United Nations

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US | Germany | Vatican | Canada | Israel

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🏆 29 DEC 2023 Genocide Convention Convened: South Africa v. Israel

Status: Provisional Merits Stage

• President Ramaphosa addresses the nation after ICJ decision
  • ICJ will not dismiss genocide case
  • ICJ has ordered Israel to take measures to prevent and punish direct incitement of genocide in the Gaza Strip. It must prevent destruction in the besieged enclave and ensure that basic needs are delivered in the strip.
  • 26 JAN 2024 ICJ interim ruling finds that there IS a plausible case for genocide; orders provisional measures, Israel must report back in a month; decisive victory for South Africa.
  • commentary | Palestinian Analyst Exposes Why ICJ Means Big Trouble For Israel – Mouin Rabbani
  • commentary | ICJ court ruling: Muted reaction in occupied West Bank – AL Jazeera
  • commentary | SA welcomes ICJ ruling – Patrick Lukusa Kadima
  • commentary | International Court of Justice Decision – Through a Scottish Prism
  • commentary | It’s Topical | Heated debate over the ICJ ruling – 28 January 2024

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MECHANISMS | PRESS RELEASES | SPECIAL PROCEDURES

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15 JAN 2024 ICJ ruling can lay ground for suspending Israel from UN (15 JAN 2024)

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29 DEC 2023 South Africa launches Int’l Court of Justice case accusing Israel of Genocide;

• Genocide Convention Complaint filed at the International Court of Justice (pdf)
  • World Court Opens January 11, Here’s What to Expect | George Galloway (starts at 13:55)
    • SA not only voice against Israel ‘genocide’ – Sooliman | Newzroom Afrika
    • Can the US and Israel stitch up genocide hearing? | Not the Andrew Marr Show
    • South Africa’s genocide case against Israel: Adv. Sipho Mantula | SABC News
  • Genocide Case SUBMITTED to International Court Of Justice | Neutrality Studies
  • The detail in South Africa’s legal case against Israel is astonishing! | KernowDamo
  • Gaza reacts to South Africa taking Israel to court | KernowDamo
  • Israel: The State of GROOMERS; Tel Aviv is the pedophile capital of the world, Mossad used Epstein to blackmail politicians

9 DEC 2023 December 9, 2023 marks the 75th anniversary of the adoption by the UN General Assembly of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention). 

2 DEC 2023 Turkey to do everything for ICC to punish “Israel” for Gaza genocide – Erdogan

21 NOV 2023 Invoking The Genocide Convention Against “Israel”

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Ruh-Roh 🤥| UN Makes A Mockery Of The Permanent Committee On People Of African Descent | Luqman Nation👀

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New models of justice are needed to protect and serve everybody, without discrimination.

25 MAY 2022 Bachelet made her call during a recent panel discussion on addressing and preventing racial discrimination in the criminal justice system on the sidelines of a meeting of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Vienna. 

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Law enforcement must be held accountable for crimes against People of African Descent

GENEVA (12 JULY 2021) Read the full press release High Commissioner to Human Rights Council: Law Enforcement Officials must be Held Accountable for Crimes against People of African Descent and Alternative Approaches to Policing should be Applied

Interactive Dialogue with the High Commissioner for Human Rights on Systemic Racism

Report Link: https://www.ungeneva.org/en/news-media/meeting-summary/2021/07/les-associations-nuisibles-et-degradantes-de-la-pigmentation

The Council has before it the report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (A/HRC/47/53) on the promotion and protection of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Africans and of people of African descent against excessive use of force and other human rights violations by law enforcement officers.

Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, today told the Human Rights Council that law enforcement officials must be held accountable for crimes against people of African descent. Ms. Bachelet said that data in her report showed:

• that children of African descent are often subjected to racial discrimination in schools
• systemic racism is heightened by intersectionality
• women of African descent are forced to endure multiple forms of discrimination

Ms. Bachelet presented recommendations for the four interconnected pillars of action: 

• States should acknowledge the systemic nature of racism, in every part of life;
  • law enforcement officials must be held accountable for crimes against people of African descent & alternative approaches to policing should be applied;
• States should uphold the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly and
• States should ensure the effective participation of people of African descent; and
• States should create and fully fund comprehensive processes to share the truth about what was done, and the harms it continued to inflict.

In closing, The High Commissioner called on States to translate this agenda into action plans and concrete measures through national dialogues.

The webcast of the Human Rights Council meetings can be found here. All meeting summaries can be found here. Documents and reports related to the Human Rights Council’s forty-seventh regular session can be found here.

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“The status quo is untenable,” Bachelet said. “Systemic racism needs a systemic response”

GENEVA (28 June 2021) Read the full press release UN Human Rights Chief urges immediate, transformative action to uproot systemic racism / العربية | 中文 | Français | Pусский | Español

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Monday issued an urgent call for States to adopt a “transformative agenda” to uproot systemic racism, as she published a report casting a spotlight on the litany of violations of economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights suffered by people of African descent – on a daily basis and across different States and jurisdictions.

There needs to be a comprehensive rather than a piecemeal approach to dismantling systems entrenched in centuries of discrimination and violence. We need a transformative approach that tackles the interconnected areas that drive racism, and lead to repeated, wholly avoidable, tragedies like the death of George Floyd.”

The UN Human Rights Office was mandated in June 2020 by Human Rights Council resolution 43/1 – in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in the United States – to produce a comprehensive report on systemic racism, violations of international human rights law against Africans and people of African descent by law enforcement agencies, government responses to anti-racism peaceful protests, as well as accountability and redress for victims.

