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On 4 February 2008, after years of impunity, eight Guatemalan ex senior army officials were put on trial in Spain’s highest court, the Audiencia Nacional, charged with crimes against humanity. During the 36 year internal armed conflict, which ended in 1996, an estimated 200,000 people died or “disappeared”. The case was filed by Mayan human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú Tum on the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows States to claim jurisdiction on cases outside their borders (see below). The case was brought to Spain in 1999 but stalled when the Audiencia Nacional declared that Spanish courts were not competent at that time to hear the case. Survivors of the genocide and expert witnesses have been in Spain giving testimony at the genocide hearing which will resume at the end of May. Crimes against children Crimes committed against children during this period include murder, forcible recruitment and enforced disappearances. Some of the witnesses testifying before Spain’s highest court, the Audiencia Nacional, were children at the time of the genocide, lost children themselves or witnessed crimes against children. One witness told the court of how, on 27 April 1984, “the army captured his sons, aged 12 and 9, and forced them to march with them carrying army backpacks. He never saw them again.” Another witness spoke of being told that “the army was ordered to kill Mayan children, before they grew up to become subversives. The children were called delincuentes subversives by the military.” On day five of the hearing, a witness told of the day when he returned to his village to find that the army had gone into the houses interrogating women and children. The children answered in Achí [a Mayan language] which angered soldiers who pretended not to understand. They killed 107 children that day. The testimonies above are taken from NACLA Report on the Americas which has documented summaries of witness testimonies at the Spanish court on its website: http://www.nacla.org. What is Universal Jurisdiction? Universal Jurisdiction is a principle of international law whereby States can prosecute people who commit crimes outside their borders for certain crimes which pose a threat to the international community. Crimes including torture, extrajudicial executions, war crimes, crimes against humanity and enforced disappearances can be prosecuted in countries which have accepted this principle, regardless of their nationality or relationship with the prosecuting country, to provide redress to the victims and their families. Amnesty International campaigns for all States to empower their national courts to investigate and prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture, extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances are crimes under international law. The creation of the International Criminal Court reduced the need for universal jurisdiction, although the Court is not authorised to hear cases preceding 2002 when it was established. Some have argued that universal jurisdiction is a breach of sovereignty and that it risks creating “a universal tyranny of judges” (Henry Kissinger). However, according to Amnesty, impunity exists mainly when the national authorities of countries affected by the crimes fail to act, so it is important that the national criminal and civil justice systems of all countries can step in to prosecute the crimes on behalf of the international community and award reparations to victims. In doing so, governments will ensure that their countries cannot be used as safe havens by the worst criminals. Article 23.4 of the Organic Law 6/1985 confers on Spanish courts universal jurisdiction over genocide and any offense that Spain is obliged to prosecute under international treaties. Past cases initiated in Spain on the principle of universal jurisdiction include the case of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. [Sources: Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, NACLA] Further information