{"id":294718,"date":"2024-03-26T15:41:39","date_gmt":"2024-03-26T19:41:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&#038;p=294718"},"modified":"2024-07-31T21:13:30","modified_gmt":"2024-08-01T01:13:30","slug":"states-must-adhere-to-obligations-under-genocide-convention-francesca-albanese-ohchr-pr-26mar24","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/states-must-adhere-to-obligations-under-genocide-convention-francesca-albanese-ohchr-pr-26mar24\/","title":{"rendered":"States must adhere to obligations under Genocide Convention to prevent further loss of life in Gaza, says Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese in latest report &#8211; Press Release"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"hero-1__dt-af--wrapper\">\n<div class=\"hero-1__date\">\n<p class=\"text--body-copy\">26 March 2024<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"hero-1-social-share\">\n<div class=\"social-share\">\n<div class=\"social-share__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"node-news__body\">\n<div class=\"wysiwyg-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<p>GENEVA \u2013 Israel has destroyed Gaza during five months of military operations, the Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese said today.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe harrowing number of deaths, the irreparable harm done to those who survive, the systematic destruction of every aspect necessary to sustain life in Gaza \u2013 from hospitals to schools, from homes to arable land \u2013 and the particular harm to hundreds of thousands of children, and to pregnant and young mothers \u2013 this can only be interpreted as constituting prima facie evidence of an intention to systematically destroy the Palestinians as a group,\u201d said Albanese said in a\u00a0<em><strong><a title=\"a-hrc-55-73-auv.pdf\" href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/anatomy-of-a-genocide-report-of-the-special-rapporteur-on-the-situation-of-human-rights-in-the-palestinian-territory-occupied-since-1967-to-human-rights-council-advance-unedited-version-a-hrc-55\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-entity-type=\"file\" data-entity-uuid=\"450ed2b7-fbd9-4e12-9648-a35627fa615d\" data-entity-substitution=\"file\">report<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>to the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Human Rights Council today.<\/p>\n<p>Following an analysis of Israel\u2019s actions and patterns of violence in its onslaught on Gaza, underpinned by dehumanising rhetoric by high-ranking Israeli officials and often reflected in soldiers\u2019 actions on the ground, the Special Rapporteur\u2019s report found that the threshold indicating Israel\u2019s commission of genocide had been met.<\/p>\n<p>Since 7 October, Israel has killed over 32,333 Palestinians, including more than 13,000 children. Over 12,000 are presumed dead under the rubble and 74,694 wounded, many with life-changing injuries. Seventy percent of residential areas have been destroyed. Eighty percent of the entire population has been forcibly displaced. Thousands of families have lost loved ones or been wiped out entirely. Many could not bury and mourn their relatives and were forced instead to leave their bodies decomposing in homes, in the street or under the rubble. Thousands of Palestinians have been detained and systematically subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment. Two million have been forced into hunger and starvation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe incalculable collective trauma will be experienced for generations to come,\u201d the Special Rapporteur said.<\/p>\n<p>The vehement anti-Palestinian discourse, which frames the entire Palestinian people in Gaza as enemies to be eradicated and forcibly removed has been pervasive across all segments of Israeli society, the expert said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCalls for violent annihilation from Israeli high-ranking officials with command authority aimed at soldiers on duty on the ground serve as compelling evidence of explicit and public encouragement to commit genocide,\u201d Albanese said.<\/p>\n<p>One of the key findings of Albanese\u2019s report is that Israel&#8217;s executive and military leadership and soldiers have intentionally distorted foundational rules of international humanitarian law &#8211; distinction, proportionality and precaution &#8211; in an attempt to legitimise genocidal violence against the Palestinian people.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy deliberately redefining the categories of human shields, evacuation orders, safe zones, collateral damage and medical protection, Israel has used their protective functions as \u2018humanitarian camouflage\u2019 to conceal its genocidal campaign,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIsrael\u2019s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza is an escalatory stage of a long-standing settler colonial process of erasure,\u201d said Albanese.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor over 70 years, this process has suffocated the Palestinians as a people \u2013 demographically, culturally, economically and politically \u2013 crushing their inalienable right to self-determination in an attempt to displace them and expropriate and control their lands,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ongoing Nakba must be stopped and remedied once and for all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Albanese said her report was a call to the world to ensure that Israel and third states adhere to their non-derogable obligations under the Genocide Convention, to prevent further loss of life, help survivors rebuild their lives, and ensure full accountability under both individual criminal and State responsibility.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is an imperative owed to the victims of this highly preventable tragedy, and to future generations in Palestine,\u201d the Special Rapporteur said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"node-news__text-block\">\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-components-list field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item\">\n<div class=\"paragraph-bg-color paragraph para-text container paragraph--type--text-component paragraph--view-mode--default\">\n<div class=\"para-text--description wysiwyg-content\">\n<p><strong>Ms. Francesca Albanese<\/strong>\u00a0is the\u00a0<strong><em><a title=\"Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ohchr.org\/en\/special-procedures\/sr-palestine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-entity-type=\"node\" data-entity-uuid=\"2c73f7f1-0e15-4ab1-8d48-059d5b448d6b\" data-entity-substitution=\"canonical\">Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the\u00a0<em><strong><a title=\"Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ohchr.org\/en\/special-procedures-human-rights-council\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-entity-type=\"node\" data-entity-uuid=\"8e131365-9006-4279-8001-ed02a42f0f75\" data-entity-substitution=\"canonical\">Special Procedures<\/a><\/strong><\/em>\u00a0of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council\u2019s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>26 March 2024 GENEVA \u2013 Israel has destroyed Gaza during five months of military operations, the Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese said today. \u201cThe harrowing number of deaths, the irreparable harm done to those who survive, the systematic destruction of every aspect necessary to sustain life in Gaza \u2013 from hospitals <a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/states-must-adhere-to-obligations-under-genocide-convention-francesca-albanese-ohchr-pr-26mar24\/\"> [&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[1329],"document-source":[1825,6854],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[2517,1769,1829,5811,2005,6790,1741],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-294718","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-press-release","document-source-office-of-the-united-nations-high-commissioner-for-human-rights-ohchr","document-source-special-rapporteur-on-the-situation-of-human-rights-in-the-palestinian-territories-occupied-since-1967","document-subject-access-and-movement","document-subject-armed-conflict","document-subject-casualties","document-subject-convention-genocide","document-subject-gaza-strip","document-subject-genocide","document-subject-human-rights-and-international-humanitarian-law","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/294718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/294718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":299449,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/294718\/revisions\/299449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=294718"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=294718"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=294718"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=294718"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=294718"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=294718"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=294718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}