This year marks the 51st anniversary of the United Nations proclamation of International Human Rights Day on 10 December. This date has become important in Euskal Herria and the Human Rights Observatory of Euskal Herria wants to offer some elements of reflection.

Progress on the rights of victims of torture must be highlighted on this international day. Since ETA announced the cessation of violent activity, incommunicado arrests, in application of the anti-terrorist law in police operations, as well as torture itself, have gradually disappeared. It is therefore noted that torture was a practice closely related to these measures and policies.

The first steps towards the recognition of these victims were taken by the Basque Institute of Criminology (IVAC), through a report endorsed by the Istanbul Protocol. According to this report, 4,311 people were tortured in the Basque Autonomous Community and 1,068 in the Foral Community of Navarra between 1960 and 2014. It shows, of course, the enormous dimension of this practice in its crude, taking into account our entire population. These numbers attracted the attention of the CAT (Committee Against Torture) in the last study conducted in the Kingdom of Spain in July 2023 at the UN headquarters in Geneva. The Commission then asked the Spanish Government to investigate these cases, but to date no steps have been taken in this direction. Similarly, the jurisprudence of the Court of Human Rights has established systematic investigative inactivity in cases of torture with anti-terrorist incommunication. In 11 cases, the European Supreme Court has already condemned Spain for not investigating allegations of torture, and this has been done by applying a systematic model. Not to investigate and, on many occasions, to legitimize and praise the very serious violations of human rights attributable to the State.

It is noteworthy that the Spanish State is absolutely stuck on this issue, if it is still more taken into account that it is the main perpetrator. For its part, the institutions of the CAV and Navarra have approved in recent years the following laws: Law 12/2016, of 28 July, of recognition and reparation of victims of human rights violations in the context of politically motivated violence in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country between 1978 and 1999, and Law 16/2019, of 26 March, of recognition and reparation of victims derived from politically motivated acts provoked by far-right groups or public officials, are already giving their first recognition, a total of 461 currently.

The last 93 statements were made in October by the Basque Commission and victims of various kinds were recognized: tortured, killed by the Civil Guard or the Spanish National Police, killed or seriously injured by the GAL, the Spanish Basque Battalion or other para-police groups. One of them was the case of José María Larretxea Goñi, who in 1983 suffered an attempted kidnapping and serious injuries, and was sentenced to prison. The kidnapping was ordered by former Spanish minister José Barrionuevo, who recognized it in an interview offered to the newspaper El País. Or Gurutze Iantzi, killed in the Civil Guard police station, a few hours after his arrest and incommunicado detention. The official explanation was "natural death" in the latter case. As has happened in other cases.

Victims are getting recognition, but we cannot reveal their right to truth. A right to truth that protects not only the victim, but the whole of society. Where are the perpetrators? Where are the copyrighted materials? Where is the last person responsible? Victims cannot pursue their perpetrators because they go unpunished when they are not rewarded or promoted.

In addition, however, detention in solitary confinement, which has been demonstrated as a necessary premise for torture to be possible, is still in force, since Article 509 of the Spanish Criminal Procedure Law that regulates it is not repealed.

The progress is there, but it is necessary to put an end to the false stories that justified and legitimized the crimes against the victims of state violence, to put an end to the official versions hidden in reports and files that now have secrets and have to see the light. Work must be done to ensure that this sense of the statements is not stopped and updated and adapted, and, as requested by the Valuation Committee itself, to open a new deadline for requesting declarations, including cases of violence since 1999.

The Human Rights Observatory was established as a "social prosecutor" to serve the victims of the State from the premise of the right of all victims to truth, reparation and justice.

Iratxe Urizar and Agus Hernan Ehatokia -
Basque Country Human Rights Observatory