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26Dec07

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Full text of the aberrant impunity law known as the “Memory Law”

22296 LAW 52/2007, of December 26th, to recognise and broaden rights and to establish measures in favour of those who suffered persecution or violence during the Civil War and the Dictatorship.

JUAN CARLOS I
REY DE ESPAÑA

To all those here present, be advised that Parliament has passed and I hereby give my approval to the following law:

EXPLANATION OF REASONS

The spirit of reconciliation and harmony and of respect for pluralism and peaceful defence of all ideas which guided the Transition, enabled the establishment of a Constitution for us, that of 1978, which legally expressed the desire of Spaniards for reunification, forming a social and democratic state of law with the clear wish for integration.

Thus the spirit of the Transition gives meaning to this constitutional model offering the most fruitful co-existence that we Spaniards have ever enjoyed and it also explains the various measures and rights which have been recognised over time from the very beginning of the entire democratic era, for the benefit of those persons who, for the decades prior to the Constitution, suffered the consequences of our devastating civil war and the dictatorship that succeeded it.

Notwithstanding that legislative effort, there still remain initiatives which should be adopted to give effect and a definitive response to the demands of those citizens, presented both through parliament and through various civic associations. These constitute legitimate and just demands to which our democracy, calling again upon that founding spirit of harmony and in the context of the Constitution, cannot fail to respond.

Therefore, this Law addresses the matters stated by the Constitutional Commission of Congress of Deputies which unanimously approved a motion [Proposición no de Ley] on 20th November 2002 in which the representative organ of the people affirmed that “no-one should be able to feel that it is legitimate, as it has been in the past, to use violence as a means to impose political beliefs and to establish totalitarian regimes contrary to the liberty and dignity of all citizens, and to do so merits condemnation and repudiation by our democratic society”. This Law adopts that statement and the condemnation of Francoism contained in the Report of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe signed in Paris on 17th March 2006 which denounced the serious human rights violations which were committed in Spain between 1939 and 1975.

It is now time, therefore, that Spanish democracy and the generations which today enjoy that democracy, honour and compensate for all time those who endured directly the injustices and offences which took place, for contrasting political or ideological reasons, or for their religious beliefs, in that painful period of our history. Certainly, those who lost their lives, and, in addition, their families. And those who lost their freedom, who endured imprisonment, deportation, confiscation of their possessions, forced labour or internment in concentration camps within or outside of our borders. And those who lost their homeland by being forced into a long, heartbreaking and in many cases, irreversible, exile. And finally, those who at various times fought in the defence of democratic values, such as the members of the Carabinero Corps, the International Brigades, the guerrilla fighters, whose rehabilitation was unanimously demanded by Parliament on 16th May 2001, or the members of the Democratic Military Union which was dissolved when the first democratic elections were held.

Thus the Law sets out the bases whereby public powers can implement public policies addressing the knowledge of our history and the nurture of democratic memory.

The present Law begins with the consideration that various aspects relating to personal and family memory, particularly when they have been affected by conflicts of a public nature, form part of the legal status of democratic citizenship, and as such, are dealt with in the text. Thus, an individual right of each citizen to personal and family memory is recognised and its expression is found for the first time in the Law in the general recognition set out in article 2 hereof.

In fact, there is in the said provision a general declaration of the unjust nature of all the convictions, punishments and expressions of personal violence which took place during the Civil War, for reasons which were unequivocally political or ideological, as well as those which, for the same reasons, occurred in the subsequent Dictatorship.

This general declaration in article 2 is complemented by provision for a specific procedure to obtain an individual Declaration, rehabilitating and reparative in content, which will be available as a right to all those affected and which can be exercised by them or by their relatives.

In article 3 of the Law the courts, tribunals and administrative organs of whatever nature which were set up in breach of the most fundamental guarantees of the right to due process are declared illegitimate, and those penalties and punishments of a personal nature imposed for political or ideological reasons or for religious beliefs are similarly declared illegitimate. This underlines, unequivocally, the current lack of judicial effect of those decisions and judgements which contravened human rights and it will contribute to the moral rehabilitation of those who suffered unjust penalties and punishments.

