Prominent legal experts and human rights organizations have sent a message to the world’s duty holders urging them to implement their obligations under international law, as affirmed in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of 9 July 2004, to address the illegality of Israel’s Separation/Hafrada Wall across the West Bank of Palestine.

The letter, addressed to UN Secretary General Ban ki Moon and the High Contracting Parties to the 4th Geneva Convention, is entitled “10 Years after the Advisory Opinion on the Wall in Occupied Palestine: Time for Concrete Action,” joined 86 legal experts and over 30 prominent organizations to call on UN organs and member states finally to operationalize the advice rendered in the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion on the subject, which remains ineffective as of its tenth anniversary on this 9 July 2014.

In that opinion, the ICJ concluded that the “construction of the wall being built by Israel, the occupying Power, in the occupiedPalestinian territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, and its associated régime, arecontrary to international law”; i.e., norms that are binding on all states and from which no derogation is permitted. These include peremptory norms prohibiting the acquisition of territory by force, population transfer and violation of the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people.

The ICJ authoritatively identified (1) the international legal framework that applies to the Israeli occupation (2) the connection between the Wall and the illegal colonial settler enterprise (3) the responsible actors and their legal obligations. In 2004, the Court found that:

  • Israel is under obligation to terminate its breaches of international law, to cease the construction of the Wall, to dismantle its structures, and to repeal or render ineffective all legislative and regulatory acts relating thereto; Israel is further under an obligation to make reparation for all damage caused by the construction of the wall;

  • All states are under an obligation not to recognize the illegal situation resulting from the construction of the Wall and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by its construction, and all states parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949 have the additional obligation to ensure Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law as embodied in that Convention.

  • The United Nations, especially the General Assembly and the Security Council, should consider what further action is required to bring an end to the illegal situation resulting from the construction of the Wall and the associated régime.

    The undersigned parties to the anniversary letter urged the relevant UN organs and members states to live up to the norms that they have adopted to govern their own conduct and that of other states, parastatal institutions and private actors in order to meet their legal obligations by:

    • Implementing trade, military and/or diplomatic sanctions as erga omnes measures to end Israel’s serious breaches related to the construction of the Wall and the maintenance of its associated regime;

    • Supporting the accession of Palestine to the Rome Statute of the ICC and depositing a statement affirming applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention in oPt;

    • Re-constituting the UN Committee and Center against Apartheid, to investigate Israeli apartheid, recommend measures for combatting this crime, and monitor the conduct of corporate entities, and scrutinize the compliance of all states with their individual, collective, domestic and extraterritorial obligations to end Israel’s regime of prolonged occupation, with its features of colonialism and apartheid, which the Wall exemplifies;

    • Developing an Agenda for Action in consultation with the UN human rights treaty bodies, ILO compliance mechanisms, legal advisors to the United Nations and the depositary of the IV Geneva Convention;

    • Exercising domestic and universal jurisdiction to pursue and prosecute natural and legal persons alleged to perpetrate gross violations of human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law, in particular, those violations cited in the ICJ’s 2004 Advisory Opinion and crimes specified in the Rome Statute of the ICC;

    • Through the General Assembly, mandating the UN Register of Damage to develop the capacity and methods to support the determination of reparations required for all losses, costs and damages to any party as a consequence of the Separation Wall at any and all stages of its development, construction, maintenance and eventual removal.

      According to the letter, “the failure of the United Nations and individual States to uphold their binding legal obligations to uphold international law and world order in this case undermines the international system and faith in international law.” Ten years after the ICJ decision, the undersigned urge the United Nations, its member states and organs, finally and decisively to comply with their obligations to ensure the removal of Israel’s Wall, settler colonies and the associated regime of institutionalized discrimination, annexation and their consequences from the occupied Palestinian territory.

      Download the open letter