[Repost] Report: “Gaza Genocide: a collective crime” by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 (A/80/492)

29 October 2025

20 October 2025

https://www.un.org/unispal/document/special-rapporteur-report-gaza-genocide-a-collective-crime-20oct25/

Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese

Gaza Genocide: a collective crime

Summary:

The ongoing genocide in Gaza is a collective crime, sustained by the complicity of influential Third States that have enabled longstanding systemic violations of international law by Israel. Framed by colonial narratives that dehumanize the Palestinians, this live- streamed atrocity has been facilitated through Third States’ direct support, material aid, diplomatic protection and, in some cases, active participation. It has exposed an unprecedented chasm between peoples and their governments, betraying the trust on which global peace and security rest. The world now stands on a knife-edge between the collapse of the international rule of law and hope for renewal. Renewal is only possible if complicity is confronted, responsibilities are met and justice is upheld.

I. Introduction:

  1. Without the direct participation, aid and assistance of other States, the prolonged unlawful Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory, which has now escalated into a full- fledged genocide, could not have been sustained. The military, political and economic support of some Third States and the unwillingness to hold Israel accountable has enabled Israel to embed its regime of settler-colonial apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), with more colonies, home demolitions, restrictions on movement and loss and erasure of Palestinian life. Since October 2023, Israel has escalated its violence to an unprecedented level.
  2. In light of this complicity, this report demonstrates that the ongoing genocide of the Palestinians must be understood as an internationally enabled crime. Many States, primarily Western ones, have facilitated, legitimized and eventually normalized the genocidal campaign perpetrated by Israel. By portraying Palestinian civilians as “human shields” and the broader onslaught in Gaza as a battle of civilization against barbarism, they have reproduced the Israeli distortions of international law and colonial tropes, seeking to justify their own complicity in genocide.
  3. Focusing on the aid and assistance that Third States have provided to the illegal Israeli occupation and its genocide of the Palestinian people, the report identifies four sectors of support: diplomatic, military, economic and “humanitarian”. Each is indispensable to the ongoing Israeli violations of international law. Diplomatic initiatives have normalized the Israeli occupation and failed to achieve a permanent ceasefire. Large-scale military aid, cooperation and arms transfers, primarily to and from the United States and European States, have enabled Israeli domination over the Palestinian people. This has also facilitated Israeli actions to dismantle humanitarian aid and impose conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of Palestinians as a group. Economic cooperation has fuelled the Israeli economy, which has profited from the illegal occupation and genocide.
  4. The successful measures implemented against Apartheid South Africa, Rhodesia, Portugal and other colonial regimes demonstrate that international law can be enforced to secure justice and self-determination. Today, Third States have the same legal and moral obligation to apply these and other measures against any State still perpetrating settler- colonial violence and apartheid. Their failure to hold Israel accountable for its long-standing international crimes – despite clear orders from international courts – exposes the flagrant double standards of the international community.

II. Methodology

  1. The report was developed through a review of UN materials, including the report of the Secretary General A/79/588 and 40 submissions from State and non-State actors. All 63 States mentioned in the report were provided the opportunity to comment on factual errors or inaccuracies; 18 States submitted a reply.

III. Legal Framework

  1. International law imposes a range of obligations on all States to respect, prevent and bring an end to violations whenever they occur. In the context of the oPt, the most relevant are:

(a) Direct obligations all States owe to the Palestinian people – especially the obligations to respect their right to self-determination and freedom from apartheid and genocide – and to the State of Palestine, while respecting the principles of non-interference, territorial integrity, political independence and self-defence.

(b) Obligations erga omnes arising from the serious breach of peremptory norms – the obligation to respect the self-determination of the people, the prohibition of genocide, racial segregation, apartheid and territorial acquisition through force by Israel, including: (i) a positive obligation to, individually and cooperatively, bring any unlawful situation to an end through lawful means; and negative duties to not (ii) recognize as lawful the situation arising from their breach, or (iii) render aid or assistance to maintain that situation.

(c) Obligations of due diligence to prevent specific violations of international law, including the obligations to: (i) prevent genocide (triggered when a “serious risk” arises); (ii) ensure respect for international humanitarian law (triggered when violations are “likely or foreseeable”) and (iii) cooperate to prevent crimes and attacks on internationally protected persons.

(d) Obligations to refrain from aiding or assisting, or directly participating in internationally wrongful acts of other States, including aggression, apartheid and

7. While international law does not prescribe the specific actions that Third States must take to discharge their obligations, certain obligations are assessed according to results. Where these obligations are duties of conduct, State responsibility depends on the circumstances involved, gravity of the violations in question, level of influence over the violating State and the means available to exert such influence. A State fails in its obligation if it does not use all available means to discharge it.

8. Certain areas of international law do specify the means available to States and the opinio juris regarding expected actions, which are relevant to assessing Third State compliance with their obligations. These include:

(a) Forcible measures: Third States may, and in some case must, use force against a State in violation of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, in at least three circumstances:

(i) under Article 51 of the UN Charter, Third States may intervene on request of a State acting in self-defence when subject to an act of aggression; (ii) pursuant to a UNSC Resolution under Chapter VII of the UN Charter; (iii) under the Uniting for Peace resolution.

(b) Arms embargoes: the Arms Trade Treaty prohibits arms and other military- related transfers when it is known or should have been known that the goods will be used in international crimes. It also requires risk assessments to prevent transfers where there are overriding risks to international peace and security or of serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian Prohibitions also apply to transit and trans-shipment.

(c) Trade embargoes: treaties under the World Trade Organization allow States to deviate from core trade principles, such as Most Favoured Nation, to fulfil their UN Charter obligations relating to international peace and security, including peremptory norms. Bilateral free trade and investment agreements with Israel usually contain similar clauses, and human rights arguments have been upheld in international arbitration. To the extent that bilateral agreements violate peremptory norms or sustain their serious breach, they are null and void.

(d) Denial of Safe Passage: the Convention on the Law of the Sea allows States to prevent “non-innocent passage” where a ship’s passage is not “in conformity with the rules of international law”, and risks rendering the State complicit in international crimes, violations of UN Charter obligations or peremptory norms.

(e) Prosecution and Punishment: under the Geneva Conventions and customary international law, all States have the obligation to prosecute and punish genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture, regardless of their connection to the Third States also have obligations to hold third parties, including corporations, to account for human rights and other violations of international law in their domestic courts.

9. A context of sustained and intersecting peremptory norms’ violations, and the obligation to prevent genocide, compound the imperative to It may mean that the actions Third States must take to fulfil their obligations are no longer discretionary, and that in not taking them, States have failed to take all measures reasonably available to them and/or they have aided and assisted in an internationally wrongful act. That is, unless less intrusive measures based on the assessment in paragraph 8 would truly suffice.

10. The conduct of States and international organizations constitutes complicity when their actions aid and assist in a way that: (1) materially or substantially enables or facilitates the commission of the wrongful act; (2) are done with full knowledge of the circumstances, including the imminent or actual occurrence of the wrongful act and, where relevant, the special intent of the perpetrator.

11. State complicity is established when there is a nexus between the actions of the two States in question in the serious breach of peremptory norms. Such complicity may involve extent that bilateral agreements violate peremptory norms or sustain their serious breach, they are null and void.

(d) Denial of Safe Passage: the Convention on the Law of the Sea allows States to prevent “non-innocent passage” where a ship’s passage is not “in conformity with the rules of international law”, and risks rendering the State complicit in international crimes, violations of UN Charter obligations or peremptory norms.

(e) Prosecution and Punishment: under the Geneva Conventions and customary international law, all States have the obligation to prosecute and punish genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture, regardless of their connection to the Third States also have obligations to hold third parties, including corporations, to account for human rights and other violations of international law in their domestic courts.

9. A context of sustained and intersecting peremptory norms’ violations, and the obligation to prevent genocide, compound the imperative to It may mean that the actions Third States must take to fulfil their obligations are no longer discretionary, and that in not taking them, States have failed to take all measures reasonably available to them and/or they have aided and assisted in an internationally wrongful act. That is, unless less intrusive measures based on the assessment in paragraph 8 would truly suffice.

