by K.R. Kamphoefner
In recent news, you no doubt have seen many references
to international law and war crimes. International law is “a collection of
rules governing relations between states” (Britanica, 2023). Its sources include international
treaties (and many UN documents), international customs (general practices
accepted as law), and general principles (originated in national and local
laws). Its topics include war and diplomacy, economic relations, and human
rights. This article focusses on laws regarding warfare and human rights.
Of the many international agreements, the
Geneva Conventions are the ones which establish rules for the conduct of war.
There are four articles of the conventions adopted in 1949, with additional
protocols added in 1967. They were conceived of just following World War II to
try to prevent the WWII atrocities, including genocide, from happening again.
The United States, Israel, and Palestine are among the 196 nations which agreed
to the Geneva Conventions. Basically, the conventions spell out the difference
between what is acceptable in war and what is a war crime. War crimes can be
tried in the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The most important idea regarding war is the
protection of civilians.
Regarding the current War on Gaza, below are
terms you may hear being discussed and what they mean. The terms are arranged in
alphabetical order.
KEY DEFINITIONS:
Asylum Seeker: “An asylum-seeker is someone whose request
for sanctuary has yet to be processed. Every year, around one million people
seek asylum” (UNHCR, 2023b)
Children: Children are usually defined as under age 18. They are to
be protected as all civilians, as well as receive additional protection as
vulnerable persons. “Children make up 40 percent of the
civilian victims in conflicts and over 50 percent of the refugees and
internally displaced persons. Their specific vulnerability puts them at higher
risk to be deprived of basic needs such as food, water, and medical attention
and otherwise abused” (MSF, 2023).
In addition, they have rights because they are children under the UN Convention
on the Rights of the Child (Save the Children, 2023). Comment:
Children are not being protected from current Israeli attacks. As part of its
siege, Israel has cut off power, phones, internet, the provision of food, water
and basic medical supplies. In addition, many schools have been bombed, while
schools cannot be open under the conditions of bombing and ground attacks (OHCHR, 2023b)
Civilians: “Rule 5 of the ICRC Study on
customary international humanitarian law defines civilians as “persons who
are not members of the armed forces. The civilian population comprises all
persons who are civilians” (MSF, 2023).
Collective Punishment: is forbidden under the Geneva Conventions. “Article 33 -
Individual responsibility, collective penalties, pillage, reprisals. No
protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally
committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of
terrorism are prohibited” (ICRC, 2010).
Ethnic Cleansing: ““… a purposeful policy designed by one
ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the
civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain
geographic areas.” It came to be widely used in the wars which occurred
with the break-up of Yugoslavia (OGP, 2023).
Comments: The Israeli government ordered 1.2 million Gazans to evacuate to the
south (see also, “Ethnic Cleansing.” Most of the north has been bombed
extensively, making the area almost completely ethnically cleansed (Mostly
those unable to move, such as the ill, handicapped, the elderly, and
hospitalized persons have remained behind).
Forced or Involuntary Displacement
(also known as Forced or Involuntary Migration): “The movement of persons
who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of
habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the
effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human
rights or natural or human‐made disasters” (IOM, 2019). Examples in the
current situation include ordering the evacuation of 1.2 million persons living
in northern Gaza. Forcing Gazans to move into Egypt also meets this definition.
Genocide: “In the
present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with
intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or
religious group, as such:
- Killing members of the group;
- Causing serious bodily or mental
harm to members of the group;
- Deliberately inflicting on the
group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical
destruction in whole or in part;
- Imposing measures intended to
prevent births within the group;
- Forcibly transferring children of
the group to another group (UN General Assembly, 1948).
Comments: The examples a, b, and c., currently
apply to Israel’s attacks on Gaza. The fourth example, d, about preventing
births, could begin to apply as all the hospitals of Gaza are out of fuel and
running out of medicines. Several hospitals have been closed from bombing
damage. On 17 October, the UN Office for the Higher Commission for Human Rights
said, “An estimated 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza,
are in desperate need of prenatal and postnatal care” (OHCHR, 2023b).
The
current level of siege, preventing water, food, fuel, and medicines from coming
into the sealed off Gaza Strip is also illegal. “UN Security Council has
repeatedly condemned the use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare,
which is prohibited under international humanitarian and criminal law. The unlawful
denial of humanitarian access and depriving civilians of objects indispensable
to their survival are also a violation of international humanitarian law” (OHCHR, 2023b).
Internally Displaced: The Guiding
Principles on Internal Displacement, created in
1998, first of all state that “arbitrary displacement in the first
instance is prohibited (Principles 5-7). In addition, the rights of all
civilians apply to internally displaced persons (IDPs) who are "persons or
groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their
homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order
to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence,
violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not
crossed an internationally recognized border" (OHCHR, 2023c) Currently, The current “number of
internally displaced people across the Gaza Strip is estimated at around one
million” (OHCHR, 2023b). “Once persons have been displaced,
they retain a broad range of economic, social, cultural, civil and political
rights, including the right to basic humanitarian assistance (such as
food, medicine, shelter), the right to be protected from physical
violence, the right to education, freedom of movement and residence,
political rights such as the right to participate in public affairs and the
right to participate in economic activities (Principles 10-23). Displaced
persons also have the right to assistance from competent authorities in
voluntary, dignified, and safe return, resettlement, or local
integration, including help in recovering lost property and possessions. When
restitution is not possible, the Guiding Principles call for compensation or
just reparation (Principles 28-30)”.
Non-refoulement: “a refugee should not be returned to a
country where they face serious threats to their life or freedom” (UNHCR, 2023a). This aims to
prevent refugees from being forcibly returned to the country from which they
fled.
