Our news in Spain, clear and analytic

Our news in Spain, clear and analytic

As well as being slow to recognise its colonial past, Spain’s transitional justice mechanisms are working in slow motion. At the heart of the debate is ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna), the Basque separatist organisation founded in 1959, responsible for crimes against humanity, terrorist attacks, kidnappings and assassinations. As the Spanish Criminal Code has only incorporated crimes against humanity" since October 2004, attacks perpetrated before that date cannot be taken into account. What's more, victims will not receive any financial compensation because of an amnesty law. At the same time, setting up a Truth Commission on the crimes of Francoism is not easy. Many reject the idea, which has sparked passionate debates and raised doubts among certain specialists. Justice Info keeps abreast of developments in these cases, as news and proceedings unfold.

2 elderly people demonstrate (holding up pictures of Franco's victims), in the streets of Madrid (Spain)

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Democratising and decolonising Spain: the limits of the new law on memory

In Spain, transitional justice revolutions happen in slow motion. On 21 October, a new Democratic Memory Law created a public prosecutor’s office “for human rights and democratic memory”, to investigate past violations during the Civil War and Franco’s dictatorship. The new law, however, does not abolish the 1977 Amnesty Law that shields perpetrators from prosecution. […]

By Carles Fernandez-Torne and Pablo Ouziel