The 14-15 July Parallel Meeting of Human Rights Organisations
to the 15 July 1999 Conference of High Contracting Parties
to the IVth Geneva Convention
Date: 14th July, 1999
The parallel meeting of human rights organisations, convened by LAW and PCHR, with the participation of international, Arab and Palestinian NGOs and experts, met in Geneva on 14 July 1999, to follow and discuss the planned Conference of High Contracting Parties to the IVth Geneva Convention of 1949, on measures to enforce the Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The meeting agreed the following in plenary:
The Conference of High Contracting Parties called for by United Nations General Assembly resolution, ES 10/6 of 9 February 1999, represents an important opportunity to advance the application of international humanitarian law. This Conference occurs at a moment when the world is commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Geneva Conventions. It also comes at a time of increasing international efforts to ensure accountability for violations of human rights and humanitarian law, as evidenced by the Rome Statute establishing an International Criminal Court, and the greater exercise of universal jurisdiction with regard to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
There exists a long-standing and unanimous consensus of the High Contracting Parties, with the sole exception of Israel, that the Convention is de jure applicable to all of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including Jerusalem. The Conference provides an opportunity for the High Contracting Parties to give effect to their obligations under Article 1 both to respect and to ensure respect for the provisions of the Convention. Unfortunately, the process established to follow up the General Assembly call for enforcement measures has been politicised by efforts to give political negotiations between the parties to the conflict priority over international humanitarian law. Discharging the =
Article 1 requirement to comply with and enforce protections for civilians in occupied territories must not be made contingent on the outcome of political negotiations. Enforcement cannot be left to negotiations between occupier and occupied. The international communitys discharge of its obligations under international law must not be subordinated to the desire to promote political negotiations. The pursuit of a durable peace requires respect for international human rights and humanitarian law. The High Contracting Parties are under a legal obligation to discharge their duties under the Convention in good faith.
Israel’s violations of the Convention are well known, and well documented. Measures of enforcement include those specifically mentioned in the Convention itself, such as the Article 146 obligation to pursue and prosecute those alleged to have committed grave breaches. The process established by the relevant UN General Assembly resolutions has regrettably been marked by numerous and significant politically motivated delays and efforts to defer or postpone the conference indefinitely. We are gravely concerned by the pressure exerted by the
United States to derail the 15 July conference, and by the readiness of other parties, notably Australia and Canada, to concede to such pressures. The European Union states have also displayed a lamentable readiness to subject their Article 1 obligations to political considerations. A lack of transparency has also characterised the process, including the decision to exclude NGOs from the 15 July conference.
The High Contracting Parties, in particular those that have agreed to the convening of the conference should adopt a substantive agenda at the 15 July conference designed to address the ongoing Israeli breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. In particular, (a) grave breaches, including, but not limited to, wilful killing, torture, inhuman treatment, unlawful confinement of protected persons, and extensive destruction and appropriation of property, as pecified in Article 147; (b) other serious breaches of the Convention, such as establishment and expansion of Israeli settlements contrary to Article 49, and; (c) unilateral measures to change the status of parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including in Jerusalem. The High Contracting Parties must also ensure that neither they nor their =
nationals contribute to these violations.
We remind High Contracting Parties of their existing obligations under Common Article 1, regardless of the outcome of the 15 July 1999 conference, to ensure respect for the rights of protected persons in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. As a matter of priority, monitoring and other mechanisms should be put in place to ensure protection of the civilian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Any decision to abstain from adoption of enforcement measures in deference to political negotiation would represent an impermissible politicisation of international humanitarian law, and complicity in its violation.
Signed on 14 July 1999 by:
Afro-Asian People’s Solidarity Association
Amnesty International
Association Switzerland-Palestine
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network
Federation Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l’Homme
Human Rights Watch
International Commission of Jurists
International Commission of Jurists – Swedish Section
International Observatory for Palestinian Affairs
International Service for Human Rights
World Federation of Democratic Youth
Arab Lawyers’ Union
Arab Organisation for Human Rights
Arab Working Group for Human Rights Defenders
Jordanian Committee on the Implementation of the Geneva Convention in =
the Occupied Palestinian Territories
Jordanian Society for Citizen’s Rights
Jordanian Society for Freedom and Democracy
Jordanian Society for Human Rights
Mizan – Law Group for Human Rights
Adalah – Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel
Al-Haq
Jerusalem Centre for Social and Economic Rights
Jerusalem Legal Aid Centre LAW
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