10. The conduct of States and international organizations constitutes complicity when their actions aid and assist in a way that: (1) materially or substantially enables or facilitates the commission of the wrongful act; (2) are done with full knowledge of the circumstances, including the imminent or actual occurrence of the wrongful act and, where relevant, the special intent of the perpetrator.

11. State complicity is established when there is a nexus between the actions of the two States in question in the serious breach of peremptory norms, Such complicity may involve the provision or denial of funds, weapons, fuel, intelligence, diplomatic or political pressure or sanctions, or the implementation of orders and arrest warrants. The intention of a Third State to facilitate a wrongful act is reasonably inferrable from the foreseeable consequences of that State’s actions. Assistance such as the provision of funds, weapons, fuel and intelligence and other less tangible actions (diplomatic recognition, sanctions, non- implementation of obligations and of court orders) can substantially influence States committing internationally wrongful acts. Knowledge of a State’s policies, including through official relationships, may inform relevant inference. While individual actions may not constitute complicity in themselves, their aggregate and cumulative effect over time, including when combined with the actions of other States, must be considered as part of the assessment.

12. When the conduct of Third States is direct, indispensable and constitutive (i.e., without it, the result would have not occurred in whole or in part), it must be considered whether States have gone beyond aid and/or assistance to jointly participate in an internationally wrongful act. As with a joint criminal enterprise under individual criminal responsibility, it is unnecessary to establish that one State performs the wrongful act in its entirety, only that their contribution is a constituent element of the crime and attributable to the State. Direct State responsibility for genocide may arise when (a) conduct attributable to a State is integral to the commission of one or more genocidal acts, and (b) the State formed genocidal intent based on the totality of conduct attributable to it.

13. Israeli violations in the occupied territory have been established for decades. By 2004, in its Wall Advisory Opinion, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) placed the international community on notice of its obligations to end serious violations of peremptory norms of international law. By 6 October 2023, Israel had long denied the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination through occupation, annexation and unlawful use of force, maintaining control over Palestinian lives through a racially discriminatory and apartheid system. The illegal blockade of Gaza, compounded by regular military attacks involving war crimes and crimes against humanity, had made the Gaza Strip “unliveable”, priming the situation for genocide.

14. In the last two years, Israeli crimes have dramatically By 20 October 2023, international law experts, genocide scholars and human rights organizations had warned of impending genocide. On 26 January 2024, the ICJ confirmed the serious risk of genocide in Gaza, giving rise to States obligations to prevent it and to punish incitement, commission or complicity. By May 2024, the Court had issued two further Provisional Measures orders and made judicial comments in Nicaragua v Germany, the ICC Prosecutor had sought arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials, and Third States had “actual or constructive knowledge” of the ongoing international crimes they had failed to prevent, triggering a heightened responsibility to act.

15. In July 2024, 20 years after its 2004 Wall Advisory Opinion, the ICJ determined the illegality of the continued presence of Israel in the oPt in its entirety and the obligation of Israel to withdraw totally, unconditionally and as rapidly as possible. The UN General Assembly subsequently declared that the occupation must be dismantled by 18 September 2025. Israel has failed to do so.

16. On 16 September 2025, the UN Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, reaffirming the obligations of all States to prevent genocide, to cease committing and/or aiding and assisting genocide and punish those perpetrating and/or inciting genocide.

17. These developments confirm the seriousness of the breaches of peremptory norms involved and the concomitant legal obligations on all States to act, with two implications for the assessment of Third State responsibility:

(a) Intersecting duties must be assessed holistically and create an imperative on all States to take measures, including those outlined in paragraph 8 in order to discharge their

(b) Under existing law, the extent of Israel’s unlawful actions renders any distinction between Israel and the oPt legally and practically impossible. According to the due diligence tests outlined in the 2024 Advisory Opinion, if Israel itself is unwilling or unable to distinguish between its territory and the oPt, as is the case, Third States must presume indistinguishability, which requires a comprehensive boycott of Israel.

18. In the context of protracted aggression, denial of self-determination and heinous international crimes, there can be no reasonable doubt that States that maintain relations with Israel have knowledge of Decades of neglect by Third States and non-adherence to their obligations has created the conditions for their complicity in ongoing Israeli crimes. The following sections analyse Third States’ violations holistically, examining the link between intersecting components of genocide and States’ conduct.

IV. Intersecting Components of the Gaza Genocide

A. Genocide Under the Guise of Diplomatic and Political Actions

19. Prolonged political and diplomatic support by influential Third States has enabled Israel to initiate and sustain its assault on the Palestinian people. In the past two years, entrenched complicity, marked by narrative manipulations and reproduction of Israeli fabrications, have muted the urgent calls for action and obscured the web of political, financial and military interests at play. The longstanding failure to address egregious violations of international law by Israel – threatening international peace and security – has normalized and deepened relations with it, entrenching oppression, domination and erasure.

20. Following 7 October 2023, most Western leaders parroted Israeli narratives, disseminated by State and corporate media, repeating debunked claims and erasing core distinctions between combatants and civilians. Israelis were depicted as “civilians” and “hostages”, and Palestinians as “Hamas terrorists”, “legitimate” or “collateral” targets, “human shields” or lawfully detained “prisoners”. Drawing on a long history of the “savage” denied protections of international law, revived by the War on Terror discourse, Western States helped to justify the genocide against Palestinians. On 9 October 2023, immediately after Israel announced a tightened siege on Gaza, key Western leaders expressed support for the “self-defence” of Israel – unwarranted under article 51 of the UN Charter. President Biden repeatedly cited unsubstantiated reports of “beheaded babies”. British opposition Leader Keir Starmer defended Israel’s right to cut off water and power to civilians.

21. This environment fuelled a ferocious Israeli assault. Even amidst urgent calls for a ceasefire, Western states, led by the United States, advocated only for humanitarian “corridors”, “pauses” and “truces” – sidestepping a permanent ceasefire and ensuring a continuation of the violence. States reverted to treating the situation as a humanitarian crisis to be managed, rather than resolved, by demanding that Israel end its unlawful occupation once and for all, providing further leeway to the assault on Gaza.

22. Post-October 2023, the United States used its veto power in the UN Security Council seven times, controlling ceasefire negotiations and providing diplomatic cover for the Israeli genocide. The US has not acted alone. Abstentions, delays, watered-down draft resolutions and a simplistic rhetoric of “balance” reinforced the diplomatic protection and political narrative Israel required to continue the The United Kingdom maintained alignment with the US position until November 2024. A bloc of Western states – Australia, New Zealand and Canada, sometimes joined by the UK, Germany or the Netherlands – appeared at times ready to pressurize Israel, such as in December 2023, when their statements added momentum for a ceasefire. Yet their introduction of the term “sustained ceasefire” produced a diluted UNSC resolution that delayed action. In February 2024, they criticized the planned invasion of Rafah while simultaneously withdrawing United Nations Relief Words Agency (UNRWA) funding. Such diplomacy created an illusion of progress while concrete actions were repeatedly stymied.

23. Sanctions served a similar In 2024, Australia, Canada, the EU, New Zealand and the UK sanctioned some extremist settlers and organizations, and in June 2025, Israeli Ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich were sanctioned by Australia, Canada, Norway and the UK. Yet such isolated actions effectively condone the Israeli state system and structures as a whole.

24. Arab and Muslim states have long supported the Palestinian Three joint Arab- Islamic summits and several extraordinary meetings on Palestine, generated some collective efforts, including the Arab Plan. Nevertheless, these actions have not been decisive, even amid Israeli aggression against six Arab States, reflecting the complexity of regional geopolitics. Normalization through the US-brokered Abraham Accords has also shifted economic incentives. Open sources report that influential States in the region facilitated land routes to Israel, bypassing the Red Sea. While Qatar and Egypt sought to broker ceasefire agreements, Qatar hosts the largest US military base in the region, and Egypt maintained significant security and economic relations with Israel, including energy cooperation and the closing of the Rafah crossing.

