society, we want to express our opinion about the key points that should inspire such reform, and which are the following:
Universal Jurisdiction should be distinguished in a clear manner for the most grave international crimes - genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, aggression, torture or forced displacement - from the other forms of extraterritorial jurisdiction or interstate jurisdiction for other international crimes.
The recognized Universal Jurisdiction must be unconditional and not subjected to, be linked to, or have a connection to the Spanish territory.
Equally, the principle of protection of Spanish victims and European citizens resident in our country who are victims of international crimes must be strengthened, in parallel with that of Universal Jurisdiction for all the victims.
There must be a broad recognition of the legitimacy and the right to protection of victims against international crimes, in accordance with the European concept of the victim (Directive 2012/29/EU and Guide Document for the transposition of the Directive.)
International protection of new generation rights, like all forms of modern slavery and those related to the environment, ecocide, as well as international natural spaces contained in the regulation of article 325 of the Criminal Code, in relation to the earth’s atmosphere, high seas etc.
Likewise, the application of Universal Jurisdiction should include economic and financial crimes that, due to their size and scale, seriously affect human rights.
Clearly, effective extraterritorial prosecution must be established in the criminal and civil law of legal persons domiciled or operating usually in Spain, whether they are parent companies of subsidiaries.
The broadest legitimacy for the exercise of actions must be sought in criminal proceedings, not only by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, but also by the victims and in the exercise of popular action.
A specialized criminal investigation unit should be created in the prosecutor’s office, as it exists in other countries, that coordinates its activities and that of the police and that also facilitates cooperation with other States in the investigation and prosecution of international crimes.
Finally, we want, in addition to reiterating our call of attention to the Spanish Government, to extend this interpellation to the political party that supports it and the rest of the parliamentary groups in relation to the urgent need to take effective actions to recover lost ground in terms of human rights, raising this priority to the category of State Policy, over and above party interests.
Likewise, human rights policies are not to remain mere announcements, or programmatic proposals, but materialize in direct reforms and in the approval of well-structured legal projects, which are adequately debated and voted on in Parliament and that represent an advance and deepening of the Spanish democracy. All with a vision and scope that overcomes the conditioning factors of short-sighted and narrow views of international relations or those imposed by corporate interests, regardless of the general interests of our society.