Spain completes process of expanding definitions of war crimes in ICC's Rome Statute

Last Friday, Spain deposited the instrument of ratification of the amendments to several sections of Article 8.2 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

The amendments being ratified seek to improve and clarify the definitions of war crimes, including the use of particularly harmful weapons (certain biological weapons, non-traceable fragmentation weapons and blinding laser weapons) in both international and internal conflicts, as well as the deliberate use of hunger as a weapon of war in non-international conflicts, thus equating them with those of an international nature for which the Rome Statute already provides an identical rule.

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.