The 59th session of the UN Human Rights Council

Item 2: Interactive Dialogue with the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory 

Joint Statement on behalf of International Lawyers Org and Geneva International Centre for Justice

17 June 2025

By Sheema Al Sabah / GICJ 

International-Lawyers.Org thanks the Commission for its report, and reminds the Council that the already damaged credibility of this body, is now hanging by a thread.

The ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people, rooted long before the United Nations or this Council existed, remains the most serious unresolved human rights situation on your agenda.

The scale and duration of Israel’s atrocities are without precedent in modern international law. We cannot ignore the deliberate, systematic destruction of a people—their homes, institutions, culture, and lives—carried out with impunity over generations. The Commission’s findings confirm what the world is witnessing: starvation as a weapon, the bombing of hospitals and schools, and mass displacement. Every element of the crime of genocide is present. These acts have been committed with the intention to destroy the Palestinian people, at least in part, if not completely.

Genocide is not only a crime; it is a call to action.

Every state party to the Genocide Convention is obligated not only to prevent and punish genocide, but to take all lawful measures to stop it. All perpetrators must be prosecuted and full justice delivered to the victims, including their right to self-determination and reparations. We call upon the Commission to recognise that genocide is being committed by Israel against the Palestinian people.

We urge this Council to unambiguously call upon all States to fulfil their obligations under the Genocide Convention. History will judge the silence of this body as complicity unless it acts immediately.