Middle East conference in Geneva aims to revive international humanitarian law
On Friday Switzerland is hosting a conference of the state parties to the Geneva conventions on the Middle East. It aims to reaffirm the protection of civilians and civilian property in occupied Palestinian territories.
On March 6, Switzerland said it had cancelled the conference on the application of the Geneva Conventions to the occupied Palestinian territories for want of participants. It said some countries had expressed dissatisfaction on the final declaration set to be published on Friday.
In September the UN General Assembly mandated Switzerland to convene a conference of states parties to the Geneva Conventions to address the protection of civilians in the occupied Palestinian territories. The date has been set for March 7. It is not expected to last for more than a day.
The four conventions of 1949 form the basis of international humanitarian law (IHL) and protect people who are not involved in hostilities. They apply in the Palestinian territories, Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel since 1967.
The conference will focus on the Fourth Geneva Convention, which protects civilians in war, bans forced displacements of population and settlements in occupied territories and regulates the conduct of an occupying power.
The conference will remind parties the importance of respecting international humanitarian law. Diplomatic sources have confirmed that a joint – non-binding – declaration is expected.
All 196 states are parties to the Geneva Conventions and are obliged to ensure compliance with them. As the depositary state of the Conventions, Switzerland preserves the original of these international treaties. The country is at the service of the contracting states and is committed to impartiality.
Tense international environment
The conference comes after 15 months of war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas has displaced nearly all of Gaza’s two million inhabitants several times within the Gaza strip, killed at least 48,000 Palestinians, according to figures of the Gaza Health Ministry, and destroyed much of the infrastructure in the Palestinian enclave.
“This conference will be a more than necessary reminder that international humanitarian law must be respected,” Vincent Chetail, professor of international law at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, told SWI swissinfo.ch.
Since the end of January, a fragile ceasefire has allowed the exchange of Palestinian prisoners against hostages captured by Hamas during a terrorist attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,139 Israelis. The deal also plans a gradual withdrawal of Israel to Gaza’s borders and a huge increase in access for humanitarian aid.
At the same time, US President Donald Trump is pushing Arab states to agree on a proposal to permanently expel and relocate all Palestinians from Gaza. Trump also suggested that the US should take “responsibility” for developing the area into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
“The Fourth Convention is reminiscent of the ban on the forced displacement of Palestinians, which has been the subject of much debate due to Trump’s completely unlawful proposal,” Chetail said.
“The ban on forced displacement is intended to prevent an occupying power from colonising a country and carrying out ethnic cleansing. This rule is a response to the atrocities committed by the Nazis during the Second World War,” he added.
Trump’s proposal has faced a backlash from surrounding Arab nations such as Jordan and Egypt, as well as the European Union.
What to expect in the declaration?
Few details have filtered out on the conference. What we do know is that it will be held at ambassadorial level in Geneva and a declaration will be adopted.
Neither the US nor Israel is expected to attend. But this will not affect the outcome, international lawyers told SWI swissinfo.ch.
Diplomats from European countries speaking to SWI swissinfo.ch have said some states would like to keep the conference as neutral as possible and not mention any specific “country situation” to avoid it negatively impacting future negotiations on the next steps to the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
However, this goes against the UN General Assembly resolution which explicitly refers to the conference focusing on “occupied Palestinian territories”.
“Some states will push for the declaration to condemn the illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories, especially since this illegality has been recognised by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) several times, including in July,” Chetail said.
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In July, in an advisory opinion requested by the UN General Assembly at the end of 2022, the ICJ ruled that Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, since 1967 was illegal and should be ended as soon as possible.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the ICJ opinion when it was handed down. And Israel has not provided a clear answer on whether its occupation is legal.
Israel’s Supreme Court applies the law of occupation to the territories held since 1967. However, Israeli governments argue that the West Bank and Gaza are not considered “occupied territories”, and the Fourth Geneva Convention does not apply.
Israel has occupied the eastern part of the city of Jerusalem since 1967. It annexed it in 1980. This was not recognised by the international community. The UN Security Council declared the annexation of 1980 null and void.
Similar conferences in 1999 and 2001 organised by Switzerland came to the conclusion that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to the occupied Palestinian territories. The declaration of the last conference in 2014 also called for compliance with international law by both Israel as the occupying power and non-state armed groups such as Hamas.
“I doubt that the next conference will go beyond what was achieved in 2014,” says Chetail.
Israel has criticised the politicisation of the Geneva Conventions and of international humanitarian law.
“The attempt to convene the conference during the implementation of a highly delicate ceasefire agreement, on which the lives of Israeli hostages depend, further demonstrates that this initiative is not about promoting international humanitarian law. It only serves as another platform to attack a democratic country and embolden terrorist organisations,” a spokesperson of Israel’s UN mission in Geneva told SWI swissinfo.ch.
“We understand that the draft textual outcome of this conference is a very problematic and one-sided document. Also, the modalities of the conference prevent States who oppose the text of the declaration from participating. In light of the above, Israel does not see how it can participate in this Conference,” the spokesperson said.
The conference cannot pass legally binding resolutions or even impose sanctions, but “the conventions are legally binding”, Chetail said.
“Switzerland has a role to play as a depositary state and as a neutral country to remind the world, and in particular the politicians of the US and Israel, that International Humanitarian Law must be respected in all circumstances and applies to everyone,” said Chetail. “That is important.”
The protection of infrastructure in times of war by the occupying power will also be addressed.
“There is nothing left in the north of the Gaza, just ruins and the smell of death,” said Caroline Seguin, emergency aid coordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières, in a press release, following a visit to the north of Gaza in mid-February. She said bodies were still under the rubble and the area had been completely flattened.
What’s next?
The conference will be followed by further initiatives to put the UN back on the Middle East peace agenda of which it has more or less been excluded. UN organisations were not involved in the January ceasefire negotiated by the US, Qatar and Egypt with Israel and Hamas. And Trump has made clear he favours bilateral deals rather than adhering to multilateral negotiations.
The political aspects of the Middle East conflict will be discussed at a conference mandated by the UN General Assembly under the auspices of France and Saudi Arabia in New York in June. The conference will focus on the “peaceful resolution of the Palestinian question and the two-state solution and the implementation of the two-state solution”.
“It is interesting to see that there is a whole series of diplomatic activities and that the convening of the conference on the Fourth Geneva Convention is embedded in these activities,” said Chetail.
Mirjana Spoljaric, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which is the guardian of the Geneva Conventions, warned at a Security Conference in Munich in February of the rising costs of war in Gaza and of the security risks that could arise if international humanitarian law is not more closely observed. “If we […] want to prevent development successes from being wiped out, we must mitigate the impact of wars on people – starting with a stronger commitment to compliance with the rules of war,” she said.
Edited by Virginie Mangin/livm/ts
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