Amnesty International and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation on Friday criticised Switzerland’s cancellation of a conference by the High Contracting Parties (HCP) to the Geneva Conventions, requested by a 2024 UN General Assembly resolution, on the implementation of the Fourth Geneva Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory due to disagreement between participating parties.
The night before the conference was scheduled, Switzerland announced its cancellation, citing “profound differences between the high contracting parties”. Earlier in the week, Israel announced it would not participate in the planned Conference and urged other states not to attend.
“By failing to uphold their legal obligation to ensure respect for the Fourth Geneva Convention states have put political expediency above the legal obligations to protect civilians in war time, even in the face of Israel’s relentless grave breaches of the Convention and other serious violations of international humanitarian law across the OPT and the genocide in Gaza,” Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard said in a statement.
Switzerland, in its capacity as depositary of the Geneva Conventions, had invited 196 parties to the conventions to participate in the March 7 conference in Geneva on the situation of civilians living in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
The 2025 HCP Conference was tasked to focus on “measures to enforce the Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and to ensure respect thereof in accordance with common article 1 of the four Geneva Conventions”.
“The fact that states failed to fulfill their mandate to focus on enforcement of the Geneva Conventions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) is another blow to international law and a betrayal of victims of unlawful killings and other serious violations of international humanitarian law in the OPT and in Israel.”
In a statement responding to the conference’s cancellation, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation criticized the draft declaration, saying it “failed to fulfill the agreed mandate” and “was not commensurate with the gravity of the situation.”
According to OIC, “the Conference could have been a timely opportunity to agree on concrete measures to enforce the Fourth Geneva Convention in OPT and promote respect of the Convention.”
“Regrettably, despite the Group’s constructive engagement, including its positive suggestions and textual amendments during the preparatory process, most of its concerns and suggestions were not taken onboard. The OIC had made its position clear that it could not subscribe to an outcome that blurred the line between the perpetrator (Israel) and the victim (civilian population of the OPT),” OIC said in a statement.
“The draft declaration circulated by Switzerland among participating states after a non-transparent process failed to meet basic demands around the respect for international humanitarian law and shamefully failed to acknowledge the July 2024 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declaring Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, unlawful,” Callamard said.
“Ensuring respect for the Geneva Conventions at a minimum requires that all states suspend arms transfers to the parties to the conflict, cooperate towards ensuring accountability for violations of international law and support international institutions and mechanisms, including investigations by the International Criminal Court and UN Commission of Inquiry on the OPT,” She added.
