<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>Last Friday, the Spanish government deposited its instrument of ratification of the 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 hunger as a method of warfare and the use of biological weapons, non-localizable fragment weapons, and blinding laser weapons in both international and domestic war contexts.</strong></h4> According to a press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday, the amendments up for ratification seek to improve and clarify the definitions of war crimes, including the use of particularly harmful weapons (certain biological weapons, non-localizable fragment weapons, and blinding laser weapons) in both international and domestic conflicts, as well as "the deliberate use of hunger as a weapon of war in non-international conflicts," thus equating them with international crimes for which the Rome Statute already provides an identical provision. “The ratification of these amendments demonstrates Spain's firm commitment to the fight against impunity and to the work of the International Criminal Court, the cornerstone of the universal criminal justice system, in the face of the most serious crimes committed against humanity,” he added. On June 3, Spain approved the Organic Law authorizing the ratification of four amendments to Article 8.2 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, 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. At the end of July, the Council of Ministers authorized Spain's expression of consent to be bound by the four amendments. The Rome Statute, the founding instrument of the International Criminal Court, was adopted on July 17, 1998, ratified by Spain on October 24, 2000, and entered 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, inserting a section defining a war crime as "intentionally starving the civilian population as a method of waging war, by depriving it of objects indispensable for its survival, including intentionally obstructing relief supplies." In June of this year, 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 in relation 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 goods essential to its survival." The following month, 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. Around the same time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied that there was a famine in the Strip, despite denunciations from the United Nations, NGOs, the Gaza press, and even Israeli organizations. He asserted that the images demonstrating hunger had 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." Despite Trump's statements, the US government sanctioned four ICC judges who had issued an arrest warrant against Netanyahu in June. On October 16, Queen Letizia and Pope Leo XIV denounced the use of hunger as a "weapon of war in some parts of the world" at the FAO headquarters in Rome, on the occasion of World Food Day.
