<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Plurinational Parliamentary Group Sumar has presented a bill for "the formalization of an inspection protocol for vessels departing from or bound for states against which there are judicial measures, indications, or suspicions of the commission of the crime of genocide or war crimes."</strong></h4> In the explanatory statement of the proposal, presented on September 26 by Enrique Santiago, the spokesperson for the parliamentary group and member of the United Left, he warns that "the events that the international community has been observing in recent years, with serious human rights violations by states against the civilian population, make it necessary to have demanding regulations that allow for the regular conduct of sufficient inspections of vessels departing from or bound for states against which there are indications or suspicions of the commission of the crime of genocide." “The suspicion of committing this crime should be sufficiently important and serious grounds to justify stringent inspections and controls in Spanish ports,” he continues. “Spanish ports must serve as a barrier and reject any suspicion of supporting states against which these serious accusations have been leveled. Therefore, detailed protocols must be established that include possible circumstances, procedures, and sanctions,” he adds. Currently, Sumar warns, “it is urgent to implement these types of protocols because the actions of the State of Israel toward the population of the State of Palestine, within the framework of an illegal occupation, represent serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, which violate, among other instruments, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and the Geneva Conventions for the protection of victims of armed conflict; in particular, the content of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which protects people under occupation.” In this regard, Sumar recalls that "the International Court of Justice has found that there are indications to investigate Israel's commission of genocide and has issued a precautionary measures resolution dated January 26, 2024, ordering the cessation of any action that could constitute genocide in Gaza." "It must be remembered that all States have an international legal obligation to act to prevent genocide under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide," it continues. The text also recalls that "the Arms Trade Treaty empowers Spain to detain weapons of war found on ships or cargo vessels destined for a conflict zone" and that inspections of ships transiting through Spanish territory are also determined by several Royal Decrees in Spain. <h5><strong>Royal Decree-Law on arms embargo</strong></h5> Among them, Sumar points to Royal Decree-Law 10/2025, of September 23, adopting urgent measures against the genocide in Gaza and in support of the Palestinian population, ratified last Thursday by Congress. It includes "measures that reinforce the embargo on the State of Israel of weapons and other dual-use materials and the denial of authorization for the transit of these products for military purposes, making it necessary to take extreme inspection precautions so that no material susceptible to military use can avoid denial of transit by falsifying or indeterminately labeling the cargo." According to Sumar, "there are precedents of ships bound for the State of Israel being denied docking in Spanish ports, with indications that the cargo certification concealed or omitted the presence on the vessel of military-use material that could later be used against the population of the State of Palestine located in Gaza and the West Bank." For all these reasons, the Bill proposes an amendment to the 2011 Law on State Ports and the Merchant Navy to incorporate as a "serious offense the concealment of information on a vessel's cargo, in cases where the origin or destination of the vessel is a State against which there are indications or suspicions of the commission of the crime of genocide." It also includes, as an additional provision to the aforementioned Law on State Ports and the Merchant Navy, a "vessel inspection protocol" originating in or destined for these same States. This protocol develops, in eleven sections, the manner in which the inspection will be carried out and the communication obligations of maritime operators, as well as the stipulations that the administration must adopt in the event of the discovery of military or dual-use material.
