2.1 Reviewed Study Categories
2.1.1 LEGISLATIVE INITIATIVES IN CONGRESS AND AUTONOMOUS PARLIAMENTS AND POLITICAL DECLARATIONS ON COLONIALISM AND SLAVERY IN SPAIN
This category includes Proposals of Non-binding Resolution ( PNL ) that deal with reparations for colonial and slaveholding pasts , political declarations related to the same issue from autonomous parliaments and demands for public apologies from authorities in third countries . However , motions or declarations in town and city councils were not included because , although some were initially traced , this would have entailed conducting research work on the minutes of town and city councils across the entire State . Because of the scope of this project , it was decided that this task would be omitted , as it could only provide very partial results that would not encompass all of these initiatives . Furthermore , on a methodological level , issues such as the Sahrawis or the use of chemical weapons during the Rif war have been the subject of many political initiatives over time . The criterion for these cases was to concentrate the explanation into one single entry , developing on all the initiatives , in order to facilitate reading and not duplicate cases .
For the drafting of this report and database we believe it is necessary to further explore the definition of what we understand by reparation initiatives . To do so we must consider the debates on the new models of Transitional Justice ( hereinafter TJ ) that are generating vast literature on how to include the colonial and slaveholding pasts in these models . Demands for reparation form part of the approaches increasingly considered by transitional justice which , as Mohamed Sesay ( 2022 ) points out , is pushing its scope of action beyond the traditional post-war and postauthoritarian settings to now tackle the profound and structural causes of political conflicts . This is also related to the approaches of postcolonial and decolonial theories , which establish a link between these pasts and current injustices , such as inequality and racism , designing a coloniality that redefines the chronological limits of the phenomenon to treat them as structures of oppression that persist in time . In short , the demands for reparation and their materialisation in actions act synchronically and diachronically . In other words , on past and present events , which greatly complicates the definition and the categories .
We believe that this category is of crucial importance , as it helps to highlight the specific political dimension of the reparations through initiatives that are aligned both with the broad legislative frameworks of the European Union and the United Nations , as well as with the pressure exerted by groups and collectives in the political sphere . Although it is true that some of these initiatives have not been successful and others have remained symbolic gestures , the mere fact that they exist reflects the growth of the critical movement around colonialism in society and the need for political action , involving the State in its responsibility , to address these demands .
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