Spain will present as a candidate for the judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC) the jurist Concepción Escobar Hernández, Professor of International Law of the UNED and former member and special rapporteur of the United Nations International Law Commission, in addition to the Director of the International Legal Advice of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The candidacy of Escobar, a firm defender of multilateralism in international relations, is a end of the government to the Court at a time when its role is questioned by the reluctance of multiple governments to fulfill their arrest mandates to Israeli leaders.
Escobar (Madrid, 1959) was part of the Spanish delegation at the Rome Conference for the creation of the ICC in 1998, and at the Kampala Conference on the review of the Rome Statute on the International Criminal Court (2010), in which she was president of the Drafting Committee. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs praises its “deep knowledge of international law and the International Criminal Court” and “outstanding dialogue capacity in international environments.”
minister José Manuel Albares has sent a letter to the other 124 states part of the ICC to defend Escobar’s candidacy for mandate 2027-2036, which will be settled at the end of next year. In the letter, to which Eldiario.es has had access, the minister defends that “in an international context marked by the increase in armed conflicts and the growing challenges to international legality”, it considers “essential to strengthen the pillars that guarantee accountability, the protection of victims and the fulfillment of international law and international humanitarian law”.
“At this time when the Court faces growing challenges, including external pressures, Spain maintains a clear position: defending the independence of the International Criminal Court, supporting the respect of its decisions and activating the legal instruments necessary to protect its mandate. Thus I have been able to transmit it recently to the prosecutor Khan and the Vice President Aitala,” adds Albares. Prosecutor Karim Khan, who has accused President Israeli, Benjamin Netanyahu, war crimes and humanity lesa for Israeli behavior in Gaza, has publicly denounced the pressures suffered by the Court.
The ICC has 18 magistrates chosen for a nine -year mandate by the Assembly of the States part of the Rome Statute, composed of 125 states. The judges are renewed by third parties every three years and there is no re -election. In recent years, Spain sent the situation in Ukraine to the prosecutor in March 2022, and subsequently appeared – although not as part – in the procedures related to Palestine. He has also warned the court on the crimes committed by the Taliban against women and girls in Afghanistan.
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