Antigypsyism during the Franco Dictatorship in Spain: Truth, Memory, and Justice

The event will symbolically take place at the Spanish Parliament, since in July 2022 thanks to Roma rights advocacy the Spanish Parliament approved the law on Democratic Memory, where Roma communities are considered among the victims of the Franco regime. The law also included the creation of a working group on the Memory and Reconciliation with the Roma Communities in Spain.

Therefore, this CHACHIPEN conference will provide a timely contribution. Please find the draft programme enclosed.  The Spanish research team, composed of Anna Carballo and Pedro Casermeiro will present the CHACHIPEN report on Spain which is looking into the persecution of Roma during Franco’s dictatorship and the ongoing antigypsyism. 

This event will further promote critical reflection on historically rooted antigypsyism and elaborate on concrete transitional justice tools or approaches used in Germany and Sweden to bring about the right to truth, and memorialisation and to ensure justice for Roma survivors, victims’ family members and Roma communities.  

This event falls within the framework of the European Union’s funded project ‘Paving the way for Truth and Reconciliation Process to address antigypsyism in Europe: Remembrance, Recognition, Justice and Trust-Building’. Project is abbreviated as ‘CHACHIPEN’, meaning ‘truth’ in the Romani language. CHACHIPEN aims to address historically rooted antigypsyism and its legacies by employing transitional justice approaches and tools, such as, for example, truth and reconciliation commissions.

Selected Speakers;

• • Dr Ismael Cortés, member of the Spanish Parliament (host)/ CHACHIPEN Advisory Board Member
  • Ms Soraya Post, the City of Gothenburg, Sweden and former MEP/ CHACHIPEN Advisory Board Member
  • Ms Eleni Tsetsekou, Head of Division Roma and Travellers Team, Council of Europe (online)
  • Ms Aline Miklos, Senior Fellow, UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights
  • Mr Pedro Casermeiro, Rromane Siklǒvne/ CHACHIPEN Spanish research team
  • Dr Annabel Carballo, FAGIC/ CHACHIPEN Spanish research team
  • Dr Mirjam Karoly, IHRA Delegation to Austria/ former OSCE ODIHR/ CHACHIPEN Advisory Board Member 
  • Dr Markus End, Center for Research on Antisemitism, TU Berlin / CHACHIPEN Advisory Board Member
  • Prof. Lavinia Stan, St. Francis Xavier University in Canada (online)

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The event on 16 December 2022 (from 9.30 to 13.00) is hybrid.  Online web streaming is open to the public and it will also be shared on the Chachipen Twitter @ChachipenEU. The conference will offer Spanish/English translation.

Please register here to follow the online streaming via Spanish Parliament website. 

Participation in persons is invitation only. 

This hybrid event is free and open to the public but registration is mandatory. Once registered, you will receive instructions on how to join this event virtually.

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This project is funded by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020) and  counts with a kind contribution from the German Federal Foreign Office.