Category: UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide Statements

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Genocide scholars pull out of Israel conference by Ali Abunimah

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The vice-president of the International Network of Genocide Scholars has pulled out of the group’s conference at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, following appeals by Palestine solidarity campaigners. BDS South Africa, an organization supporting the Palestinian call for a boycott of Israel, has announced that University of Cape Town professor Mohamed Adhikari had informed it that he has withdrawn his presentation from the conference. The British genocide scholar Martin Shaw has also announced he is pulling out of the conference, which begins Sunday. Earlier this week, South Africa’s Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation also withdrew from the conference, citing concerns about Israel’s violations of Palestinian human rights… At least 270 academics from 19 different countries heeded that call and signed their names to a letter urging conference organizers “to act in a principled way” and relocate the event to another country.

Continue reading at https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/genocide-scholars-pull-out-israel-conference

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Why I’m not discussing genocide in Jerusalem by Martin Shaw

Please TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW and send your letter to the UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the International Criminal Court Prosecutor.

Thus far, I am sympathetic to the ambitions for this conference. Its programme is impressive. My absence, however, is not accidental. It is one thing to avoid political commitments, as INOGS has managed to do up to now. It is another, when holding an event in a site of conflict, to accept the position advocated by one side and to reject the position adopted by the other. Whether INOGS likes it or not, the academic boycott of Israel is part of this conflict.

Continue reading at https://martinshaw.org/2016/06/24/why-im-not-discussing-genocide-in-jerusalem/

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UN genocide official warned not to be complicit in Israel’s crimes on The Electronic Intifada

Please TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW and send your letter to the UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the International Criminal Court Prosecutor.

Pressure has continued to mount on organizers of a major international conference on genocide to move the venue from Jerusalem… One of the scheduled conference speakers is Adama Dieng, special adviser on the prevention of genocide to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Last month, more than two dozen civil society and human rights groups from around the world published a letter urging Dieng to withdraw from the conference… Dieng did not respond to The Electronic Intifada’s requests for comment.

Continue reading at https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/un-genocide-official-warned-not-be-complicit-israels-crimes

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United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, still avoiding his responsibility towards the Palestinian people (UN News Center, 2014)

Not a single country is immune to the risk of genocide, said the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Prevention of Genocide today as he marked the 66th anniversary of the signing of the 1948 Genocide Convention. “As we continue to fight and to realize the objectives, we pay tribute to the millions of men and women who have lost their lives to genocide,” said Mr. Adama Dieng as he briefed reporters at UN Headquarters in New York, as part of a series of events in the run-up to Human Rights Day, commemorated annually on 10 December.

“We owe to them and to ourselves and future generations to realize a world free of genocide. We are still far from that, but we aim to make it happen,” he added. “Genocide must and can be prevented if we have the will of applying the lessons learned from Rwanda, Srebrenica, and the Holocaust. It is important to identify risk factors that would lead to genocide rather than to wait to when people are being killed…”

Answering a question on Gaza, he said he was not here to make a legal determination of genocide but analyse the risk of genocide. Last summer’s conflict may have led to crimes against humanity or war crimes. He was aware of Israel’s disproportionate military response. But when you send rockets from a civilian area, like Hamas did, that is a crime as well.

Continue reading at http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=49556#.VIg9A2SUchM

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Statement by the Special Advisers on the Prevention of Genocide on the situation in Israel and in the Palestinian Occupied Territory of Gaza Strip (July 2014)

Dieng and Welsh stated that the high number of civilian casualties, particularly among the Palestinians, could demonstrate disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by the Israeli Defence Forces. At the same time, the launching of rocket attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups into Israeli residential areas constitutes indiscriminate use of force. In this context, “both parties are in violation of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and these acts could constitute atrocity crimes”, the two Special Advisers observed.
The Special Advisers urge all parties to adhere to the principles of distinction between civilians and combatants, and between civilian objects and military objectives. They also call upon the Israeli Defence Forces to fully respect the principle of proportionality…

Israel, as the Occupying Power, the Palestinian Authority, and Hamas, have the responsibility to protect the population in Gaza. The Special Advisers call on the three parties to take immediate measures to ensure the protection of the population.

Continue reading at http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/adviser/pdf/24.07.2014%20Special%20Advisers’%20Statement%20on%20the%20situation%20in%20Israel%20and%20the%20occupied%20Gaza%20strip.pdf

TAKE ACTION now and write a letter to the UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide. Make sure to post a copy of the letter in our comments as well, so we can publish it.