The Arakan army is accused of persecuting Rhogingya in parts of the Rakhine state as the armed group has won control of large swathes of land in the region from the military junta. 

The Arakan Army, has won control of large parts of Rakhine State in Myanmar over the past few months, most recently the northern section where many Rohingya still live. In recent days, rights groups have accused the rebels of expelling the minority from their homes and destroying their property, in many cases by arson. The Arakan Army has rejected these allegations.

Formed roughly 15 years ago, the Arakan Army claims to be 40,000 people strong and has fought Myanmar’s military for years. It has grown to be among the most powerful of the various ethnic rebel armies that are allied by the joint desire to oust the junta — which staged a coup in 2021 and is now facing the biggest challenge to its rule from rebel and pro-democracy forces.

Reports of the Arakan Army mistreating the Rohingya have stirred fears of renewed atrocities, even as the junta appears increasingly weak.

“Arakan Army soldiers told us to move to a safer place, as there is intense fighting in our town and there was a risk for us. Before we could decide whether to move or not, the house caught fire,” said Aung Htay, 42, a Rohingya resident of Buthidaung, one of the biggest towns to be largely destroyed by fire. Speaking in a telephone interview to the New York Times, he said he did not know what caused the fires in the town, which broke out after dark.

The United Nations also said the fires were burning after the Myanmar military had retreated from locations, and that tens of thousands of Rakhine and Rohingya people across the state had been displaced by the conflict. Some have gone to neighboring Bangladesh, where roughly a million Rohingya had already fled in previous years in fear for their lives, settling in refugee camps there.

The allegations against the Arakan Army are unfolding against the backdrop of reports that Rohingya have been conscripted into Myanmar’s military and joined troops in raiding Rakhine villages. Human Rights Watch believes that more than a thousand Rohingya men have been forcibly recruited since February.

Alarmed by the renewed sectarian tensions, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has warned of an “acute risk of further atrocities.”

In a joint statement, Rohingya activists urged the Arakan Army leadership not to fall into the military’s trap of playing divide and conquer by trying to pit the two communities against each other. “Only the military regime will benefit from this,” groups including the European Rohingya Council and Burmese Rohingya Organization UK said in the statement

On 24 May the Paris Criminal Court convicted three high-ranking Syrian senior officials for their role in the imprisonment, enforced disappearance, and torture of two dual Syrian-French Citizens, Patrick Dabbagh and his Father Mazzen. 

In 2013, Mazzen and Patrick Dabbagh were arbitrarily arrested by the Syrian authorities and taken to the Mezzeh military airport detention center. After five years, their family received two death certificates stating their deaths in 2014 and 2017.

French judges concluded that the enforced disappearance, imprisonment, and torture committed by Syrian officials Abdel Salem Mahmoud, Ali Mamlouk, and Jamil Hassan amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity. 

Ali Mamlouk is a close advisor to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and the former head of the National Security Bureau, Jamil Hassan is the former head of the Syrian Air Force intelligence service, and Abdel Salam Mahmoud is the former head of investigations of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence in Mezzeh military airport in Damascus. 

The trial followed a seven-year investigation carried out by the war crimes unit of the Paris Judicial Court. The three officials were tried in absentia. 

Human Rights Watch emphasized that the French court case “serves as a sharp reminder to the Assad government that scrutiny of its long list of abuses will continue.”

Read more here

The leaders of Norway, Ireland, and Spain have announced that they will formally recognize a Palestinian state on 28 May.

On Wednesday, Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said a two-state solution was in Israel’s best interest. He adds “There cannot be peace in the Middle East if there is no recognition.”

Gahr Store added, “Recognition of Palestine is a means of supporting the moderate forces which have been losing ground in this protracted and brutal conflict.”

Ireland’s Prime Minister Simon Harris and Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez followed suit soon after. 

Ireland’s Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said “Today, we state clearly our unambiguous support for the equal right to security, dignity, and self-determination for the Palestinian and Israeli peoples.”

In his announcement, Pedro Sanchez accused Benjamin Netanyahu of endangering the two-state solution with his policy of “pain and destruction” in Gaza. 

Sanchez added, “We hope that our recognition and our reasons contribute to other Western countries to follow this path, because the more we are, the more strength we will have to impose a ceasefire.”

Israel denounced the plans to recognize a Palestinian arguing that such a move is a “reward for terrorism.”

