at the XXVIII Carlos Carnicer Human Rights Awards

Abogacía Española has made public the verdict of the XXVIII Carlos Carnicer Human Rights Awards, which this year are held under the motto "There are no first-class rights. Nor second-class people", with special attention to equality and the fight against discrimination. The jury has distinguished Isabel Valriberas, dean of the Ceuta Bar Association, in the Person category; the Grupo Social ONCE, in the Institution category; and Rubén Vigil Fernández, head of the Communication and Press Area of the Princess of Asturias Foundation, in the Communication category. The Nacho de la Mata Special Award, dedicated to the defence of children's rights, has gone to journalist Gabriela Sánchez, and the jury has also granted a special mention to the Spanish Observatory of Racism and Xenophobia (OBERAXE).

The four award winners have developed their work in very different fields, but their trajectories share, in the institution's words, the same concern: that a person's circumstances - their origin, a disability or their personal situation - do not become an obstacle to exercising their rights. The awards will be presented on 10 December, coinciding with Human Rights Day, in a ceremony that will bring together the winners with representatives of the legal world and civil society.

Isabel Valriberas: defending human rights from the border

The dean of the Ceuta Bar Association has stood out for her commitment to the right of defence in the autonomous city, especially during the migration crises it has lived through. Her work at the head of the bar and her defence of the legal aid system have been fundamental, according to the verdict, to guarantee legal assistance to persons in situations of special vulnerability, in a territory where access to justice poses especially complex challenges.

Grupo Social ONCE: turning equality into real opportunities

The Grupo Social ONCE receives the recognition in the Institution category for its trajectory in favour of the inclusion and equal opportunities of persons with disabilities. The figures accompanying the verdict give the measure of that trajectory: close to 80,000 professionals, 59 percent of them with disabilities, and 262.6 million euros devoted to direct social investment, a commitment translated into employment, accessibility and opportunities for thousands of people.

Rubén Vigil: more than twenty years giving visibility to stories that deserve to be told

The award in the Communication category recognises Rubén Vigil Fernández, who has spent more than twenty years at the head of communications of the Princess of Asturias Foundation, from where he has contributed to giving visibility to people and organisations committed to fundamental rights. His trajectory highlights, according to the verdict, the role of communication in bringing these causes closer to citizens and making known the work of those who defend human dignity.

Gabriela Sánchez and migrant childhood

The Nacho de la Mata Special Award, dedicated to the defence of children's rights, recognises Gabriela Sánchez, head of the Desalambre section of elDiario.es, for her commitment to the defence of the rights of migrant children. Through her investigations she has given visibility to situations of abandonment, lack of protection and violation of rights affecting unaccompanied migrant minors, especially in Ceuta, and has contributed to denouncing the deficiencies of the reception systems and expulsions without guarantees.

The special mention to OBERAXE recognises the work of the Spanish Observatory of Racism and Xenophobia in the prevention and fight against racism, xenophobia and other forms of discrimination. Through the monitoring of hate speech and awareness initiatives, the Observatory contributes, according to the verdict, to making these situations visible and to promoting a society more respectful of diversity: a constant documentation work that rarely occupies headlines, but which sustains a good part of public policies against discrimination.

The set of awards also draws a very concrete geography of human rights in 2026: the Ceuta border appears twice - in Valriberas' trajectory and in Gabriela Sánchez's investigations -, and migrant childhood, disability and racism complete a map of priorities that the jury wanted to put on the table.

The jury has valued, in short, trajectories sustained over time as against one-off gestures: more than twenty years of committed communication, decades of work for inclusion, years of bar defence at the border and a journalistic section built around the rights of migrant children. That preference for constancy is also a message about how the institutional legal profession understands the defence of human rights.

The verdict was made known on 4 November, six weeks ahead of the ceremony, a margin that allows the winners and the bar associations to prepare their presence at the event and the specialised media to advance the analysis of a list of winners that, as every year, marks the priorities of the institutional legal profession in human rights.

A motto with an addressee

The motto chosen for this edition - "There are no first-class rights. Nor second-class people" - precisely summarises the thread that unites the four winners and the institution mentioned: effective equality as the real frontier of fundamental rights. It is not an abstract slogan: it speaks of the dean who guarantees defence at a border, of the social group that turns disability into employment, of the communicator who gives a loudspeaker to the causes and of the journalist who documents the minors the system leaves out of the picture.

Twenty-eight editions of professional commitment

Throughout its 28 editions, the Carlos Carnicer Human Rights Awards have become an occasion to publicly recognise the work of people and organisations that, often far from the spotlight, devote their trajectory to defending fundamental rights, from the legal profession to journalism, through social organisations. With them, Abogacía Española also seeks to bring these stories closer to society and to recall the importance of continuing to pay attention to the situations in which fundamental rights are threatened.

The ceremony on 10 December, on the eve of International Human Rights Day, will bring together the award winners with representatives of the legal world and civil society, in one of the institutional events most laden with meaning in the calendar of the Spanish legal profession.

In our events section you can consult other recent events of the institutional legal profession, such as the III Meeting of In-House Lawyers of the ICAM and the ICAB or the II Conscious Lawyering Congress in Fuerteventura.

Precision note: award winners, categories, figures, motto and ceremony date come from the official note published by Abogacía Española on 4 November 2026.

Sources

• Abogacia.es: "Abogacía Española names the winners of its XXVIII Human Rights Awards"