25. Certain non-Western States have turned to international courts to seek accountability and pressurize Israel to cease its actions. While only 13 States have supported South Africa before the ICJ, most Western States have persistently denied genocide. None have joined Nicaragua against Germany at the ICJ, or invoked domestic laws against complicit corporations or individuals. Only seven referred the situation to the ICC, many sought to undermine its arrest warrants, and at least 37 States were non-committal or critical, signalling intent to evade arrest obligations. The United States imposed sanctions to paralyse the Court; the United Kingdom threatened its funding, while Prime Minister Netanyahu travelled freely across European airspace, even visiting Hungary, which withdrew from the Court in April 2025.

26. Israel has been sheltered from accountability in courts as well as in global fora, with institutions preventing its deserved expulsion both from sports (e.g., Paris Olympics, FIFA World Cup qualifiers, FIBA, Davis Cup) and cultural events (Eurovision, Venice Biennale).

27. The ICJ’s groundbreaking ruling on the illegality of the occupation has yet to bring change. On 18 September 2024, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution ES-10/24, reaffirming the binding nature of the Court’s legal obligations and formulating a roadmap to end the occupation by 17 September 2025 through diplomatic, economic and legal measures which states have yet to implement.

28. The Saudi–French Two-State Solution Conference of September 2025 led to ten new States recognizing the State of Palestine. While an important step, these tardy recognitions have so far remained symbolic, with no tangible effect in addressing the ongoing genocide. Overall, 20 new states have issued recognitions of the State of Palestine since October 2023, but with restrictive conditions (e.g., concerning governance, territorial integrity, political independence and demilitarization) incompatible with the very essence of self- determination, effectively reproducing forms of colonial tutelage.

29. Since October 2023, only Belize, Bolivia, Colombia and Nicaragua have suspended diplomatic relations with Israel, and only six States – Bahrain, Chad, Chile, Honduras, Jordan, Türkiye and South Africa – have downgraded their relations with Israel.

30. The most notable effort has come from the Hague Group initiative launched in January 2025. Led by Colombia and South Africa, 13 States of the Global Majority have committed to enforce six concrete measures against Israel. Twenty-one other States joined the third meeting of the Group in New York on the sidelines of the 80th Session of the General Assembly. Despite the efforts of some of its members, Israel still holds its UN credentials.

31. On 30 September 2025, many States, including Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and the UAE, endorsed the “Trump Plan”, despite its silence on ending the occupation, ensuring accountability, providing transitional justice and its imposition of a temporary mechanism of imperial foreign governance for Gaza that further undermines, rather than realizes, Palestinian self-determination.

B. Military Ties: providing the means of destruction

32. While UN resolutions have called for arms embargoes on Israel since 1976, many States have continued supplying it with military support and arms transfers. Israel is disproportionately dependent on weapons imports, with the proportion of their total trade more than double the OECD average, and over four times greater than that of the United States. This international supply has continued, even as the evidence of genocide has mounted, with the United States, Germany and Italy among the largest suppliers. Only a few Western States, notably Spain and Slovenia, have cancelled contracts and imposed embargoes.

33. The United States has financially and militarily supported Israel since its creation. Following the 1967 war, Israel became the leading recipient of US Foreign Military Financing (FMF). The 60-year strategic partnership between the United States and Israel has been underpinned by a legislated commitment to Israeli “Qualitative Military Edge”, almost 30 years of agreements ensuring Israeli–US military cooperation, a steady supply of military and economic aid to Israel and preferential access to US military sales. The third US–Israel MOU, effective until 2028, guarantees $3.3 billion/year in FMF plus $500 million/year for missile. The US has supplied arms to Israel through military sales – the US accounts for two-thirds of annual Israeli arms imports – and through access to the US weapons stockpile (WRSA-I) in Israel. Israel also has special permission to use FMF to purchase Israeli-made weapons. Meanwhile Israeli purchase of F-15, F-16 and F- 35 fighter jets and munitions is supported by access to procurement funds to Israeli subsidiaries in the US.

34. US political, diplomatic, military and strategic support to Israel has escalated after 7 October 2023. Senior US politicians and military officials engaged in unprecedented travel to Israel, including for operational discussions on Israeli military conduct in Gaza. On 20 October 2023, the Biden Administration announced it would request an additional $14.3 billion for Israel. In April 2024, this passed Congress as a $26.4 billion package for Israeli defence just as Israel threatened the Rafah invasion, previously a stated (but subsequently denied) “red line” for President Biden. Israel was later exempted from the Trump Administration freeze on military aid.

35. Since October 2023, the US has transferred 742 consignments of “arms and ammunition” (HS Code 93) and approved tens of billions in new sales. The Biden and Trump Administrations reduced transparency, accelerated transfers through repeated emergency approvals, facilitated Israeli access to US weapons stockpile held abroad and authorized hundreds of sales just below the amount requiring congressional. The US has deployed military aircraft, special forces and surveillance drones to Israel, with US surveillance purportedly being used to target Hamas, including in the first raid on Al Shifa hospital.

36. By September 2024, the US had reportedly supplied 57,000 artillery shells, 36,000 rounds of cannon ammunition, 20,000 M4A1 rifles, 13,981 anti-tank missiles and 8,700 MK- 82 500lb bombs. By April 2025, Israel had 751 active sales valued at $39.2 billion. Both the Biden and Trump Administrations have enabled this constant flow of weapons, except for a short pause in the delivery of 500lb and 2000lb bombs on the eve of the Israeli attack on Rafah in May 2024, which lasted until July 2024 for 500lb bombs and until January 2025 for 2000lb bombs.

37. Germany has been the second-largest arms exporter to Israel during the genocide, with supplies ranging from frigates to torpedoes. German leaders have justified this support based on its perceived post-Holocaust obligations to Israel. In addition to suspending ethical and legal assessments of the Israeli occupation, from October 2023 to July 2025, Germany issued individual export licences worth €489 million – 15 percent of all licences to Israel in 22 years. This does not include any arms transferred under collective licences or on a government-to-government basis. Although Chancellor Merz temporarily suspended future export approvals in August 2025, €2.46 million in exports were approved a month later.

38. The United Kingdom has also played a key role in military collaboration with Israel, despite internal opposition. From its bases in Cyprus, the UK has enabled a crucial US supply line to Tel Aviv and flown over 600 surveillance missions over Gaza throughout the genocide, sharing intelligence with Israel. Flight numbers and durations, often coinciding with major Israeli operations, suggest detailed knowledge and cooperation in the destruction of Gaza, extending beyond “hostage rescue”.

39. Other States have supplied parts, components and weapons to Israel through an opaque system that obscures transfers, including ‘dual use’ and indirect transfers. Between October 2023 and October 2025, 26 States sent at least 10 consignments of “arms and ammunition” (HS Code 93) to Israel, the most frequent being China, including Taiwan, India, Italy, Austria, Spain, Czechia, Romania and France. Military aircraft, land vehicles, drones, dogs and dual-use items such as integrated circuits are harder to track.

40. States also engage in indirect transfers by supplying components for arms used by Israel. The F-35 stealth strike fighter programme, key to the Israeli military assault in Gaza, involves 19 States – Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, South Korea, Romania, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States – supplying components and parts to Seventeen of them have ratified the Arms Trade Treaty. Despite litigation in the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, Denmark and the United Kingdom – all of which defended their roles, and some cancellation of direct exports – States continue to transfer F-35 parts, heavily used in the genocidal destruction of Gaza.

41. States frequently deploy two arguments to justify arms trade with Israel: such arms are said to be either “defensive” or “non-lethal”. The Arms Trade Treaty does not recognize either distinction, but requires a holistic assessment of how all arms, parts and components will ultimately be used. Given that the occupation of Palestinian territory is an ongoing unlawful use of force in violation of the UN Charter, nothing Israel does there can be understood as “defensive” in nature.

42. States have continued to grant export licences for weapons to Israel, to review and partially retain licences despite acknowledging concerns (e.g., the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia) and to permit transfer of weapons through their ports and airports (e.g., Italy, Netherlands, Ireland, France, Morocco). Italy, the third largest exporter to Israel in 2020–2024, has argued that it complies with legal obligations to cease these exports, while continuing existing agreements and adopting a hands-off approach to transit. These actions, despite clear obligations and compounding concerns, indicate an intent to facilitate Israeli crimes.

