Intersectoral Fora for Social Transition
Advocacy / Human rights
The project Child Enforced Disappearances: Dialogue for Justice and Legislative Change seeks to raise awareness and sensitize Spanish society about child enforced disappearances and the issue of stolen babies, promoting historical memory, justice, and the moral and social reparation of the victims. It aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the social, psychological, and legal impact of these events, giving voice to victims and their families, recognizing their experiences, and reflecting the challenges and progress within the current legal framework.
The approval of the Democratic Memory Law in 2022 represented a historic step by legally recognizing children stolen during the Franco regime as victims. However, the legislative proposal on stolen babies remains pending, highlighting the need to accompany the legislative process with actions that raise awareness, inform the public, and mobilize society around justice and reparations for these victims.
Through a participatory, inclusive, and rigorous process, the project aims to strengthen civic awareness, foster informed dialogue, and support the legislative process to ensure justice and reparations for those who have suffered these serious human rights violations.
To achieve these objectives, the project organizes a range of strategic activities. The core of the initiative consists of roundtables and public debates addressing the historical context, social and psychological impact, the existing legal framework, and the experiences of victims’ associations. Public participation, alongside the documentation of testimonies and expert contributions, ensures that discussions are fully recorded and that conclusions have social and political significance.
From these discussions, a report and a manifesto are prepared, compiling conclusions, demands, and proposals arising from the debates. Both documents serve a dual purpose: consolidating collective memory and acting as instruments for public awareness and political advocacy to advance reparation and recognition of victims’ rights. The results are disseminated through media campaigns, workshops, lectures, and exhibitions aimed at diverse audiences, including young people and educational groups, reinforcing awareness of democratic memory, human rights, and historical justice.
The project also incorporates monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to measure the impact of activities, analyze social and media reach, and generate recommendations to ensure the continuity of future initiatives. In this way, awareness-raising is translated into concrete actions that contribute to a more just society that is conscious of its history.
Partially co-financed by the Secretariat of State for Democratic Memory, the project strengthens the commitment to truth, justice, and reparation, consolidating spaces for civic participation and promoting a more robust, inclusive democracy that respects the rights of those who have suffered child enforced disappearances and stolen babies.
