Spokespersons for the Tortured Network of Navarra Ainara Gorostiaga and Mikel Soto have presented the III. The International Conference was presented this Tuesday in Pamplona/Iruña. It is an initiative organized by the Government of Navarra and the City of Pamplona, which will be held on 22 November in the Planetarium of Pamplona under the motto “Human Rights Commissions: obstacles, achievements and challenges”. The organization explained that the committee "guarantees the recognition that occurs in most cases after long periods of denial and stigmatization".

Under the Foral Law 16/2019 on Victims of Political Motivation, in April of this year the first official recognition was given to victims of torture in Navarra. The organizers have pointed out that this is a reflection with other torturers who have gone through similar processes and with people participating in human rights committees and experts in the field.

III Conference on Torture. The International Conference is divided into two parts: firstly, Chilean Rita Peña, arrested or tortured under the dictatorship of Pinochet, will make a conference on this in 2003 in the National Committee of Political Prison and Torture, that is, in the Valech Commission. Secondly, the lawyer and member of the Human Rights Observatory Iratxe Urizar will hold a round table on torture together with the former Minister of Justice, Rights and Memory of the Generalitat de Catalunya Gemma Ubasarte and the professor Jon Mirena Landa, former Director of Human Rights of the Basque Government and member of the Committee for the Recognition of Victims of States.

III. These commissions, which will be part of the International Conference, are the official and non-judicial bodies “established to clarify the facts, causes and consequences of human rights violations”, of limited duration.

The greatest contribution they can make to Navarre society

The Network of Torturados de Navarra has announced that, “albeit late and slowly”, it has begun to transform the reality of almost a thousand tortured people in Navarra. “It is the greatest contribution they can make to Navarre society,” he said, as “not only the victims deserve recognition and reparation, but also to society and future generations.” The organization has considered “a unique path” to reflect on the achievements, obstacles and challenges of the organized commissions “so that what has happened to them never happens to anyone.”