Some people think UN resolutions have no impact, but the latest ICC jurisdictional ruling which allowed the ICC Chief Prosecutor to open an investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes committed in “the territories occupied by Israel since 1967,” i.e., the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza, shows otherwise.
The Court cited 20 different UN resolutions to justify its conclusions that (1) Palestine qualifies as a “state” for purposes of the substantive provisions of the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding document, even if it doesn’t meet the criteria for statehood under international law; and (2) even though Palestine has no set borders and does not effectively control all of the aforementioned territories, the Court still can exercise jurisdiction over the entirety of those areas. In fact, the Court’s core legal analysis hinged on UN resolutions and actions, most prominently on General Assembly resolution 67/19 which upgraded Palestine’s status at the UN to a non-member observer state, thus enabling it to join international treaties such as the Rome statute.
LIST OF UN RESOLUTIONS CITED BY THE ICC
February 2021
Security Council Resolutions (3)
- United Nations, Security Council, 22 November 1967, S/RES/242 (1967).
- United Nations, Security Council, 22 March 1979, S/RES/446 (1979).
- United Nations, Security Council, 13 December 2016, S/RES/2334 (2016).
General Assembly Resolutions (17)
- United Nations, General Assembly, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, Resolution 2672 (XXV), 8 December 1970, A/RES/2672 (XXV).
- United Nations, General Assembly, Question of Palestine, Resolution 3236 (XXIX), 22 November 1974, RES/RES/3236 (XXIX).
- United Nations, General Assembly, Question of Palestine, Resolution 3376, 10 November 1975, RES/RES/3376 (XXX).
- United Nations, General Assembly, Question of Palestine, Resolution 37/86, 10 December 1982, A/RES/37/86.
- United Nations, General Assembly, Question of Palestine, 15 December 1988, A/RES/43/177.
- United Nations, General Assembly, Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, Resolution 57/107, 14 February 2003, A/RES/57/107.
- United Nations, General Assembly, Status of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, 6 May 2004, A/RES/58/292.
- United Nations, General Assembly, The right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, Resolution 62/146, 4 March 2008, A/RES/62/146.
- United Nations, General Assembly, The right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, 19 December 2011, A/RES/66/146.
- United Nations, General Assembly, Status of Palestine in the United Nations, 29 November 2012, A/RES/67/19.
- United Nations, General Assembly, Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine, Resolution 70/15, 4 December 2015, A/RES/70/15.
- United Nations, General Assembly, Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine, Resolution 71/23, 15 December 2016, A/RES/71/23.
- United Nations, General Assembly, Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine, Resolution 72/14, 7 December 217, A/RES/72/14.
- United Nations, General Assembly, The right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, Resolution 72/160, 23 January 2018, A/RES/72/160.
- United Nations, General Assembly, Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine, Resolution 73/19, 5 December 2018, A/RES/73/19.
- United Nations, General Assembly, Work of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories, Resolution 73/96, 18 December 2018, A/RES/73/96.
- United Nations, General Assembly, The right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, Resolution 73/158, 9 January 2019, A/RES/73/158.