43. States also support the Israeli military through military partnerships and joint defense manoeuvres. Since 2015, the Israeli Air Force has participated in the INIOCHOS exercise, including in 2025 alongside Greece, US, Italy, Qatar, UAE, France, Spain, Montenegro, India, Slovenia and Poland. In 2024–2025, Israel participated with 27 nations in the largest global exercise, led by AFRICOM (US Africa Command) and the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces. Israeli soldiers are trained at the UK Royal College of Defence Studies.190

44. In addition, thousands of citizens from the United States, Russia, France, Ukraine and the United Kingdom, among others, have served in the Israeli military since October 2023. Few have been investigated, and none prosecuted for crimes in Gaza.

45. Third States also continue to purchase Israeli weapons and military technology. Besides being a core component of its economy – in 2024 weapons exports accounted for 23 percent of Israeli exports, the second-highest share globally – these exports also enhance Israeli arms manufacturing capacity.

46. A unique selling point of Israeli military technology is that it is tested on Palestinians under occupation and related military activities. The ongoing genocide has enabled Israel to expand the range of weaponry and surveillance systems tested on the Gaza population. As a result, the value of arms exports increased by 18 percent during the genocide, with exports to the EU more than doubling and accounting for 54 percent of Israeli military exports in 2024. Other significant destinations include Asia and the Pacific (23 percent) and Arab countries under the Abraham Accords (12 percent).

C. Weaponization of aid: creating the living conditions for genocide

47. Some Third States have facilitated the degradation of living conditions of the Gaza population, including by the very means of their participation in the provision of aid.

48. Already, before 7 October, the illegal Gaza blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt – with severe restrictions on the movement of goods, even down to calculated caloric intake – had made 80 percent of the population aid-dependent, with 1 million relying on UNRWA for food and basic services. The agency is the bedrock of economic, social and humanitarian support for the Palestinians, especially in Gaza, its embeddedness in the local population allowing it to run more than 400 sites for aid distribution amid the genocide.

49. Since October 2023, Israel has turned existing restrictions into a full blockade. From October 2023 to January 2025, aid was limited to an average of 107 trucks per day – less than one third of pre-2023 levels.202 In March 2025, Israel further tightened its tightened its siege. By August 2025, famine in Gaza was declared by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification and at least 461 people have died from malnutrition-related causes.

50. In violation of its obligations to ensure adequate means of survival – as reaffirmed by the ICJ– the genocidal campaign by Israel has deliberately sought to destroy the humanitarian system sustaining the occupied population. It has done so through: (i) directly bombing UNRWA warehouses, food distribution sites, schools and clinics, killing more than 370 personnel; (ii) defamation campaigns against UNRWA, and (iii) promoting ad hoc pseudo-humanitarian agencies.

51. When Israel alleged, without evidence, that UNRWA staff were involved in the events of 7 October, 18 States immediately suspended funding, uncritically endorsing the Israeli Despite inconclusive investigations, the accused staff were fired and most donors took months to resume contributions to UNRWA. The United States, its largest donor, passed a law to prohibit US funding. When the Israeli Knesset took the unprecedented step of outlawing UNRWA operations by 30 January 2025, only some States took action by seeking an ICJ Advisory Opinion.

52. The brutal attack on the UN system was complemented by its attempted substitution with an Israel–US-controlled aid mechanism. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – conceived as early as December 2023, with US support and funding – used aid distribution, through military-run sites staffed with US mercenaries, to facilitate the forced displacement of Palestinians toward Egypt. This seemed to anticipate the so-called “Gaza Riviera” plan, which would have led to Palestinian forced displacement.

53. From March 2025 onwards, amid the total siege-induced famine and the destruction of 23 UNRWA sites in four months, 2,100 unarmed civilians were killed and hundreds of thousands were injured by Israeli forces and US contractors at GHF. Despite this, it was only after President Trump’s “peace plan” that the GHF was disbanded.

54. Instead of opposing this man-made humanitarian catastrophe, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Jordan and the United Kingdom, among others, parachuted aid into Gaza – an expensive, inadequate and dangerous. While purporting to be taking action to ease shortages, this only served to mislead international public opinion while the famine worsened. Naval aid missions to Gaza, attempts by civil society groups to break the siege have been unlawfully intercepted by Israel in international waters – amid silence and inaction by Third States.

55. At several crucial moments, instead of adhering to their legal obligations, Third States have assisted the deterioration of conditions of life, implicating them in the devastating impact caused to the civilian population in dire need.

A. Economic and Trade Relations: the fuel and profits of genocide

56. Israel is heavily reliant on international trade and economic Maintaining normal trade relations despite the illegality of its occupation and systematic human rights and humanitarian law violations – now escalated to genocide – legitimizes and sustains the Israeli apartheid regime. In 2024, international trade in goods and services equaled 54 percent of Israeli GDP (down from 61 percent in 2022). The EU, its largest trade partner, provided almost a third of total trade for the last two years.

57. Imports beyond weapons are vital to secure the goods necessary to sustain the illegal occupation and other unlawful Israeli policies and Many Israeli imports are dual- use goods, which can be used in the production of both civilian and military products. In 2024, these goods accounted for 31 percent of Israeli merchandise imports from the European Union.

58. Exports earned Israel US$474 billion in 2022–2024, fuelling the economy and the fiscal coffers and enhancing its arms manufacturing capacity through the exports of dual-use items. In 2023, integrated circuits became Israel’s top export accounting for 16 percent of Israeli merchandise exports (US$10 billion). Often marketed as civilian technologies, these dual-use items are essential to Israeli military systems that surveil, control and kill Palestinians, reinforcing a military–civilian economic symbiosis and Israel’s role in the global tech-arms. Precision-guided munitions, drones and missile defence systems all rely on such specialized circuits for navigation, radar and control.

59. Israeli trade is reinforced by at least 45 economic cooperation agreements, including with the EU, the US and the UAE (implementing the Abraham Accords). These agreements remove tariff and non-tariff barriers for dual-use and defence goods and services, while often failing to distinguish dealings with the oPt, implicitly recognizing Israeli authority over illegal settlers and their businesses and annexed land.

60. Economic cooperation also extends beyond trade. Since 2014, the European Commission Research and Innovation Framework (since 2021, Horizon Europe) has provided €2.1 billion in grants to Israeli entities in science, technology and innovation, many developing dual-use and military technologies. The programme’s European Innovation Council has also financed 34 Israeli companies with €550 million of equity and blended finance since 2021, making Israel among the highest per capita beneficiaries.

61. Since 1981, the European Investment Bank has financed Israeli entities with €2.7 billion, including €760 million in loans to Bank Leumi, listed on the OHCHR Database. Other agreements include the US–Israel BIRD and US–Israel BSF, the agreement between the Israeli Foreign Trade Risks Insurance Corporation and UAE Etihad Credit Insurance and the China–Israel Innovation Partnership.

62. States have largely avoided action to meet their legal obligations. No trade or economic agreement signed since 1967 has been Only a few States have reduced trade amid the ongoing genocide, most notably Türkiye, which announced the suspension of all trade with Israel in May 2024, resulting in a 64 percent reduction in Turkish-origin imports and near-total cessation of exports in January–August 2025, although some trade has reportedly continued indirectly. Meanwhile, other countries increased their trade with Israel during the genocide, including Germany (+US$836 million), Poland (+US$237 million), Greece (+US$186 million), Italy (+US$117 million), Denmark (+US$99 million), France (+US$75 million) and Serbia (+US$56 million), as well as Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates (+US$237 million), Egypt (+US$199 million), Jordan (+US$41 million) and Morocco (+US$6 million). This countered the trade decline Israel might otherwise have faced (–6 percent).

