Public memorial policies as debated in the Catalan Parliament (1980-2015)

This paper sets forth the democratic activity of the Catalan Parliament on public memorial policies between the first and the tenth legal terms (motions, questions and formal questions, resolutions, institutional declarations, bills, etc). In particular, from the sixth onwards, as it marks a qualitative no-turning point, both in the number and in the variety of memorial initiatives. Thus, the text points out fields most debated in the area (commemorations, homages, the juridical revision of court-martials during Francoism, withdrawal of fascist symbols from the public space, recovery of documental funds and access to historical archives, economic funding to political ex convicts, research of missing persons' data and exhumation and signaling of common pits. Also, compilation and identification of human remains of persons gone missing during the Civil War and Francoism). The paper also goes through Law 13/2007, of 31 October, of the Democratic Memorial, and Law 10/2009, of 30 June, about the location and identification of persons gone missing during the Civil War and Franco's dictatorship. It claims for the dignification of common pits, and reviews the most outstanding relevant motions (217/VI, 47/X, 69/X, etc.). It is thus that it pinpoints troublesome issues as emerged during parliamentary debates and formulates observations about the convenience of going through the current legal frame in Catalonia as regards memorial policies.