Press Releases

From Palestine to Lebanon: Arms Embargos, Sanctions and Protection of Palestinian Refugees are the Minimum Obligations of UN Member States (UNHRC57, Oral Statement under Item 7)

BADIL Resource Center continued its international advocacy through focused interventions on the obligations and responsibilities of UN Member States to end Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip and its aggression against Lebanon at the UNHRC 57th session (9 September – 11 October).

Under Item 7, BADIL’ oral statement re-affirmed the obligations of UN member states to immediately impose arms embargoes and sanctions against the Israeli colonial-apartheid regime.

Israel and its complicit allies would have stopped the ongoing international crimes in Palestine and Lebanon if other states had acted in accordance with the UN Charter and the ICJ’s provisional measures and Advisory Opinion to immediately impose arms embargoes and the full spectrum of sanctions.

The statement also included the international community’s responsibility to protect Palestinian refugees and their rights by enabling and safeguarding UNRWA’s mandate, presence and operations, in all its areas of operation, especially in the Gaza Strip.

During Item 7, over 60 states across the world strongly condemned “Israel’s bills to delegitimise and criminalise UNRWA” as well as measures taken to “prevent UNRWA from performing its mandate, such as denying the entry of aid and medicine into Gaza if they bear the UNRWA logo and the deliberate targeting of UNRWA convoys and facilities, especially schools and shelters for internally displaced Palestinians.” The States re-affirmed that “UNRWA is the most capable and only UN-mandated agency to deliver aid and services to Palestinian refugees,” refusing “any attempts to transfer UNRWA’s mandate to other international and local organisations.”

The crimes and atrocities being committed by Israel in Palestine and Lebanon leave no justification, excuse or alternative for UN member states than to immediately impose arms embargoes and sanctions, as the minimum fulfillment of their obligations under international law.

View BADIL’s statement on UN Web TV, at 2:53:38

View states’ statement, here, presented by the UN Mission of Malaysia, at 2:53:53