<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Council of Ministers authorized this Tuesday Spain's expression of consent to be bound by four amendments to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). These amendments will allow the court to investigate as war crimes the use of starvation as a method of warfare and the use of biological weapons, untraceable fragment weapons, and blinding laser weapons in both international and domestic war contexts.</strong></h4> On June 3, the Organic Law authorizing the ratification of four amendments to Article 8.2 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court was approved, once approved by the Cortes Generales. The text was signed that same day by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and entered into force the following day. The manifestation of state consent, authorized this Tuesday, ultimately constitutes the basis for the formation of international norms and obligations, as it makes the negotiating state a contracting party and obliges it to comply with its provisions. The Rome Statute, the founding instrument of the International Criminal Court, was adopted on July 17, 1998, and ratified by Spain on October 24, 2000, entering into force for Spain on July 1, 2002. On December 6, 2019, the Assembly of States Parties adopted a resolution to amend the aforementioned Article 8 by inserting a section on the intentional use of starvation against the civilian population as a method of warfare in non-international conflicts, thus equating them with international conflicts, for which the Rome Statute already provides an identical provision in the same article. Specifically, the amendment includes as a war crime “intentionally starving the civilian population as a method of warfare, depriving it of items indispensable for its survival, including intentionally obstructing relief supplies.” This amendment comes into force a month and a half after the United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution presented by Spain and Palestine on the protection of the civilian population and compliance with legal and humanitarian obligations related to the conflict in Gaza. The text included, among other points, a firm condemnation of “any practice of starving the civilian population as a method of warfare” and warned of the obligation “not to deprive the civilian population in the Gaza Strip of items indispensable for its survival.” Therefore, he demanded that Israel immediately end the blockade, open all border crossings, and ensure that aid reaches the Palestinian civilian population throughout the Gaza Strip immediately and on a large scale, in line with its obligations under international law and humanitarian principles.” This past Monday, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares denounced “the induced famine in Gaza” at the UN High-Level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution in New York. “We are talking about human beings dying every day for lack of access to food that is piling up on the borders of Gaza. 100,000 children, 40,000 of them babies, are at risk of dying in the coming days,” he warned. This Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied that there is a famine in the Gaza Strip, despite complaints from the United Nations, NGOs, the Gaza press, and even Israeli organizations, and asserted that the images demonstrating the existence of hunger have been “staged or manipulated” by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). The day after these statements, US President Donald Trump himself responded that there is indeed a famine in Gaza and that it “cannot be faked.” Last June, the US administration of Donald Trump sanctioned four ICC judges who had issued an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu.