Similarly the Law includes a repealing provision which expressly deprives of legal effect those laws passed under the Dictatorship which were manifestly repressive and contrary to fundamental rights with the dual objective of removing them formally from the legal system and preventing their application by any administrative or judicial authority.

In articles 5 to 9 there is a recognition of various improvements in economic rights which already exist in our legal system. Similarly, the right to indemnification for all those who lost their lives in defence of democracy, that democracy which we enjoy today, and who had not hitherto received due compensation (art.10) is envisaged.

Various principles (arts. 11 to 14), in response also to a very legitimate demand by many citizens who do not know the whereabouts of their family members, some of whom are still in common graves, envisage measures and instruments so that the public authorities will facilitate to all interested parties who so request the tasks of locating and where relevant identifying the disappeared, in one final mark of respect for them.

Similarly, there are a series of measures (arts. 15 and 16) concerning the symbols and commemorative monuments of the Civil War or the Dictatorship, introduced with the principle of avoiding the extolling of the military uprising, the Civil War and of the repression of the Dictatorship, in the conviction that citizens have a right to this - that public symbols be considered an opportunity for meeting and not for confrontation, offence or injury.

The legislators consider that is just to recognise two groups in particular. In the first instance, the volunteer members of the International Brigades, who will be granted the right to take Spanish nationality without the need for them to renounce whatever nationality they currently have (art. 18); and also, to the civilian Associations who have done significant work to defend the dignity of the victims of political violence addressed in this Law (art. 19).

In order to facilitate compilation of and the right to access to the historical information concerning the Civil War, the Law reinforces the role of the current General Archive of the Spanish Civil War, headquartered in Salamanca, and integrates it into the Document Centre of Historical Memory, also headquartered in the city of Salamanca, and provides that all documentation existing in other State centres, be transferred to it (arts. 20 to 22).

This Law extends the possibility of acquiring Spanish nationality to descendants up to the first degree of those who were originally Spanish. With this provision, we address a legitimate demand of the Spanish emigrants which includes, particularly, the descendants of those who lost their Spanish nationality due to exile as a result of the Civil War or the Dictatorship.

Once and for all, the current Law wishes to contribute to the healing of wounds still open amongst Spaniards and to give satisfaction to those citizens who suffered, directly or through their relatives, the consequences of the tragedy of the Civil War or the Dictatorship repression. It wishes to do so in the complete certainty that, by entering more deeply into the spirit of reunification and harmony of the Transition, not only will those citizens be recognised and honoured but also the democracy of Spain as a whole. It is not the task of the legislature to implant a particular collective memory. But it is the duty of the legislature and of the Law to compensate the victims, to enshrine and protect with maximum legal vigour the right to personal and family memory as an expression of complete democratic citizenship, to nurture constitutional values and to promote the understanding and reflection of our past in order to avoid the repetition of a state of intolerance and human rights violations as lived through then.

That is the undertaking which these provisions and their legal consequences address.

Article 1. Objective of the Law.

1. This Law has as its objective the recognition and extension of rights in favour of those who suffered persecution or violence, for reasons of politics, ideology or for religious beliefs, during the Civil War or the Dictatorship, to promote their moral redress and the recovery of their personal and family memory, and to adopt complementary measures designed to suppress elements of division between citizens, all this with the object of fostering cohesion and solidarity between the various generations of Spaniards with respect to principles, values and constitutional liberties.

2. As a matter of public policy, this Law attempts to promote democratic values and principles, facilitating the understanding of the facts and circumstances which took place during the Civil War and the Dictatorship and ensuring the preservation of the documents relating to that historical period and their deposit in public archives.

Article 2. General recognition.

