Global Conscience Customary Court to Defend Palestinian Rights

The Amman Center for Human Rights Participates in Establishing the First Global Conscience Court for Palestine to Defend Palestinian Rights. Translating This into Legal and Judicial Actions Before National and International Courts

The Amman Center for Human Rights participated in establishing the first Global Conscience Court for Palestine. This initiative aims to defend Palestinian rights and translate these efforts into legal and judicial actions before national and international courts.

Participants in the first Global Court for Palestine, hosted in Geneva, Switzerland on June 6th, 7th, and 8th in 2024, called for intensifying legal and judicial efforts to prosecute occupation leaders before national and international courts.

The organization of this court was initiated by five non-governmental human rights organizations based in Geneva: The Scandinavian Institute for Human Rights, the International Union of Jurists – Geneva, the Geneva Center for Democracy and Human Rights, One Justice, and the International Institute for Peace, Justice, and Human Rights. This initiative was supported by the Global Legal Coalition for Palestine and dozens of international human rights organizations. Experts, international law professors, and human rights activists from 41 nationalities participated in the court, either in person in Geneva or via Zoom from occupied Jerusalem, Ramallah, Beirut, and various Arab and Western capitals.

In his speech, human rights activist Dr. Haitham Manna, head of the Scandinavian Institute for Human Rights, emphasized the importance of the sessions of the Global Court and its convening to ensure support for Palestinian rights. He pointed out that many participants in these sessions, experts, and activists representing institutions, have gathered evidence and presented it before the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. He highlighted the process of holding the Israeli occupation state accountable through the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court and the principle of universal jurisdiction. He stressed the importance of striving to overcome all obstacles that have kept the Israeli apartheid system above responsibility and accountability. He added, “Our world is divided into states allowed to invade and violate international laws, condemn, and even hold accountable international justice institutions, and punish and besiege other states and peoples because they refuse to submit to an unjust international system.”

Manna noted that for more than 15 years, many participants in these sessions have been gathering evidence and presenting pleadings before the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. Since the early days, obstacles were put in place to keep the Israeli apartheid system above accountability.

Meanwhile, Richard Falk, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, who participated in the court’s proceedings, presented his testimony on the crimes of the occupation and the legal paths through which not only the occupation can be held accountable, but also the international parties that supported it in the genocide executed by the occupation in Gaza.

The participants in the court affirmed that equating the victim and the perpetrator in international courts is disgraceful and inconsistent with international laws that grant occupied peoples the right to resist occupation by all means. The participants called for a meeting of international parties to discuss Israel’s violations of agreements and praised the efforts of the international boycott of the occupation state and the international institutions supporting it.

The court’s proceedings concluded with the election of the permanent committee for the upcoming court sessions, the formation of a working group to monitor the courts, and the announcement of a working group on the multidisciplinary approach to the genocide and apartheid system in the Palestinian issue. They also formed a coordination team for victim defense and justice achievement.

The court sessions were held in the hall of the John Knox Center in Geneva. Notably, this hall was chosen by Nelson Mandela to speak in after the abolition of apartheid in his country.

Available in Arabic here.