In 1998, FIDH Palestinian partners launched an important campaign for the implementation, in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs), of the IVth Geneva Convention. This campaign is based on several resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly which invite the Swiss government, as the depository of the Convention, to convene a conference to investigate measures to enforce the Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territories on 15th July 1999.

To achieve these goals, the PCHR (Palestinian Centre for Human Rights) invited on 6th April 1999 a number of Palestinian, Arab and international human rights organizations, as well as a number of individual human rights activists who expressed their willingness to be partners in the campaign, to meet in Geneva. This meeting coincided with the 55th meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights.

During the Geneva meeting, participants adopted a position paper pertaining to grave breaches of the Convention, other breaches of the Convention, and unilateral measures to change the status of parts of the Occupied Territories.

POSITION PAPER

In its resolution A/ES-10/L.5/Rev.1 of 8th February 1999, the United Nations General Assembly recommended that the High Contracting Parties (HCPs) to the Fourth Geneva Convention (“the Convention”) convene a conference on measures to enforce this convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including Jerusalem, on 15th July 1999, at the United Nations’ offices in Geneva. In so doing, it invited the Government of Switzerland, in its capacity as the depositary of the Geneva Convention, to undertake whatever preparations are necessary prior to the Conference. It also requested the UN Secretary General to make the necessary facilities available to enable the HCPs to convene the conference. It expressed its confidence that Palestine, as a party directly concerned, will participate in the above-mentioned conference.

The commitment of the HCPs to convene this conference was clearly established when states adopted the above- mentioned resolution by an overwhelming majority. The agreed focus of the conference is measures to be taken to ensure full implementation of the Convention.

To ensure that such a conference takes place, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) took the initiative to launch a campaign on 6th April 1999 entitled : “A campaign to implement the Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).” A number of Palestinian, Arab and international human rights organizations as well as human rights experts (the participants) adopted a plan of action to call upon the HCPs convene a conference in accordance with the General Assembly resolution and to adopt concrete and specific measures for the implementation of the Convention in the OPT.

The participants emphasized that the implementation of the Convention is a minimum requirement for the protection and safeguard of civilians, particularly at the end of this interim period. They also stressed that a Conference on the 15th of July that respects the provisions of the General Assembly resolution will be essential to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace between Palestine and Israel. The participants identified the following three categories that merit action by the HCPs. During the Conference, practical measures should be adopted to address these categories in order to ensure full implementation of the Convention :

1. Grave breaches of the Convention

Grave breaches of the Convention, such as torture or inhuman treatment and the taking of hostages, constitute war crimes. The HCPs are under a legal obligation, in accordance with article 146 of the Convention, to search for persons alleged to have committed or to have ordered to be committed such grave breaches and to bring them, regardless of their nationality, before their own courts. Specific measures should be taken to ensure that this obligation is fulfilled.

2. Other breaches of the Convention

Other serious breaches of the Convention include the establishment of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including Jerusalem. The establishment of settlements is illegal according to Article 49 of the Convention, as has been repeatedly confirmed by UN resolutions.

3. Unilateral measures to change the status of parts of the Occupied Territories.

Unilateral measures to change the status of parts of the Occupied Territories, including de jure and de facto annexation, are illegal according to the Convention. HCPs should not take measures that will lead to illegality.

In the circumstances, the participants urge the HCPs to focus the agenda of the Conference on specific measures to be adopted to stop the above-mentioned breaches. The overall objective of the Conference must be to ensure compliance with the Convention. In this regard, reference is made to the decision by the European Commission recommending that its Member States not import goods produced in the Israeli settlements. The participants look forward to the HCPs adopting similar constructive measures at the Conference. By so doing, the HCPs will remove a serious obstacle in the way of true conciliation between Israelis and Palestinians.

To this end, the participants, as part of civil society, commit themselves to support the HCPs in the implementation of the Convention.

Signatories :

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Al-Haq
International Federation of Human Rights
International Commission of Jurists
International Commission of Jurists – Sweden
Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights
Middle East Watch
Arab Organization for Human Rights
Arab Lawyers Union
Arab Working Group for Human Rights Defenders
Morocco Organization for Human Rights
Abdel Rahman Abu El-Nasser, Chairperson of the Palestinian BAR Association
Agneta Johansson, Sweden
Greg Nott, South Africa
Paul de Waart, the Netherlands
Amnesty International, Swiss Section (observer)
The Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid
The Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens’ Rights
LAW, the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment
Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.

 

(From La Lettre n° 15 of April 29)