Spain’s inaction in reparations for Civil War and dictatorship crimes “alarming,” UN says
The whereabouts of more than 114,000 people remain unknown 40 years after the end of Franco's regime
historical memory
Spanish Civil War combatants found dead in mass graves 80 years on
“It’s impossible to understand how in 2017, some 80 years after that disgrace, hundreds of our people are still missing,” says Catalan foreign affairs minister
A book to honor the work of the forgotten and to fight historical amnesia
The Catalan journalist Andreu Caralt presents the book “3,669 biberons” (3,669 baby bottles), that explains the story of the “Survivors of the Baby Bottle Regiment of ’41”, the youngest recruits in Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War
‘Some students don’t even know who Franco was’ says 97-year-old Civil War veteran
Miquel Morera is one of the last remaining witnesses of a brutal conflict that left half a million dead and forced nearly as many to flee the country
Paterna exhumation removes victims from Francoist ‘map of horror’
Largest excavation of mass grave in Valencia uncovers 49 executed bodies while Catalan CUP party calls for historical memory law to replace ‘cowardly’ state legislation
Campaign urges participation in referendum for democratic break with Franco’s Spain
Provocative street poster initiative aims to remind public of “origin of Spanish institutions” on 81st anniversary of fascist dictator’s coup
Catalan oral history archive to be biggest in Europe
The audiovisual databank will include more than 300,000 hours of interviews with witnesses of the Spanish Civil War and the Franco dictatorship
Catalan Parliament unanimously nullifies Francoist sentences
64,000 victims of fascist repression get justice more than 40 years since the end of the dictatorship, including executed president Lluís Companys
First Civil War mass grave exhumed in Catalan government initiative
17 bodies found in common burial in Pyrenees to be genetically analyzed and identified
UN critical about Spain’s inactivity on historical memory, sees progress in Catalonia
The upcoming report from the UN Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances reaffirms the lack of progress in Spain when it comes to historical memory, justice, search and identification of Spanish Civil war and Francoist dictatorship victims. The text, which is to be approved at the next group meeting between May 8 and May 17 in Geneva and officially published in September, confirms that a vast majority of the United Nations’ demands presented to Spain in 2013 “are still pending”. “Regretfully, there have not been any changes,” said the head of the mission to Spain, Ariel Dulitzky, in an interview with CNA. Indeed, the only improvements the UN experts have observed are at the regional level. “In Catalonia we have already seen some advancements, which have continued after our visit. When taking into account the Spanish government’s inactivity, the initiatives at an autonomic level are even more relevant,” underlined Dulitzky in the interview with the Catalan News Agency. Over the last several months, the Generalitat has launched a program of identification and opening of mass graves, and another program on genetic identification of the remains, aimed at helping families find their loved ones.
Spain’s ‘systematic’ failure to address historical memory denounced at EU-Parliament
On the 80th anniversary of the Guernica Bombing, Spain’s denial of historical justice or reparation of its civil war victims was the focus of a conference at the European Parliament. NGO’s, relatives of Spanish Civil War victims and the Francoist dictatorship, and MEPs called on the European Parliament to help promote “truth, justice, and reparation”. Roger Heredia, co-founder of the DNA bank for civil war victim identification in Catalonia said that “the Spanish State systematically violates human rights” and insisted on the necessity of raising awareness among the European MPs about how Spain ignores reports from both the Human Rights Council and the UN-Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.
Organisations claim to open mass graves to identify 4,700 missing, 80 years after Spanish Civil War
The location and identity of 4,700 disappeared during Spanish Civil War remains unknown, 80 years after the conflict broke out. In order to recover historic memory and prevent these facts and its consequences from being forgotten or neglected, many organisations have claimed to reopen mass graves and cancel the martial courts applied to many citizens who were against Franco's dictatorship. "Spain continues to be the second country in the world, after Cambodia, with the higher number of people who underwent enforced disappearance and whose mortal remains have never been recovered nor identified", stated ‘Judges for Democracy' spokeswoman, Begoña López.