By IRNA,
London : Amnesty International Monday urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to decide on whether it can investigate alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during Israeli invasion of Gaza in December 2008-January 2009.
“An international justice solution must now be found,” warned Amnesty’s senior director of international law and policy, Widney Brown, a year after the publication of the Goldstone Report published the extent of Israel’s war crimes.
Neither Israel nor the Palestinian Authority (PA) has ratified the Rome Statute, but in January last year, the PA declared that it accepted the ICC’s jurisdiction over all crimes committed in the occupied territories since July 2002.
“It’s now time the ICC Prosecutor sought a decision on whether the Palestinian declaration submitted in 2009 allows him to act,” Brown said.
“If the Pre-Trial Chamber determines that the ICC has jurisdiction, the Prosecutor should open an investigation into crimes committed by both sides during the Gaza conflict, without delay,” she said.
Amnesty also urged the UN Highest Rights Council to make the same call on the ICC after it considers a report by a Committee of Independent Experts highlighting the continuing failures of both the Israeli and Hamas authorities to investigate violations of international law.
It also called on all state to investigate and prosecute crimes committed during the conflict, in which Israel massacred more than 1,300 Palestinians, before their own national courts by exercising universal jurisdiction;
The Human Rights Committee’s report should also be referred to the UN General Assembly and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon must be requested to place it before the Security Council to act, Amnesty also said.