Keys to the Basque law of historical memory

The Historical and democratic memory law of Euskadi, approved in the Basque Parliament on Thursday, will regulate and provide a legal basis for public policy for the recovery of historical memory in the Basque Autonomous Community (CAV). To this end, new actions aimed at the recognition and compensation of victims are introduced and include a sanctions regime with fines of up to 150,000 euros for very serious acts that violate memory.

The standard was created with a dual purpose. On the one hand, “you promote the moral recovery and the recovery of the personal and family memory of those who suffered persecution or violence during the civil war and the dictatorship for political, ideological or religious beliefs.” On the other hand: promote ethical and democratic principles and values.

The law recognizes how victims to the following people and groups: people dead in bombings, extrajudicial killings or deaths in prison and in “the defense of democratic legality against the military coup and Franco’s dictatorship.” Even those who suffered prison, torture, deportation, forced labor or internment in concentration camps; people banished, revenge taken or those suffering economic repression. Political parties are also considered victims, trade unions or feminist movements, among other groups. The standard also mentions the people who suffered repression due to their ideology and profession, with special mention to the teachers of the Second Republic. The text also recognizes people who have been victims of oppression sexual orientation or because they belong to an ethnic minority, as do those persecuted by Islam use of Basque.

For all of them, victim status can be recognized through a personal document of an institutional nature, issued by the Basque government. In addition, the intention is to create a permanent, as yet undated, annual tribute to the victims of the 1936 military coup and dictatorship.

Centrality of the Gogora Institute

Gogora, the Institute for Memory, Coexistence and Human Rights, acquires stripes and becomes the nuclear organization that safeguards historical memory in Euskadi. It is up to the institute led by Ainzane Ezenarro to complete the project basic report of human rights violations in Euskadi in the period 1936-1978. With the data collected, it will create a database, which will be public, of fatalities recorded during the civil war and subsequent dictatorship.

Gogora himself will be the one to support the victims who want to appear before the courts or to promote the location, exhumation and, where necessary, identification of the people who disappeared during the Civil War and the dictatorship. In this context, DNA will be collected from the bone remains from the excavations to create a system DNA database.

Likewise, the project provides that during this first year of validity of the law, it will be examined whether it is relevant and feasible to additional financial compensation “to those who have already been realized in the past” by the Basque executive.

The institute plans to draw a map Places, spaces and routes of memory History of Euskadi.

The standard contains what symbols are considered contrary to historical memoryand establishes the channels for its withdrawal:

Sanctions regime

One of the great novelties of the law is that it imposes fines ranging from 2000 for minor violations, up to 150,000 euros for very serious violations. The sanctions regime punishes recidivism, because in that case the violations will increase in magnitude (from mild to serious, or from serious to very serious).