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High Commissioner for Human Rights: Impunity for violence & systemic racism by police, other law enforcement officials, & within all institutions must be addressed

GENEVA (19 March 2021) Read the full press release: High Commissioner for Human Rights: impunity for violence by police and other law enforcement officials is a reflection of all societies and systemic racism within all institutions must be addressed

GENEVA (19 March 2021) – Michelle Bachelet, High Commissioner for Human Rights, said impunity for crimes that may have been committed by agents of the State was profoundly damaging to the core values and social cohesion of every nation.  No police officer or any other agent of any State should ever be above the law.  This was, after all, the basic premise of the rule of law.  Stating that it was imperative to end police violence, Ms. Bachelet said the world would not succeed in this endeavour until all realised that impunity for violence by police and other law enforcement officials against people of African descent did not exist in a vacuum; that law enforcement and judicial authorities were a reflection of all societies; and that unless the systemic racism within all institutions was addressed, the police alone could not be fixed. 

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UN Rights experts call for reforms to end police brutality, systemic racism

GENEVA (26 February 2021) – UN human rights experts* today called on the US Government to adopt wide ranging reforms to put an end to police violence, and to vigorously address systemic racism and racial discrimination.

Read the full press release: USA: UN experts urge far-reaching reforms on policing and racism

Read the full article @TheUnitedNations USA: Rights experts call for reforms to end police brutality, systemic racism

United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture Nils Melzer, recommends that the Office of the High Commissioner leads a multi-stakeholder process aiming to identify agreed generic standards for assessing and improving the effectiveness of the interaction of States with mandated human rights experts in all areas of their work, including, in particular, official communications, country visits and thematic reporting.

Excessive force used 

African American communities have long decried police brutality and racial profiling. 

The issue gained global attention last year when protests broke out across the US, some of them violent, following the death of George Floyd, the unarmed African American man whose death while in police custody was captured on video. 

The rights experts welcomed a recent report on protest response in the city of Philadelphia which found authorities failed to sufficiently plan for the demonstrations and that excessive force had been used. 

They urged other municipalities to assess their response and allegations of systemic racism. 

Revise laws on use of lethal force 

The experts were also concerned that law enforcement officers in the US are allowed to use lethal force whenever it is deemed “reasonable”. They called for relevant legal and policy frameworks to be revised urgently to reflect established international human rights standards. 

“The use of potentially lethal force is an extreme measure, which may be resorted to only when strictly necessary to protect life or prevent serious injury from an imminent threat”, they said. “Likewise, less lethal weapons must be employed only subject to strict requirements of necessity and proportionality, in situations where less harmful measures would be ineffective.” 

Relatedly, they called for reform of laws and policies regarding the use of tear gas, pepper spray and other “so-called less-lethal weapons” during protests. 

“The expanding and improperly regulated use of less-lethal weapons raise serious and dramatic concerns for the respect of the right to life and the right to be free from torture and other ill-treatment”, the experts said. “They can kill and have killed; they can harm and wound horribly, leading to permanent disability.”  

Against ‘militarisation’ of policing 

Noting the increased “militarisation” of policing, the experts said the use of military equipment by law enforcement cannot be justified, adding that studies show military gear and armored vehicles do not reduce crime or increase officers’ safety. 

With misdemeanours accounting for some 80 per cent arrests in the US, the rights experts said reducing “unnecessary interactions” between the police and community members would lead to decreased violence and deaths. 

“We have witnessed many police killings that have resulted from police action related to petty offences. Instead, non-serious offenses, including minor traffic violations, should be addressed through mechanisms outside the criminal legal system”, they recommended.

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United States: UN experts strongly condemn US Capitol attack

GENEVA (18 January 2021) – UN human rights experts today released a statement condemning the violent events at the US Capitol in Washington. It reads as follows:

“We, the undersigned independent experts on human rights at the United Nations, strongly affirm and express our solidarity with the American people who stand for democracy, equality and the rule of law at this critical moment.

The violent attempt to overturn the results of a free and fair election at the US Capitol on 6 January was a shocking and incendiary event.

We strongly condemn the attack and the incitement to violence and hatred online and offline, and call for accountability. 

We stand with the democratic outcomes of the recent elections and urge political leaders to do everything in their power to de-escalate tensions and unify the country in full respect for democracy and the rule of law.

Notwithstanding the urgent need to tackle political violence of any kind, we urge the US Government, the private sector, civil society and other groups to ensure that their responses are consistent with international human rights standards, including the freedom of expression and due process of the law.

We maintain our hope that the US democracy will emerge strengthened from this crisis without damage to its institutions and with renewed commitment to peaceful pluralism, rule of law and democratic governance.”

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Comment; UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Wednesday’s events in the US

GENEVA (7 January 2021) – We are deeply troubled by Wednesday’s attack on the US Capitol, which demonstrated clearly the destructive impact of sustained, deliberate distortion of facts, and incitement to violence and hatred by political leaders. Allegations of electoral fraud have been invoked to try to undermine the right to political participation. We are encouraged to see that the process has continued in spite of serious attempts to disrupt it. We call on leaders from across the political spectrum, including the President of the United States, to disavow false and dangerous narratives, and encourage their supporters to do so as well. We note with dismay the serious threats and destruction of property faced by media professionals yesterday. We support calls from many quarters for a thorough investigation into Wednesday’s events.

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