63. The obligation of Third States to act against international law violations is often incorporated into treaties. For instance, the 1996 Türkiye-Israel Free Trade Agreement conditions cooperation on respect of public policy, morality, international peace, and security. Similarly, the EU–Israel Association Agreement makes human rights and democratic principles an “essential elements clause”. However, these principles remain unfulfilled. A 2024 internal paper of the EU, leaked in August 2025, shows how the EU was determined to preserve business-as-usual despite evidence of Israeli violations of the terms of the agreement in the face of the illegal occupation and genocide. The proposal of the European Commission to cancel core trade preferences on 37 percent of Israeli exports to the EU still awaits approval.

64. Besides the suspension of the trade agreement with Israel, states must also suspend all trade with Israel in dual-use products, as the EU did with Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. In the case of the EU, this represented 38 percent of all EU–Israel trade (US$17.5 billion) in 2024, based on the EU definition of dual use. The largest dual-use trade is in integrated circuits with Ireland, which increased from US$2.2 billion in 2022 to US$3.2 billion in 2024.

56. Energy trade has often been subject to embargoes aimed at bringing countries in line with their international legal obligations: examples include apartheid South Africa and, currently, Russia and Iran. In the case of Israel, only Colombia, which banned coal exports to Israel in 2024, has acted. Russia and the United States were major suppliers of refined fuel products to Israel, while Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Brazil and South Africa continued to supply Israel with essential raw materials. Countries such as Morocco, Italy, France and Türkiye have continued to provide key ports for products, including oil and gas. The European Union and Egypt have continued to import gas from Israel through the Eastern Mediterranean Gas pipeline, which illegally passes through the sea adjacent to the Gaza Strip, violating Palestinian sovereign rights. In August 2025, as starvation gripped Gaza, Egypt expanded its partnership with Israel through a US$35 billion natural gas deal – the largest export deal in Israeli history.

66. Trade and the supply of materials and weapons to Israel rely on Third States’ transportation infrastructure. Ports known to have facilitated the trans-shipment to Israel of F-35 parts, weapons, jet fuel, oil and/or other materials include Türkiye, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Greece, Morocco and the US. Airfields in Ireland, Belgium and the United States also support transfers. Many ports also facilitate Israeli gas exports, including via the EMG Pipeline to Port workers in

multiple countries blocked illicit trade in France, Belgium, Italy, Morocco, Sweden, Spain, Gibraltar, Cyprus, Malta, Greece, Crete and the United States. In response, ships and aircrafts often disable transponders to conceal routes: ports (e.g., Morocco) have rerouted shipments and some deliveries go through third-State traders. Belgium, Spain and others have worked to facilitate this transit.

I. Conclusion

67. The genocide in Gaza was not committed in isolation, but as part of a system of global Rather than ensuring that Israel respects the basic human rights and self-determination of the Palestinian people, powerful Third States – perpetuating colonial and racial-capitalist practices that should have long been consigned to history – have allowed violent practices to become an everyday reality. Even as the genocidal violence became visible, States, mostly Western ones, have provided, and continue to provide, Israel with military, diplomatic, economic and ideological support, even as it weaponized famine and humanitarian aid. The horrors of the past two years are not an aberration, but the culmination of a long history of complicity.

68. Third States’ acts, omissions and discourse in support of a genocidal apartheid State are such that they could and should be held liable for aiding, assisting or jointly participating in internationally wrongful acts, within a context of systematic violations of peremptory and erga omnes norms. At this critical juncture, it is imperative that Third States immediately suspend and review all military, diplomatic and economic relations with Israel, as any such engagement could represent means to aid/assist/directly participate in unlawful acts, including war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

70. Many Third States have operated with the very impunity they have granted Israel. Their disregard for international law undermines the foundations of the multilateral order painstakingly built over eight decades by States and people within the United This will stand in history as an offence not only to justice, but to the very idea of our common humanity. While justice must involve criminal trials – whether in international or domestic courts – accountability extends beyond prosecutions to include reparations: restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition, by Israel and by Third States that have supported its crimes. The power structures that enabled these heinous crimes must be dismantled, and the international justice system shows the way to do it.

72. The world is watching Gaza and the whole of Palestine. States must step up to their responsibilities. Only by fulfilling the Palestinian people’s right to self- determination, so brazenly violated by the ongoing genocide, can enduring coercive global structures be No state can credibly claim adherence to international law while arming, supporting or shielding a genocidal regime. All military and political support must be suspended; diplomacy should serve to prevent crimes rather than to justify them. Complicity in genocide must end.

VI. Recommendations

71. Recalling her previous recommendations, the Special Rapporteur reminds all States of their legal obligation not to participate in or be complicit with Israeli violations, and to instead prevent and address serious breaches of international law, particularly as set out in the UN Charter and Genocide Convention.

72. Given the enduring emergency unaddressed by current “peace” discussions and plans, the Special Rapporteur urges States to cause no further harm to the Palestinian people and to:

(a) Exert pressure for a complete and permanent ceasefire and full withdrawal of Israeli troops;

(b) Take immediate steps to end the siege in Gaza, including deploying naval and land convoys to ensure safe humanitarian access and mobile housing before winter;

(c) Support the re-opening of Gaza’s international airport and port to facilitate aid delivery.

73. Beyond the emergency, States must recognize Palestinian self-determination and justice as essential to lasting peace and security, and therefore:

(a) Suspend all military, trade and diplomatic relations with Israel;

(b) Investigate and prosecute all officials, corporates and individuals involved in or facilitating genocide, incitement, crimes against humanity and war crimes and other grave breaches of international humanitarian law;

(c) Secure reparations, including full reconstruction and return;

(d) Cooperate fully with the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice;

(e) Reaffirm and strengthen support to UNRWA and the UN system as a whole;

(f) Suspend Israel from the United Nations under Article 6 of the UN Charter;

(g) Act under “Uniting for Peace”, in line with General Assembly resolution 377 (V), to ensure that Israel dismantles its occupation.

74. The Special Rapporteur also urges trade unions, lawyers, civil society and ordinary citizens to monitor States’ actions in response to these recommendations, and to continue to press institutions, governments and corporations for boycotts, divestments and sanctions, until the end of the Israeli illegal occupation and related

Document symbol: A/80/492
Download Document Files:  https://www.un.org/unispal/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/a-80-492-advance-unedited-version.pdf
Document Type: Report
Document Sources: Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967
Subject: Apartheid, Armed conflict, Arms control and regional security issues, Ceasefire, Colonialism, Famine, Gaza Strip, Genocide, Human rights and international humanitarian law, Refugees and displaced persons, War crimes
Publication Date: 20/10/2025
URL source: https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/a80492-gaza-genocide-collective-crime-report-special-rapporteur-situation

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Statement by the Representative of Thailand to the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children on the Escalation of Violence at the Thailand-Cambodia Border

27 July 2025

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Statement by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia H.E. Dato’ Seri Utama Haji Mohamad Haji Hasan on Thailand – Cambodia border dispute

27 July 2025

https://www.kln.gov.my/web/guest/speeches-statements/-/asset_publisher/statement/content/statement-by-the-minister-of-foreign-affairs-of-malaysia-h-e-dato-seri-utama-haji-mohamad-haji-hasan-on-thailand-cambodia-border-disputes

Malaysia, as Chair of ASEAN, is following with deep concern the clashes between Thailand and Cambodia’s military troops at the disputed border on 24 July 2025 which has resulted in casualties. We urge both parties to exercise utmost restraint and to take immediate steps to de-escalate tensions.

Malaysia wishes to underscore the importance of resolving the border dispute through dialogue and diplomacy in the spirit of ASEAN solidarity and good neighbourliness.

The Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim, has reached out to H.E. Hun Manet, the Prime Minister of Cambodia, and H.E. Phumtham Wechayachai, Acting Prime Minister of Thailand, and appealed directly to both leaders for an immediate ceasefire to prevent further hostilities and to create space for peaceful dialogue and diplomatic resolution. Malaysia stands ready to offer the assistance of the good offices of the ASEAN Chair in facilitating an amicable way forward to address the issue that is acceptable to both parties.

