THE CHALLENGE OF TRANSITION IN THE

BASQUE COUNTRY

Prof. Colm Campbell

Transitional Justice Institute, School of Law, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland

International Trends Transitional justice and the democratic state

Northern IrelandCanadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Transnational norm-diffusion. Legal norms and ideational norms (‘peace process’)

Increasing focus on violations by armed opposition groups

Increasing role of ‘bottom up’ initiatives

Comparative Perspectives

The ‘Big Four’, South Africa, Israel/Palestine, Northern Ireland and the Basque Country. Entrenched conflict & rechstsstaat

Transnational frame diffusion: SA NI Basque Country: meso and macro levels

Pacto de olvido: palimpsest of the transition from Francoism

Categorizing the Basque Transition Ending a crime wave?

Political shiftsInternational resonance

An open-ended process?The strength of the pacto de olvidoThe Garzón episodeCAH from the civil war

A bounded transition?

A bounded transition?

Legacies from the conflict post-Franco Early prisoner releases Reconciliation initiatives Political unbanning (Sortu) Memorialization initiatives Initiatives on victims and survivors Art 3 ECHR issues (prisoner ill-treatment) Space and validation for bottom-up

initiatives

Who is a ‘victim’?

2007 Law of Historical Memory (Spanish) opponents of Franco recognized

Basque decree of 2011 implementing above includes ETA members in Franco period

Victims of ETA are recognized as victims in a Spanish law of 2011

A Basque Law of 2008 recognizes as victims those harmed by GAL (as well as ETA)

ETA violence

The palimpsest of the past ETA violence under Franco ETA violence in the democratic period

(7-fold increase in violence in decade after democracy)

% of civilians killed: 37% to 65% Comparisons with contemporary

terrorism Militants as victim-perpetrators

Conclusions Strong evidence of ‘peace process’ frame

diffusion from NI and SA to the Basque Country

Although frayed the pacto de olvido remains strong

Even with the pact in place there is a ample space for transitional moves on prisoners, memorialization, and reconciliation (including apologies), with contributions both from state and non-state actors.