NOVANEWS
In January 2013 the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission has submitted its report to the Human Rights Council which, in April 2012, had established and mandated the mission to ‘investigate the implications of the Israeli settlements on the human rights of the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem’.
In its recommendations the Mission states that ‘Israel must, in compliance with article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, cease all settlement activities without preconditions. In addition it must immediately initiate a process of withdrawal of all settlers from the OPT.’ Despite political processes that seek to put an end to settlement expansion, theMission observes that the ‘planning and growth of the settlements continues both of existing as well as new structures.’
The report outlines the unlawful policies and violations that are inherent to the presence of settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. These include: the undermining of the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people; the violation of the right to freedom of movement, non-discrimination and equality; the ‘system of total segregation between the settlers and the rest of the population living in the OPT’; violations of children’s rights through detention, the denial of a fair trial and mistreatment in detention, and unlawful transfer to Israeli detention centres; the failure to protect the rights of Palestinian children to access education; and the failure to effectively prevent, investigate or prosecute acts of settler violence.
The Mission emphasizes that “[t]he volume of information received on dispossession, evictions, demolitions and displacement points to the magnitude of these practices. These are particularly widespread in certain areas and acute inEast Jerusalem.”
Fully agreeing with the observation that there is total impunity for settler violence, as well as settlement expansion, PCHR particularly supports the Mission’s reference to the International Criminal Court as a means of establishing accountability for the settlement enterprise in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which constitutes a war crime under Article 8 (2) (b) (viii) of the Rome Statute. The report concludes that ‘The Rome Statute establishes the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction over the deportation or transfer, directly or indirectly, by the occupying Power of parts of its own population into the territory it occupies, or the deportation or transfer of all or parts of the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory. Ratification of the Statute by Palestine may lead to accountability for gross violations of human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law and justice for victims.’
It is the time for Palestine to sign and ratify the Rome Statute and join the 121 States that have already become parties to the Statute. As the Mission report states: “[r]atification of the Statute by Palestine may lead to accountability for gross violations of human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law and justice for victims.”
