Gaza: Don’t let war criminals get away with murder

Amnesty International deplores the failure on the part of both Israel and Hamas to take seriously efforts to address accountability following the Gaza conflict.

Instead of taking meaningful steps to address accountability for violations of international law during the conflict, as recommended in the Goldstone report, both Israel and Hamas have failed to establish independent investigations.

UPDATE 4 JANUARY 2010
In November, the UN General Assembly gave Israel and Hamas until 2 February 2010 to show that they are willing and able to undertake investigations that meet international standards into alleged war crimes and possible crimes against humanity committed during the 2009 conflict. They now have under one month to show real progress is being made. Find out more

UPDATE: 23 NOVEMBER 09
UN Secretary-General needs to ensure Gaza conflict investigations are credible. Read Amnesty's statement

UPDATE: 6 NOVEMBER 2009
The UN has now voted to adopt key recommendations of the Goldstone report on the conflict in Gaza and southern Israel earlier this year. This is vitally important for ensuring that those, on both sides, who committed war crimes and other violations of international law will now be held to account. Find out more

There must be no whitewash. All investigations by the Israeli and the Palestinian side have to be credible: they must be independent and meet international standards. Where no institutional capacity exists, the international community must assist.

Background

Instead of taking meaningful steps to address accountability for violations of international law amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity, as detailed in the Goldstone report, by establishing an independent investigation, Israel has sought to counter the report’s recommendations and to shield its soldiers from any independent investigation. Hamas, for its part, has studiously failed to repudiate the practice of launching unguided rockets into civilian areas of southern Israel, which cannot be justified under international humanitarian law, and to commit to preventing such attacks. Rather, it is considering creating a committee to present its case.

UPDATE: 16 OCTOBER 2009

The UK abstained from the vote and actually asked for it to be delayed. Peter Gooderham, the UK's Permanent Representative for the UK Mission to the UN in Geneva delivered a statement at the meeting in which he said:
"The report of the United Nations fact-finding Mission did have flaws. Neither the report nor the resolution reflected the right of Israel to protect its citizens or paid sufficient attention to Hamas's actions. It also made broad interpretation of international law, with which United Kingdom did not agree. Because Israel did not cooperate with the Mission, the report lacked an authoritative Israeli perspective.

For these reasons, the United Kingdom could not fully endorse the report and its recommendations and could not vote for the resolution as tabled."

UN must urge Israel and Palestinians to carry out Gaza investigations

Amnesty International urged the Human Rights Council to call on Israel and the authorities in Gaza to immediately open investigations into alleged war crimes, possible crimes against humanity and other serious violations of international law reported during the conflict in Gaza and southern Israel.

The Human Rights Council, which is holding a special session on the issue on 15-16 Octobert, 
should also call on Israel and the Palestinian authorities in Gaza to report on their investigations and related prosecutions to the Council at its thirteenth regular session in March 2010.

This would allow the Council to assess whether appropriate action is being taken to ensure justice for victims of violations and accountability for the perpetrators.

The Human Rights Council should mandate the UN Secretary-General to establish a committee to monitor the steps taken by Israelis and Palestinians to bring those responsible for international crimes committed in Gaza and southern Israel to justice.

In a letter sent to all UN General Assembly members meeting in a Security Council open debate, Amnesty International said the committee must be made up of independent and impartial experts in international law.

Amnesty International welcomes statements by permanent members of the Security Council and by the UN Secretary-General calling for domestic investigations by Israel and Hamas.

However, the UN needs to go further and ensure that such investigations meet international standards.

A UN-appointed committee of experts would fulfil this task by monitoring and assessing the progress and effectiveness of the domestic investigations and related prosecutions by Israel and the Hamas de facto administration in Gaza.

It should report its findings to the Human Rights Council for its March 2010 session and to the Security Council and other appropriate UN bodies.

The Security Council should review the reports to the Human Rights Council and the committee’s findings to determine whether the Israeli government and the authorities in Gaza have made real progress in ensuring accountability, failing which the Security Council should refer the situation in Gaza to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

Amnesty International also reiterates its call on Israel and Hamas to immediately open thorough, independent and impartial investigations into all violations of international law that took place during the 22-day conflict in Gaza and southern Israel and to prosecute those found responsible.

Their investigations must be in line with the recommendations made in the report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict headed by Judge Richard Goldstone.

That report, also known as the Goldstone report, was made public in New York on 15 September 2009 and presented to the Human Rights Council on 29 September 2009.

It concluded that Israel as well as Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in Gaza committed grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, including war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.

Its findings are fully consistent with those of Amnesty International and other human rights organizations that carried out similar investigations.