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti said that the move is a powerful step that brings “freedom and justice” closer for the Palestinian people. 

Read more on Al Jazeera and BBC

The chief prosecutor of the international criminal court has said he is seeking arrest warrants for senior Hamas and Israeli officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant.

Karim Khan said his office had applied to the World Court’s pre-trial chamber for arrest warrants for the military and political leaders on both sides for crimes committed during Hamas’s 7 October attack and the ensuing war in Gaza.

He named Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas chief in Gaza, and Mohammed Deif, the commander of its military wing, considered to be the masterminds of the 7 October assault, as well as Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the group’s political bureau, who is based in Qatar, as wanted for crimes of extermination, murder, hostage-taking, rape, sexual assault and torture.

Netanyahu and Gallant are accused of extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, the denial of humanitarian relief supplies and deliberately targeting civilians

Khan, the British ICC prosecutor, must request the warrants for the Hamas and Israeli suspects from a pre-trial panel of three judges, who take on average two months to consider the evidence and determine if the proceedings can move forward.

#ICC Prosecutor @KarimKhanQC announces applications for arrest warrants in relation to Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant in the context of the situation in the State of #Palestinehttps://t.co/WqDZecXFZq pic.twitter.com/bxqLWc5M6u

— Int'l Criminal Court (@IntlCrimCourt) May 20, 2024

While there is no imminent likelihood of prosecution, since Israel is not a member of the court, ICC warrants could put Israeli officials at risk of arrest abroad, further deepening the country’s growing international isolation over its conduct in the war in Gaza.

#ICC Prosecutor @KarimKhanQC announces applications for arrest warrants in relation to Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri (Deif) and Ismail Haniyeh in the context of the situation in the State of #Palestine https://t.co/WqDZecXFZq pic.twitter.com/yXsuzKYlqJ

— Int'l Criminal Court (@IntlCrimCourt) May 20, 2024

The world’s top court decided in 2021 that it had a mandate to investigate violence and war crimes committed by Israel and Palestinian factions in events dating back to 2014, although Israel is not a member of the court and does not recognise its authority.

In December, South Africa filed a case against Israel at the international court of justice (ICJ), alleging that its campaign in Gaza breached the UN’s genocide convention, set up in 1948 in the aftermath of the Holocaust.

Israeli attack on World Central Kitchen convoy, April 1, 2024

In a press release from 14 May Human Rights Watch said that Israeli forces have carried out at least eight strikes on aid workers’ convoys and premises in Gaza since October 2023, despite aid groups having provided their coordinates to Israeli authorities to ensure their protection. 

Israeli forces have killed at least 15 people including 2 children in attacks on convoys or buildings used by humanitarian organizations. According to the UN, Israeli authorities did not issue warnings to any of the aid organizations before striking them. 

The eight attacks on aid organizations identified by HRW include: 

- Attack on World Central Kitchen convoy, April 1, 2024

- Attack on a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF or Doctors without Borders) convoy, November 18, 2023

- Attack on a guest house of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), December 9, 2023

- Attack on an MSF shelter, January 8, 2024

- Attack on an International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) guest house, January 18, 2024

- Attack on an UNRWA convoy, February 5, 2024

- Attack on an MSF guest house, February 20, 2024

- Attack on a home sheltering an American Near East Refugee Aid Organization (Anera) employee, March 8, 2024

HRW has raised concerns regarding Israel’s commitment and capacity to comply with international humanitarian law. 

Associate crisis, conflict, and arms director at Human Rights Watch, Belkis Wille said, “Israel’s allies need to recognize that these attacks that have killed aid workers have happened over and over again, and they need to stop.” 

Weapons from the US and the UK were reportedly used in at least one of the 8 attacks on aid organizations. 

HRW has called on Israel’s allies to suspend military assistance and arms sales to Israel so long as its forces commit systematic and widespread laws-of-war violations against Palestinian civilians with impunity. 

In a recent trip to Cairo and northern Sinai, near the border between Egypt and Gaza HRW met with staff from 11 humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza. 

The aid staff told HRW that Israeli attacks on aid workers have severely restricted their ability to carry out life-saving work in Gaza. One senior employee said, “I can’t risk sending more staff into Gaza because I cannot rely on deconfliction as a way of keeping them safe.”

HRW has emphasized that the eight incidents reveal fundamental flaws with the deconfliction system intended to protect aid workers. The rights organization recommends that a group of international experts conduct an independent review of the humanitarian deconfliction process. 

