MADRID—Representatives of human rights organizations held rallies outside major media networks in Madrid in early June, protesting changes in the law that regulates the principle of universal jurisdiction.
Organizations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (HRW), judges, lawyers, journalists, academics, and a dozens of associations have united in defense of universal jurisdiction, and against the limits that the Spanish government has attempted to apply against the principle.
The principle of universal jurisdiction allows the Spanish legal system to take up cases against people who committed crimes outside of Spain, or where there were no Spanish citizens involved, on the basis that the crimes committed were sufficiently heinous. Such crimes are considered crimes against all, and as such may be prosecuted anywhere, according to the principle.
Two weeks ago Spanish media was sent a notice informing them that the two main political parties in the country, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, and the People’s Party, have agreed to establish a limit to universal jurisdiction. With the change, only cases in which the alleged criminal is in Spain, or where there are Spanish citizens involved, could be prosecuted.
If this modification of the law is successful, it would mean that Spanish courts would be unable to continue judging cases regarding issues like the occupation of Tibet, the bombardment of Gaza, or the persecution of Falun Gong in China, which will have its tenth anniversary on July 20. Ten years of persecution has seen countless thousands of forced labor sentences handed down, brutal torture, and organ harvesting, at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party against millions of innocent people for their beliefs.
The barrister taking on cases for alleged crimes committed in Gaza and Guantanamo Bay, Gonzalo Boye, was disappointed with the news: “A legislature and a half ago, Spain was a country of ‘no-to-war’, and now it’s turned into a country of ‘yes-to-war-crimes’.”
Carlos Iglesias, barrister who is in charge of the case against various Chinese Communist Party leaders for their role in the genocide of Falun Gong, commented that in his case, the victims would have no recourse to the International Criminal Court, because China has not ratified that statute.
Members of the press have criticized the accord between the two parties, arguing that it was due to political and diplomatic pressure by countries who have cases leveled against them in Spanish courts. They give the reminder that international law obliges all states to pursue crimes against humanity wherever they are committed.
Reed Brody, representative of Human Rights Watch, emphasized as much. “The law belongs to all victims in the world who search for justice and do not find it in their own countries.”
Friends Read Free