The report recommended that both Israel and the authorities in Gaza launch independent investigations in conformity with international standards into serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. No credible investigation has so far been conducted by either Israel or the Palestinians.

UPDATE: 5 OCTOBER 2009

The next steps

In the light of the recent developments, Amnesty International calls on the UN Secretary General to refer the report to the UN Security Council without delay.  The Security Council must ensure that both Israel and Hamas report to them on the progress of their investigations and prosecutions.  Crucially, the Security Council must establish an independent committee of experts to monitor the internal investigations and prosecutions carried out by Israel and Hamas over the next six months.

If, within the set period of six months, the Israeli Government and the Hamas administration have proved unable or unwilling to conduct credible investigations, then the Security Council should refer the situation to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. 

We have serious concerns about the ability and the willingness of both the Israeli government and the Hamas administration to carry out credible investigations into violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.  To prevent impunity, it is vital that all domestic investigations are closely scrutinized by the international community through the relevant UN bodies and that concrete steps are taken to pursue accountability through international mechanisms if internal means prove inadequate.

All states that are party to the 1949 Geneva Conventions should be reminded that they must also assume their individual responsibility for ensuring accountability.  The organization calls on these states to exercise universal jurisdiction by initiating criminal investigations in national courts, where there is sufficient admissible evidence of grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions.

The UN-mandated International Independent Fact Finding Mission, headed by Justice Richard Goldstone, has published its findings on the 22-day conflict in Gaza and southern Israel in December 2008-January 2009. The carefully argued report, which is consistent with the findings of Amnesty International, concludes that both the Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups committed grave violations of international law including war crimes and, possibly, crimes against humanity.

The President of the Human Rights Council, which mandated the UN Mission, made it unequivocally clear that it was "to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law" during the conflict.  In carrying out that broad mandate, Justice Goldstone  went to great lengths to ensure that both the Israeli and Palestinian sides were heard, despite Israel's refusal to cooperate, and that alleged violations of international law by both sides are comprehensively addressed in his report.  The UK government is reviewing this major report, and for the sake of justice and accountability, we are calling on them to welcome the report and support its recommendations.

It is of crucial importance that the report's pertinent recommendations to UN bodies to establish accountability for these grave crimes are acted upon. Amnesty International is convinced that ending prolonged impunity for serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law by the Israeli and the Palestinian side is essential: not only for human rights and justice, but also if long term peace and security is to be achieved in the Middle East. As a member of the Human Rights Council, we seek the UK Governments support to make that happen by ensuring that Justice Goldstone's recommendations are acted upon.  Simply put, they offer the best hope for justice and accountability in the Middle East conflict.

Despite powerful evidence of war crimes and other serious violations of international law which emerged during and in the aftermath of the conflict - including that gathered and published by Amnesty International and now detailed in the UN Fact Finding report - both Israel and Hamas have to date failed to carry out credible investigations and to prosecute those responsible. The UN report also reaches this conclusion but argues that the Israeli and the Palestinian side must be given a last chance to ensure justice for the victims and accountability for the perpetrators. As a last resort, the report recommends, the Security Council should refer the situation in Gaza to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) if no credible investigations have been conducted by both the Israeli government and the authorities in Gaza within a set time period. State Parties to the Geneva Conventions are urged to exercise universal jurisdiction where there is sufficient evidence that grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions have been committed. Amnesty International fully supports these recommendations.

Read Amnesty's press release on the Goldstone report

Amnesty International deplores the failure on the part of both Israel and Hamas to take seriously efforts to address accountability following the Gaza conflict.

Instead of taking meaningful steps to address accountability for violations of international law during the conflict, as recommended in the Goldstone report, both Israel and Hamas have failed to establish independent investigations.

UPDATE 4 JANUARY 2010
In November, the UN General Assembly gave Israel and Hamas until 2 February 2010 to show that they are willing and able to undertake investigations that meet international standards into alleged war crimes and possible crimes against humanity committed during the 2009 conflict. They now have under one month to show real progress is being made. Find out more

UPDATE: 23 NOVEMBER 09
UN Secretary-General needs to ensure Gaza conflict investigations are credible. Read Amnesty's statement

UPDATE: 6 NOVEMBER 2009
The UN has now voted to adopt key recommendations of the Goldstone report on the conflict in Gaza and southern Israel earlier this year. This is vitally important for ensuring that those, on both sides, who committed war crimes and other violations of international law will now be held to account. Find out more

There must be no whitewash. All investigations by the Israeli and the Palestinian side have to be credible: they must be independent and meet international standards. Where no institutional capacity exists, the international community must assist.