FIBGAR is part of the Council for Democratic Memory, established in accordance with Law 20/2022 on Democratic Memory
The Minister for Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, presided over the inaugural meeting of the Council for Democratic Memory, a collegiate advisory body designed as a forum for memorial organisations and civil society to participate in the development of public policies on democratic memory.
The Council was created in accordance with Law 20/2022 on Democratic Memory and assumes key functions for the implementation of this law. These include issuing reports on the Democratic Memory Plan; analysing and monitoring the multi-year plan for the search, location, exhumation and identification of missing persons; the assessment of regulatory proposals related to the development of the Law; the preparation of recommendations on public policy on democratic memory; and the ruling on measures and programmes promoted in this area, including subsidies and grants for memorial organisations.
During the inauguration ceremony, the minister emphasised the importance of this body as an instrument for disseminating the value of democratic memory, guaranteeing the dignity of victims and reinforcing guarantees of non-repetition. In this regard, he highlighted the need for society to understand the process of building democracy in Spain and the rights and freedoms won after decades of dictatorship.
The Council for Democratic Memory has broad institutional and social representation, and its composition includes ten members representing memorialist organisations, which contribute the experience accumulated over decades of work in the defence of truth, justice and reparation.
Among these organisations, alongside FIBGAR, are the Association of Descendants of Spanish Exiles; the Citizens’ Forum for the Recovery of Historical Memory in Andalusia; Amical de Mauthausen and other camps and all victims of Nazism in Spain; the Association for Social and Democratic Memory; All Stolen Children are also my Children; the Association for the Recovery of the Memory of Mallorca; the Catalan Association of Political Prisoners of Francoism; the Luis Tilve Foundation; and the Association of Relatives of Those Executed in Navarre in 1936.
The presence of FIBGAR on the Council reinforces a perspective focused on human rights and the fight against impunity for the crimes of Francoism, contributing its experience in the field of universal justice, democratic memory and the defence of victims, both nationally and internationally.
In order to carry out their duties, the members of the Council—who perform their work without remuneration—shall have access to public and private archives and documentary collections, in accordance with current regulations. The Council shall meet ordinarily every six months and extraordinarily when so agreed by the Presidency or requested by a significant number of its members.
The establishment of the Council for Democratic Memory is an important step towards the effective implementation of Law 20/2022 on Democratic Memory, as it consolidates a space for the real participation of victims and memorial organisations in the design, monitoring and evaluation of public policies in this area. Its operation contributes to strengthening Spanish democracy, guaranteeing the right to truth and reparation, and advancing towards a model of memory based on the principles of justice, dignity and non-repetition.
Furthermore, the Council is a fundamental tool for articulating a plural and inclusive democratic memory, capable of integrating different voices, territories and historical experiences, and of generating broad social consensus around the condemnation of the dictatorship and the defence of democratic values. Their work is key to ensuring that memory policies are not short-lived, but sustained over time, with a forward-looking approach focused on human rights education and the consolidation of a solid democratic culture in Spain.