HRW has also called on Israel to make public the findings of investigations into attacks that have killed and injured aid workers, and attacks that have caused civilian casualties. 

On 1 May, HRW sent a letter to Israel requesting specific information about the 8 attacks on aid organizations. Israel has not responded. 

Read HRW article here 

President Joe Biden has warned Israel that the US will stop supplying some weapons if it launches a major ground operation in the Gaza city of Rafah.

The comments amount to the president's strongest warning yet over a potential ground invasion of Rafah, and mark the first time he has said the US could stop shipments of American weapons to Israel.

The weapons being held back by the US are related to a future delivery, so the move is unlikely to have an immediate impact. But given the rate at which Israel is bombing it will probably affect future strikes fairly soon.

This follows the publication of a US State Department report which notes that Israel is likely to have breached international humanitarian law with American weapons during its military campaign in Gaza.

However, the long-awaited US State Department report added that Israel’s forces did not act in a way that would prevent Washington sending further military assistance to its ally.

While it was “reasonable to assess” that Israel had used US-supplied weapons in ways that could be deemed illegal, it also said that officials in Washington could not reach “conclusive findings” that they were used in specific breaches.

Israel had not shared “complete information to verify whether US weapons had been used in ways that could be a breach of international law, or with established best practices for mitigating civilian harm,” the report said. But Israel’s “significant reliance on US-made defence articles” meant that this was a reasonable assumption, it added.

Assurances the State Department had received from Israel about adhering to the legal use of US weapons were “credible and reliable”, and so weapons shipments could continue, it concluded.

The White House commissioned the report into Israel’s conduct after pressure from some congressional Democrats, who questioned whether the ally had complied with US and international law.

Chris Van Hollen, a Democratic senator, said the administration had “ducked all the hard questions” and avoided looking closely at whether Israel’s conduct should mean military aid was cut off.

“This report contradicts itself because it concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe violations to international law have occurred, but at the same time that says they’re not finding non-compliance,” he told reporters on Friday.

Read more here

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias killed “at least thousands of people” in West Darfur state, Human Rights Watch has said, in what it called apparent “crimes against humanity” and “genocide”.

In a report published on Thursday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that RSF attacks on the Masalit tribe and other non-Arab groups between April and November 2023 were some of the worst atrocities in the ongoing civil war which started that April.

The HRW report documents evidence of a systematic campaign by the RSF and allied militias to remove Massalit residents from El Geneina.

Witnesses described how the RSF rounded up and shot men, women and children who attempted to escape the ethnic violence in the restive city.

The attacks in el-Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, saw entire neighbourhoods housing primarily displaced Masalit communities looted, burned, shelled and razed to the ground.

The campaign that amounted to “ethnic cleansing” left hundreds of thousands of people as refugees, HRW said in its 186-page report.

Alan Boswell from the International Crisis Group said an arms embargo was imposed on Darfur years ago but was never enforced, also warning that serious violations could be under way in el-Fasher, in North Darfur state and the last state capital not under the control of the RSF.

Sudan descended into chaos in April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by General Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the RSF, lef by Mohamed “Hemedti” Dagalo, broke out into street battles in the capital, Khartoum.

El-Geneina, where Masalits make up more than half of the population, has seen some of the fiercest fighting outside Khartoum since.

The UN’s World Food Programme last week warned of the deteriorating situation in Darfur, where aid has been cut off as advancing RSF forces attempt to take control of el-Fasher, where an estimated 500,000 displaced civilians are sheltering.

“As the UN Security Council and governments wake up to the looming disaster in El Fasher, the large-scale atrocities committed in El Geneina should be seen as a reminder of the atrocities that could come in the absence of concerted action,” said HRW executive director Tirana Hassan.

More than half a million refugees from West Darfur have fled to Chad since April 2023. As of late October 2023, 75 percent were from el-Geneina, HRW said, as it called for the UN and the African Union to sanction those responsible and impose an arms embargo on the RSF.

Read more here

Canadian police on Friday arrested and charged three Indian men with the murder of Sikh activist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year and said they were probing whether the men had ties to the Indian government.

Nijjar, 45, was shot dead in June outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb with a large Sikh population. A few months later, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cited evidence of Indian government involvement, prompting a diplomatic crisis with New Delhi. India’s government called the claim “absurd” and took steps that led Canada to withdraw more than 41 of its diplomats from the country. 

