International Human Rights Foundation Stands by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero Amid Ongoing Judicial Inquiry

PRESS RELEASE · Madrid, 20 May 2026.

The International Human Rights Foundation today voiced its unreserved support for José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in the face of the judicial proceedings recently opened against the former Spanish Prime Minister, reaffirming the Nicolás Salmerón Human Rights Award conferred upon him in 2009 and expressing full confidence in his eventual vindication.

In 2009, the International Human Rights Foundation conferred upon José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero the Nicolás Salmerón Human Rights Award, in recognition of a body of public service distinguished by its ethical clarity and humanitarian reach. That distinction was not lightly bestowed, nor is it lightly remembered. As recent reports concerning judicial proceedings opened against the former Prime Minister of Spain continue to reach the international community, the Foundation considers it incumbent upon itself to speak.

It is in that spirit that the IHRF conveys, without reservation, its support, confidence and heartfelt solidarity with Mr Rodríguez Zapatero at this particularly demanding hour. Such expressions of public fellowship are seldom required between institutions and statesmen of long-established probity; that the present circumstances should compel us to articulate them openly is itself a measure of how exceptional, and how disquieting, the prevailing moment has become for those who follow Spanish public life from abroad.

Representatives of this institution have had the opportunity to examine the investigative dossier in its full extent. We are obliged to record that, beyond witness testimony tendered by third parties, the file contains no documentary or material evidence of an incriminating character. Testimony unsupported by corroborating proof cannot, within any serious judicial tradition, sustain the inference of wrongdoing that a portion of present commentary appears to have hastily taken for granted.

Nor would it be reasonable to consider these proceedings in isolation from their wider political surroundings. The diplomatic effectiveness that has marked Mr Rodríguez Zapatero's trajectory beyond office has cultivated, within certain politicised judicial quarters of the extreme right, an animosity whose intensity bears little proportion to any conceivable professional grievance. The Foundation views with measured concern the manner in which such hostility has, on occasion, sought a judicial avenue of expression.

The record of his public life, viewed dispassionately, speaks for itself. The years he spent at the head of government produced reforms whose benefit to ordinary working families across Spain remains palpable to this day, while his subsequent labours in international mediation — undertaken in the service of the working classes, of his country and of the wider human family — have been characterised throughout by honesty, ethical seriousness and a humanitarian temperament increasingly uncommon in contemporary statecraft.

The Foundation accordingly reposes its complete trust in the Spanish Rule of Law and in the principle of the presumption of innocence, in the firm expectation that the passage of time will reveal the present accusations to be without foundation and will restore Mr Rodríguez Zapatero's good name in its entirety. The Nicolás Salmerón Award, conferred seventeen years ago, retains its full force today and is hereby ratified, as a token of our undiminished regard.

Media contact: Mrs. María González — press@ihrf.world