1. As an expression of the right of all citizens to the moral redress and the restoration of their personal and family memory, all convictions, punishments or other forms of personal violence which took place for reasons of politics, ideology or religious belief, whether during the Civil War or during the Dictatorship, are recognised and declared to be completely unjust in nature.

2. The reasons referred to above include the membership of or collaboration with political parties, unions, religious or military organizations, ethnic minorities, secret societies, masonic lodges and resistance groups, as well as conduct connected with cultural or linguistic choices or those of sexual orientation.

3. Similarly, the injustice caused by the exile of many Spaniards during the Civil War and the Dictatorship is hereby recognised.

Article 3. Declaration of illegitimacy.

1. The courts, tribunals and other criminal or administrative organs of whatever nature which were constituted during the Civil War to impose penalties or punishments of a personal nature for reasons of politics, ideology or religious beliefs, are hereby declared illegitimate together with all their decisions.

2. As they were contrary to Law and violated the most fundamental requirements of the right to a fair trial, the Court of Repression of Masonry and Communism, the Court of Public Order, the Courts of Political Responsibilities and the Courts-Martial, all of which were constituted for reasons of politics, ideology or religious belief are declared illegitimate pursuant to article 2 of this Law,

3. Also declared illegitimate herewith, given that they were defective in form and substance, are the penalties and punishments ordered for reasons of politics, ideology or religious belief by any court or administrative organ of whatever type during the Dictatorship against those who defended the previous institutional legality, attempted to re-establish a democratic regime in Spain, or tried to live pursuant to those choices afforded by the rights and freedoms recognised today by the Constitution.

Article 4. Declaration of redress and individual recognition.

1. The right to obtain a declaration of reparation and individual recognition is hereby acknowledged for those who during the Civil War and the Dictatorship suffered the effects of those decisions referred to in the preceding article.

This right is fully compatible with the other rights and compensating measures recognised in preceding laws as well as the institution of any legal proceedings that may occur before the courts of justice.

2. Those persons affected, and, in the event that they have already died, spouses or persons with similar emotional nexus, their ascendants, descendants and collateral relatives to the second degree shall have the right to request the said Declaration.

3. Similarly the said Declaration may be requested by public institutions, subject to the prior consent of their appropriate government body, in respect of those who carried out a relevant office or activity within such institution but who did not have a spouse or a relative of the type referred to in the above paragraph.

4. The persons or institutions referred to above can require the issue of the said Declaration of the Ministry of Justice. To that end, they can bring all documentation relating to the facts or proceeding as is in the possession of the petitioners as well any relevant background information.

5. The Declaration referred to in this Law shall be compatible with any other indemnifying or compensating measure provided for in the legal system and shall not constitute an entitlement to recognition of patrimonial responsibility of the State or of any office of the Public Administration, nor will it give rise to any consequence, damages or reparation, whether economic or professional in type. The Ministry of Justice shall deny the issuance of a Declaration where the provisions of this Law are not complied with.

Article 5. Improvement of the loans provided by Law 5/1979, of 18 September, on pensions, medical, pharmaceutical and social assistance in favour of widows, children and relatives of the Spaniards who died during or after the Civil War.

1. In order to complete the protective measures established pursuant to Law 5/1979, of 18 September, on pensions, medical, pharmaceutical and social assistance in favour of the widows, children and other relatives of Spaniards who died during or after the Civil War, article 1, number 2 a) and c) are hereby amended to provide as follows:

  • a) For wounds, illness or accidental injury caused as a consequence of the war.
  • c) As a consequence of political or union actions or opinions when a personal and direct relationship of causality can thus be established between the civil war and the death.»

2. The pensions recognised pursuant to the provision in the preceding paragraph shall take effect economically from the first day of the month following the entry into force of the present Law, and the laws concerning expiry of the same set out in the Regime for State Passive Classes (Régimen de Clases Pasivas del Estado) will also apply where relevant.

Article 6.Amount of certain pensions for orphans..

