50th Anniversary of the Geneva Convention

Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the convention that deals most comprehensively with the obligations of an occupying power toward civilians in occupied territory. Since 1967, Israel has systematically violated significant provisions of the convention. These violations have been directed against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and civilians in the Golan Heights and occupied South Lebanon. The Israeli violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention include, in part, the following:

• Systematic torture, in violation of articles 27, 31, 32, and 147;
• Collective punishment, like demolition and sealing of houses and restrictions on movement, in violation of articles 33 and 53;
• Prolonged closures that lead, for example, to loss of income from employment, without providing alternative sources of income for the residents in violation of article 39;
• Massive establishment of settlements and the transfer of Israeli settlers to occupied territory, in violation of articles 49 and 53;
• Detention and imprisonment of residents of the occupied territory in detention centres located within Israel, in violation of article 76;
• Administrative detention of thousands of Palestinians for prolonged periods, grossly exceeding the provisions of article 78, in violation of article 49;
• Revocation of residency rights in the occupied territory comprising East Jerusalem, in violation of article 47;
• Expropriation and exploitation of the natural resources, including water, in the occupied territory to meet the needs of the occupying power, in violation of article 55.

With regard to the Palestinian Authority and its limited self-rule, the occupying power is bound by the provisions of the convention "for the duration of the occupation, to the extent that such power exercises the functions of government in such territory". Additionally,

"protected persons who are in occupied territory shall not be deprived, in any case or in any manner whatsoever, of the benefits of the present convention by any change introduced, as a result of the occupation of a territory, into the institutions or government of the said territory, nor by any agreement concluded between the authorities of the occupied territories and the occupying power, nor by any annexation by the latter of the whole or part of the occupied territory".

Final status negotiations between Israelis and the Palestinians must be based on recognition of and implementation of international human rights law. At last months meeting in Geneva of the High Contracting Parties, the international community failed to demonstrate a serious commitment to ensure protection for people in the territories occupied by Israel in particular, and to ensure compliance with international humanitarian law in general. The High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention themselves, however, have violated their obligation enshrined in Article 1 of the Convention, to ensure respect for the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The international community should remind Israel that the requirements of the Fourth Geneva Convention must be met, particularly:

1. That all Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, and must be dismantled in due course unless those who inhabit them are able to negotiate an agreement to enter the jurisdiction of an administration representing the inhabitants of the occupied territories;
2. That all forms of collective punishment must cease;
3. That the basic rights of the people under occupation must be respected, as framed by the Fourth Geneva Convention;
4. That Israel must abandon its use of the defunct and draconian British Defense (Emergency) Regulations of 1945, its practice of detaining people without trial, demolishing homes on suspicion and other practices that violate international law and norms of behaviour;
5. That regardless of agreements reached between Israel in 1967 will retain 'occupied' status until Israel has completed a physical and legal withdrawal;
6. That Clause 14 of the Cairo Agreement, which calls upon both parties to abide by internationally accepted human rights standards, binds Israel and the PLO to comply with human rights norms (i.e. international human rights law). The international community must ensure that both parties honour this undertaking.

If the lessons of Kosovo, Bosnia, Rwanda and even Iraq are to be learned, the convenors of the special session should have felt compelled to go forward with their effort to contribute to peace by securing the protection of human rights as an essential prerequisite for a just and lasting peace.