The United Nations headquarters in New York hosted an event featuring calls on the future of international judicial mechanisms. EU High Representative Kallas spoke at a side event titled “Humanitarian Diplomacy to Safeguard International Humanitarian Law,” held on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly.
Kallas said accountability was decisive in enforcing international humanitarian law. Calling for national courts, as well as international courts, the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court to be protected, Kallas urged the defence of existing judicial mechanisms.
Kallas said the International Criminal Court and its judges were under pressure, adding that the pressure was not limited to a single institution. She noted that this raised questions about the commitment to the international legal order established after the Second World War.
Kallas: The problem is impunity, not the law
Kallas said international law had become more developed and accessible than in the past, while the real problem was impunity, not the law. Saying that new mechanisms should be established where judicial mechanisms prove inadequate, Kallas said a way forward could be found as long as there was the will to deliver justice.
Kallas stressed the importance of collecting and preserving evidence so that legal cases could be properly prepared, and said accountability must be applied equally in all regions affected by conflict.
Call to preserve evidence in Gaza
Kallas said that before the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, the European Union had supported people documenting war crimes. She also said the EU had contributed to the establishment of a United Nations-led investigation in Afghanistan.
Kallas said evidence of possible war crimes must not be destroyed as debris removal begins in Gaza, adding that accountability could not be selective. She noted that selective accountability in Syria, Afghanistan, Gaza or anywhere else affected by conflict would call the entire system into question.
Kallas also said that the principles of international humanitarian law had been violated in Gaza, as well as in Ukraine, Sudan, Ethiopia, Haiti, Myanmar and Yemen. She said civilians had been killed in these regions, hospitals and schools had been targeted, and access to humanitarian aid had been blocked.
