The United Nations has concluded in a recently published report that the so-called “concord laws” promoted by the PP-Vox coalition governments in Aragon, Castilla y León and the Valencian Community could violate human rights, since they make invisible the “serious violations”. ” committed during the Franco dictatorship, may entail “limits to access to the truth about the fate or whereabouts of the victims” and would not be in accordance with international standards and treaties.
At the beginning of April, the Spanish Government already announced that it would bring before the main European and international bodies the offensive of these three autonomous governments against the regional memory laws, which they have decided to replace with these other so-called “concord” regulations. In the eight-page report, the UN special rapporteurs analyze each of these initiatives one by one.
Regarding Aragon, which last February completed the repeal of the regional democratic memory law, they highlight in their conclusions that it suppresses “numerous entities and activities” (such as records, inventories, signage, routes, maps of graves or educational activities) and that it subjects subsidies for public historical memory projects to “conditions that may put their sustainability at risk.”
Furthermore, it ensures that the new law makes invisible the “serious violations” of human rights committed during the Franco dictatorship, since it does not explicitly refer to or condemn “the regime, its dictatorial nature or its responsibility” for the crimes committed during that period.
A similar criticism is extended to the Castilla y León project for refusing to name and condemn the Franco regime “despite its undeniable responsibility” for human rights violations.
Likewise, they believe that this norm does not facilitate the participation or grant a consultative role to victims’ organizations and civil society or academic institutions in the work of exhumations and that it does not recognize granting subsidies in this field. Therefore, they conclude that it could hinder the right to the truth about “the fate and whereabouts of victims of serious human rights violations,” including forced disappearances.
Finally, regarding the Valencian initiative, they admit that it includes the “importance” of ensuring non-discrimination when recognizing and providing justice and reparation “to all victims of violence.” Even so, they believe that the proposal could take away “the necessary recognition and attention” from the rights of the hundreds of thousands of victims of serious human rights violations, “including extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances committed during the Franco dictatorship.”
After these considerations, they remember that the three powers of the Spanish State – executive, legislative and judicial – and all government entities, “whatever their level”, must comply with the obligation to protect human rights, including “the obligation to guarantee the historical preservation of the memory of serious violations” thereof. Failure to comply, they emphasize, runs the risk of “compromising the responsibility” of the State and their own.
In this sense, they point to the duty to adopt memorialization processes that allow “recognizing, remembering, preserving and transmitting” information about the violations suffered, always with respect for the dignity of the victims and in consultation with them. Furthermore, they reiterate that these measures must be aimed at preserving collective memory from oblivion and preventing revisionist and denialist theses from emerging. “These laws (proposed or approved) would hinder the right to know the truth and the right to freedom of association,” they conclude.
For all these reasons, the three signatories – the special rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition, Fabian Salvioli; the president-rapporteur of the working group on forced or involuntary disappearances, Aua Baldé; and the special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Morris Tidball-Binz – request more information from the three communities involved on how these laws are compatible with the State’s obligations in terms of human rights and the right to the truth.