H.E. DATO’ SERI UTAMA HAJI MOHAMAD HAJI HASAN

PUTRAJAYA

25 JULY 2025

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MARUAH Statement on ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict

1 November 2023

MARUAH strongly condemns the abhorrent crimes against humanity in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict and urges immediate action to alleviate the pain and suffering inflicted on innocent civilians and devastating humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

We urge all parties involved to respect and abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, such as Articles 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7. In particular, Article 5 states that ‘No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.’.

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[Amnesty] Myanmar: Military onslaught in eastern states amounts to collective punishment

13 June 2022

May 31, 2022 – https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/05/myanmar-military-onslaught-in-eastern-states-amounts-to-collective-punishment/

  • Post-coup military assault in Kayin and Kayah States includes war crimes and likely crimes against humanity
  • More than 150,000 displaced, with entire villages emptied and burned
  • Amnesty International interviewed almost 100 people and visited border area

Myanmar’s military has been systematically committing widespread atrocities in recent months, including unlawfully killing, arbitrarily detaining and forcibly displacing civilians in two eastern states, Amnesty International said today in a new report.

The report, “Bullets rained from the sky”: War crimes and displacement in eastern Myanmar, found that Myanmar’s military has subjected Karen and Karenni civilians to collective punishment via widespread aerial and ground attacks, arbitrary detentions that often result in torture or extrajudicial executions, and the systematic looting and burning of villages.

The violence in Kayin and Kayah States reignited in the wake of last year’s military coup and escalated from December 2021 to March 2022, killing hundreds of civilians and displacing more than 150,000 people.

“The world’s attention may have moved away from Myanmar since last year’s coup, but civilians continue to pay a high price. The military’s ongoing assault on civilians in eastern Myanmar has been widespread and systematic, likely amounting to crimes against humanity,” said Rawya Rageh, Senior Crisis Adviser at Amnesty International.

“Alarm bells should be ringing: the ongoing killing, looting and burning bear all the hallmarks of the military’s signature tactic of collective punishment, which it has repeatedly used against ethnic minorities across the country.”

Post-coup surge in violence

For decades, ethnic armed organizations in Myanmar, including in Kayin and Kayah States, have been engaged in struggles for greater rights and autonomy. Fragile ceasefires in place in both states since 2012 broke down after the February 2021 coup, and new armed groups have emerged. In its operations, the military has relentlessly attacked civilians.

Some attacks appear to have directly targeted civilians as a form of collective punishment against those perceived to support an armed group or the wider post-coup uprising. In other cases, the military has fired indiscriminately into civilian areas where there are also military targets. Direct attacks on civilians, collective punishment, and indiscriminate attacks that kill or injure civilians violate international humanitarian law and constitute war crimes.

Attacks on a civilian population must be widespread or systematic to amount to crimes against humanity; in Kayin and Kayah States, they are both, for crimes including murder, torture, forcible transfer, and persecution on ethnic grounds.

Unlawful strikes

In its ongoing operations, Myanmar’s military has repeatedly fired explosive weapons with wide-area effects into populated civilian areas. Dozens of witnesses told Amnesty International about barrages that lasted days at a time. The organization documented 24 attacks by artillery or mortars between December 2021 and March 2022 that killed or injured civilians or that caused destruction to civilian homes, schools, health facilities, churches, and monasteries.

For example, on 5 March 2022, as families were at dinner, the military shelled Ka Law Day village, Hpapun Township, Kayin State, killing seven people, including a woman who was eight months pregnant. A close family member of four of the people who were killed said he had to sit in his house all night looking at the bodies, for fear of being injured by further shelling, before burying them in the morning.

Many people described the military’s use of fighter jets and attack helicopters as particularly terrifying. Witnesses described not being able to sleep at night out of fear of air strikes, or fleeing to seek shelter in bunkers and caves.

Amnesty International documented eight air strikes on villages and an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in eastern Myanmar in the first three months of 2022. The attacks, which killed nine civilians and injured at least nine more, destroyed civilian homes and religious buildings. In almost all documented attacks, only civilians appear to have been present.

In one case, at around 6pm on 23 February 2022, a fighter jet fired on Dung Ka Mee village, Demoso Township, Kayah State, killing two civilian men and injuring several others. Amnesty International interviewed two witnesses and a relative of one of the deceased as well as an aid worker who responded after the attack. They said there was no fighting that evening and that the nearest armed group base was a mile or more away.

A local resident, a 46-year-old farmer who witnessed the attack, said the military aircraft made three passes, firing guns and a rocket:

“When that fighter jet was flying toward us in a nose-down position, I was numb… When they fired the rocket, I got myself together and realized I had to run [to a bunker]… We were shocked to see the dust and debris come towards us… There is a two-story building… The family lives upstairs and the downstairs is a mobile phone store. This building collapsed and it was also on fire.”

Another witness, a 40-year-old farmer, saw the remains of a neighbour’s body:

“We couldn’t even put them in a coffin, we put them in a plastic bag and buried them. People had to pick up the body pieces and put them in a bag.” In another incident, the military carried out an air strike on Ree Khee Bu IDP camp at around 1am on 17 January 2022, killing a man in his 50s as well as 15- and 12-year-old sisters.

Extrajudicial executions

The report documents how Myanmar’s military carried out arbitrary detentions of civilians on the basis of their ethnicity or because they were suspected of supporting the anti-coup movement. Often, detainees were tortured, forcibly disappeared or extrajudicially executed.

In one of many cases where soldiers extrajudicially executed civilians who ventured out from displacement sites to collect food or belongings, three farmers from San Pya 6 Mile village in Kayah State went missing in January 2022. Their decomposed bodies were found in a pit latrine around two weeks later.

The brother of one of the victims said he identified the men by their clothes and the state of their teeth. Soldiers fired on him and others as they tried to retrieve the bodies; they could only return to finish the burial a month later. 

In a massacre that prompted rare international condemnation, soldiers near Mo So village in Kayah State’s Hpruso Township reportedly stopped at least 35 women, men and children in multiple vehicles on 24 December 2021, and then proceeded to kill them and burn their bodies. Doctors who examined the bodies reportedly said many of the victims had been tied up and gagged, bearing wounds suggesting they were shot or stabbed.

Amnesty International maintains that the incident must be investigated as a case of extrajudicial executions. Such killings in armed conflict constitute war crimes.

Witnesses also described Myanmar’s military shooting at civilians, including those attempting to flee across a river along the border with Thailand.

Looting and burning

Following a pattern from past military operations, soldiers have systematically looted and burned large sections of villages in Kayin and Kayah States. Witnesses from six villages reported having items including jewellery, cash, vehicles and livestock stolen, before homes and other buildings were burned.

Four men who fled Wari Suplai village, on the border of Shan and Kayah States, said they watched from nearby farmland as houses went up in flames after most villagers fled on 18 February 2022. They told Amnesty International that the burning went on for days, destroying well over two-thirds of the houses there.

“It’s not a house anymore. It’s all ashes — black and charcoal… It’s my life’s savings. It was destroyed within minutes,” said a 38-year-old farmer and father of two young children.

Amnesty International’s analysis of fire data and satellite imagery shows how villages were burned, some of them multiple times, in parts of Kayah State. The burning directly tracks military operations from village to village in February and March 2022.

A defector from the military’s 66th Light Infantry Division, who was involved in operations in Kayah State until October 2021, told Amnesty International that he witnessed soldiers looting and burning homes: “They don’t have any particular reason [for burning a specific house]. They just want to put the fear in the civilians that ‘This is what we’ll do if you support [the resistance fighters].’ And another thing is to stop the supply and logistics for the local resistance forces… [Soldiers] took everything they could [from a village] and then they burned the rest.”

The violence has caused the mass displacement of more than 150,000 people, including between a third and a half of Kayah State’s entire population. In some cases, entire villages have been emptied of their populations; at times, civilians have had to flee repeatedly in recent months.

Displaced people are enduring dire conditions amid food insecurity, scant health care — including for the conflict’s enormous psychosocial impact — and ongoing efforts by the military to obstruct humanitarian aid provision. Aid workers spoke of growing malnutrition and increasing difficulties in reaching displaced people due to the ongoing violence and military restrictions.

