CLOSED: Gaza: Urge the Foreign Secretary to publicly support the Goldstone fact finding mission

 LETTER   EMAIL 

The UN Security Council, which the UK is a permanent member of, has so far failed to take any concrete steps to establish accountability for the grave violations of international law, including war crimes, which were committed by both sides during the Gaza conflict.

Having failed to set up an inquiry itself, which has badly let down the victims of the conflict, the UK Government must publicly support the Goldstone investigation and insist that all parties fully cooperate with the international fact-finding mission.

The victims of this brutal conflict have a right to justice and reparation.

The perpetrators on both sides must be held accountable if there is to be an end to the cycles of violence and impunity that have persisted for so long.

There must be no excuse for the UK Government to not support this investigation.

Background Information

During the Israeli military campaign 'Cast Lead', between 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009, Israeli forces killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, including 300 children and hundreds of other unarmed civilians, and injured some 5,000 Palestinians, many of them maimed for life.

Amnesty had previously called on the UK Government to take a lead and along with other state actors and relevant international bodies to establish without delay a thorough, independent and impartial investigation of abuses of international human rights and humanitarian law, including Israeli attacks which had been directed at civilians or civilian buildings in the Gaza Strip, or which were disproportionate, and Palestinian armed groups' rocket attacks directed at Israeli population centre’s.

The UK Government failed to take these steps and badly let down the victims of the conflict.
 
Amnesty continues to call for full accountability for such crimes. Where appropriate, states such as the UK Government must be ready to initiate criminal investigations and carry out prosecutions before their own courts if the evidence warrants it.
As a global community we need to ensure that accountability is not bargained away for short-term political gains. There needs to be a deterrent against future state and non state actors thinking they can get away with grave violations of international law. A failure to see real accountability will only mean it is more likely that conflict will erupt again.

Having failed to set up an inquiry itself, the UN Security Council must support the Goldstone investigation and insist that all parties fully cooperate with the international fact-finding mission.

Help prevent this conflict erupting again – push for the deterrent effect of credible accountability for those guilty of war crimes, and do not let future leaders feel they can literally get away with murder.

 LETTER   EMAIL 

The UN Security Council, which the UK is a permanent member of, has so far failed to take any concrete steps to establish accountability for the grave violations of international law, including war crimes, which were committed by both sides during the Gaza conflict.

Having failed to set up an inquiry itself, which has badly let down the victims of the conflict, the UK Government must publicly support the Goldstone investigation and insist that all parties fully cooperate with the international fact-finding mission.

The victims of this brutal conflict have a right to justice and reparation.

The perpetrators on both sides must be held accountable if there is to be an end to the cycles of violence and impunity that have persisted for so long.

There must be no excuse for the UK Government to not support this investigation.

Follow up

Amnesty welcomes the UK Government's new position of publicly supporting the Goldstone mission and in calling on the Israeli government to co-operate with it. Thank you to everybody that took action calling for this.