CCPR/C/130/D/3599/2019
officers of the Guardia Civil. The authors claim that the State party is responsible for a
continuing violation of the rights of Ms. J.V. and Mr. A.M. under articles 6, 7, 9 and 16 of
the Covenant, read in conjunction with article 2 (3), owing to the State party’s obstruction of
investigation and search efforts. The authors also claim to be victims of a violation by the
State party of their rights under article 7 of the Covenant, read in conjunction with article 2
(3). The authors request priority processing on the grounds of F.A.J.’s advanced age. The
Optional Protocol entered into force for the State party on 25 April 1985. The authors are
represented by counsel.
1.2
On 26 November 2019, the Special Rapporteur on new communications, acting on
behalf of the Committee, decided to accept the State party’s request that the admissibility
of the communication be considered separately from its merits.
1.3
On 30 December 2019, and 14, 15 and 20 January 2020, the Committee received four
requests for the submission of amicus curiae briefs from Victor Rodríguez Rescia, a former
member of the Committee and the President of the Inter-American Institute of Social
Responsibility and Human Rights; Rainer Huhle and María Clara Galvis Patiño, former
members of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances; Margalida Capellà Roig, Director
of the Legal Clinic of the Faculty of Law of the University of the Balearic Islands and a
former member of the parliament of the Balearic Islands, who participated in the drafting of
the autonomous community legislation on the recovery of persons who disappeared during
the Civil War and the Franco regime; and the Mallorca Association for the Recovery of
Historical Memory. The proposed statements were mainly concerned with the obligation to
investigate serious human rights violations that occurred in the past, the continuous nature of
disappearances, the lack of action taken to search for persons who disappeared during the
Civil War and the Franco regime, and the impossibility of obtaining access to justice.
1.4
On 21 and 29 January 2020, the Special Rapporteurs on new communications decided
to reject the four requests for intervention by third parties.
The facts as submitted by the authors
2.1
The authors affirm that the facts of the present case fall within the framework of the
systematic practice, during the Civil War (1936–1939) and the ensuing Franco dictatorship
(1939–1975), of enforced disappearances of persons accused of adhering to an ideology
contrary to that of the Franco regime.
2.2
According to the Judge of Central Court of Investigation No. 5 of the National High
Court, who has begun to investigate enforced disappearances that occurred during the Civil
War and the Franco regime, the “system of enforced disappearance was systematically used
in order to make it impossible to identify the victims”. The Judge has estimated that there
were at least 114,226 victims of enforced disappearances during this period. 1
2.3
In Mallorca, the enforced disappearance of persons allied to the Republic was
practised systematically and on a mass scale, becoming particularly prevalent in areas such
as Manacor, where the authors’ relatives disappeared. Troops took full control of the Balearic
Islands 20 days after the coup of 18 July 1936. Although in the country as a whole the
dictatorship of Francisco Franco was established in 1939, when the Republic was defeated
and the war ended, the dictatorship began to impose itself very quickly in Mallorca, from
1936 onward.
2.4
Ms. J.V. and Mr. A.M. were originally from the town of Llubí in Mallorca. After
getting married, they moved to Manacor, where they both worked in a watchmaking business
that they owned. At the time of the events, they had two daughters, A., who was 11 years of
age (now deceased, the mother of B.M.R.A., author of the communication) and F., who was
8 years of age (author of the communication). In addition, Ms. J.V. was around seven months
pregnant.
2.5
Mr. A.M. was sympathetic to the ideals of the Republican left. On Sundays, rather
than going to Mass, he and his daughters usually went to a bar frequented by Republicans.
He was also a devoted reader of the Republican magazine Nosotros, every edition of which
1
2
Central Court of Investigation No. 5 of the National High Court, order of 16 October 2008, p. 24.
GE.21-06035