1. The amount of pensions in favour of orphans who are non-disabled adults (older than 21 years of age) where the original beneficiary was not a public servant pursuant to Laws 5/1979, of 18 September and 35/1980, of 26 June, shall be set at 132.86 euros monthly.

2. With respect to the pensions for orphans referred to in this article, the system of supplementary payments (complementos económicos) currently in force shall apply and they will therefore be subject to annual revaluations as established by the General State Budget Laws (Leyes de Presupuestos Generales del Estado).

3. The provisions in the preceding two paragraphs shall take economic effect from the first day of the month following the entry into force of the present Law, without prejudice to the norms concerning expiry of the same set out in the regulations governing Passive Class Pensions.

Article 7. Amendment in favour of those who suffered imprisonment of the scope of application of compensation as a consequence of the events contemplated in Law of amnesty 46/1977 of 15 October.

1. In order to incorporate matters excluded from the compensation granted in respect of periods of imprisonment during the Dictatorship, paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Eighteenth Additional Provision of Law 4/1990 of 29 June on the General State Budgets for the year 1990, are hereby amended to provide as follows:

    «One. Whoever can show that they were deprived of their liberty in a penal institution or in a Disciplinary Battalion, in whatever way, during three or more years, as a consequence of the events contemplated in Law 46/1977 of 15 October and who were 60 years of age as of 31 December 1990, will be entitled to receive one time only a payment by way of compensation according to the following scale:

    Three or more years imprisonment: 6,010.12 €.

    For every three complete additional years: 1,202.02 €.

    Two. If the beneficiary of this compensation is deceased, and if as of 31December 1990 he or she would have reached 60 years of age, the surviving spouse will be entitled to this compensation if he or she is receiving a widower/widow's pension for the same reason; if the surviving spouse is not receiving it, he or she will be entitled to the same if he or she establishes that he or she is the widowed spouse of the beneficiary.»

2. A paragraph 2 bis and 7 are hereby added to the Eighteenth Additional Provision of Law 4/1990 of 29 June on the General State Budgets which provides as follows:

    «2 bis. Compensation in the amount of €9,616,18 will be made to the surviving spouse of any person who, having been deprived of their liberty for under three years as a consequence of the events provided in Law 46/1977 of 15th October, was condemned to death as a result of such events and was executed, and due to the said circumstances had not been recognised nor granted a pension or compensation through one of the public systems of social welfare.”

    «Seven. Whoever considers that they are entitled to the benefits established in paragraphs one and two above, whether because they are the original beneficiaries or surviving spouses or widowed pensioners for such reason, should submit an express application for the same to the General Directorate of Personnel Costs and Public Pensions (Dirección General de Costes de Personal y Pensiones Públicas).»

Article 8. Taxation of Personal Income in respect of compensation for those who suffered deprivation of liberty as a consequence of the events contemplated in Law of Amnesty 46/1977, of 15 October.

With effect from 1 January 2005, a new letter u) is added to article 7 of the consolidated text of the Law of Personal Income Tax, passed by Royal Legislative Decree 3/2004 of 5 March, which will provide as follows:

    «u) Compensation provided in the legislation of the State and the Autonomous Communities to compensate for the deprivation of liberty in penal institutions as a consequence of the events contemplated in Law of Amnesty 46/1977 of 15 October.»

Article 9.Assistance to compensate for the tax charge in respect of compensations received since 1 January 1999 for deprivation of liberty as a consequence of the events contemplated in Law of Amnesty 46/1977 of 15 October.

1. Persons who between 1 January 1999 and 31 December 2004 received compensation provided in the Law of the State and the Autonomous Communities to compensate for deprivation of liberty in penal institutions as a consequence of the events contemplated in Law of Amnesty 46/1977 of 15 October, may petition, in the form and for the periods to be determined, the benefit of assistance set at 15% of the amounts they have declared as such compensation in their Personal Income Tax Declaration for each of the tax periods.

