PALESTINIAN
CIVIL SOCIETY TO FILE A COMPLAINT BEFORE THE ICC
ON JULY 19
More than 40 Palestinian trade unions,
associations and organizations plus 450
individual victims will file a complaint with
the ICC on July 19, 2017.
The complaint has been drafted by 40 lawyers
from the Gaza Bar, and the procedure coordinated
by Maître Gilles DEVERS, with the support of a
large delegation of international lawyers.
The complaint concerns three crimes :
• the blockade of Gaza
• the Israeli aggression in the summer of 2014
• the Israeli settlements inPalestine.
Hospitals which were victims of the Israeli
aggressions are the first complainants.
Palestinian civil society has taken this
initiative due to the lack of political will on
behalf of the Palestinian Authority, which has
not filed an ICC complaint and does not support
the procedure.
Despite ratifying the ICC treaty in December
2014, and making a retroactive declaration until
June 2014 for the Court to have jurisdiction
over the Israeli military aggression in Gaza
during the summer of 2014, the Palestinian
Authority has failed to make a state complaint.
Although the Prosecutor subsequently opened a
‘preliminary examination’ on Palestine, it has
stalled.
ICC proceedings are progressive, and our action
aims to move the proceedings forward from the
first stage of ‘preliminary examination’ to the
second, ‘open an inquiry.’
According to the Statute of the Court, the
Prosecutor must open an inquiry when there is a
reasonable basis to believe that a crime within
the Court’s jurisdiction has been committe
(Art 53).
Clearly, there is a reasonable basis to believe
that crimes within the jurisdiction of the court
have been committed in Gaza and the Westbank,
and the evidence we are presenting today should
convince the prosecutor of the need to open the
full inquiry.
The current situation certainly cannot continue
if the ICC’s goal of ending impunity is to be
realised.
Press Conferences will be held simultaneously in
The Hague and Gaza on July 19, 2017. (Note local
time)
• The Hague Mercure Hotel Den Haag Central (1pm
) - Spui 180, 2511 BW Den Haag,
• Gaza Shifa Complex, West Gate Paesi Bassi
(2pm) Bashir Al Alami Hall, HRDD
The delegation will then file the complaint at
the ICC, the appointment being confirmed for 3
pm.
Contacts : Julie Webb-Pullman (English) +972 595
251720 jwebbp@gmail.com SKYPE : juliewp
Mahmoud Afana (Arabic) +972 599 946909
Gilles Devers (French) +33 6 14 26 31 69 gilles@deversavocats.com
Khaled Al Shouli (Arabic, French) +33682576834
kaled165@hotmail.com
CAPJPO-EuroPalestine Quelle |