The Goldstone Report: Palestinian victims and human rights held hostage to politics
Impunity continues to prevail in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), a state of affairs clearly evident in the international response to Israel’s military offensive in the occupied Gaza Strip between 27 December 2008 – 18 January 2009 in which more than 1,400 Palestinians and 14 Israelis were killed.[1] 83% of the Palestinian victims were Geneva-Convention protected civilians, most of them Palestinian refugees who had been forcibly displaced from their homes and properties to the Gaza Strip as a result of Israel's ethnic cleansing operation (the Nakba) of 1948.
Two years on from Israel's military assault on the occupied Gaza
Strip, domestic investigations have failed to meet international
standards; those responsible for war crimes and crimes against
humanity have not been prosecuted, and no reparations have been
provided to the victims. This section will give an overview of the
Goldstone Report, explaining how it was initiated, the processes
through which it has passed, and how the findings of the report can
be taken forward to ensure justice for the victims.
The Findings of the Goldstone Report
During the attack on Gaza, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) passed
resolution number "Symbol"A/HRC/S-9/L.1[2] which condemned Israeli
aggressions and called on the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights to report on alleged war crimes which occurred during
the Israeli attack. On 3 April 2009, the HRC established an
international independent Fact Finding Mission with the mandate “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.”[3]
On 29th September 2009, the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza
Conflict, composed of South African Judge Richard Goldstone and his
3 person team, submitted its report to the Human Rights
Council (12th session). The “Goldstone Report” entitled Human
Rights in Palestine and Other Occupied Arab Territories: Report of
the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict[4]
confirmed that both Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups had
committed grave violations of international law, including war
crimes and possible crimes against humanity.
The Goldstone Report documented Israel's attacks on UN facilities,
mosques and schools and the use of Palestinians as human shields.
It also gave details of particularly horrific incidents, such as
one in the Zeitoun district of Gaza in which Israeli soldiers
gathered over a hundred members of the Samouni family into one
house before opening fire with rockets and artillery shells,
killing 29 members of the family and injuring dozens more.
Alongside the documentation of killings, the report also verified
reports of the wanton Israeli destruction of civilian
infrastructure and private property in Gaza including the razing of
a chicken farm and 31,000 chickens and the destruction of one of
the raw sewage lagoons of the Gaza Waste Water Treatment plant,
leading to the outflow of 200,000 cubic meters of raw sewage onto
the neighboring farmland.
The Goldstone Report found that, in the lead up to the Israeli
military assault on Gaza, Israel imposed a blockade amounting to
collective punishment and carried out a systematic policy of
progressive isolation and deprivation of the Gaza Strip. During the
military operation, houses, factories, wells, schools, hospitals,
police stations and other public buildings were destroyed, with
families, including the elderly and children, left living amid the
rubble of their former dwellings long after the attacks ended, as
no reconstruction has been possible due to the continuing blockade.
Significant trauma, both immediate and long-term, has been suffered
by the population of Gaza. The Gaza military operations were
directed by Israel at the people of Gaza as a whole, in furtherance
of an overall policy aimed at punishing the Gaza population, and in
a deliberate policy of disproportionate force aimed at the civilian
population.
The “Roadmap to Accountability”
The significance of the Goldstone Report's findings is the
unprecedented “Roadmap of Accountability” which sets clear
guidelines for achieving justice for war crimes victims. The Report
noted with concern that the repeated publication of human rights
reports and the lack of subsequent follow-up had created a
situation which “emboldens Israel and her conviction of being
untouchable” and had created a “justice crisis” for Palestinians,
and committed itself to providing a framework to ensure that its
findings were followed up on.
To do this, the Goldstone Report gave Israel and the Palestinian
authorities six months to conduct domestic investigations into war
crimes and possible crimes against humanity committed during
Israel's assault and to prosecute those responsible. If after 6
months these domestic investigations did not meet the international
standards of independence and impartiality, then the Goldstone
report recommends a number of alternative avenues for ensuring
accountability of those responsible:
·
UNHRC and the UN Security Council to submit the report for
investigation to the ICC
·
UN General Assembly to establish a reparation fund to provide
compensation for Palestinians who had suffered damage or loss as a
result of the Israeli assault
·
UN General Assembly to ask the Government of Switzerland to convene
a conference of the high contracting parties to the Fourth Geneva
Convention of 1949 on measures to enforce the Convention in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory
·
UN General Assembly to ask the UN Security Council to report on the
measures taken to ensure accountability for serious violations of
international humanitarian law and human rights and to consider
what other action it might wish to take to ensure justice, such as
that provided by UN Resolution 377, Uniting for Peace.
·
State parties to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 to start criminal
investigations in national courts, using universal jurisdiction,
and where warranted to arrest and prosecute perpetrators,
significantly strengthening the legitimacy of lawsuits brought by
Palestinian victims against Israeli suspects in courts
abroad.
In addition to activating mechanisms for international justice, the
Mission also recommends a number of other practical recommendations
as a result of their findings including:
·
A recommendation that the UN General Assembly promote an urgent
discussion on the future legality of the use of certain munitions
referred to in the report, in particular white phosphorous,
flechettes and heavy metal such as tungsten.
·
Calling on the Government of Israel to end the blockade on Gaza, to
review its rules of engagement to bring them in line with
international law, release political prisoners and cease the
restrictions on Palestinian travel in the West Bank and between the
West Bank, the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the outside
world.
