The General Assembly has set 15 July 1999 as the target date for an unprecedented meeting of the states that have signed the Fourth Geneva Convention. The meeting, if it occurs, is to examine Israel’s record under that law.
Analysis: Adopted 50 years ago, the four Geneva Conventions are key written texts of the law of war. Extending protection to sick, wounded and captured combatants, as well as to civilians, the Conventions have been ratified by 188 states.
Not once in the past five decades has the Fourth Geneva Convention – the one that applies to civilians – been invoked against a state. Yet now, responding to the call of the political Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly, the signatories may convene to examine only Israel’s record under the Convention.
Using the Conventions to make a political statement sets a precedent to be feared. What values remain to be upheld if humanitarian law becomes a tool for diplomatic message-sending? Which situations will next be examined in a one-sided and politicized fashion? The Geneva Conventions must not be tarnished by those who would internationalize the Arab-Israeli conflict.
States that voted in the GA for holding the meeting must seriously examine their motivations. “Displeasure” with a particular government is insufficient grounds for invoking the Conventions. “Sending a message” is no reason to threaten a state with censure of the most profound kind. “Keeping consensus among allies” elevates internal group dynamics above the level of international legal principle.
If international relations are to be increasingly legalized – a trend reinforced last July with the adoption of the Rome Statute for an International Criminal Court – then the law must be applied universally. It cannot be applied selectively; it cannot be applied partially; it cannot be applied vindictively. It cannot be applied as would surely occur in July.
With Israel’s recent elections, a new government means a rededication to peace talks. If peace is genuinely the goal of the international community, then not only the principle, but also the timing of the Geneva Convention meeting will undermine this objective.
