The Defensor del Pueblo welcomes the joint initiative by Spain and the United States of America that has enabled the victims of terrorism to appear before the United Nations Security Council.
On 21 October 2015, the president of the Fundación de Víctimas del Terrorismo, Mari Mar Blanco, and victims of terrorism Jana Gallardo, Tomás Fraga, Pari Ibrahim and Saudatu Mahdi, took their tale to the United Nations Security Council. As the president of the Fundación de Víctimas de Terrorismo said, “the voice of the victims is essential because nobody can conceive of the defeat of terrorism without taking into account what they have to say”.
On 3 April 2014, the Defensor recommended the Government “establish a plan of action at international level, stemming from coordination between the competent ministerial departments, and for the Fundación de Víctimas del Terrorismo and the associations of victims to take part in designing it and putting it into practice, to raise awareness in international forums, particularly in the sphere of the United Nations, the Council of Europe and the European Union, of the harm caused by terrorism”.
The recommendation was based on the fact that as terrorism-related decisions are taken in many international forums, there seemed to be a need to bolster participation by the victims so that, under the supervision of the authorities and diplomatic representations, the enormous harm caused by terrorism were made more visible in these spheres.
Spain is a member of the United Nations Security Council in the 2015-2016 biennium and chaired it in October this year. During the session in which the victims of terrorism took part, Spain was represented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel García-Margallo, and the Minister of the Interior, Jorge Fernández Díaz.
