ICJ: Israel - ensure full compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

ILAC’s member the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) published a briefing paper examining Israel’s failure to implement and comply with certain obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

The briefing examines a number of human rights violations as they arise in the context of:

Emergency regulations adopted by the Israeli Government during the COVID-19 pandemic;
The establishment and expansion of settlements in, and the annexation of portions of, the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
Excessive use of force in the context of Israel’s response to the “Great March of Return” in Gaza; and
The accountability gaps within the Israeli military justice system.

In the paper, the ICJ recommends the Israeli authorities to undertake steps in order to improve compliance with the ICCPR, including to:

Ensure that emergency regulations and any related derogating measures adopted with the stated intention of tackling the COVID-19 pandemic are fully consistent with article 4 of the ICCPR;
Dismantle all the settlements and related infrastructure, including the “Separation Wall”, in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and withdraw all settlers;
End any conduct aiming at annexing parts or all of the West Bank, and refrain from taking legislative steps to that end;
Ensure that the domestic rules of engagement governing the use of potentially lethal force are designed in accordance with article 6 of the ICCPR to guarantee the right to life and bodily integrity, and that Israeli security forces comply with them in practice;
Transfer the institutional competence to investigate and prosecute alleged crimes under international law committed by members of the Israel Defence Forces from the Military Advocate-General to a civilian authority;
Reform the laws and institutions governing the initiation of an investigation, and prescribe the opening of an investigation into all incidents involving the use of firearms by the Israel Defence Forces in the OPT, particularly when resulting in a potentially unlawful death or serious injury.

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