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police named the three men as Karanpreet Singh, 28, Kamalpreet Singh, 22 and Karan Brar, 22, all Indian nationals who had been in Canada for between 3 to 5 years.

"We're investigating their ties, if any, to the Indian government," Mandeep Mooker, an RCMP superintendent, told a televised news conference.

The Indian mission in Ottawa did not respond to requests for comment.

Nijjar was a Canadian citizen campaigning for the creation of Khalistan, an independent Sikh homeland carved out of India. 

Last week the White House expressed concern about the reported role of the Indian intelligence service in assassination plots in Canada and the United States.

The trio, all Indian nationals, were arrested in the city of Edmonton in Alberta on Friday, police said. They are due to arrive in British Columbia by Monday.

Trudeau announced in September that Canadian authorities were pursuing allegations linking Indian government agents to the murder. New Delhi rejected Trudeau's claim as absurd.

"We welcome the arrests but this does lead to a lot more questions," said Balpreet Singh, legal counsel and spokesperson for the Canada-based World Sikh Organization advocacy group.

"Those who have been arrested are part of a hit squad but it's clear that they were directed," he said by phone.

Canada had been pressing India to cooperate in its investigation. Last November, U.S. authorities said an Indian government official had directed the plot in the attempted murder on U.S. soil of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist and dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada.

The International Criminal Court's prosecutor's office last Friday called for an end to what it called intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the world's permanent war crimes court.

In the statement posted on social media platform X, the ICC prosecutor's office said all attempts to impede, intimidate or improperly influence its officials must cease immediately. It added that the Rome Statute, which outlines the ICC's structure and areas of jurisdiction, prohibits these actions.

The statement, which named no specific cases, followed Israeli and American criticism of the ICC's investigation into alleged war crimes committed during the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian enclave.

Neither Israel nor its main ally the U.S. are members of the court, and do not recognise its jurisdiction over the Palestinian territories. The court can prosecute individuals for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

Statement of the #ICC Office of the Prosecutor pic.twitter.com/Cw331pMcDm

— Int'l Criminal Court (@IntlCrimCourt) May 3, 2024

Last week Israel voiced concern that the ICC could be preparing to issue arrest warrants for government officials on charges related to the conduct of its war against Hamas in Gaza.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Israel expected the ICC to "refrain from issuing arrest warrants against senior Israeli political and security officials", adding: "We will not bow our heads or be deterred and will continue to fight."

In October, ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan said it had jurisdiction over any potential war crimes committed by Hamas fighters in Israel and by Israeli forces in Gaza, which has been ruled by Hamas since 2007.

International law experts told Middle East Eye it could be: allegations of deliberate starvation; impeding the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave; direct attacks targeting non-military objects such as hospitals, as well as inhumane treatment of Palestinian detainees. 

If Israeli officials are charged, they would have to restrict their travel in and out of the 124 member states of the ICC. 

"Member states have a legal obligation to cooperate fully with the court, which includes arresting those subject to an arrest warrant," Eitan Diamond, of the Diakonia International Humanitarian Law Centre in Jerusalem, told MEE.

"Israel and the Israeli officials concerned would not want to take the risk that states would discharge their obligation." 

Neve Gordon, professor of international law and human rights at Queen Mary University of London, said the issue would put ICC member states' commitment to international human rights law to the test. 

"If, for example, Netanyahu is named on the arrest warrant and he can continue travelling freely and there's no problem, that jeopardises the legitimacy of the ICC itself," he told MEE. 

Last week a US judge ruled that French bank, BNP Paribas, must face a lawsuit accusing the bank of helping the Sudanese government commit genocide between 1997 and 2011 by providing banking services that violated American sanctions.

U.S. District Judge in Manhattan, Alvin Hellerstein, found substantial evidence that showed a relationship between BNP Paribas' financing and human rights abuses perpetrated by the government.

The class action lawsuit was brought by U.S. residents who had fled non-Arab indigenous black African communities in South Sudan, Darfur, and the Nuba Mountains in central Sudan.

Hellerstein stated that it is too early to decide whether the bank could be held responsible for causing abuses perpetrated by the Sudanese government. According to plaintiffs, abuses include mass rape, murder, and torture. 

The case was originally filed in 2016 but dismissed in 2018. It was revived by a Federal Appeals court in 2019

BNP Paribas has refrained from commenting on the ruling. 

