FLASH
Shkruar nga Agnes Callamard
Israel and its biggest backer, the United States, must recognize that the stated military objective of destroying Hamas has come at a crushing cost in civilian lives and infrastructure that is likely unjustifiable under international law...
After more than 4 months of brutal war, Israel's retaliatory military campaign against Hamas has been characterized by a clear pattern of war crimes and violations of international law. Israel's officially declared justification for its war in Gaza is to eliminate Hamas as responsible for the horrific crimes committed during its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
1,139 people, mostly Israeli civilians were killed, thousands more were injured. An unknown number of women and girls were subjected to sexual violence; while 240 people were taken hostage, many of whom are still being held by Hamas. In response, Israel forcibly displaced Palestinians, leaving hundreds of thousands of them without basic human needs.
It has carried out indiscriminate, disproportionate and direct attacks on civilians and "civilian facilities", such as schools and hospitals. An estimated 28,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the military campaign, most of them women and children. Large parts of Gaza have been flattened. Twenty percent of its infrastructure and most homes have been damaged or completely destroyed, making the region largely uninhabitable. Israel also imposed a prolonged blockade, denying Palestinians adequate food, drinking water, fuel, Internet access, shelter, and medical care.
He is imprisoning and holding the people of Gaza in inhumane conditions. Israel itself admits that some of the detainees have died in their cells. Meanwhile, in the West Bank, violence against Palestinians by Israeli forces and Jewish settlers has increased significantly.
The US and many Western countries have backed Israel, offering military aid, in defiance of UN calls for a ceasefire. They have also cut off funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, while also rejecting the genocide charge that South Africa filed against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), even as the massacre continued. unfolded.
The current diplomatic complicity in the catastrophic human rights and humanitarian crisis in Gaza is in fact the culmination of years of erosion of the rule of international law and the global human rights system. Such degradation began in earnest after the attacks of September 11, 2001, when the United States began the "war on terror," a campaign that normalized the idea that anything is permissible in the pursuit of "terrorists."
And in its current war in Gaza, Israel has copied the strategy and tactics of the US, while having the latter's full support. It seems as if the bitter moral lessons of the Holocaust and World War II have been completely forgotten, and with them the essence of the old "Never again" principle.
This degradation, so evident in the destruction of Gaza and the West's response to it, signals the end of the rules-based world order and the beginning of a new era.
Universality, that is the principle that we all, without exception, are endowed with human rights equally, regardless of who we are or where we live, lies at the heart of the international human rights system.
It was the foundation of the Genocide Convention and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, both adopted in 1948. This principle dictated the emergence of new accountability tools over the years, including the International Criminal Court established in 2002.
For decades, this legal infrastructure has ensured that states honor their obligations to respect human rights. A critic of the current system may say that in fact states have only paid lip service to universality. That the 20th century was full of examples of failures to preserve the equal dignity of all: violence against those who supported de-colonization, the Vietnam War, the genocides in Cambodia and Rwanda, the wars that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia, etc.
All these events testify to an international system that has favored inequality and systematic discrimination more than universality. One might rightly argue that universality never applied to the Palestinians, who, as the famous Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said once pointed out, have been since 1948, "victims of victims, and refugees of refugees."
However, the fate of universality does not rest in the hands of those who betray it. Rather, as a perpetually ambitious project for humanity, its power lies first and foremost in its constant proclamation and persistent defense.
Throughout the twentieth century, the principle of universality faced innumerable obstacles, but the main direction was toward its proclamation, affirmation, and defense. But this changed in the early years of the 21st century, with the launch of the "war on terror" after the tragic events of September 11.
Gjatë 20 viteve të fundit, doktrina dhe metodat e “luftës kundër terrorit” janë miratuar ose imituar nga qeveritë në mbarë botën. Ato janë vendosur për të zgjeruar shtrirjen dhe gamën e masave të “vetëmbrojtjes” shtetërore dhe për të goditur çdo popull apo autoritet që mendohet se garanton “kërcënimin terrorist”.
