Socialist International Women is the international organisation of the women's organisations of the socialist, social democratic and labour parties affiliated to the Socialist International.
There are currently 157 organisations from all parts of the world.

Emergency Declaration on the Assassination of Fernando Buesa

Madrid, Spain, 25-26 February 2000

Emergency Declaration

The Executive Committee of Socialist International Women, meeting in Madrid on 25-26 February 2000, in response to the assassination of Fernando Buesa, Secretary General of the PSE-PSOE in Alava, and of his bodyguard, the Basque policeman Jorge Díez Elorza, wishes today to express its strong condemnation of this brutal act, its condolences to the families of the victims, and its solidarity with the Socialist Party of the Basque country, at this difficult time.

The death of Fernando Buesa is an attack on liberty and plurality. However, it is also the destruction of the life of a person. Violence, the destruction of valuable human lives – and we women know the value of life, we know the care needed for it to develop and flourish – they do nothing but distance us from peace.

We reaffirm that civil peace has first place as the supreme good. Without it, there can be neither justice nor progress. Without peace people cannot seek higher objectives, they cannot achieve a full life. We strongly condemn the assassination, be it a political act or one with some other aim.

We remain convinced that Spanish democracy offers a sufficiently wide and pluralist framework to allow the expression of all voices within it.

We call on all parties – Spanish and Basque political parties, the unions and social institutions – to put make peace and people the priority, and to subordinate all other considerations to this end. So that above all peace comes to Euzkadi.