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 PRESS RELEASE

PCHR calls for the implementation of the Fourth Geneva Convention

Ref: 67/2001

Date: 11 November, 2001

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) published yesterday a detailed analysis of Israel’s violations of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of August 12, 1949 (the Fourth Geneva Convention) and called upon the High Contracting Parties to the Convention to ensure that they immediately begin taking practical measures to fulfill their legal obligations in ensuring Israel’s respect of the Fourth Geneva Convention and all of its provisions.

 The document, entitled “The Obligation to Ensure Respect: A Call for the High Contracting Parties on the Enforcement of the Israel’s Respect for the Fourth Geneva Convention”, up-dates previous publications issued by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights on the implementation of the Fourth Geneva Convention (see the “Politicization of International Humanitarian Law: An Analytical Study of the Conference of the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention”, published in November 2000 and available on our website and details the breaches of the Convention perpetrated by the Israeli occupation forces during the first year of the intifada, including, but not limited to, willful killing, torture, population transfer (settlements), willful destruction of civilian homes and property.  

 The report analyses the legal obligation found in Article 1 of the Convention which calls upon all High Contracting Parties to “respect, and ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances” and attempts to provide suggestions for practical options which the High Contracting Parties can consider in determining the manner in which they fulfill their obligation.  Israel’s claims that the Convention does not apply de jure to the Occupied Palestinian Territories have been repeatedly refuted by the High Contracting Parties and also by the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council in a number of resolutions.  The High Contracting Parties have been fully aware of Israel’s non-implementation of the provisions of the Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territories for some time, indeed the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, together with a number of Palestinian and international non-governmental organizations, have regularly supplied the High Contracting Parties with detailed information and verifiable evidence of the consistent and serious breaches of the Convention, including war crimes, by Israel. 

 The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights welcomes the call of the Swiss Government to reconvene the meeting of the High Contracting Parties on December 5, 2001 to discuss the implementation of the Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and calls upon the High Contracting Parties to take into consideration the information included in the report, to recognize the gravity of the current situation for the civilian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and to act with immediate effect to fulfill their legal obligation and to ensure that Israel no longer continues to enjoy impunity for its gross and systematic violations of international humanitarian law.

For thirty-four years, the international community has failed to implement existing international law and legal standards in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.  The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights asserts that a sustainable peace in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories can only be achieved through the implementation of international law, including international human rights and international humanitarian law, and calls upon the High Contracting Parties to ensure that Israel implements the Fourth Geneva Convention in the territories in a first step towards the achievement of a sustainable peace.