114,000 families still searching for missing loved ones from the Spanish Civil War and the Franco regime

Madrid (ACN).- 114,000 families from the Spanish state continue their search for loved ones who underwent enforced disappearance during the Spanish Civil War and the Franco regime, according to a publication by the NGO Amnesty International. The organisation released the information on the International Day of the Disappeared. The publication also demands that the Spanish Government commit itself to this human rights issue. According to the NGO, authorities from the Spanish state “should facilitate access to truth, justice and memory of the disappeared victims of Franco’s regime during the Spanish Civil War”.
The NGO Amnesty International records that over 114,000 from the Spanish Civil War have been claimed as disappeared in courts. The organisation suggests that, despite everything, the Spanish Government “continues to avoid responsibility” to investigate this “gross violation of human rights” that would “guarantee justice to the victims’ memory”. The organisation also regretted that the modification of the Spanish Penal Code last June did not “expressly incorporate the offence of enforced disappearance according to the definition of the United Nations International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance”. The entity also noted that a UN Enforced Disappearances working group has “spent years asking the Spanish Government to present information about 4 cases of enforced disappearances during the Franco Regime and the Spanish Civil War without any executive response”.