2. If the persons referred to in para. 1 above have died the right to assistance will pass to their heirs who may make a request therefor.

3. The assistance received by virtue of the provisions of this article shall be exempt from Personal Income Tax.

4. The procedure, conditions for obtaining this assistance and the competent authority for recognition and payment thereof will be determined by Order of the Ministry of Economy and Treasury.

Article 10. Recognition of those persons who died in the defence of democracy during the period between 1 January 1968 and October 1977.

1. Bearing in mind the exceptional circumstances which resulted in their deaths, the right to indemnification in the amount of 135,000 € is hereby granted to the beneficiaries of those who died during the period between January 1 1968 and October 6 1977, in the defence of and demand for restoration of democratic liberties and rights.

2. The beneficiaries of the indemnification referred to in the first paragraph of this provision shall be the children and spouse of the person who died, provided the latter was not legally separated nor in the process of separation or matrimonial annulment, or the person who had been co-habiting with such person in a permanent way with a similar emotional relationship as that of a spouse during a period of at least two years immediately prior to the date of death, unless the two had common descendants in which case, mere co-habitation will be sufficient.

If none of the above are alive, in successive and exclusive order the parents, grandchildren, siblings of the deceased and the children of the person who co-habited with the deceased shall be the beneficiaries, where they were economically dependent upon the deceased.

Where there are a number of persons who belong to one of the groups who have a right to indemnification, the maximum amount will be divided in equal parts among those who have such rights on an equal basis except where those persons comprise the spouse or person with similar affective relationship and the children of the deceased, in which case the assistance will be apportioned as to 50% between the spouse or person with similar relationship and 50% to all the children.

3. The payment of the indemnification will be made provided always that no indemnification or other economic compensation has been received due to the same events or where it has been received if it was of a lesser amount than that established in this article.

4. The Government, by Royal Decree, shall determine the conditions for the procedure by which to grant the indemnification established in this article.

5. The beneficiaries of the indemnification established by this article will have a period of one year, commencing from the entry into effect of the Royal Decree referred to in the preceding paragraph, to submit their demand to the said Commission.

Article 11. Co-operation between Public Administration offices and individuals to locate and identify victims.

1. Public administration offices, subject to their authority, will assist direct descendants of victims who request an inquiry in respect of, and the location and identification of, persons who disappeared violently during the civil war or the subsequent political repression and whose whereabouts are unknown. The provision of the preceding paragraph is applicable to those entities which were formed prior to June 1 2004 and the functions of which include such activities.

2. The General State Administration will draw up working plans and will establish subsidies to defray the costs arising from the activities contemplated in this article.

Article 12. Measures for the identification and location of victims.

1. The Government, in collaboration with all the offices of Public Administration, shall draw up a protocol of scientific and multi-disciplinary process to ensure institutional collaboration and proper intervention in exhumations. It will also enter into collaborative agreements as appropriate to subsidise the social entities participating in these works.

2. The offices of Public Administration will prepare and make available to all interested parties, within their respective territorial areas, plans which identify those areas where the remains of persons referred in the preceding article are located, together with complementary information on the same.

The Government will determine the process and will design an integrated map covering the entire Spanish territory which will be also available for all interested citizens and will incorporate the information which should be submitted by the various competent public administrations.

The areas included in the maps will be subject to special preservation by their landowners on terms to be established by regulation. Similarly, the competent public authorities will adopt measures to ensure their appropriate preservation.

Article 13. Administrative authorizations for activities of location and identification.

1. The competent public administrations will authorize the tasks of prospecting with a view to locating the remains of the victims referred to in article 11 para 1, in accordance with the legislation governing historic patrimony and the protocol addressing the process approved by the Government. The findings will be immediately advised to the competent administrative and judicial authorities.

2. The public administrations, in the exercise of their powers will establish the procedure and the conditions by which the direct descendants of the victims referred to in article 11 para 1, or the entities that act in their name may recover the remains buried in the corresponding graves in order to identify them and move them to another location.

