Parliamentary Assembly
Assemblée parlementaire

Doc. 10930
10 May 2006

Need for international condemnation of the Franco regime
Recommendation 1736 (2006)

Reply from the Committee of Ministers
adopted at the 963rd meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies (3 May 2006)

1.       Like the Parliamentary Assembly, the Committee of Ministers condemns the repeated serious human rights violations by the Franco regime and agrees that it is important to remember the crimes by all totalitarian regimes so as to avoid repeating the errors of the past. In this connection, the Committee of Ministers acknowledges the courageous steps taken in this respect in Spain itself.

2.       At the same time, the Committee of Ministers notes that Spain’s transition to democracy shortly after the end of the Franco regime is an example to all other countries undergoing the same process. It welcomes the fact that the year 2007 will be the 30th anniversary of Spain’s accession to the Council of Europe, which was made possible by that successful transition.

3.       As regards the specific recommendations addressed by the Assembly, the Committee of Ministers believes that all totalitarian regimes without distinction, including the Franco regime, should be made the object of a declaration or official day of the kind which the Assembly suggests. Singling out one regime rather than another might create the mistaken impression that some totalitarian regimes are worthier of condemnation than others, whereas all of them collectively merit our reprobation.