‘We need to make it work’: Can international law deliver justice?

After the US authorities placed sanctions connected the United Nations’ peculiar rapporteur connected the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, her beingness turned upside down.

Credit cards stopped working, she told Al Jazeera. A edifice preservation booked by the European Parliament was cancelled. Medical security was denied. For Albanese, the consequences of her enactment connected Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian radical of Gaza were not conscionable nonrecreational — they were personal, too.

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“We are turned into non-persons,” she said astatine the Doha Forum, calling the sanctions imposed against her “unlawful” nether planetary law.

“But again, for me, it’s important that radical recognize the grade … the United States, Israel and others would spell to soundlessness the dependable of justice, the dependable of quality rights,” Albanese said.

As leaders, diplomats, and ineligible experts gathered successful Qatar’s superior for the Doha Forum this play nether the taxable “Justice successful Action: Beyond Promises to Progress”, the situation successful Gaza dominated discussions.

Allegations of genocide against Israel, repeated vetoes blocking UN ceasefire resolutions, and increasing unit connected planetary justness mechanisms person made Gaza a trial lawsuit for the rules-based planetary order, raising questions astir whether planetary instrumentality is susceptible of providing justice.

‘Sense of insecurity astir me’

According to Albanese’s ineligible assessments, Israel’s behaviour successful its warfare connected Gaza constitutes a genocide, a word that salient quality rights groups specified arsenic Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Israel’s B’Tselem person besides used.

When announcing the sanctions connected Albanese, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused her of waging a “campaign of governmental and economical warfare against the United States and Israel”. She says the allegation is baseless.

“I person been subjected to smear campaigns,” she said, adding that US officials person accused her of being an anti-Semite, of supporting violence, and of failing to condemn the crimes committed connected October 7 against Israeli civilians.

“It has created a consciousness of insecurity astir me. I person received threats from each corners,” Albanese said.

United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese is the UN’s adept connected the concern of quality rights successful the occupied Palestinian territory [File: Pierre Albouy/Reuters]

In summation to targeting Albanese, the US imposed sanctions successful August connected 9 judges and prosecutors of the International Criminal Court (ICC), including 2 European citizens, aft the tribunal began investigating alleged Israeli warfare crimes successful Gaza.

“This is mafia-style intimidation that we are subjected to, conscionable for doing our job,” Albanese noted, informing that sanctions and intimidation of ineligible experts acceptable a unsafe precedent.

“There volition beryllium that unit [on ICC judges and ineligible experts] that, if I spell connected this route, this is going to beryllium scrutinised. This is the idea, to marque it intolerable for the organisation, for the ICC to work,” she cautioned.

“Imagine that each US idiosyncratic interacting with us, idiosyncratic who works successful the US oregon is simply a citizen, could spell to jailhouse for up to 20 years. It creates a chilling effect.”

Western hesitance

In November 2024, the ICC issued apprehension warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and erstwhile Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged “war crimes”.

The US called the determination “outrageous”, and portion the United Kingdom and Canada said they would adhere to planetary law, they did not marque wide if they would uphold the warrant.

Many Western countries person not described Israel’s actions successful Gaza arsenic genocide and person continued to nonstop the state arms, contempt increasing allegations of warfare crimes occurring successful Gaza.

Albanese emphasised that nations continuing to transportation arms are failing successful their ineligible obligations.

“They person the work to forestall a genocide that has already been recognised arsenic plausible successful January 2024 by the International Court of Justice,” she said.

Janine Di Giovanni, co-founder of the Reckoning Project, which documents warfare crimes successful Sudan, Ukraine and Gaza, said the presumption of galore Western states reeked of a glaring “double standard”.

“There is 1 acceptable of laws and rules that pertain to Ukraine … and different acceptable for brownish and Black people,” she said, pointing to the ICC’s humanities absorption connected African leaders and the nonaccomplishment of Western powers to clasp Israel accountable.

Di Giovanni directed her disapproval astatine European Union overseas argumentation main Kaja Kallas, saying the erstwhile Estonian premier curate had been “negligent” erstwhile it came to Gaza.

“She points retired implicit and implicit again what [Russian President] Putin has done successful Ukraine, but not a connection astir Gaza,” she added.

“She’s the EU overseas argumentation chief. She has a work to constituent retired Israel’s criminality.”

Is planetary instrumentality inactive relevant?

With multilateral institutions and the planetary instrumentality strategy coming nether increasing unit from nation-states, Albanese said that planetary instrumentality does enactment and that “we request to marque it work”.

“I often marque the example, if a cure doesn’t work, would you trash each medicine? No,” she asserted.

“This is the archetypal genocide successful past that has awakened a conscience, a planetary conscience, and has the imaginable to beryllium stopped.”

Meanwhile, Reckoning Project’s Di Giovanni said the UN General Assembly could beryllium “activated to enactment astatine a higher level and a much effectual level than what they’re doing, portion the Security Council is blocked”.

“But possibly this shows america that we request to person a greater betterment for however the Security Council works,” she said.

Di Giovanni added that it was important to code the “extraordinary heinous crimes that Netanyahu and others” person committed, oregon other it would nonstop a connection that “impunity is rampant”.

“Without accountability, determination is nary planetary security,” she said.