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 PRESS RELEASE

PCHR and LAW condemns the US Government’s contempt for International Humanitarian Law

         Ref: 66/2001

         Date: 10 November 2001

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and LAW, the Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment (LAW) welcome the recent announcement by the Government of Switzerland that it has called on the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of August 12, 1949 (the Fourth Geneva Convention) to reconvene its conference on the implementation of the Fourth Geneva Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. 

PCHR and LAW wish to remind the High Contracting Parties that the purpose of the conference is to develop a plan of practical measures to be taken immediately to ensure Israel’s respect of the Fourth Geneva Convention and all of its provisions.

The Gaza Strip, the West Bank, including Jerusalem, have been under Israeli military occupation since 1967 and the de jure applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention to these territories is recognized by all of the High Contracting Parties to the Convention and by both the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council.  Israel alone has consistently refused to accept its applicability to the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

During the last thirty-four years of this occupation, Israel has consistently and repeatedly violated many of the provisions of the Convention.  However, the first year of the Al-Aqsa Intifada has witnessed an unprecedented escalation in violence against Palestinian civilians.  Willful killings, torture, ill-treatment of prisoners, willful destruction of homes and property, population transfer (settlements), and collective punishments are just some of the violations that Israel has committed and continues to commit against Palestinian civilians.  As grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, these violations constitute war crimes, as recognized by the International Committee of the Red Cross, international human rights organizations and some High Contracting Parties to the Convention. 

The High Contracting Parties’ meeting held on 15 July 1999 in response to a call by the United Nations General Assembly was intended to discuss ways of ensuring Israel’s respect for the Fourth Geneva Convention.  Under pressure from the US, Canadian and Australian governments, political interests compromised the conference and it was adjourned after only fifteen minutes, issuing the following statement;

“Taking into consideration the improved atmosphere in the Middle East as a whole, the Conference was adjourned on the understanding that it will convene again in the light of consultations on the development of the humanitarian situation in the field”.

Although its convening was a manifestation of the legal obligation embodied in Article 1 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which calls upon all High Contracting Parties to “respect, and ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances”, the conference failed to produce any steps towards the fulfilment of this obligation, or to ensure the implementation of the Convention by Israel. 

PCHR and LAW therefore welcome the announcement of the Swiss Government but call upon the High Contracting Parties to ensure that the politicization of the previous conference is not permitted to occur again.  PCHR and LAW are shocked and dismayed by the attempt of the United States government to politicize this conference once again.  In declaring its intention to boycott the meeting and declaring it “counterproductive”, the US government shows a total lack of respect for international humanitarian law.  PCHR and LAW are extremely concerned by the hypocritical nature of this attitude and are concerned that such a stance undermines the US government’s commitment to the eradication of terror around the world.  In refusing to address the state terrorism perpetrated by Israel against Palestinian civilians in a direct, flagrant and continuing pattern of grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention the United States government is affording Israel impunity which it has repeatedly stated the world cannot and will not permit to any other state or organization in the global fight against terror.

PCHR and LAW urge the High Contracting Parties to attend this meeting on December 5, 2001 with the full intention of producing a concrete plan of action to be implemented with immediate effect to ensure Israel’s respect for the Fourth Geneva Convention in fulfillment of their legal obligation under the Convention.

PCHR and LAW strongly urge the High Contracting Parties not to bow to US pressure, to demonstrate their respect for International humanitarian law and the Fourth Geneva Convention in particular, and to take their obligations under the Convention seriously, irrespective of the political interests of individual High Contracting Parties.  If the High Contracting Parties are committed to the resolution of the conflict in the Middle East, committed to the eradication of terrorism in all its forms and committed to international humanitarian law, PCHR and LAW demand that the High Contracting Parties ensure that Israel be held to account for its human rights violations which include war crimes and acts of state terrorism as recognized by High Contracting Parties, and international organizations.

PCHR and LAW also call upon international and national human rights organizations to make public their own condemnation of the US attempt to politicize international humanitarian law, to urge the High Contracting Parties to fulfill their legal obligations in good faith without reference to political interests and to ensure immediate action is taken to enforce Israel’s implementation of the Fourth Geneva Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Further information on the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention and its implementation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, please see “The Obligation to Ensure Respect: A Call for the High Contracting Parties Meeting on the Enforcement of the Israel’s Respect for the Fourth Geneva Convention” published by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and available on its website at www.pchrgaza.org.

For further information, please contact PCHR at pchr@pchrgaza.org, tel: + 972 8 282 4776, and LAW at law@lawsociety.org, tel: + 972 2 583 3430.