DAY OF HISTORICAL MEMORY IN SPAIN

“All peoples have the inalienable right to know the truth about past occurrences in relation to the perpetration of aberrant crimes, and of the circumstances and motives which led to, by means of massive or systematic violations, the perpetrations of such crimes. The full and effective exercise of the right to the truth provides a fundamental safeguard against the repetition of such violations.”

This is the second article of the Group of updated principles for the protection and promotion of human rights with the help of the United Nations' fight against impunity.

But, what does this "inalienable right to know the truth" consist of? What is its basis? How is its effective application guaranteed? How are the right to justice and the processes of transition related?

The Human Rights Institute of Catalonia has organised a day session to attempt to give answers to these questions from different perspectives:

• an analysis from a legal point of view that will tackle the idea of the right to the truth, its legal basis and its relation with justice and processes of transition;
  
• a comparative analysis of the situation looking at how such situations have been faced in other countries which have also suffered repressive regimes massively violating human rights and fundamental liberties.

PROGRAMME

The principles of Truth, Justice and Reparation in International Public Law and their application in the process of transition in Spain.

10.00 International law and the principles of truth, justice and reparation.
Margalida Capellà, Professor of International Law at the University of the Balearic Islands

10.30 The bill of the law of historical memory: achievements and obstacles.
Daniel Fernández, Member of Congress

12.00 The process of democratic transition in Spain.
J.A. Martín Pallín, Emerit magistrate of the Supreme Court

12.30 The problem of the annulment of Francoist sentences.
Carlos Jiménez Villarejo, ex-head of Special Anticorruption Prosecution

13.00 The process of the recovery of historical memory in Spain.
Pelai Pagès, Professor of Contemporary Historia at the University of Barcelona

Truth commissions and the national experience

16.30 Truth commissions as instruments of transitional justice.
Ferriol Sòria, Co-ordinator of the Fundació Ernest Lluch and Investigator of the Truth Commissions.

17.30 Video

18.00 Round table discussion: the national experience.

Argentina: Cecilia Rossetto, Cultura del Consulado General de la R. Argentina en Barcelona

Morocco: Ali Tabji, Moroccan Association of Human Rights.

Algeria: Ismet Terki Hassaine, University of Orán

Israel y Palestine, the role of the Historians: Meir Margalit, Historian y member of the Israeli Commitee against the demolition of houses

20.00 The law of "memorial democrático" in relation to the right to truth and justice.
Josep Vendrell, Secretary General of the Departament de Institutional Relations and Participation of the Generalitat of Catalonia

PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Date: Tuesday 18th of September
Place: Pati Llimona | c/ Regomir 3 | Barcelona
Time: 10:00 - 20:20

FURTHER INFORMATION
cesdhc@idhc.org

Programme (PDF 50Kb)

THE CIVIL WAR

The Constitution of 1978 explicitly repealed all the legislations which opposed the establishment of the Constitution (in the Third Countermand Disposition), but it did not make similar pronouncements on the invalidity or loss of efficiency of the unjust sentences handed out by the courts during the dictatorship. These statements were based on political, social or ideological motives with a discriminatory character. They violated fundamental rights and public freedoms.

The magistrate Angel Garcia Fontanet, with an article published in the newspaper “El Pais”, pointed out the opportunity to revise all the sentences which were classified as “persecution” in order to be rid of, once and for all, the consequences of the Civil War. The IDHC took on this initiative and created an ad hoc commission. This commission was made up of individuals with a high degree of commitment to the defence of democratic freedoms, and with different ideological perspectives. The object of this was to give legal status to the project as a part of the policies of national reconciliation.

The members of the commission were: Jordi Carbonell; Ainaud de Lasarte, Historian; Angel Garcia Fontanet, Magistrate; Miguel Nuñez and Jordi Solé Tura, Senators. The commission was coordinated by the President of the IDHC. The commission was interested in the scientific opinion of Luis Lopez Guerra, Professor of Constitutional Law; Lorenzo Martin Retortillo, Professor of Administrative Law; Josep Maria Socíes, Lawyer; and Josep Mª Solsona, Lawyer and Director of the IDHC. They created the first draft of a law called: “Regularisation of the legal situations with origins in the Civil War”. The draft was presented on 1 April 2003 to the President of the Catalan Parliament, with the hope that it would arrive at the Cortes Generales (Spanish Parliament) and be put into use.

Ten days later, the draft was presented to the Catalan Parliamentary Groups during a working session. It was presented to the following politicians: Joaquim Ferrer (CiU), Josep Mª Vallés i Àlez Masllorens (PSC-CpC), Joan Ridao (ERC), Daniel Cirera (PP) i Rafael Ribó (IC-V).

The aim of this initiative is to review the unjust sentences handed out during General Franco's dictatorship. These sentences were handed out with ideological motives and without any legal guarantee as to the presumption of innocence or the right to defence. This initiative aims to restore justice, to promote civil harmony and to claim and replace the honour of the victims, bringing to a definitive close the legal injustices produced by the civil war.

José Manuel Bandrés
Barcelona, abril de 2003