- One year ago, the elected representatives of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), voted on a resolution describing as genocide the crimes committed by the State of Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
- As evidence of the crimes keeps accumulating, the Israeli authorities continue to encourage and organise this genocide. Those responsible must be brought to justice.
- FIDH condemns the absence of a permanent ceasefire, and consequently the absence of any basic prospect of restoring decent living conditions for Palestinians in Gaza.
12 December 2024. One year ago, the FIDH International Board, its governing body elected by all its member organisations, recognised, after extensive debate and examination, that Israel was carrying out genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. This decision was based on international law and built on the testimonies and evidence collected by four of FIDH’s member organisations: Al-Haq, Al Mezan, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR).
A growing number of international actors are now sharing the same understanding of an unbearable reality: that of a genocide perpetrated in full view of the world. The United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, has also described the situation as genocide, as has the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People, which declared that Israel’s war in Gaza had the hallmarks of genocide, and more recently the NGO Amnesty International did so too, after an exhaustive investigation lasting several months.
On the judicial level, the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) have been seized, the latter recognising for the moment a plausible risk of genocide of the Palestinian population in Gaza. South Africa has lodged a complaint with the ICJ, with the support of the FIDH’s Palestinian member organisations, PCHR and Al-Haq.
FIDH will continue to mobilise its network, to denounce international crimes tirelessly, for as long as necessary, and to call on institutions to act so that the crimes stop, justice is done and lasting peace is established. FIDH denounces the inaction combined with the active military aid of certain States that has allowed the genocide to continue unhindered for more than a year.
FIDH calls on States to take the following measures :
– take urgent measures to ensure the immediate implementation of a permanent ceasefire ;
– end all arms transfers to Israel, including export licences and military aid ;
– support efforts to investigate, prosecute and punish those responsible for the atrocities committed in Gaza ;
– support therefore the International Criminal Court (ICC) and enforce its international arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant -the ICC must also investigate the crime of genocide ;
– the Member States of the European Union (EU) to suspend the Association Agreement between the EU and Israel.
