A judge in Spain is pushing for economic and environmental crimes to receive the same legal treatment as those committed against humanity.
Baltasar Garzón is known as a campaigning judge whose efforts in the past have resulted in new legal scope for pursuing human rights offenders across national borders – in 1998, for example, he ordered the arrest of former Chilean dictator Pinochet who was in London at the time.
“Humanitarian and economic crises cause more deaths around the world than all of the genocides we have documented,” said Garzón.
He argues that the definition of international law should be widened to prosecute corporations that carry out economic or environmental crimes, making them akin to torture or genocide.
As examples he notes the so-called vulture funds which undermine debt restructuring in countries or companies which behind the exploitation of natural resources which leaves local people without basic requirements and overrides their human rights.
He cites the ongoing Greek saga: “While the Greeks were voting in the referendum, there was a massive exit of capital from the country, some €2bn. It left the country on the brink of collapse and limited how much money citizens could withdraw each week.”
Stronger international legal mechanisms could enable courts to force the return of capital which has been drained out of the economy.
Under the provision of universal jurisdiction, international law allows judges in one country to try cases of human rights abuses committed in another country.
Garzón believes it should be possible to try offending large corporations in this way no matter where their headquarters are.
Spanish judges have often led the way over the last 20 years of applying universal jurisdiction to investigate serious cases in Argentina, Rwanda and Guatemala.
But the ruling People’s Party has not been so keen on the concept. Last year, it rushed through a reform to limit the use of universal jurisdiction in Spain.
Garzón himself has been at the sharp end of the law. In 2012 in a corruption case involving the People’s Party he was convicted of illegally ordering the wiretapping of conversations between defence lawyers and clients. The conviction brought his judicial career to an end.
