Israel, as a High Contracting Party, refused to take part in a conference mandated by the UN General Assembly on contraventions of the Geneva Conventions — and urged other states not to attend. The conference never happened.

What was supposed to occur

In a resolution adopted on 18 September 2024, the General Assembly invited Switzerland, as depositary of the Geneva Conventions, to convene a Conference of High Contracting Parties. Its mandate was to address measures to enforce the Fourth Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and to ensure respect for it in accordance with common Article 1.

The night before the conference was due to sit, Switzerland announced its cancellation, citing “profound differences between the high contracting parties”. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation criticised the draft declaration, saying it failed to fulfil the agreed mandate and was not commensurate with the gravity of the situation.

What Article 146 actually requires

This is the part worth reading, because it is not aspirational language. Under Article 146 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, every High Contracting Party undertakes to enact the legislation needed to provide effective penal sanctions for grave breaches — and is under an obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed or ordered such breaches and to bring them before its own courts, regardless of their nationality, or to hand them to another Party that has made out a prima facie case. Accused persons are guaranteed proper trial and defence safeguards throughout.

That obligation sits on every state that signed. It does not depend on a conference taking place.

Sources

• States squander vital opportunity to uphold international humanitarian law — Amnesty International, March 2025.
• The Conference of High Contracting Parties scheduled for 7 March will not take place — Swiss Federal Council.
• Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 146 — ICRC IHL database.
• Fourth Geneva Convention — background.

Contact SAMNET on info@samnet.co.za or WhatsApp 084 333 3979.

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Shared by the South African Muslim Network (SAMNET) in the interest of human rights, the rights of civilians and combatants in war, the Geneva Conventions, and accountability for war crimes in Palestine and everywhere.