20 November 2025, Geneva/Brussels.- Today marks fifty years since the death of Francisco Franco. Three years ago, Spain adopted the Law on Democratic Memory (Law 20/2022), which enshrines the right to investigate human rights violations committed during the Franco regime and the transition period, including torture and enforced disappearances. Yet it fails to remove the longstanding legal and institutional barriers that have prevented victims from accessing truth, justice, and reparation. As a result, not a single case has been effectively prosecuted. Impunity remains total.
As highlighted by REDRESS, “in recent years, more than 100 complaints have been filed alleging torture, forced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, the theft of babies, and slave labor, among other violations. More than a dozen of these complaints were filed after the Democratic Memory Law came into force. All have been dismissed so far.”
More than 100 survivors of Franco-era torture are still alive and continue to demand justice. Among them is Carles Vallejo, whose case reached the Constitutional Court after years of appeals, only to be dismissed once again on the basis of the 1977 Amnesty Act and the statute of limitations.
The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) recalls the words
of the UN’s primary international body monitoring the implementation of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, during its most recent review of Spain: acts of torture and enforced disappearance must never be subject to amnesties or statutes of limitation.
OMCT therefore urges Spain to repeal the 1977 Amnesty Act and to finally honour its obligations toward the victims, whose rights to truth, justice, reparation, and guarantees of non-repetition have been denied for decades. It is also essential to amend Article 174 of the Criminal Code to adequately define the crime of torture, and to establish the legal and institutional mechanisms to recognise and guarantee the right to reparation.
Non-repetition remains essential. According to the Global Torture Index, the risk of torture in Spain is moderate, but the country scores high risk for victims’ rights, reflecting the absence of legal recognition for victims of torture and the lack of access to reparation, including rehabilitation.
A new campaign, supported by numerous organisations and survivors, puts it clearly: “It’s never too late to deliver justice — but it must be now.”