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 abovementioned
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.