3. In all circumstances, the exhumation will be subject to the administrative authorization on the part of the competent authority which must take into consideration the existence of any opposition on the part of any of the direct descendants of the persons whose remains are to be moved. To this end, and prior to the corresponding decision, the competent authority must give adequate publicity to the petitions submitted, communicating the same in all cases to the General State Administration for its inclusion in the map referred to in paragraph 1 of the preceding article.

4. The remains of victims which have been moved and have not been claimed will be interred in the cemetery within the municipality where they were located.

Article 14. Access to the lands affected by the work of location and identification.

1. The carrying out of activities of location and eventual identification or transfer of the remains of those persons referred to in paragraph 1 of article 13 constitute activities of public utility and social interest for the purposes of allowing, where appropriate and pursuant to articles 108 to 119 of the Law of Compulsory Expropriation, the temporary occupation of those lands where they must be carried out.

2. For the purposes of the activities set out in the preceding paragraph, the competent administrations will authorize, save for reasons of the public interest, the temporary occupation of public property.

3. With respect to lands in private ownership, the descendants or the appropriate organizations pursuant to the preceding paragraph may request the consent of those entitled to the lands where the remains are located. If no consent is given, the public administrations may authorize temporary occupation, provided always they have heard the arguments of the affected owners of the land and have given due consideration to their arguments and have set appropriate compensation for them at the cost of the temporary occupiers.

Article 15. Symbols and public monuments.

1. The offices of Public Administration, in the exercise of their authority, shall take appropriate measures to withdraw all shields, insignia, plaques and other commemorative objects or references which extol, individually or collectively, the military uprising, the Civil War and the repression of the Dictatorship. These measures may include the withdrawal of public subsidies and support.

2. The provisions of the preceding paragraph shall not be applicable where such references are strictly private acts of remembering which do not extol either party in the hostilities or where there exist artistic, architectural or artistic-religious reasons which are protected by law.

3. The Government will co-operate with the Autonomous Communities and local entities to prepare a catalogue of vestiges pertaining the Civil War and the Dictatorship for the purposes of the preceding paragraph.

4. The offices of Public Administration shall be able to withdraw subsidies or support from private owners who do not comply in accordance with the provisions of para. 1 of this article.

Article 16. Valley of the Fallen (Valle de los Caídos).

1. The Valley of the Fallen shall be governed strictly by laws of general application governing places of worship and public cemeteries.

2. In no part of the grounds can any acts be carried out which are political in nature or which tend to extol the Civil War, its protagonists or Francoism.

Article 17. Buildings and works carried out by forced labour.

The Government in co-operation with the other offices of Public Administration shall compile a census of buildings and works which were carried out by members of Disciplinary Battalions of Worker Soldiers as well as by prisoners of concentration camps, Worker Battalions and prisoners of the Militarized Penal Colonies.

Article 18. Granting Spanish nationality to the voluntary members of the International Brigades.

1. To implement the right recognised by Royal Decree 39/1996, of January 19, of the voluntary members of the International Brigades who took part in the Civil War of 1936 to 1939, the requirement that they renounce their prior nationality contained in article 23, letter b of the Civil Code will not be applicable as regards the acquisition of Spanish nationality by naturalization papers.

2. The requirements and procedure to be followed in order to acquire Spanish nationality by the persons referred to in the preceding paragraph will be determined by way of Royal Decree passed by the Council of Ministers.

Article 19. Recognition of Victims Associations.

The work of the associations, foundations and organisations who have stood out in the defence of the dignity of all the victims of political violence referred to in this Law is hereby acknowledged. The Government, by Royal Decree, shall be entitled to grant such distinctions as it considers appropriate to such entities.

Article 20. Creation of a Documentary Centre of Historical Memory and General Archive of the Civil War.

