This is an unprecedented position since the start of the conflict which has raged since October 7 and the Hamas attack in Israel.
The UN Human Rights Council on Friday demanded a halt to all arms sales to Israel at war with Hamas in Gaza, in a resolution citing fears of “genocide” against the Palestinians.
47 votes for
The draft resolution (A/HRC/55/L.30) was examined since Friday morning by the Human Rights Council.
Twenty-eight of the 47 members of the Council voted in favor of the text. Among them, we find Belgium, Brazil, Morocco and even South Africa. France, India and Georgia abstained. Argentina, Germany and the United States spoke out against it.
Although this position is unprecedented and symbolically strong, it must be remembered that the Human Rights Council has no binding means of imposing its resolutions.
France abstained
France abstained because the reference to genocide cannot “be included in a text of a scope such as that of a resolution of this Council without the qualification having been validated by a jurisdictional authority empowered to do so. to do,” explained Ambassador Jérôme Bonnafont.
The resolution, which was very critical of Israel, was amended again on Thursday to try to rally as many members as possible. Although the reference to the notion of genocide has thus been removed in several passages of the text, it nevertheless continues to refer to it by “expressing its deep concern in the face of information indicating […] possible war crimes and crimes against humanity” and facing “the determination of the International Court of Justice that there is a plausible risk of genocide.”
Growing international pressure
This resolution comes as the Hamas Ministry of Health has just announced a new toll bringing to 33,091 the number of people killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement.
On Thursday, for the first time, Joe Biden raised the possibility of conditioning American aid to Israel on “tangible” measures on Gaza. Following which Israel announced that it was authorizing the “temporary” delivery of aid to the Gaza Strip.