Spain has suffered, like few Western countries, the scourge of internal and external terrorism. His experience in caring for victims of attacks of all kinds is long and valuable. That is why the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has just proposed to the United Nations that Spain host the second Global Congress of Victims of Terrorism. The first edition is held this Thursday at the headquarters of the international body in New York.
In defending his proposal, Marlaska argued that “Spain is an international benchmark in the protection of victims of terrorism.” He added that the celebration there of a second edition of the congress sponsored by the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, would facilitate the continuity of this forum and “advance in promoting global policies of reparation and support for the victims”, as well as in “the preservation of his memory”.
Grande-Marlaska, who spoke from the central court of the UN at the opening of the congress, advocated the creation of a global network of victims’ associations that facilitates cooperation and the exchange of communication and experiences between the different organizations of each country. .
The minister announced the Government’s commitment to deliver an initial contribution of 400,000 euros for the creation of an international solidarity fund that financially supports associations and victims around the world who do not have sufficient resources.
Marlaska met at UN headquarters with Vladimir Voronkov, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for the Counter-Terrorism Office, and other representatives of the United Nations and of particularly affected countries, such as Iraq.
Spain had collaborated in the organization of this first meeting in New York, as co-chair country of the Group of Friends of Victims of Terrorism.
Along with representatives of victims’ associations, the minister participated on Wednesday in a floral offering at the 9/11 memorial. Later, together with Voronkov, he attended the screening at New York’s Lincoln Center of Maixabel, a film by Icíar Bollaín about encounters between victims and terrorists.
Maixabel Lasa herself, widow of the socialist leader Juan María Jáuregui and on whom the film focuses, intervened before the screening, hand in hand with Amy O’Neill, victim of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
The tour of the minister and the delegation that accompanied him included the promotion at the UN of the work of the Memorial Center dedicated to the victims in Vitoria, inaugurated in June 2021 and directed by Florencio Domínguez.