“Donors and humanitarian organizations must significantly scale up aid to civilians in eastern Myanmar, and the military must halt all restrictions on aid delivery,” said Matt Wells, Amnesty International’s Crisis Response Deputy Director – Thematic Issues.

“The military’s ongoing crimes against civilians in eastern Myanmar reflect decades-long patterns of abuse and flagrant impunity. The international community — including ASEAN and UN member states — must tackle this festering crisis now. The UN Security Council must impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Myanmar and refer the situation there to the International Criminal Court.”

Methodology

The report is based on research carried out in March and April 2022, including two weeks on the Thailand-Myanmar border. Amnesty International interviewed 99 people, including dozens of witnesses or survivors of attacks and three defectors from Myanmar’s military.

The organization also analysed more than 100 photographs and videos related to human rights violations — showing injuries, destruction and weapon use — in addition to satellite imagery, fire data, and open-source military aircraft flight data.

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[UN News] Myanmar: ‘Meaningful action’ needed to stop the slaughter’ 

6 February 2022

1 February 2022

https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/02/1110992

“Now is not the time for more rhetoric, it is time for meaningful action”, said Tom Andrews, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar.

“The international community must take strong, meaningful steps to cut the junta’s access to weapons, funds and legitimacy”.

People ‘deserve better’
The UN expert reiterated the urgent need for the Security Council to impose an arms embargo on the Myanmar military and significantly increase financial pressure on the junta.

“The fact that one year has elapsed with no Security Council Resolution imposing a comprehensive arms embargo – as arms continue to flow to the junta and kill innocent people – is unacceptable”, he stated.

“The people of Myanmar deserve better from the United Nations”.

‘Criminal enterprise’

The Special Rapporteur said that he would soon release a report identifying the weapons in the junta’s arsenal and where they came from.

Mr. Andrews pointed out that the military junta is functioning as “a criminal enterprise”, committing murder, torture, abductions and forced displacement – while stealing revenue and seizing assets of the people of Myanmar.

“What is worse, they appear to be getting away with it. Their attacks continue unabated. The suffering of the Myanmar people is steadily increasing”, he continued.

Recent months have seen an even further escalation of violence, and a campaign of terror now widespread across the country.

“I have received more reports of mass killings, attacks on hospitals and humanitarian targets, and the bombing and burning of villages”, he added.

Unwavering commitment
“I am amazed at the resilience of the Myanmar people. In the face of aerial assaults, and mass arrest and torture, they continue to strike, to protest, to speak out and to defend themselves. They need and deserve stronger support from the international community”, he said. “The best and worst of humanity is unfolding in Myanmar”.

Special Rapporteurs are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation. The positions are honorary and they are not paid for their work.

New UN humanitarian response plan
Meanwhile, Jens Laerke, Deputy Spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office, OCHA, noted that the newly published 2022 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for Myanmar requests a record $826 million to assist 6.2 million people in need.

The 2022 plan represents double the amount requested last year, reflecting a growing crisis that has plunged an estimated 14.4 million people into humanitarian need.

Since the military coup, conflict and insecurity has continued, displacing more than 400,000 people to camps, displacement sites and with host communities. Many others have crossed into Thailand and India or sought refuge in the jungle, lacking adequate food, shelter, sanitation and medical care.

Sick and hungry
The economic and political turmoil of 2021, combined with the devastating impact of COVID-19, have driven half the population into poverty, with many unable to feed their families.

Over 13 million people are moderately or severely food insecure and malnutrition is expected to worsen among children, unless parental support is increased.

“Our ability to save lives and reduce suffering on this scale will depend on increased funding, improved access and removal of bottlenecks such as visa delays and banking restrictions”, said Mr. Laerke.

“Humanitarian agencies must be allowed access to displacement sites to conduct needs assessments and deliver lifesaving aid including food, water and health care”, he added.

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[Amnesty International] Myanmar: World must act now to prevent another year of intolerable ‘death and misery’

6 February 2022

27 January 2022

Myanmar: World must act now to prevent another year of intolerable ‘death and misery’

If the international community continues to drag its feet on the grave human rights violations including lethal violence targeted at protestors that we have seen in Myanmar this past year, many more people will suffer and this human rights crisis could worsen, Amnesty International said today ahead of the one-year anniversary of the 1 February, 2021 coup.

“Enough is enough, the 55 million people of Myanmar cannot afford another year of wavering and sitting on the sidelines by many governments around the world. Concrete action aimed at holding the military accountable and preventing their access to weaponry used to commit widespread human rights abuses must be taken now or the shocking death and misery that have defined life in Myanmar since the coup is likely to persist,” said Ming Yu Hah, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Campaigns.

“As the anniversary of the coup draws near, the military has launched indiscriminate air strikes that have killed civilians in the southeast, blocked life-saving aid, and kept up a bloody campaign against activists and journalists, who have been detained and killed in custody. Too many governments continue turning a blind eye to all these atrocities, as they did following the gross violations of human rights against the Rohingya people. As a result, the military has been increasingly brazen, acting with impunity in its efforts to wipe out any resistance to its rule.

“The Myanmar people are desperate and have become disillusioned about help from the international community. But there are clear steps that need to be taken to prevent the Myanmar military from maintaining its dystopian campaign of terror and persecution. The UN Security Council must stop dragging its feet, and instead impose a global arms embargo and targeted sanctions against military leaders, and urgently refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court.

“In addition, all local and foreign companies in business partnerships with the military or military-owned businesses need to responsibly disengage, cutting the flow of funds that the military uses to prop up its lethal operations.

“Closer to home, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) must present a unified front on Myanmar and demand the military to immediately stop the violence against civilians. The ASEAN should also exert pressure on the military to stop blocking humanitarian access and expand on and implement with a clear timeline its five-point consensus adopted last year, which has proved a failure.

“The new year must bring new approaches to Myanmar, placing human rights for the people of Myanmar, accountability, and a zero tolerance to human rights violations and abuses at the forefront.”

Background:

Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup in the early hours of 1 February, 2021. Since then it has killed more than 1,400 people and arrested more than 11,000, with over 8,000 currently in detention, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. The shocking violence fits into a long history of well-documented crimes under international law against ethnic minorities in the country, including the Kachin, Shan and Rohingya.

The UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar has previously called for Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and other senior officials to be investigated and prosecuted for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

The former civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been sentenced to six years on bogus charges and faces more than 100 years if convicted on all the counts against her. Many of her closest allies, including President Win Myint, have also been convicted on similarly trumped-up charges.

Following the violent crackdown on peaceful protesters, some opponents of the military authorities have established the armed People’s Defense Force, which claims to have killed hundreds of soldiers through shootings, bombs and ambushes.

On top of the chaos that has gripped major cities and towns across the country in the aftermath of the coup, economic and food insecurity as well as pandemic-related challenges have caused millions to face hunger. Hundreds of thousands have also been internally displaced while thousands have fled across the border to Thailand.

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[Reuters] ASEAN should rethink non-interference policy amid Myanmar crisis, Malaysia FM says

24 October 2021

Published October 21, 2021 – https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/asean-should-rethink-non-interference-policy-amid-myanmar-crisis-malaysia-fm-2021-10-21/

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 21 (Reuters) – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should rethink its decades-long policy of non-interference in the affairs of member states, amid a worsening human rights crisis in Myanmar, Malaysia’s top diplomat said on Thursday.

The 10-member bloc on Friday made an unprecedented move to exclude the leader of Myanmar’s junta from an upcoming regional summit, over a lack of progress on a peace plan it agreed to with ASEAN in April. A non-political figure from Myanmar will be invited instead.

The decision – which sources said was pushed by Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines – was a rare bold step for ASEAN, which has traditionally favoured consensus and engagement over criticism of member nations. read more

Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said ASEAN should do some “soul-searching” on its non-interference policy, given deteriorating conditions in Myanmar, where more than 1,000 civilians have been killed in a crackdown on strikes and demonstrations since a Feb. 1 coup.

“I reminded the meeting (on Friday) that ASEAN is about 10 member states. As much as the issue in Myanmar is local and national, it has an impact on the region, and we should also recognise the concerns of the other nine member states,” he told a virtual dialogue on human rights in Myanmar.

