[JURIST] Human rights groups on Tuesday called for the Spanish government to continue prosecuting those who violate international law under the principle of universal jurisdiction [AI backgrounder], sending a manifesto [text, PDF, in Spanish] to Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero [official profile, in Spanish]. The call from more than 100 human rights groups comes less than two weeks after the Spanish Congress of Deputies passed a non-binding resolution [JURIST report] designed to limit the scope of Spain's universal jurisdiction statute. In a statement [text] released last week, Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] compared the possibility of reduced jurisdictional scope to what occurred in Belgium in 2003 [HRW report] and said that such a reduction:

would confirm a growing sentiment – fueled by the dismissal of cases in France and Germany against U.S. officials accused of crimes against detainees, and the International Criminal Court’s focus thus far on Africa - that international justice targets only the leaders of weak states while officials of powerful countries have the muscle to prevent accountability.