1. In accordance with the provisions of Law 21/2005, of 17 November, a Documentary Centre of Historical Memory is established with headquarters in the city of Salamanca.

2. The functions of the Documentary Centre of Historical Memory shall be:

  • a) To maintain and develop the General Archive of the Spanish Civil War created by Royal Decree 426/1999, of 12th March. To this end, and by way of proceedings to be determined by regulation, into this Archive shall be integrated all original documents or reliable copies of the same, referring to the Civil War of 1936-1939 and the subsequent political repression situated in State-owned museums, libraries or archives, and these shall keep a digitalised copy of the said documents. In addition, the General State Administration shall proceed to compile the relevant oral testimonies relating to the said period of history which will also be sent to and integrated into the General Archive.

  • b) To recover, collect, organize and put at the disposition of interested parties, documentary resources and secondary sources which may be of interest for the study of the Civil War, the Franco dictatorship, the guerrilla resistance against it, the exile, the internment of Spaniards in concentration camps during the Second World War and the transition.

  • c) To promote historical investigation of the Civil War, Francoism, the exile and the Transition and to contribute to the dissemination of such findings.

  • d) To encourage the diffusion of the resources of the Centre and to facilitate the active participation of its users and their representative organizations.

  • e) To grant assistance to investigators, by means of awards and grants, to enable them to continue carrying out their academic work and investigation of the Civil War and the Dictatorship.

  • f) To collect and make accessible to interested parties information and documentation concerning similar events which have taken place in other countries.

3. The structure and operation of the Documentary Centre of Historical Memory will be established by means of Royal Decree agreed in the Council of Ministers.

Article 21. Acquisition and protection of documents on the Civil War and the Dictatorship.

1. The General State Administration shall approve, on an annual basis and with funding established in each case in the General State Budgets, a programme of agreements for the acquisition of documents referring to the Civil War or the subsequent political repression which are in the possession of public or private, national or foreign archives, whether in original version or in some format faithful to the original which permits archiving, understanding or reproducing words, data or numbers. The said documentary resources will be incorporated into the General Archive of the Spanish Civil War.

2. Without prejudice to the provisions of article 22, pursuant to the provisions of Law 16/1985, of 25 June, on Spanish Historical Patrimony, the documents in the possession of public and private archives concerning the Civil War and the Dictatorship are declared to be part of the Documentary and Bibliographic Patrimony.

Article 22. Right of access to the resources of public and private archives.

1. For the purposes of the provisions of this Law, the right of access to documentary resources held in public archives and the right to obtain any copies requested is hereby guaranteed.

2. The provision of the preceding paragraph shall be applicable in full to those private archives which are maintained in whole or in part by public funds.

3. The public authorities will adopt necessary measures for the protection, integrity and cataloguing of such documents, in particular in those cases where there is serious deterioration or a risk of degradation.

First additional provision. Creation |1| of the General Archive of the Spanish Civil War.

The Government is authorized to carry out the actions necessary in order to organize and restructure the General Archive of the Spanish Civil War.

Second Additional Provision.

The provisions contained in this Law are compatible with the exercise of rights and access to ordinary and extraordinary judicial proceedings established pursuant to laws or international treaties or agreements entered into by Spain.

Third Additional Provision. Institutional Framework.

Within a period of one year from the date of entry into force of this Law, the Government shall establish the institutional framework to instigate public policies relating to the conservation and promotion of democratic memory.

Fourth Additional Provision. Authorisation of the Government to grant extraordinary indemnification.

1. The Government is hereby authorised to determine, within a period of 6 months and by Royal Decree, the ambit, conditions and process by which extraordinary indemnification shall be granted in favour of those who suffered incapacitating injuries by reason of events and in circumstances and conditions referred to in article 10 para. 1 of this Law.

2. The indemnification referred to in this provision shall be granted provided always that no other economic indemnification or compensation has been made on the basis of the same events at the cost of one of the public systems of social welfare.

