This past Friday The U.N. Human Rights Council voted to endorse a Gaza war crimes report that calls on Israel and Hamas to carry out credible investigations into alleged abuses. If viable domestic investigations do not eventually take place, the U.N. Security Council could refer both matters to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for possible prosecutions. ( See : Resolution - Human Rights Council ,The human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian,Territory, including East Jerusalem . Human Rights In Palestine And Other, Occupied Arab Territories, Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, Executive Summary.)
"The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, led by Justice Richard Goldstone, was tasked by the Council “to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law that might have been committed at any time in the context of the military operations that were conducted in Gaza during the period from 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009, whether before, during or after.”
"The report of the Mission, presented to the Council’s twelfth session, concluded that, while the Israeli Government sought to portray its operations as a response to rocket attacks in the exercise of its right to self defense, the Israeli plan had been directed, at least in part, at the people of Gaza as a whole. The report also found that Palestinian armed groups had succeeded in causing terror within Israel’s civilian population through the launch of thousands of rockets and mortars into Israel since April 2001."
"It recommended that the Security Council require the Government of Israel to take all appropriate steps, within a period of three months, to launch appropriate investigations that were independent and in conformity with international standards; and with regard to the relevant Palestinian authorities, that it require the independent committee of experts to monitor and report on any domestic legal or other proceedings undertaken by the relevant authorities in the Gaza Strip."
( Source : Human Rights Council Endorses Recommendations, Of Fact-finding Mission Led By Justice Goldstone And Calls For Their Implementation ) 16 October 2009 )
In an AP story today,Professor Bassiouni of the DePaull University Law School and a driving forces behind the creation of the International Criminal Court, stated that"If it sends the report to the Security Council, to the Secretary-General and to the General Assembly, it is sending it not for general informational purposes but for action,". The author further describes Bassiouni's observation that, "Arab and African countries will likely point to any U.S. efforts to block referral to the international court as an example of double standards, since it was Western countries that referred Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court in March for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes".
( Source : UN rights council endorses Gaza war crimes report, By Frank Jordans )
It is very uncertain whether the national parties involved will undertake internal proceedings to investigate and possibly prosecute the war crimes alleged in the Goldstone Report. Even more uncertain, is whether these cases would ever be referred to the ICC by the UN Security Council, given some members of the Council would likely exercise their veto over such a decision.
Mr. Goldstone at a recent press conference, puts forward a slightly more hopeful expectation. "In the end, the mission had decided to give full recognition to the concept of complementarity. It had been recognized by the Rome Statute that the first choice in an incident was domestic investigation. It was only where such domestic activity was not possible that the International Criminal Court could accept jurisdiction. While the mission was critical of both sides for having done far too little in that regard, it had concluded that, although there might be unwillingness, there was ability. Israel was clearly able to hold open, transparent investigations. In Gaza, courts and lawyers were operating, and if there was a will, investigations could be held."
(Source : Press Conference On Report Of United Nations Fact-finding Mission On Gaza Conflict )
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