“And I also stated the fact that we cannot use the principle of non-interference as a shield to avoid issues being addressed,” he said, in a rare critique by an ASEAN foreign minister of one of the most valued parts of the bloc’s code.

Saifuddin said non-interference had contributed to ASEAN’s inability to make effective decisions quickly, and suggested a move towards a new policy of constructive engagement or non-indifference.

A junta spokesman has blamed ASEAN’s decision on “foreign intervention”, including by the United States and European Union. read more

Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Martin Petty

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[APHR] Quotes and Open Letter on Myanmar’s presence at the ASEAN Summit

14 October 2021

Please see below quotes from Charles Santiago, Malaysian MP and Chair of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR). 

“ASEAN’s credibility depends on its ability to act decisively. Denying the illegal Myanmar junta a place at the ASEAN Leaders Summit is a small step towards reclaiming the bloc’s desired centrality as a key regional player that can bring peace and stability.”

“Myanmar’s junta has shown utter contempt for ASEAN and its own people. Since it agreed to the Five-Point Consensus there have been more than 3,530 attacks either on civilians by the military or armed clashes that failed to protect civilians – that’s an 840% increase from the same period in 2020. Min Aung Hlaing and his gang of thugs are making fools of our governments.”

Open Letter to ASEAN Leaders


To: ASEAN Leaders

CC: ASEAN Dialogue Partners

13 October 2021

Re: Myanmar’s presence at the ASEAN Summit

Your Excellencies,  

We, the undersigned organisations, write to you to urge you not to extend an invitation to Myanmar’s military junta to the upcoming ASEAN Summit on 25 to 28 October because of the military’s blatant disregard for the Five Point Consensus agreed at the ASEAN Leaders’ Meeting and continuing refusal to cooperate with ASEAN towards its implementation.

We welcome the remarks made by the Foreign Ministers of Indonesia and Malaysia who questioned whether the junta should be invited to the Summit and urge the other Member States to come to the same conclusion. 

ASEAN’s credibility depends on its ability to act decisively and bring an end to the Myanmar military junta’s relentless violence against the people of Myanmar. A lack of decisiveness and consequences for the military’s total contempt for the ASEAN’s leaders’ agreement risks undermining the bloc’s legitimacy as a key regional player that can bring peace and stability.

On 24 April 2021, the leaders of nine Member States and the Myanmar junta, represented by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, agreed on a consensus that included the “immediate cessation of violence”, constructive dialogue among all parties, the appointment of an ASEAN special envoy on Myanmar, humanitarian assistance to be delivered to the country, and for the Special Envoy and delegation to visit Myanmar to “meet with all parties concerned”. 

Myanmar’s junta has failed to respect this consensus on every single count.

Since the Myanmar junta agreed to immediately cease the violence on 25th April till the end of September there have been 3,534 attacks either on civilians by the military or armed clashes that failed to protect civilians – that’s an 840% increase from the same period in 2020 (376). Thousands have been forced to flee their homes in search of safety. Violent acts amounting to crimes against humanity have been documented. It is clear that junta leader Min Aung Hlaing will not stop in his attempts to crush the democratic opposition to his rule.

The military junta has also continually opposed any form of dialogue. Zaw Min Tun, the military’s spokesman, recently said that dialogue between the ASEAN Special Envoy and the State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, the National Unity Government and People’s Defence Forces could not take place because they have been declared by the junta as “illegal organizations”. The junta’s stalling tactics also contributed to the delay in announcing Brunei’s Foreign Affairs Minister II Erywan Yusof as ASEAN’s special envoy to Myanmar.

While we note aid commitments made to the AHA Centre and delivered through the Myanmar Red Cross, it is important to recall that the Myanmar military’s own actions are creating the current humanitarian crisis engulfing the country. According to the United Nations (UN), three million people require assistance. That number has tripled over the last eight months. In addition to that, there are now 20 million people living below the poverty line – nearly half the population. Yet, the military junta is weaponizing humanitarian aid; blocking the distribution of supplies, placing travel restrictions on humanitarian workers, hoarding and destroying aid, and attacking civilians, health and humanitarian aid workers. 

It is clear that Myanmar’s military has displayed a flagrant lack of respect for ASEAN, and in fact since the coup, it appears to have used the bloc to try to gain legitimacy while at the same time increasing its brutal reprisals against the people.

The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has also warned that the opportunity to prevent the Myanmar junta from entrenching its rule could be narrowing. He has called for unified regional and international action to prevent the crisis from becoming a large-scale conflict and multi-faceted “catastrophe” in Southeast Asia and beyond.

It is time for ASEAN to act decisively. This starts by denying the Myanmar junta the legitimacy it craves, and which has been rejected constantly by the people of Myanmar. The junta has refused to cooperate with regional and international neighbors, failed to stand by the commitments it has made, and exposed to the world not only its barbaric brutality but also an inability to deal with the deepening social and economic disaster currently taking place in the country, which includes the dereliction of public health services amid the global pandemic. 

Reiterating the remarks of Malaysia and Indonesia’s foreign ministers, a firm united response by the other Member States is required. The Myanmar junta’s actions must not be accepted as “business as usual.” They are endangering the stability, prosperity, peace and health of the region.

We therefore call on ASEAN leaders to deny the head of the Myanmar military junta a seat at the table and display to him that his callous disregard for the people, and his regional neighbors, does not come free of consequences. 

Sincerely, 

Signatories:

  1. A Lin Thitsar
  2. A Lin Yaung Pan Daing
  3. A Naga Alin
  4. Action Committee for Democracy Development
  5. All Arakan Students’ and Youths’ Congress
  6. ALTSEAN Burma
  7. ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR)
  8. Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
  9. Association of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters
  10. Athan – Freedom of Expression Activist Organization
  11. Backpack Health Workers Team
  12. Burma Medical Association
  13. Burmese Women’s Union
  14. CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
  15. Democracy for Ethnic Minorities Organization
  16. Democracy, Peace and Women’s Organization – DPW
  17. Equality Myanmar
  18. FORUM-ASIA
  19. Freedom and Labor Action Group
  20. Future Light Center
  21. Future Thanlwin
  22. Generation Wave
  23. Human Rights Foundation of Monland
  24. Kachin Women’s Association Thailand
  25. Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN)
  26. Karen Human Rights Group
  27. Karen Peace Support Network
  28. Karen River Watch (KRW)
  29. Karen Women’s Organization
  30. Karenni Civil Society Network
  31. Karenni Human Rights Group
  32. Karenni National Women’s Organization
  33. Keng Tung Youth
  34. Let’s Help Each Other
  35. Metta Campaign Mandalay
  36. Myanmar Peace Bikers
  37. Myanmar People Alliance (Shan State)
  38. Network for Advocacy Action Tanintharyi Women Network
  39. Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma (ND-Burma)
  40. Olive Organization
  41. Progressive Voice
  42. Save and Care Organization for Ethnic Women at Border Areas
  43. Save the Salween Network (SSN)
  44. Shan MATA
  45. Southern Youth Development Organization
  46. Spring Revolution Interfaith Network
  47. Synergy – Social Harmony Organization
  48. Tanintharyi MATA
  49. Thint Myat Lo Thu Myar
  50. Union of Karenni State Youth
  51. Women Advocacy Coalition – Myanmar
  52. Women’s League of Burma
    1. Burmese Women’s Union (BWU)
    2. Kachin Women’s Association-Thailand (KWAT)
    3. Karen Women’s Organization (KWO)
    4. Karenni National Women’s Organization (KNWO)
    5. Kayan Women’s Organization (KyWO)
    6. Kuki Women’s Human Rights Organization (KWHRO)
    7. Lahu Women’s Organization (LWO)
    8. Pa-O Women’s Union (PWU)
    9. Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN)
    10. Ta’ang Women’s Organization (TWO)
    11. Tavoy Women’s Union (TWU)
    12. Women for Justice (WJ)

Click here to read on APHR’s website
Click here to download the pdf file

For more information, please contact info@aseanmp.org

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