September 28, 2010
The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) considers the draft resolution submitted to the UN Human Rights Council by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), on behalf of the Palestinian delegation and other Arab and Islamic nations, to be tantamount to a slow burial of the Goldstone report, which recommended that war crimes committed by both Israel and Hamas during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza (December 2008-January 2009) be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) if the parties involved did not conduct a serious investigation into these crimes.
It is worth nothing that the UN Committee of Independent Experts -charged with monitoring and assessing internal investigations carried out by Israel and the Palestinian Authority into war crimes committed during Operation Cast Lead- have filed its report with the UN Human Rights Council. Committee chair Prof. Christian Tomuschat said that Israel’s investigation lacked transparency and credibility, noting that the Israeli government had failed to investigate those who planned and oversaw the aggression. The committee said that the Palestinian side had also failed to conduct a proper internal investigation. Thus, under the terms of the Goldstone report, the case should be forwarded to the UN Security Council for referral to the ICC.
However, the OIC draft resolution rejects proposals offered by the CIHRS and several Palestinian, Israeli, and international organizations to turn the file over to the Security Council for referral to the ICC, as was done with the Darfur issue. Instead, the resolution advocates further internal investigations despite the clear lack of political will on the part of both Israel and Hamas to conduct serious investigations. Indeed, the two parties both missed the March deadline for the submission of their reports, compelling the UN to postpone the issue until July 2010. At the same time, the US and Israel are seeking a quick burial of the report, urging the Human Rights Council to close the case and suffice with the investigations conducted, even though they did not produce any tangible degree of justice for the victims.
In this context, the CIHRS has issued a joint press release and a joint urgent appeal with several Arab and international advocacy organizations and delivered an oral intervention before the UN Human Rights Council asking the UN General Assembly to urge the Security Council to refer the situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories to the ICC under Chapter VII of the UN charter. It also asked member states in the ICC to refer the case to the Prosecutor under Article 14 of the Rome Statute, in order to protect international peace and security, reiterating that the achievement of justice cannot be separated from the achievement of peace.
The CIHRS, in cooperation with the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network and several Palestinian organizations, also organized a side event on the topic in the UN headquarters in Geneva and held bilateral meetings with delegations from Pakistan and the president of the OIC, Ireland, Mexico, Germany, Hungary, the UK, Switzerland, Slovakia, Belgium, Spain, the PA, Poland, Egypt, and Norway to urge them to make a decision that will bring justice to the victims.
Nearly 20 months after Operation Cast Lead and the death of more than 1000 people, Arab governments’ collusion in burying the Goldstone report and protecting Israel from accountability recalls the similar stance taken by these same governments on the issue of Darfur.
The CIHRS reminds the UN Human Rights Council and member nations of the need to meet their responsibilities towards the victims of war crimes and urges them to use this historic opportunity to take genuine measures to guarantee the implementation of the Goldstone Report’s recommendations and UN resolutions. We would like to further stress that overlooking these recommendations conveys a message to the perpetrators of war crimes that they are safe from accountability and punishments while letting victims know that the law is not sovereign, but indeed absent. It can only encourage more war crimes in the future.
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