Numri i jashtëzakonshëm i vrasjeve civile në Gaza të kryera në emër të vetëmbrojtjes dhe kundër terrorizmit, është një pasojë logjike e këtij kuadri, që e ka shtrembëruar dhe thuajse çmontuar të drejtën ndërkombëtare dhe, së bashku me të, parimin e universalitetit.
Sulmet ajrore amerikane në Afganistan, Irak, Pakistan, Somali dhe Siri shkaktuan shumë viktima na radhët e civilëve. Në Siri, bombardimet e pamëshirshme të infrastrukturës civile nga Rusia shkaktuan vdekjen e mijëra civilëve. Por në rastet e dokumentuara nga Amnesty International, autoritetet ruse pretenduan se forcat e tyre të armatosura po goditnin objektiva “terroristë”, edhe kur raketat shkatërronin spitale, shkolla dhe tregje.
Edhe pushtimi rus i Ukrainës në vitin 2022, u justifikua gjithashtu me referenca të rreme për vetëmbrojtje. Sulmet e saj pa dallim kanë shkaktuar mijëra viktima në civilë, teksa ka shumë prova krimeve sipas ligjit ndërkombëtar, si tortura, dëbimi dhe transferimi i dhunshëm, dhuna seksuale dhe vrasjet e paligjshme.
Edhe Kina ka përmendur “luftën kundër terrorizmit” për të justifikuar goditjen e saj të gjerë ndaj ujgurëve, kazakëve dhe pakicave të tjera etnike kryesisht myslimane në Xinjiang, të cilat rezultuan krime kundër njerëzimit. Ndërkohë brenda disa ditësh nga vendimi i GJND-së dhe thirrjeve të saj për masa të përkohshme për të parandaluar gjenocidin në Gaza, Shtetet e Bashkuara dhe disa qeveri të tjera perëndimore, pezulluan fondet për Agjencinë e OKB-së për Ndihmë dhe Punë, e cila siguron një rrugë shpëtimi për njerëzit në Gaza.
Më shumë se çdo vend tjetër, Shtetet e Bashkuara mund të parandalojnë aleatin e tyre të ngushtë të vazhdojë të kryejë mizori. Por deri më tani, ka zgjedhur të mos e bëjë këtë. Dhe ky model sjelljeje ka një kosto të madhe. Siç ka thënë një diplomat i G-7 “Ne e kemi humbur përfundimisht betejën në Jugun Global. E gjithë puna që kemi bërë me Jugun Global (mbi luftën në Ukrainë) është sabotuar tashmë. ... Harrojini rregullat, harroni rendin botëror. Ata nuk do të na dëgjojnë më kurrë.”
Rreziku i gjenocidit, serioziteti i shkeljeve që po kryhen dhe justifikimet e dobëta nga zyrtarët e zgjedhur në demokracitë perëndimore, paralajmërojnë një ndryshim epokal. Rendi i bazuar në rregulla, që i ka qeverisur çështjet ndërkombëtare që nga fundi i Luftës së Dytë Botërore është duke perënduar dhe mund të mos ketë më kthim pas.
The consequences of this abandonment are very obvious: more instability, more aggression, more conflict and more suffering. The only control over violence will be more violence. The end of the rules-based order will also bring great anger to all walks of life, in all regions of the earth, except those who are well-positioned to reap whatever filthy lucre may be extracted. from a severely damaged international system.
However, it is still possible to take some steps to avoid this scenario. They begin with the immediate cessation of all military operations by both Israel and Hamas, the immediate release of all civilian hostages held by Hamas and all Palestinians illegally detained by Israel, and the lifting of the siege of Gaza.
Israel and its biggest backer, the United States, must recognize that the stated military objective of destroying Hamas has come at a crushing cost in civilian lives and infrastructure that is likely unjustifiable under international law./ Adaptation Pamphlet from "Foreign Affairs"
Taken with cuts
Note: Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International. During the years 2016-2021, she served as the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions.
Lini një Përgjigje