Foreign Office
King Charles Street
London
SW1A 2AH
Geneva, 17 July 2024
Attention: H.E. David Lindon Lammy, Foreign Secretary of United Kingdom
We, the undersigned Geneva based organizations express a deep concern regarding the dangerous and catastrophic situation in Gaza and urge your office to suspend any legal concerns over the international criminal court ICC.
Removing barriers will allow ICC to urgently issue an arrest warrant against Israeli officials responsible of the crimes in Gaza as per the ICC statements and UN rapporteurs. It is now urgent that UK government stops all challenges to the ICC and imposes sanctions against those who are involved in the plausible genocide as described by the International Court of justice. It is also very important and urgent that the elected UK government supports the implementation of measures as advised by the International Court of Justice ICJ.
As a reminder, Israel’s Minister of defense stated in the first week of the Israeli attacks that there will not be any inquiry into Israel’s actions and Palestinians are like animals and there is a need to respond to them as animals not as humans.
What the Israeli occupation is committing today in the Gaza Strip is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention and most of the actions are considered as war crimes and crimes against humanity that violate all international laws related to human rights. Cutting off electricity and water for around 2.2 million residents is a collective punishment forbidden by all international human rights laws. In these circumstances, United Nations and International courts like ICC and ICJ bodies should be allowed without any barrier to play an active and decisive role in defending the rights of civilians and preventing the general genocide.
Without supporting the international law and justice, Israel is going to continue the massive destruction of Gaza, its illegal occupation and siege, the subjugation of Palestinians to measures of collective punishment, in violation of international law while ignoring the repeated demands by the international community to stop the bombardment and allow access to water, electricity, food and medicine.
It is the responsibility of all governments to support international justice and hold accountable those responsible of committed war crimes and the genocide this is why we urge you to implement the necessary steps and fulfil the obligations of United Kingdom under the international law.
Signed:
Geneva Centre for Democracy & Human Rights / GCDHR email: info@gcdhr.org WEB www. https://gcdhr.org Geneva Council for International Affairs and Development / GCIAD email: admin@gciad.ch WEB www.gciad.ch International Jurists Union – Geneva / IJU email: ijugeneva@bluewin.ch WEB https://www.internationaljuristsunion.org
