Webinar on “Absence of Palestine in the ICC: Why is Palestine “De-Prioritized”, and What is To be Done?”
Jurists for Palestine Forum – Season 2
Panel discussion 3 – Online
Jurists for Palestine Forum, one of Law for Palestine’s projects and the widest international network for legal professionals interested in the Question of Palestine, and in partnership with the Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD), are pleased to announce a webinar on the “Absence of Palestine in the ICC: Why is Palestine “De-Prioritized”, and What is To be Done?”.
Main Information:
- Date: Sunday 26th June 2022.
- Time: 7:00-8:45 PM (Jerusalem Time), 4:00-5:45 PM (GMT).
- Location: Online – Participants will be provided with a link prior to the webinar time.
- Language: The webinar will be conducted in English. Simultaneous translation into Arabic will be available.
- Registration is required: The webinar is open for the members of Jurists for Palestine Forum (You are not a member? Register here).
Background
Despite the long history of violations in Palestine, and the passing of around 7 years since Palestine joined the ICC in 2015, and the official ICC Prosecutor’s announcement to start an investigation in 2021, no developments have been witnessed in the Situation of Palestine at the ICC.
Since the new ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan assumed office in June 2021, rights groups expressed serious concerns that the Situation in Palestine has not moved forward an inch. While the Situation in Ukraine was met with serious attentiveness from the Court, Palestine has obviously been “de-prioritized”. Despite the long history of violations, a limited budget of 50 thousand euros was allocated to Palestine while millions were allocated to Ukraine; to which 42 investigators were deployed by Prosecutor Karim Khan while not a single investigator to Palestine, as per Palestinian civil society groups. Prosecutor Karim Khan visited Ukraine twice in person and tweeted on his personal Twitter account about it, while no mention of Palestine has been recorded till the moment.
Some observers relate the current attitude by the current ICC Prosecutor to the pressure exerted upon them by states; rumors were circulated that the former ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda was threatened in person. Moreover, following the 2021 Pre-Trial Chamber to proceed with the investigation in Palestine, the then US government worked on sanctioning the Prosecutor and judges and suspended their bank accounts, seized their properties and cancelled their visas.
This has led many to believe that the ICC is not moving in the right direction.
This webinar, gathering international lawyers, legal experts, scholars and NGOs involved in the ICC investigation in Palestine to:
- Discuss the developments (or lack of which) with regards to the Situation in Palestine in the ICC.
- Highlight the concerning pace and “de-prioritization” of investigation in Palestine.
- Examine the reasons behind this concerning pace and “de-prioritization”, and the basis of such a conclusion.
- Discuss the possible action plans to push the case forward and have it “re-prioritized” by the ICC Prosecutor.
Speakers:
- Giulia Pinzauti: Assistant Professor (public international law and international criminal law) at Leiden University and a co-authored of an Amicus Curiae submission on Palestine to the ICC. Pinzauti has broad experience in the law and practice of international courts and tribunals. She worked with the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals, and the Pre-Trial Judge and the Appeals Chamber at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. She is currently a member of the editorial board of the Leiden Journal of International Law and the Journal of International Criminal Justice.
- John B. Quigley: Legal Scholar, Professor Emeritus at The Ohio State University, and an international lawyer with a long history of involvement in human rights litigation. His numerous publications include books and articles on human rights, the United Nations, war and peace, and the Arab-Israeli conflict
- Raji Sourani: Sourani is a lawyer, and is the Founder and Director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR). Sourani was a member of International Commission of Jurists and Vice President of the International Federation of Human Rights. He received many honors in his career, most recent of which is the Right Livelihood Award for 2013 and he received the Knight of France’s National Order of Merit, France IN 2020. In 2022, he was appointed as an Arbitrators of the International Permanent Court of Arbitration in Netherlands.
- Triestino Mariniello: Member of the legal team representing Gaza victims before the ICC. Mariniello is a Senior Lecturer in Law at Liverpool John Moores University, and Senior Research Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Humboldt University of Berlin). He publishes widely on the international criminal law and the international mechanisms, ICC in particular.
Moderator:
Diana Buttu: Palestinian-Canadian Lawyer, Policy Advisor to Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network and Analyst at the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU). Buttu served as a legal adviser and a participant in peace negotiations between Israel and PLO (2000 – 2005).
To participate in this discussion, you need to register for a membership with Jurists for Palestine Forum
You may register here, click
Absence Palestine ICC De-Prioritized