·
Calling on all Palestinian parties to respect international law
·
Recommending that international law and human rights assume a
central role in internationally-sponsored peace initiatives.
What has happened to the Goldstone Report and what are the
next steps?
After its release on 29th September 2009, a vote on the report's
findings was due to come up for discussion at the 12th session of
the Human Rights Council on October 2nd 2009 but was deferred at
the request of the PLO/PA, under heavy international pressure. At
the time BADIL and a number of other human rights organizations
issued a statement entitled: Justice delayed is Justice Denied[5]
which condemned the decision of the Palestinian leadership to delay
the vote and thereby put political considerations before the
pursuit of justice for the victims of Israeli crimes. This
intervention was part of a wider grassroots opposition to the PLO's
decision which eventually lead to the PLO, on 11th of October 2009,
to ask for the Goldstone Report to be brought before a special
session of the UNHRC. At its 12th Special Session on October the
16th, the UNHRC resumed debate of the Report passing Resolution
A/HRC/S-12/1[6] which endorsed the report and condemned Israeli
actions in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem as well as
criticizing Israel for failing to cooperate with the UN
mission.
As a result, the Goldstone Report was then brought before the
General Assembly which passed resolution A/Res/64/10[7] endorsing
the report of the UNHRC, requesting that the UN Secretary General
transmit the Goldstone Report to the Security Council, calling for
independent inquiries by both Palestinians and Israelis and asking
that the UN Secretary General report back within 3 months on the
progress of the implementation of the resolution. The resolution
also repeated the recommendation made in the Goldstone Report, that
the Government of Switzerland, as the depository of the Geneva
Convention reconvene a Conference of High Contracting Parties to
the Fourth Geneva Convention to discuss measures to enforce the
Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Support for the
Goldstone Report and its implementation was again affirmed on 26th
February 2010 by another UN General Assembly Resolution[8] which
reiterated the demands of the previous resolution and asked the
Secretary General to again report, within 5 months, on the progress
made towards the implementation of the resolution. The demand for
accountability was reaffirmed by another UNHRC resolution,
Resolution 13/9[9], which called for the establishment of an
independent commission of human rights experts to review the
progress made in implementing the recommendations of the Goldstone
Report.
At its Fifteenth Session, the UNHRC received the report by the
independent committee of legal experts[10] which concluded that
domestic investigations, on both sides, had failed to meet
international standards of impartiality and promptness. The
committee also criticized Israel for its lack of cooperation with
the committee in its investigations, for ignoring the testimony of
Palestinian witnesses and for failing to conduct any serious
investigation into the conduct of the war. BADIL, as part of its
work in the Human Rights Council of Palestine, insisted that
international criminal justice be pursued[11] and called on the UN
Security Council to refer the situation to the ICC and reminded all
states of their obligation to investigate and prosecute those
suspected of perpetrating grave breaches of the Geneva
Convention.
In response to the experts report, the Human Rights Council adopted
a resolution, drafted by the PA/PLO,[12] which once more extended
the mandate of the experts' committee to report about the progress
of the domestic investigation undertaken by Israel and the
Palestinian authorities and failed to call for the activation of
the international accountability mechanisms as recommended in the
Goldstone Report. At this stage, the question of whether Israel's
can be held accountable for crimes committed against the occupied
and blockaded Palestinian people of Gaza will be answered in March
2011, when the Human Rights Council will decide in its seventeenth
session whether to request action by the UN General Assembly and/or
the Security Council. Palestinian and international human rights
organizations, including BADIL, are calling for public pressure on
all states, as well as the PA/PLO, to support a Human Rights
Council resolution which affirms support for international
accountability.
Calls for Public Action
- Raise public awareness about the lack of access to justice by the Palestinian people and the need to hold Israel accountable to international law in domestic courts abroad, as well as in the United Nations system.
- Inform and lobby decision makers to support international accountability mechanisms, as well as the rapid convening by the Government of Switzerland of a Conference of the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, which will determine ways to enforce Israel's respect of the Convention in the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.
- Raise awareness and take action to end Israel's illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip.
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For further links to BADIL statements and relevant UN documents
please visit the BADIL website:
http://www.badil.org/prevalenttopics
Endnotes:
[1]
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2009/09/15/UNFFMGCReport.pdf
[2]
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/9/docs/A-HRC-S-91-L1.doc
[3]
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2009/09/15/UNFFMGCReport.pdf
[4]
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/9/docs/UNFFMGC_Report.pdf
[5]
http://www.badil.org/en/press-releases/50-press-releases-2009/1699-justice-delayed-is-justice-denied
[6]
http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/LTD/G09/168/07/PDF/G0916807.pdf?OpenElement
[7]
http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/C00AAE566F6F9D7485257664004CFF12
[8]
http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N09/477/07/PDF/N0947707.pdf?OpenElement
[9]
http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/7d3f137e67d203ab8525770d005b7996?OpenDocument
[10]
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/15session/A.HRC.15.50_en.pdf
[11] http://www.badil.org/en/badil-news/1683-story-1
[12]
http://unispal.un.org/unispal.nsf/47d4e277b48d9d3685256ddc00612265/eb7608650c5309bb852577ad0069e713?OpenDocument