Read more on Reuters and Africa News.

Pictured: U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk

Hundreds of bodies have been uncovered so far at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, central Gaza, and at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in the north, responding to the harrowing discovery the international community is calling for independent investigations to guarantee accountability for any violations of international law. 

Gaza civil defense crews have so far recovered nearly 400 bodies from a mass grave at Nasser Hospital following the withdrawal of Israeli forces. Nasser Hospital is one of the primary medical facilities in Gaza, as of 18 February Israeli bombardment rendered the hospital nonoperational.

On Tuesday, the UN Human Rights Council stated that additional bodies were discovered at Al-Shifa hospital. 

Al-Shifa Hospital was subject to a 2-week Israeli raid that ended earlier this month. 

A spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani said: "Among the deceased were allegedly older people, women and wounded, while others were found with their hands tied and stripped of their clothes"

U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk has called for independent and transparent investigations into the deaths. Türk added, "given the prevailing climate of impunity, this should include international investigators."

In a press release Amnesty International’s Senior Director of Research, Advocacy, Policy, and Campaigns, Erika Guevara Rosas has emphasized that the lack of access for human rights investigators to Gaza is obstructing "effective investigations into the full scale of the human rights violations and crimes under international law committed over the past six months."

“Mass grave sites are potential crime scenes offering vital and time-sensitive forensic evidence; they must be protected until professional forensic experts with the necessary skills and resources can safely carry out adequate exhumations and accurate identification of remains" she added. 

Rosas continues, "Israeli authorities must ensure they comply with the ICJ ruling by granting immediate access to independent human rights investigators and ensuring that all evidence of violations is preserved."

Read more on Reuters, UN News, and Amnesty International. 

Germany said on Wednesday that it plans to resume funding for the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) after an independent review found no credible evidence of Israel's allegations that 12 UNRWA staff participated in the October 7 attack on Israel.

The allegations led 16 donor countries including two of UNRWA's largest donors, the United States and Germany, to halt funding for the agency. 

In response to the investigation's findings, the German foreign and development ministries urged UNRWA in a statement to implement the report's recommendations. 

The statement also said: "In support of these reforms, the German government will soon continue its cooperation with UNRWA in Gaza, as Australia, Canada, Sweden and Japan, among others, have already done."

"Germany will coordinate closely with its closest international partners on the disbursement of further funds. UNRWA's short-term financing needs in Gaza are currently covered by existing funds," it added.

UNRWA provides aid, education, and social services to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. The relief agency employs 32,000 people. It is the largest aid organization in the Gaza Strip, with 13,000 employees providing lifesaving support amidst a humanitarian crisis unleashed by Israel's ongoing attack on Gaza. 

A review of the UNRWA's practices, as well as a separate investigation into the October attack, was commissioned by the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services. The review was headed by French foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, and three Nordic research institutes. 

The three groups are the Swedish Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, the Norwegian Chr Michelsen Institute, and the Danish Institute for Human Rights.

Colonna's investigation makes clear that Israel failed to support its claims about UNRWA staff belonging to either Hamas’s military wing or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The review also noted that UNRWA shares its staff list annually with Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. Israel has not raised any concerns with UNRWA based on those staff lists since 2011. 

A more detailed report provided by the three Nordic research institutes supporting Colonna highlights that "Israeli authorities have to date not provided any supporting evidence nor responded to letters from UNRWA in March, and again in April, requesting the names and supporting evidence that would enable UNRWA to open an investigation."

Israeli bombardment of Gaza has already had a significant impact on the relief agencies' facilities. UNRWA reports that between 7 October 2023 and 15 March 2024, there are 349 documented armed conflict incidents impacting UNRWA and internally displaced persons sheltering around them. 

UNRWA has emphasized that the coordinates of its facilities are shared with parties to the conflict regularly, and are marked as UN premises. 

Read more on Reuters and Al Jazeera

The UK’s House of Lords currently considering a landmark piece of legislation which would see UK courts empowered to make a determination on if a genocide is occurring and compel the government to act.

The Bill has been described the first of its kind and has been accompanied by an open letter addressed to the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, and Foreign Minister, Lord David Cameron, urging them to support the Bill. The letter notes the passage of the 75^th anniversary of the Convention on the Prevention of Genocide and notes that Bill would fill a “gap in the international justice system, since international courts cannot guarantee consequential action in time to prevent further atrocities as mandated by the Genocide Convention”. 

