From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

1977 Spanish Amnesty Law

Impunity for crimes during and since the Spanish Civil War

Field	Value
short_title	1977 Amnesty Law
long_title	Law 46/1977, of 15 October, of amnesty
legislature	Cortes Generales
citation	BOE-A-1977-24937
enacted_by	Congress of Deputies
assented_by	Juan Carlos I
royal_assent	15 October 1977
date_effective	17 October 1977
passed	14 October 1977
passed_for	296
passed_against	2
passed_abstention	18
passed_presentnotvoting	1
image	File:Coat of Arms of Spain (1977-1981).svg
status	in force

The 1977 Spanish Amnesty Law is a law passed by the Parliament of Spain and given royal assent on October 15, 1977, two years after Francisco Franco's death. The Law freed political prisoners and permitted those exiled to return to Spain, but also guaranteed impunity for those who participated in crimes, during the Civil War, and in Francoist Spain. The law is still in force, and has been used as a reason for not investigating and prosecuting Francoist human rights violations.

The Act was the clearest and most explicit expression of Spain's "pact of forgetting"—a decision among Spanish parties and political actors, during and after the Spanish transition to democracy, not to address atrocities committed by the Spanish State. The 1977 Amnesty Law has been criticized by scholars for equating "victims and victimizers" and for shielding human rights violators from prosecution and punishment. Spain has argued that perpetrators of crimes against humanity cannot be prosecuted for crimes committed before 1939; however, the UN takes the view that the Francoist era crimes should be investigated. In February 2012, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights demanded the 1977 Amnesty Law to be repealed, on the basis that it violates international human rights law. The Commissioner referred to Spain's obligation to comply with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Under international human rights law, there is no statute of limitations for crimes against humanity. In 2013, a UN working group of experts again called upon Spain to repeal the 1977 law.

In 2008, Judge Baltasar Garzón briefly began an official inquiry, symbolically indicting Franco for the disappearance of more than 100,000 people. In 2009, Manos Limpias, a far-right union, brought criminal charges against the judge, for defying the amnesty law. Garzón was acquitted of the charges of "knowingly acting without jurisdiction", relating to his investigation of Francoist crimes, but was then disbarred for 11 years by the Spanish Supreme Court in 2012, on an unrelated charge.

Since 2010, Argentinian judge María Servini de Cubría has been investigating civil rights abuses under the Franco regime. In 2018, she agreed to extend her investigation to include crimes specifically against women.

References

(15 October 1977). "Amnesty Act".
Ackar, Kadribasic (2010) [https://books.google.com/books?id=_hp7nOXOBuIC&pg=PA132 Transitional Justice in Democratization Processes: The Case of Spain from an International Point of View], ''International Journal of Rule of Law, Transitional Justice and Human Rights'', pp. 120-121.
Miriam M. Basilio, ''Visual Propaganda, Exhibitions, and the Spanish Civil War'' (Ashgate, 2013), p. 220.
Paloma Aguilar, "The Timing and the Scope of Reparation, Truth and Justice Measures: A Comparison of the Spanish, Argentinian and Chilean Cases" in [https://books.google.com/books?id=0Z3qPlIAvD0C&pg=PA505 ''Building a Future on Peace and Justice: Studies on Transitional Justice''] (eds. [[Kai Ambos]], Judith Large, and Marieke Wierda: Springer, 2009), pp. 505, 521–522.
(2014). "Twentieth-century Spain. A History.". Cambridge University Press.
Omar G. Encarnación, ''Spanish Politics: Democracy After Dictatorship'' (Polity, 2008), p. 133.
Ofelia Ferrán & Lisa Hilbink, "Introduction: Legalities of Violence in Contemporary Spain" in ''Legacies of Violence in Contemporary Spain: Exhuming the Past, Understanding the Present'' (Routledge, 2016), p. 2.
[http://www.publico.es/espana/421451/la-onu-da-la-razon-a-garzon-y-pide-investigar-el-franquismo/comentarios-valorados ''La ONU da la razón a Garzón y pide investigar el franquismo''], ''[[Público (Spain). Público]]'' (Publico.es), 10/02/2012
(February 10, 2012). ["Spain must lift amnesty for Franco era crimes – U.N.]"](http://news.trust.org//item/?map=spain-must-lift-amnesty-for-franco-era-crimes-un). Reuters.
[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-spain-franco/u-n-tells-spain-to-revoke-franco-era-amnesty-law-idUSBRE98T0YJ20130930 U.N. tells Spain to revoke Franco-era amnesty law], Reuters (September 30, 2013).
Editorial, [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/opinion/sunday/truth-on-trial-in-spain.html Truth on Trial in Spain], ''New York Times'' (February 5, 2012).
Agencies. (2012-02-09). "Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón found guilty in wiretapping case". [[The Guardian]].
[[Sarah Leggott]], ''Memory, War, and Dictatorship in Recent Spanish Fiction by Women'' (Bucknell University Press, 2015), p. 20.
[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/26/judge-investigate-franco-era-crimes-against-spanish-women-sexual-assault-forced-abortion-child-theft Guardian Oct 26, 2018, Judge investigates Franco era crimes]

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1977-in-spain 1977-in-law amnesty-laws politics-of-francoist-spain law-of-spain spanish-transition-to-democracy

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about 1977 Spanish Amnesty Law — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report