HUMAN RIGHTS INVESTIGATIONS IN SPAIN

Abstract

The crimes perpetrated against Spanish civilians during the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), and under Franco's regime (1939–75), are considered within some quarters as constituting a Spanish holocaust (Preston 2012), leaving in its wake innumerable clandestine burials within the mainland and island territories. However, there existed afterward a situation in which no retribution was made available for those who survived the turmoil, and likewise for the families of the victims, leaving a section of the Spanish population without access to means of a process of transitional justice. Investigations into the extrajudicial killings, and the recovery and identification of remains via the application of forensic anthropology did not come about until 2000, when a scientific approach to finding the disappeared was applied. Within the last decade and up to 2012, forensic anthropology has aided in the recovery of thousands of skeletal remains, albeit under difficult and far from ideal circumstances; the exhumation of a common grave located in Izagre, León province, and the subsequent attempt to identify the recovered victims will be presented as an example of the difficulties encountered. The exhumation and biological profiling of the victims has created a positive outcome within many families and some areas of society; nevertheless, at present, the dire economic situation of the country has caused the cessation of field or laboratory work.