Who are we

The Permanent Social Forum is a dynamic space composed of different organisations of civil society and individual persons.

Its objectives are to promote the Basque Peace process and to contribute to untiying the knots that hamper the resolution of the consequences of the cycle of violence experienced during the last decades.

As of today, 17 different organisations of civil society take part in this iniciative:

Trade Unions

• ELA
• LAB
• CCOO
• Steilas
• ESK

Peace iniciatives

• Ahotsak
• Bake Bidea
• Baketik
• Paz con Dignidad

Organisations working to overcome the consequences of the so-called conflict

• Sare
• Etxerat
• Egiari Zor Fundazioa

Memorialist Associations

• Gernika Batzordea

Feminist Movement

• Bilgune Feminista

Others

• Herri Eliza
• Antxeta Irratia
• Hitz&Hitz

This dynamic space operates from June 2016, and takes as its reference points the 12 recommendations drawn up after the first Social Forum, held in Pamplona and Bilbao in 2013.

These 12 recommendations can be summed up in the following five basic concepts

1. Reaching basic consensus to face the main challenges of the peace process
2. Designing, developping and culminating a disarmament and dismantling process
3. Facilitating the reintegration of imprisoned persons and persons on the run
4. Promoting and guaranteeing human rights
5. Preserving truth and memory in order to face the past with fairness and set the bases for future coexistence.

From then on, the Permanent Social Forum has become an important reference in the progress of the peace process, for example:

• The processes of disarmament and dismantling of ETA, carried on by civil society, and both verified by the international community.
• The construction of political, social and trade union agreements, inconceivable until recently: first, over the rights of all victims of all expressions of violence to truth, justice and reparation; and, second, over the urgent need to overcome the present period of exceptionality in the penitentiary system by applying normalised penitentiary policies to prisoners serving sentences related to this situation.

But there is still much to be done to move forward in the peace process:

• Ending the discrimination that still exists regarding victims in their rights to truth, justice and reparation
• The definitive deactivation of the ongoing policy of penitentiary exceptionality and the application of normalised policies to imprisoned persons.
• The promotion, from social spaces, of the construction of an inclusive and critical memory, that will respect all sides' accounts.

The Permanent Social Forum reaffirms its commitment to continue working to untie those knots and to make progress in a comprehensive peace process that will lay down solid foundations of non repetition.

Other related links:

Artesanos de la paz - Artisans de la paix

International Verification Commission

Basque Friendship