“For non-governmental organisations, a court ruling on the existence of genocide, or of a situation where there is a serious risk of genocide being committed, would, in itself, enhance human rights advocacy and strike a meaningful blow against perpetrators” the letter notes.  The Bill has significant cross-party support and the letter itself has been supported by 50 prominent individuals, including other members of the House of Lords and peers.

The legislation would empower the UK senior courts to make a determination on genocide upon receiving an application from “person or group of belonging to a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, or an organisation representing such a person or group”. 

Writing in the TaiPei Times, Lord David Alton, the primary sponsor and lead advocate for the Bill, stressed that the UK’s current framework is “flawed”.

“The UK and other major countries have long adhered to a flawed policy of delegating responsibility for identifying crimes against humanity to international courts and tribunals rather than taking direct action […]

While international courts can assess wrongful actions only after they have occurred, political, economic and legal interventions by the global community are necessary well before any harm is inflicted. Consequently, governments must take the lead”, Lord Alton writes.

Alton further piece further adds:

“Regrettably, governments often attempt to shirk their international commitments by refusing to classify mass atrocities as “genocide.” While they argue that such determinations should be left to international courts, they decline to engage with tribunals that could help prevent, stop or punish such crimes. Worse, these governments frequently maintain full and normal relations with countries accused of committing these offenses”.

The statement follows the International Court of Justice’s ruling that Israel may plausibly” be committing genocide in Gaza. Despite this Lord Cameron has maintained that the UK’s position on arms exports has not shifted.

Section 3 (1) and 3 (3) of the Bill places a duty on the Secretary of State to either refer the case on to International Criminal Court (ICC), the International Court of Justice (ICJ), or another “any other competent organ of the United Nations”; or to issue a statement explaining “why no such referral is being made including whether and how the United Kingdom’s obligations to prevent genocide are being adequately fulfilled”.

Tamils in the UK have consistently called upon their government to support bringing Sri Lanka before the ICC to be held accountable for the genocide committed against Eelam Tamils. An estimated 169,000 Tamils were killed during the 2009 genocidal military campaign that saw a litany of war crimes including summary executions, mass rape and enforced disappearances. 

The UK government has pushed back on a referral to the ICC noting that such a move would likely be vetoed by other members and noting their support for the latest UN Human Rights Council Resolution on Sri Lanka. However, this response has been criticised by the Government’s opposition. In March 2021, then Shadow Minister for the Asia and the Pacific, Stephen Kinnock, slammed the government’s refusal by stressing that Britain’s position, “should not be determined simply by the veto-wielding intentions of two of its permanent members”. In May 2023, Shadow Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, maintained his support for referring Sri Lanka to the ICC.

The Bill is currently in its second reading in the House of Lords. Once it has had a second reading, and if the Government agrees to give it parliamentary time, then it will move to committee stage. Without that agreement of the Government’s Whips Office, the Bill will likely stall. The Bill previously mooted in 2022 but was given no further parliamentary time.

Read the full Bill here.

Read the open letter here.

Read more here.

The United States has once again used its veto power in support of Israel after it vetoed a widely supported draft resolution that would have granted the state of Palestine full UN membership. 

Speaking to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) ahead of the vote, Ziad Abu Amr, UN special representative of the observer State of Palestine, emphasized that making Palestine a full member would be an "important pillar in achieving peace in the region.”

Palestinians currently hold non-member observer status, granted by the UN General Assembly in 2012. An application to become a full member with voting rights would have to be approved by two-thirds of the General Assembly and the UNSC. 

Of the 15-member UNSC, 12 were in favor of the resolution. The US opposed, and the UK and Switzerland both abstained.  

From the 193-member General Assembly, about 140 countries recognize the state of Palestine. 

US Deputy Ambassador, Robert Wood, said that Palestinian membership "needs to be the outcome of the negotiation between Israel and the Palestinians."

Wood added anything that gets in between these negotiations makes it more difficult to achieve a two-state solution. 

For many years, negotiations between Israel and Palestine have been stalled with several in Israel's right-wing government opposing Palestinian statehood. 

Ziad Abu Amr says that "hope has dissipated over the past years because of the intransigence of the Israeli government that has rejected this solution publicly and blatantly, especially following the destructive war against the Gaza Strip."

He continued to explain that adopting the resolution would have granted Palestinians hope "for a decent life within an independent state."

Read more here