EXPLANER
Amal Clooney was part of the panel that advised the ICC prosecutor who sought arrest warrants for the leaders of Netanyahu and Hamas.
Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), issued a statement on Monday saying he had requested arrest warrants for the top leaders of Israel and Hamas whom his team suspects of committing war crimes and “crimes against humanity” during and since the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, in which approximately 1,140 people were killed.
Israel’s bombing and ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, which has continued for more than seven months since that attack, has killed more than 35,000 people, mostly women and children, and thousands more. others lost their lives or died under the rubble.
The ICC is seeking arrest warrants for five people: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohamed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri (also known as Mohamed Deif) and Ismail Haniyeh.
In his statement, Khan praised the panel of experts he convened to review the evidence and provide legal analysis to support these arrest warrants. It said its members enjoy an “immense position in international humanitarian law and international criminal law.”
In a Financial Times article, the panel of experts collectively wrote that this is not the first time an international prosecutor has convened such a panel to seek advice regarding a conflict and that it is not unusual for a prosecutor invites external experts to participate in an investigation. a review of the evidence.
Here’s a closer look at who the panel’s experts are and what they said in their report to the ICC:
Who were the experts on the ICC panel?
- Sir Adrian Fulford: A retired Lord Justice of Appeal in the United Kingdom, he served as a judge in England and Wales for almost three decades until his retirement from the Court of Appeal in 2022, having been a barrister since 1978. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel (QC). – now a King’s Advisor (KC) since the coronation of King Charles – in 1994. He is currently Chairman of the Security Vetting Appeals Panel, a forum in which appellants can challenge a decision to refuse or withdraw security checks nationally in the United Kingdom. He was elected as an ICC judge for nine years from 2003 and has also served as a judge of the High Court of England and Wales. Among his most notable cases, he presided over the conviction of Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens for the murder of Sarah Everard in 2021.
- Judge Theodor Meron: American-Israeli lawyer and judge who served on the United Nations war crimes tribunals in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. He is also a Visiting Professor of Oxford Law School, an Honorary Fellow of Trinity College, a Visiting Fellow of Mansfield College, and Professor Emeritus at New York University Law School. Additionally, he serves as Special Advisor on International Humanitarian Law to the ICC Prosecutor and is affiliated with the Council on Foreign Relations and the Institute of International Law.
- Amal Clooney: Anglo-Lebanese lawyer and human rights defender who represents clients before the ICC, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the European Court of Human Rights. She has represented victims of the Yazidi genocide, as well as victims of the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. Clooney has worked for the freedom of political prisoners and journalists in the past, including WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange, and currently works with award-winning journalist Maria Ressa of the Philippines. She is an assistant professor at Columbia Law School. With her husband, Hollywood actor George Clooney, she founded the Clooney Foundation for Justice, which provides free legal assistance to victims of human rights violations around the world.
Amal Clooney announces the conclusions of the Group of Experts on International Law, convened by @KarimKhanQC advise on @IntlCrimCourt requests for arrest warrants for crimes in Israel and Palestine. Read it @FinancialTimes op.
– Clooney Foundation for Justice (@ClooneyFDN) May 20, 2024
- Danny Friedman: King’s Counsel (KC) at the London-based law firm Matrix Chambers, a founding member of which was Cherie Blair, wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Friedman currently serves as a temporary judge of the High Court of Northern Ireland. He provides legal advice to individuals, non-governmental organizations and state organizations seeking to comply with human rights and humanitarian law obligations in the UK and overseas. Friedman has particular expertise in the area of terrorism and anti-terrorism law.
- Baroness Helena Kennedy: She is a Scottish barrister based at Doughty Street Chambers, London, and Director of the Human Rights Institute of the International Bar Association. Helena Kennedy is president of Justice, a law reform think tank. Among her most famous cases, she represented notorious child murderer Myra Hindley at her trial in 1974 after she plotted to escape from Holloway Prison.
- Elizabeth Wilmshurst: Distinguished Professor of International Law at Chatham House, London. She worked as a visiting professor at University College London. She was Deputy Legal Adviser to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 2003, but resigned when her legal advice that the invasion of Iraq was unlawful without a second UN Security Council resolution was canceled on March 20 of the same year. In 2010, she gave evidence to the Iraq inquiry into the legality of the invasion of Iraq and the advice she had given to the government.
What is the ICC panel’s conclusion on Israel’s war on Gaza?
The report states that the panel was convened so that the experts could “objectively assess the material provided to them by the Prosecutor and advise the Prosecutor whether it meets the relevant legal test.”
In the report:
- The panel agrees with Khan’s assessment that the ICC has jurisdiction over the case since Palestine is a state party under the ICC statute.
- The committee adds that it is aware that investigations into other crimes are ongoing and that these “are expected to lead to additional requests in the future.”
- Experts write that “Hamas is a highly organized non-state armed group” and that the fighting between Israel and Hamas qualifies as a non-international armed conflict between government forces and one or more armed groups.
- However, the panel notes that there is also an international armed conflict between Israel and Palestine, as the latter is a state “in accordance with the criteria set out in international law.” The panel determines that Israel and Palestine are both “High Contracting Parties” that have ratified the Geneva Convention and that there is a “belligerent occupation by Israel” of “at least part” of Palestine.
- The panel’s assessment concludes that the three Hamas leaders “had a common plan that necessarily involved the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity” and that this plan was systemic against Israel’s civilian population. This is based on evidence provided by Khan and statements from “survivors and eyewitnesses at the scene of six key locations of the attack – Kfar Aza, Holit, the venue of the Supernova music festival, Be’eri, Nir Oz and Nahal Oz – video material and author statements”.
- The report adds that civilians in Gaza were dependent on Israel for essential goods for their survival, even before October 7, due to multiple factors, including Israel’s restriction on mobility in Gaza following the 2005 disengagement plan. , under which Israel technically withdrew from Gaza and expelled its settlers. .
- Referring to the use of starvation by Israeli leaders as a method of warfare, the report states that “parties to armed conflict should not deliberately obstruct the delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians”, and that as a result of its ground operations in Gaza, “Israel has certainly become the occupying power in all or at least substantial parts” of the enclave.
- The committee also adds that, based on the evidence it has evaluated, it has reason to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant intentionally targeted civilian populations in Gaza and contributed to the famine.
And after?
A panel of three ICC judges will now make a decision on whether to issue arrest warrants. Judges generally take two months to make such decisions. However, experts believe it is likely that arrest warrants will be granted.
Mark Kersten, consultant at the Wayamo Foundation, a non-profit organization promoting international criminal justice based in Berlin, and assistant professor of criminal justice and criminology at the University of the Fraser Valley in Canada, said : “The judges At this stage, we must be satisfied with the legal criterion, namely that there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that the persons listed are responsible for the accusations set out in the Prosecutor’s request. This is a weak legal barrier.
“Arrest warrants are virtually guaranteed due to the amount of work put into the prosecutor’s request and the low threshold that must be met. »
