Palestine and International Law

From occupation to de facto annexation?

♦ International Progress Organization delivers statement at United Nations meeting on Palestine ♦

 

United Nations Office at Vienna, 29 November 2022
RE/28630c-is

 

In a statement delivered at a special United Nations meeting convened by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, the President of the International Progress Organization welcomed the decision of the Special Political and Decolonization Committee of the UN General Assembly to request an Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice concerning the legal consequences from the ongoing violation of the Palestinian  people's right to self-determination. "Perpetual occupation, accompanied by a policy of illegal appropriation of territory and population transfer, becomes de facto annexation," the President of the I.P.O. said. He also reminded the States Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention of their obligation to investigate and prosecute violations of international humanitarian law in the occupied Palestinian territories, and called for an independent international investigation of the brutal killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh on 11 May 2022.

 This year the commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People at UN headquarters in New York, Geneva and Vienna coincided with the 75th anniversary of  resolution 181 (29 November 1947) of the United Nations General Assembly concerning Palestine. The meeting at the United Nations Office at Vienna was chaired by the Permanent Representative of Namibia, Ambassador Nada Kruger. The Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna, Ms. Ghada Fathi Waly, delivered a message from the Secretary-General of the United Nations. King Mohamed VI of Morocco, Chairman of the Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Committee of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi-Arabia, King Abdullah II of Jordan, and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of the Republic of Türkiye, addressed special messages to the meeting. The Permanent Observer of the League of Arab States conveyed a message from Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit. The Permanent Representatives of South Africa and Azerbaijan delivered statements on behalf of the African Union and the Non-aligned Movement. Statements were also made by the Permanent Representatives of Algeria, Austria, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Malta, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Syria, Tunisia, and Venezuela. The delegates were unanimous in their support of the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people.

The meeting was concluded by a statement of Dr. Hans Köchler, President of the International Progress Organization, on behalf of international civil society, and by the speech of Ambassador Salah Abdel-Shafi, Permanent Respresentative of the State of Palestine, who read out a message from Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine. 

* Text of I.P.O. statement 

* United Nations news release

* I.P.O. statement at UN headquarters in New York, 28 November 1980

* Resolution: I.P.O. Conference on the Legal Aspects of the Palestine Problem (November 1980)