Occupied territory, an occupation: “The act of taking control of territory
belonging either to no one (peaceful occupation) or to a foreign state in the
course of a war (belligerent
occupation). . . . A belligerent occupant cannot acquire or annex
the occupied territory during the course of the war” (Ocford International Press online resource centres, 2016). Occupied territories
are Gaza, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights. Occupation is only intended to
be temporary—it is illegal under international law to use war to seize lands.
An occupying power is obligated to respect the property rights of the occupied
people, provide them with protection, food, water, medicines and other humanitarian
needs, and to not do anything to harm their welfare (Medicins san Frontieres, 2023)
Protection: Right to Protection (R2P) This
is the basic right of IDPs, refugees, and stateless , to be protection in the country
to which they have fled (Relief Web, 2023). In addition, all
children have the right to be protected from all forms of violence, under the
Universal Declaration of the Rights of a Child (Save the Children, 2023). Also see:
non-refoulement.
Refugee:
“Article 1 of the 1951 Convention defines a refugee as someone who ‘owing
to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion,
nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is
outside the country of [their] nationality and is unable or, owing to such
fear, is unwilling to avail [themself] of the protection of that country; or
who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of [their] former
habitual residence, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to
it’ (UNHCR, 2023a).
KEY DOCUMENTS OF INTERNATIONALW INCLUDE:
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, 2023)
The Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their additional
protocols (ICRC, 2010)
The International Covenant on Economic,
Social, and Cultural Rights, 1979 (OHCHR, 1966)
The 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol (UNHCR, 2023a)
Related to Israel/ Palestine, these documents
are also part of international law:
·
The UN General Assembly Resolution
3236 which "reaffirms also the inalienable right of the
Palestinians to return to their homes and property from which they have been
displaced and uprooted, and calls for their return” (United Nations, 1974), and
·
The UN Security
Council Resolution 242, which reaffirms that territory may not be acquired by
war, as well as the necessity for "achieving a just settlement of the
refugee problem" (UN Security
Council, 1967).
If you want to learn more, the references link
to the relevant documents. If you want additional terms added, send me a
message.
References
Beinin, J. &. (2014, February). Palestine,
Israel, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Primer. Retrieved from Middle
East Research and information Project (MERIP):
https://merip.org/palestine-israel-primer/
Britanica. (2023). The nature and development of
International law. Retrieved from Encyclopedia Britanica: Many friends
have worked in Israel, Palestine, and Gaza. How can you post only "feel
good" stuff on FB? You're being silent what's most important, GENOCIDE.
ICRC. (2010, February 10). The Geneva Conventions
of 1949 and their Additional Protocols. Retrieved from International
Committee of the Red Cross:
https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/war-and-law/treaties-customary-law/geneva-conventions/overview-geneva-conventions.htm
IOM. (2019). No. 34 International Migration Law:
Glossary on Migration. Retrieved from UN International Office of
Migration: https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/iml_34_glossary.pdf
Medicins san Frontieres. (2023). Occupied
Territory. Retrieved from The Practical Guide to Humanitarian Law:
https://guide-humanitarian-law.org/content/article/3/occupied-territory/
MSF. (2023). The Practical Guide to Humanitarian
Law. Retrieved from Medecins san Frontieres:
https://guide-humanitarian-law.org/content/article/3/civilians/
Ocford International Press online resource centres.
(2016). Selected international law terms. Retrieved from
global.oup.com:
https://global.oup.com/uk/orc/law/intl/international_qanda/resources/selected/
OGP. (2023). Ethnic Cleansing. Retrieved from
UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect:
https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/ethnic-cleansing.shtml
OHCHR. (1966, December 16). International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, UN Resolution 2200A.
Retrieved from UN Office of the Higher Commission of Human RIghts:
https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/international-covenant-economic-social-and-cultural-rights
OHCHR. (2023b, October 17). Gaza: UN experts
decry bombing of hospitals and schools as crimes against humanity, call for
prevention of genocide. Retrieved from UN Office for the Higher the
Commission of Human Rights:
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/gaza-un-experts-decry-bombing-hospitals-and-schools-crimes-against-humanity
OHCHR. (2023c). About internally displaced
persons: Special rapporteur of the human rights of internally displaced
persons. Retrieved from Office for the Higher Commission of Human Rights:
https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-internally-displaced-persons/about-internally-displaced-persons
Relief Web. (2023). Right to Protection.
Retrieved from ReliefWeb.int: https://reliefweb.int/organization/r2p
Save the Children. (2023). UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child 1969. Retrieved from STC:
https://www.unicef.org/child-rights-convention/convention-text-childrens-version
UN General Assembly. (1948, December 4). Convention
on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Retrieved from
United Nations:
https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention%20on%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of%20Genocide.pdf
UN Security Council. (1967). Resolution 242
(1967). Retrieved from peacemaker.un.org:
https://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/SCRes242%281967%29.pdf
UNHCR. (2023a). The 1951 Refugee Convention and
its 1967 Protocal. Retrieved from United Nations Higher Commission for
Refugees:
https://www.unhcr.org/about-unhcr/who-we-are/1951-refugee-convention
UNHCR. (2023b). Asylum seekers. Retrieved
from United Nations Higher Commission for Refugees:
https://www.unhcr.org/asylum-seekers
UNICEF. (2023). The Convention on the Rights of
the Child: The children’s version . Retrieved from United Nations
Children's Fund:
https://www.unicef.org/child-rights-convention/convention-text-childrens-version
United Nations. (1974, November 22). UN General
Assembly Resolution 3236. Retrieved from United Nations:
https://www.un.org/unispal/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/ARES3236XXIX.pdf
United Nations. (2023). Universal declaration of
human rights. Retrieved from un.org: International Covenant on Economic,
Social, and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights.
..end..
