Spain
A combined view of Spain's UN General Assembly speeches, treaty commitments, and voting record.
The narrative paragraphs below are AI-generated syntheses of the data shown — the tables and figures themselves come directly from the underlying records, not from the AI.
Compare with another country →Speech history
Spain's General Assembly rhetoric has remained steadily multilateralist across 15 years, consistently scoring above 78 on multilateralism with a peak of 94 in 2009. While emotional intensity fluctuated considerably—rising sharply in 2019 and 2020 (87 and 86 respectively) before moderating slightly—and concrete commitments were initially modest in the mid-2000s, Spain shifted noticeably from 2021 onward, combining sustained multilateral advocacy with substantially higher self-accountability, pledging concrete financial and policy initiatives on climate, vaccines, migration, and gender. Most recently, in 2025, Spain articulated a values-driven defense of the UN system on its 80th anniversary while addressing Gaza and Ukraine, maintaining the multilateralist framing and emotional engagement characteristic of its post-2018 posture.
| Session | Multilateralism | Emotional intensity | Concreteness | Self-accountability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Very High | High | High | Medium |
| 2007 | Very High | Medium | High | High |
| 2008 | Very High | High | Medium | High |
| 2009 | Very High | High | High | Medium |
| 2010 | Very High | Medium | Medium | Medium |
| 2014 | High | High | Medium | High |
| 2017 | Very High | Medium | Medium | Medium |
| 2018 | Very High | High | High | High |
| 2019 | Very High | Very High | High | Medium |
| 2020 | Very High | Very High | Medium | Low |
| 2021 | Very High | High | Very High | Very High |
| 2022 | Very High | Medium | High | High |
| 2023 | Very High | High | High | High |
| 2024 | Very High | High | High | High |
| 2025 | Very High | Very High | Medium | Medium |
Treaty status
Full treaty record →Spain has demonstrated comprehensive commitment to international legal frameworks, ratifying 23 of 24 tracked treaties across human rights, environmental, arms control, international justice, and trade governance themes. Its environmental and human rights portfolios are particularly robust, with ratification of all tracked instruments from the Paris Agreement and Montreal Protocol family to the full suite of core human rights conventions and the Rome Statute. The sole absence is the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, suggesting Spain's alignment with NATO nuclear doctrine rather than a broader resistance to arms control commitments.
Arms control & security
- Arms Trade TreatyRatified
- Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban TreatyRatified
- Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their DestructionRatified
- Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear WeaponsNo action
Environment & climate
- Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their DisposalRatified
- Convention on Biological DiversityRatified
- Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone LayerRatified
- Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate ChangeRatified
- Minamata Convention on MercuryRatified
- Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone LayerRatified
- Paris AgreementRatified
- Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International TradeRatified
- Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic PollutantsRatified
- United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in AfricaRatified
- United Nations Framework Convention on Climate ChangeRatified
Human rights
- Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or PunishmentRatified
- Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against WomenRatified
- Convention on the Rights of Persons with DisabilitiesRatified
- Convention on the Rights of the ChildRatified
- International Covenant on Civil and Political RightsRatified
International justice
- Rome Statute of the International Criminal CourtRatified
Trade & governance
- United Nations Convention against CorruptionRatified
- United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized CrimeRatified
- United Nations Convention on the Law of the SeaRatified
Voting record
Full voting record →Spain's voting record shows overwhelming alignment with General Assembly consensus, with over 65% yes votes across 5,544 recorded votes since 1962. Notable dissents occur exclusively on colonial and regional questions from the 1960s—specifically votes against resolutions on Angola, Portuguese territories, and the Spanish Sahara despite near-universal support (97–98% consensus). These historical outliers reflect Spain's own colonial positions rather than a pattern; since the 1960s, Spain has maintained consistent consensus alignment on global governance issues.
Notable dissents from consensus
Question of Ifni and Spanish Sahara : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly
1966-12-20 · voted N · 98% voted yes
Question of Ifni and Spanish Sahara : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly
1965-12-16 · voted N · 98% voted yes
The situation in Angola : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly
1962-01-30 · voted N · 98% voted yes
Territories under Portuguese administration : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly
1963-12-03 · voted N · 98% voted yes
The situation in Angola : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly
1961-04-20 · voted N · 97% voted yes
Human development
Full HDI record →Human Development Index: 0.918 (Very High), ranked #28 globally in 2023.
Combines life expectancy, education, and income into one comparable score, 0 to 1. Source: UNDP Human Development Report 2025 — deterministic figures, not AI-generated.
1990–2023