Volume 4 No 1 - Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

270 JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF ANTISEMITISM [ VOL. 4:259
The application for reinstatement of Arthur Barros Basto is not limited
to rehabilitation and reintegration into the Portuguese army of a soldier
wronged seventy-five years ago. It is much more than that. After the long
and oblique ways that the case took before and after the implementation of
political freedom and democracy in Portugal, the remedying of this case
translates into repairing the moral dignity of our own country, a nation
deeply respectful of the integrity of fundamental rights, the cornerstone of
the materiality of our rule of law.
Rehabilitating Arthur Barros Basto is to recognize a tragic mistake
made more than seven decades ago, thus regenerating the present and future
of the Portuguese people, who want a free, democratic, and tolerant society.
With the posthumous rehabilitation of Barros Basto, all Portuguese will be
acquitted of an injustice done to a man—an injustice to one that turned out
to tarnish an entire collective.
The posthumous restitution of honor to Carlos Arthur Barros Basto
and his moral rehabilitation will make the most perfect justice: the undoing
of an injustice. As such, all of us, Portuguese men and women, will be freer
and more dignified.
Given the above, the Commission for Constitutional Affairs, Rights,
Freedoms and Guarantees is of the opinion:
1. That, by force of the direct applicability established in Art. 18, No.
1, of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, and in the face of blatant
violation of freedom of religion and worship that was perpetrated against
Carlos Arthur Barros Basto and that is guaranteed by Art. 41, No. 1, of the
same constitutional law, that in accordance with Art. 16, No. 2, of the same
constitutional text should be interpreted and integrated in harmony with Art.
1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as by the conditions
stated in Art. 10,* No. 1, of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the
European Union, and also the application of Art. 2,* No.* 1, of Decree-Law
no. 173/74, of April 26, the Portuguese state has the indeclinable duty to
grant the application embedded in Petition no. 63/XII/1, restoring posthumously
in the Portuguese Army Captain Arthur Carlos de Barros Basto.
2. That this opinion should be sent for all intents and purposes to the
National Defence Committee.
3. That the petitioner should be made aware of this opinion.
Palace of Sao Bento, February 28, 2012
The Deputy Rapporteur (Carlos Abreu Amorim)
Commission President (Fernando Negrao)