Child Soldiers Global Report 2004 - Spain

Kingdom of Spain

Covers the period from April 2001 to March 2004.

Population: 41.0 million (7.2 million under 18)
Government armed forces: 150,700
Compulsory recruitment age: conscription suspended
Voluntary recruitment age: 18
Voting age: 18
Optional Protocol: ratified 8 March 2002
Other treaties ratified (see glossary): CRC, GC AP I and II, ICC, ILO 138, ILO 182

There were no reports of under-18s in government forces. Children were reported to be involved in violent activities linked to the armed opposition group, ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, Basque Country and Freedom).

Context

There were reports of reckless shootings by Civil Guards in response to incidents in frontier areas between Spain and Morocco, and frequent allegations of ill-treatment or torture of detainees including immigrants, people of foreign origin, and ETA suspects by police officers, Civil Guards, and prison guards. The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) was strongly critical of the lack of safeguards for detainees held under anti-terrorist legislation.¹ The political violence in which more than 800 people have died over the past four decades continued. ETA maintained its campaign of bombings and shootings, in which both security officials and civilians died, the latest in May 2003.²

Spanish troops participated in a number of peacekeeping operations, including in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea and Ethiopia, Georgia and Guatemala. The Spanish government permitted US forces to use Spanish military bases and provided logistical support to the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan in 2001.³ More than a thousand Spanish troops served with the US-led coalition in Iraq following the invasion in 2003. In March 2004 a series of explosions on Madrid commuter trains caused the deaths of nearly 200 people. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero won the presidential election a few days later and pledged to withdraw all Spanish troops from Iraq.⁴

Government

National recruitment legislation and practice

The constitution states that "Citizens have the right and the duty to defend Spain.... The law shall determine the military obligations of Spaniards and regulate conscientious objection with its due guarantees" (Article 30).⁵

The armed forces have been professionalized, and the requirement for Spanish men to perform compulsory military service was suspended under Law 17/1999, as amended, regulating armed forces personnel (Provision 13).⁶

To join the armed forces, candidates must first complete basic training for two months and then undergo specialist training for between one and ten months.⁷ They are required to be over 18 years old to be accepted into the military education system, under Law 17/1999 (Articles 63 and 68) and the General Regulations for Entry into and Promotion within the Armed Forces (Article 15).⁸

The minimum age for recruitment as a reservist is 18 years under Law 17/1999, which established a voluntary system of mobilization and reserves (Article 170). Reserves may be mobilized by Royal Decree on a compulsory basis for national defence purposes. The minimum age for compulsory service in the reserves is 19 (Article 178).⁹

Recruits must be 18 or over to join the Civil Guards (Guardias Civiles), who have both policing and military functions under Organic Law 2/1986, as amended, regulating the state security forces. The Civil Guards are under the authority of both the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Defence, except in wartime when the Ministry of Defence has exclusive authority.¹⁰

Military training and military schools

There are ten military academies under the authority of the Ministry of Defence that prepare candidates as officers for entry into the army, navy or air force. Candidates must be aged 18 or over to enrol.¹¹

Armed political groups

According to official records, 817 officers of the security services and civilians have been killed by ETA in the Basque country and elsewhere since 1968: 339 civilians, 198 Civil Guards, 183 national, regional and local police officers, and 97 members of the armed forces.¹²

The judicial authorities have in the past five years outlawed three youth associations reportedly linked to ETA and believed to include under-18s. On 10 May 2001 one such group, Haika, was declared illegal by National Judge Baltasar Garzón. Haika had been formed in April 2000 from its predecessor Jarrai – a group banned by the National Court (Audiencia Nacional) in 1999, on the grounds that it had instructed new members in the use of explosives. ETA activists were reported to have been involved with Haika.¹³ One month after Haika was banned, its members regrouped into a new association, Segi. In December 2001, the European Union included ETA, Jarrai, Haika and Segi on their list of "terrorist" organizations.¹⁴ On 5 February 2002, Judge Garzón declared Segi illegal.¹⁵

Young people were reported to be involved in violent incidents in the Basque country, including sabotage and vandalism, as part of the Kale Borroka (Our Struggle), a Basque youth movement. The group, which formed in the early 1990s, was alleged to have links with ETA.¹⁶ There was no information available about recruitment into Kale Borroka.

1 Amnesty International Reports 2002, 2003 and 2004, http://web.amnesty.org/library/engindex.

2 Collective of Victims of Terrorism in the Basque Country (COVITE), http://www.covite.org (Balance del dolor); Ministry of Interior, http://www.mir.es (ETA victims); Amnesty International Reports 2002, 2003 and 2004.

3 Ministry of Defence, http://www.mde.es.

4 BBC News, "Country Profile: Spain", http://news. bbc.co.uk.

5 "Los españoles tienen el derecho y el deber de defender a España.... La Ley fijará las obligaciones militares de los españoles y regulará, con las debidas garantías, la objeción de conciencia", Constitution, http://www.juridicas.com/base_datos/Admin/constitucion. html (Coalition translation).

6 Ley 17/1999, Régimen Personal de las Fuerzas Armadas, Law 17/1999, 18 May 1999, modified by Law 39/1999 and Law 32/2002, http://www.boe. es/boe/dias/2002-07-06/pdfs/A24681-24683. pdf.

7 Fuerzas Armadas, army, http://www.soldados. com/como_ingresar/incorporacion.jsp (Como Ingresar).

8 Law 17/1999, op. cit.; Reglamento general de ingreso y promoción de las fuerzas armadas, 20 October 2000.

9 Law 17/1999, op. cit.; Real Decreto 1735/2000, http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2000-10-21/pdfs/A36290-36301.pdf.

10 LO 2/86 de Fuerzas y Cuerpos de Seguridad Reguladora del Estado, de las Policías de las Comunidades Autónomas y de las Policías Locales, Organic Law 2/1986, 14 March 1986, http://www.igsap.map.es/cia/dispo/25726.htm.

11 Fuerzas Armadas, army, http://www.soldados. com/oficiales/como_ingresar/centros.jsp Centros de Enseñanza Militar).

12 Ministry of Interior, http://www.mir.es.

13 El Mundo, "El Entorno de Eta", http://www.elmundo.es/eta/entorno_segi.html.

14 Council of the European Union, Council Common Position of 27 December 2001 on the application of specific measures to combat terrorism, Official Journal L 344 , 28 December 2001.

15 IBLNews, "Garzón declara ilícitas Askatasuna y Segi por formar parte de ETA", 5 February 2002, http://iblnews.com.

16 Pedro J. Olarzabal, "Kale Borroka: Discurso de los medios de comunicación" in Hermes, No. 7, Fundación Sabino Arana, Bilbao, November 2002, http://www.sabinoarana.org/es/hermes.htm.