{"id":295015,"date":"2024-04-03T10:03:12","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T14:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&p=295015"},"modified":"2024-04-08T16:10:36","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T20:10:36","slug":"speakers-highlight-need-for-preserving-international-law-ensuring-accountability-as-conference-of-civil-society-organizations-working-on-palestine-opens-press-release","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/speakers-highlight-need-for-preserving-international-law-ensuring-accountability-as-conference-of-civil-society-organizations-working-on-palestine-opens-press-release\/","title":{"rendered":"Speakers Highlight Need for Preserving International Law, Ensuring Accountability, as Conference of Civil Society Organizations Working on Palestine Opens – Press release"},"content":{"rendered":"
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3 April 2024<\/div>\n
GA\/PAL\/1464<\/div>\n
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GENEVA, 3\u00a0April (Division for Palestinian Rights, Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs) \u2014 The response to the war in Gaza is the litmus test for the international justice system, participants heard in Geneva today, during the first day of the two-day Conference of Civil Society Organizations working on the Question of Palestine \u2014 convened by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People \u2014 with many highlighting the role of civil society in preserving international law and ensuring accountability.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis event takes place in a harrowing context of unprecedented devastation,\u201d said Nada Al-Nashif, United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights<\/strong>, adding that \u2014 from 7\u00a0October\u00a02023 to 20\u00a0March\u00a02024 \u2014 196 humanitarians, including Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ workers, have been killed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.<\/p>\n

If not killed by bombs, Palestinian civilians were dying of disease and hunger, she continued, noting that a staggering 5\u00a0per\u00a0cent of the population \u2014 mostly women and children \u2014 have been killed.\u00a0 She strongly opposed a full-scale assault on Rafah, urging Israel to facilitate the safe distribution of humanitarian aid to the population.\u00a0To this end, border crossings must be fully opened, she stressed, welcoming in this regard Security Council resolution 2728 (2024).\u00a0 She voiced concern over shrinking civic space in Gaza, where most civil society organizations have lost their infrastructure, staff and funding, noting that it has become the deadliest place for journalists in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cTime in Gaza is counted by a drop of water, a pill of medication for children, a body count of children killed,\u201d said\u00a0Issam Younis, Director at the Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights.\u00a0 Palestinians were forcibly displaced to \u201csafe areas\u201d which were shelled, he recalled, noting that 60\u00a0per\u00a0cent of those killed and wounded were bombed while believing naively that the blue United Nations flag would protect them.<\/p>\n

Cheikh Niang, Chair of the Committee<\/strong>, added that, while the toll of the war in Gaza has been devastating \u2014 with more than 32,000 Palestinians killed and millions displaced \u2014 violence by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is escalating.<\/p>\n

Calling for accountability, Ibrahim Khraishi, Permanent Observer for the State of Palestine<\/strong>, underscored that, while Ramadan will end in a few days, the recently-adopted ceasefire resolution has not been implemented.\u00a0 He also urged the United States to condemn the killings of aid workers and stop weapon exports to Israel.<\/p>\n

Painting a grim picture of the reality lived by children in Gaza, Ayed Abu Eqteish, Director of the Accountability Programme at Defense for Children International<\/strong> \u2013 Palestine, said the only way to stop the genocide is an immediate and permanent ceasefire.\u00a0 However, their suffering did not start on 7\u00a0October, he stressed, pointing to systematic human rights violations suffered by children under occupation.\u00a0 Since 2013, Israel has undertaken several major military offenses in Gaza, with grave consequences for children.\u00a0 Children also suffer threats of physical and psychological violence when arrested by the Israeli authorities, often amounting to torture.<\/p>\n

Relatedly, Sahar Francis, Director at ADDAMEER Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association<\/strong>, said there are 9,314 detainees in Israeli prisons, including administrative detainees, held without evidence, charge or trial.\u00a0 Highlighting an escalation in violations associated with detention, including torture and sexual abuse, she described the conditions as \u201cextremely harsh\u201d and pointed to cases of pre-meditated starvation of prisoners.<\/p>\n

