ODHE presents its Catalejo 2024 Awards in Malaga

The Human Rights Observatory of Spain (ODHE) presented its Catalejo 2024 Awards at an event held at the Thyssen Museum in Malaga, where it also organised a seminar on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights in collaboration with the Malaga Provincial Council and the Malaga City Council.

At the opening of the event, Toñi Ledesma, third vice-president of the Provincial Council, and Mar Torres, councillor for Citizen Participation and External Action of Malaga City Council, expressed their appreciation for the entrepreneurial nature of the ODHE, for its initiative to work to highlight the positive work being done in many sectors of Spanish society and thanked Malaga for the distinction as a city that promotes human rights.

Both Ledesma and Torres pointed out the great challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence, human rights and sustainable development and the need to face them with increased cooperation between administrations and between public and private institutions, such as civil society, as is the case of the ODHE with the celebration of the conference.

The coordinator of the conference, Pilar Rangel, professor of International Public Law and Foreign Relations at the University of Malaga, thanked all the institutions for their collaboration in the conference, which was presented by Theresa Zabell, president of the Ecomar Foundation. 

The Catalejo 2024 Awards, chaired by Francisco López Muñoz, vice-rector of the Camilo José Cela University, went to the following people, companies and entities:  

Company Category:

• Acciona, which was collected by Julia Morales.
• Cymatic, an award received by its head, Joan Roset.  
• Bodegas Clos Galena, an award received by its owner Mercedes Dalmau.
• Cooperativa Gredos San Diego, received by its top managers Jose Luís Miranda and Vicente Cañizares.  

Women and Equality Category:  

• Junior Female Leaders, which was collected by its founder and president Alejandra Fernández.  

Category Spain in the World:

• Royal Academy of Diplomacy of the Kingdom of Spain. The award was collected by the Consul of Portugal, Rafael Pérez Peña. 

Media Category:

• Cruz Sánchez de Lara (El Español), who was accompanied by the director of El Español, Pedro J. Ramírez. 

Special Category: Diputación de Málaga.  

Badges of gratitude were also awarded to the following people: Antonio Sans (creator of the Premios Catalejo awards), Francisco Fernández Uribe (creator of the illustration of the 75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), Mar Torres (Málaga City Council), Isabel Pascual (Málaga City Council), Toñi Ledesma (Málaga Provincial Council), Víctor Romero (Tour 10), Fran Serón (Tour 10), Juan José Hinojosa (Faculty of Law of the UMA), Raúl Silleras (Polo Digital). 

As for the conference on AI and HR, the presentations were given by:

• Francisco Villatoro, PhD in Mathematics, computer engineer and physicist.  
• Santiago Cárdenas, expert in Causal AI, mathematician, computer engineer, economist and sociologist. 
• Raúl Rojas, partner of Despacho Écija and graduate in Law from the Carlos III University. Master's Degree in Legal-Labour Consultancy in Companies. 
• Marco Antonio López Bravo, Head of the Coordination Service of the Peripheral Organisation of the Andalusian Digital Agency. 
• Javier López. Écija Law Firm. Expert in Cybercrime and Electronic Evidence.    
• Antonio Manuel García López, magistrate of the TSJ of Andalusia. 
• Jose Antonio Otero and Concepción Morales, both from the ODHE, acted as moderators. 

The presentations focused on the technological and social horizon of AI in society and its impact on aspects related to human rights, as well as explaining the scope of the new regulations approved by the EU in the field of AI. 

The closing speech was given by Mario Rigau, president of the ODHE, José Francisco Salado, president of the Malaga Provincial Council, and Mar Torres, councillor of the Costa del Sol City Council.