UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese refuses to be silenced over the US sanctions against her for Israel criticism, as she hailed a 30-nation conference aimed at ending Israel's occupation of Palestine as "the most significant political development in the past 20 months", reports The Guardian.
Francesca Albanese will address the two-day gathering, 15-16 July, in Bogotá, Colombia, with participants including China, Spain and Qatar, as she dubs it "an existential hour" for Israel and the Palestinian people.
Bangladesh will be among the 30 countries to declare "concrete measures against Israel's violations of international law" in the "emergency summit", co-hosted by the governments of Colombia and South Africa as co-chairs of The Hague Group.
The motion upholds a deadline of September 2025 to implement a July 2024 International Court of Justice advisory opinion that Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories was unlawful.
The Colombian president and conference host, Gustavo Petro, says the meeting will demonstrate that the world is finally moving in the direction of from condemnation of Israel's military action to collective action to bring it to a halt.
The aim is to agree on a detailed plan of political, economic and legal actions, despite differing opinions over how far states can pursue these actions to isolate Israel, particularly as the country feels protected by the US support.
The Hague Group is a bloc of eight states, launched on 31 January in the eponymous Dutch city, committed to implementing the provisional measures of the International Court of Justice, issued on 26 January, 28 March and 24 May 2024.
Support for them has grown ever since, as it now includes Algeria, Brazil, Spain, Indonesia and Qatar.
In practice, this meant measures such as arms embargos against Israel by preventing the docking of vessels at any port, if applicable, within the member states' territorial jurisdiction.
Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, is determined to show that the US state department sanctions will not deter her from her critique of Israel.
"For too long, international law has been treated as optional, applied selectively to those perceived as weak, ignored by those acting as the powerful. This double standard has eroded the very foundations of the legal order. That era must end," she will say in Bogotá.
Albanese will urge that the UN charter and universal human rights instruments must remain everyone's guiding compass.
"I trust that more states will align their policies with these fundamental principles as we move forward in this existential hour – for both the Palestinian and the Israeli people, and the integrity of the international legal order itself," she will say.
The US State Department imposed sanctions on Albanese for what it called her "shameful promotion" of action by the International Criminal Court against the US and Israel.
Albanese will address the sanctions imposed on her head-on.
"These attacks shall not be seen as against me personally. They are a warning to everyone who dares defend international justice and freedom. But we cannot afford to be silenced – and I know I am not alone," she will say.
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