3. The indemnification established pursuant hereto will be paid directly to those persons who are incapacitated and shall not be transferable.

Fifth Additional Provision.

For the purposes of the application of Law 37/1984, of 22nd October, personnel of the Merchant Navy who were incorporated into the Republican Army from 18th July 1936 shall be deemed to be included in Decree of 13th March 1937 which established the incorporation into the Navy Reserve, Decree of 12th June 1937 which implemented the foregoing by establishing admission and ranking in the said Reserve and the Circular Order of 10th October 1937 which, in furtherance of the above, approved the regulation of the said ranking. Payment of the corresponding pension will be made provided always that no economic compensation of any kind has been received for the same reasons or, where it has been received, it is in an inferior amount to that determined pursuant to the above-mentioned provisions.

Sixth Additional Provision

The Foundation which is responsible for the management of the Valley of the Fallen shall include amongst its objectives the honouring and rehabilitating of the memory of all those persons who died as a consequence of the Civil War of 1936-1939 and the political repression which followed it, with a view to deepening the knowledge of this historical period and its constitutional values. In addition, it will promote the aspirations of reconciliation and coexistence which exist in our society. The foregoing shall be subject to the provisions of article 16.

Seventh Additional Provision. Acquisition of Spanish nationality

1. Those persons whose father or mother were Spanish in origin can adopt Spanish nationality by submission of a Declaration within two years from the date of entry into force of this Additional Provision. The said period can be extended by agreement of the Council of Ministers up to a maximum period of one year.

2. This right shall also be granted to the grandchildren of those who lost or who had to renounce their Spanish nationality as a result of exile.

Eighth Additional Provision. Access to the death records at Civil Registers.

The Government, through the Ministry of Justice to the extent necessary to give full effect to the provisions of this Law, shall issue the necessary provisions to enable access to the records of deaths at Civil Registers which are part of the General Administration of Registers and Notaries.

Repealing Provision.

To conform with the provisions of point 3 of the Repealing Provision of the Constitution, War Edict of 28th July 1936, of the National Defence Junta approved by Decree No. 79, Edict of 31st August 1936 and in particular the Decree of General Franco no. 55 of 1st November 1936; the State Security Laws of 12th July 1940 and 29th March 1941 amending the Criminal Code with respect to crimes against State security; the Law of 2nd March 1943, modifying the crime of Military Rebellion; the Decree-Law of 18th April 1947 concerning military rebellion, banditry and terrorism and the Laws 42/1971 and 44/1971 reforming the Military Justice Code, the Laws of 9th February 1939 and of 19th February 1942 concerning political responsibilities and the Law of 1st March 1940 concerning repression of masonry and communism, the Law of 30th July 1959 on Public Order and Law 15/1963 creating the Court of Public Order, are all herewith expressly repealed.

First final provision. Authorization for implementation.

The Government and members thereof, are authorized within their respective powers, to issue those measures necessary for the implementation and application of the provisions of this Law.

Second final provision. Entry into effect.

The current Law will enter into effect the day after its publication in the Official Gazette (Boletín Oficial del Estado), with the exception of the Seventh Additional Provision which will enter into effect one year after its publication.

Accordingly,

I command all Spanish individuals and Spanish authorities to comply with and ensure compliance with this Law.

Madrid, 26 December 2007.

JUAN CARLOS R.

President of the Government, JOSÉ LUIS RODRÍGUEZ ZAPATERO

[Source: BOE No. 310, pp 53410 - 53416, 27Dec07. Translation into English from the original Spanish version carried out by Equipo Nizkor on 31st January, 2008]

Notes:
1. Translation note: "Adecuación" in the original Spanish text. In fact the "General Archive of the Civil War" does not exist. What does exist is the original archive created under the Francoist regime under the name of "Causa General", criminal proceedings which were Spanish inquisitorial in type. These proceedings classed together all the crimes of which the Spanish republicans were accused by the Franco regime. [Back]

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