Raji Sourani, Director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights<\/strong>, highlighted the Western States\u2019 complicity in the genocide in Gaza by providing legal cover, funds and arms.\u00a0 Also, he emphasized that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, whose responsibility is to ensure accountability during the investigation, has failed to act according to his mandate in the most documented genocide in history.<\/p>\n

Juxtaposing the situation in Gaza to that in Ukraine, he recalled that the West was shaken by Moscow\u2019s invasion and reaffirmed the right of the Ukrainian people to resist the occupation by all means.\u00a0 Ukraine was supported politically, legally, financially and with arms of all types.\u00a0 Additionally, seven waves of unprecedented sanctions were imposed on the Russian Federation\u2019s economic and political system.\u00a0 Meanwhile, the world has not woken up to the situation in Palestine, he asserted.<\/p>\n

In the second plenary meeting, many underscored the pivotal role of civil society organizations in ensuring third-party responsibility.<\/p>\n

Among them was Samah Sisay, Staff Attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights<\/strong>, who said that her organization advocates for the rights of Palestinians in the United States and supports the work of the International Court of Justice in investigating human rights violations in Palestine.\u00a0 It has brought a case to court against United States President Joseph R. Biden and other members of the Government for their complicity in the ongoing genocide.\u00a0 It has asked the Court to prevent any further support to Israel while the case is under consideration.<\/p>\n

Rawan Arraf, Director of the Australian Centre for International Justice<\/strong>, said that, in her country, the Gaza conflict has triggered the greatest anti-war movement since the 2003 Iraq War.\u00a0 While Australia has ignored Israel\u2019s attacks, providing it with political cover, the Centre filed a case in the Federal Court to gain more transparency over arms transfers.\u00a0Australia must assess its political, economic and military links with Israel and impose an arms embargo on that country, she asserted.<\/p>\n

Likewise, Yasmine Ahmed, Director of Human Rights Watch United Kingdom<\/strong>, drew attention to her organization\u2019s efforts to push London to impose sanctions and an arms embargo on Israel.<\/p>\n

Echoing her call for sanctions, Frank Chikane, Chair of the Steering Committee of the Global Anti-Apartheid Conference \u2013 South Africa<\/strong>, stressed that the public brutalization of Palestinians could have only occurred because they are not viewed as human beings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fran\u00e7ais 3 April 2024 GA\/PAL\/1464 GENEVA, 3\u00a0April (Division for Palestinian Rights, Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs) \u2014 The response to the war in Gaza is the litmus test for the international justice system, participants heard in Geneva today, during the first day of the two-day Conference of Civil Society Organizations working on the Question […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[1593],"document-category":[1329],"document-source":[5943,6954,1753,3277,6959,2749,1825,3325,2009],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[2517,1769,1829,2033,2005,6790,1741,2285],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542,6541],"class_list":["post-295015","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","country-palestine-state-of","document-category-press-release","document-source-addameer-prisoners-support-and-human-rights-association","document-source-australian-centre-for-international-justice","document-source-ceirpp","document-source-defence-for-children-international","document-source-global-anti-apartheid-conference","document-source-human-rights-watch","document-source-office-of-the-united-nations-high-commissioner-for-human-rights-ohchr","document-source-palestinian-centre-for-human-rights","document-source-united-nations-office-at-geneva-unog","document-subject-access-and-movement","document-subject-armed-conflict","document-subject-casualties","document-subject-children","document-subject-gaza-strip","document-subject-genocide","document-subject-human-rights-and-international-humanitarian-law","document-subject-prisoners-and-detainees","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english","document-language-french"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/295015","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":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/295015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":295029,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/295015\/revisions\/295029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=295015"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=295015"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=295015"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=295015"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=295015"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=295015"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=295015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}