History is filled with visionaries who understood before others that practices such as slavery, colonialism and apartheid were not part of the natural order of things: they were immoral actions carried out by a minority and should be considered as crimes. Today, this international movement led by Baltasar Garzón tries to expose that financial fraud is not a systemic problem but a premeditated act, and should be considered as criminal behaviour.

Five working groups spread across the world, more than 100 prestigious legal experts of all nationalities, are working together to draft a new Universal Jurisdiction code of principles to fight the “dark side of globalisation”. They are overcoming everything that separates them – language, culture, background, justice, and law.

The movement started in Spain after the first Universal Jurisdiction Congress, which took place in Madrid in May 2013. An initial draft emerged from the meeting and was then approved during a second Congress in Buenos Aires in September 2015, giving birth to the Madrid-Buenos Aires Principles for Universal Jurisdiction. From there, the Principles started spreading around universities and institutions with the hope that, someday, they’ll be included in national jurisdictions.

Fighting together for the common good and a fairer future, where legislations and politics take humanity into account and stop letting crimes to go unpunished anymore.

On a planet with almost 7 billion people, irresponsible economic decisions can be disastrous. With all their effort, the legal warriors want to fight the current impunity to these crimes.

“We live in a world where people expect tyrants and those who commit mass crimes to be punished. And that today is a normal expectation. It did not exist 80 years ago. That’s the story to tell “.

LUIS MORENO OCAMPO