"The Hague Group" is the first international coalition to prosecute Israel before international courts and support the establishment of the State of Palestine

In a first-of-its-kind coalition, nine countries launched on Friday, January 31, 2025, an alliance called the “Hague Group” with the aim of strengthening international law, ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza, and supporting the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.

The initiative to establish this group is "exceptional and unprecedented" according to observers, as an international coalition is being formed for the first time, and it clearly declares that it will work to hold "Israel" accountable for the crimes it commits and prosecute it before international courts.

The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) said on Sunday: “We commend the initiative of South Africa, Malaysia, Colombia, Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, Namibia, Senegal, and Belize, which established the Hague Group,” adding that the initiative is “an important and fundamental step towards working at the international level to end this racist and fascist occupation.”

The movement continued in its statement: “There is no end to the Zionist occupation regime without raising its cost and isolating it globally, similar to what happened to the apartheid regime in South Africa, and there is no deterrent to Zionist war criminals without achieving international justice against them, as was done to the leaders of Nazism and fascism.”

The movement called on the countries of the world to "join the group in victory for the humanity that the Zionist occupation regime has squandered in Palestine, and to restore the consideration of international humanitarian law and human rights laws whose principles were blown up in the war of extermination."

What is the Hague Group?

The Hague Group is a group of nine countries that announced on January 31, 2025, the establishment of a coalition with the aim of strengthening international law, ending the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza, and supporting Palestinian self-determination. In addition to coordinating efforts to confront Israel's violations of international law.

The announcement came during a conference held in The Hague, Netherlands, where representatives of nine countries in the Global South - South Africa, Malaysia, Colombia, Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, Namibia, Senegal, and Belize - expressed their rejection of silence regarding the crimes committed by "Israel".

The #Hague Group of nations, convened by the Progressive International, is today inaugurating and announcing a historic move, a coordinated state action against Israel 🇮🇱's violations of international law. @DIRCO_ZA Deputy Minister @alvinbotes representing 🇿🇦 pic.twitter.com/ThHpLhHf61

- Tali Munzhedzi MA (@Tali_Munzhedzi) January 31, 2025

Citing multiple rulings by the International Court of Justice, UN resolutions, and arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against Israeli leaders such as Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Galant, the group says Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip constitute genocide and violations of international law. The group stresses the legal duty of all states to prevent such crimes.

What commitments and obligations has the Hague Group adopted?

In their statement, representatives of the founding countries announced a set of commitments that they will work on, most notably:

1- Preventing the transfer of weapons and military equipment to “Israel” in cases where there is evidence of a risk that these weapons will be used to violate international humanitarian law or human rights, or to commit crimes of genocide.

2- Preventing ships loaded with fuel or military equipment from docking in the ports of these countries, if there is a clear risk that these shipments will be used to support Israeli military operations that violate international law in the occupied Palestinian territories.

3- Compliance with the United Nations General Assembly Resolution No. “ A/RES/ES-10/24 ” issued on September 18, 2024, which recognized the illegality of the Israeli occupation and demanded that “Israel” end its illegal presence in the occupied Palestinian territories within a maximum period of 12 months.

4- Supporting the requests of the International Criminal Court and implementing the obligations stipulated in the Rome Statute, especially with regard to the arrest warrants issued on November 21, 2024 against the leaders of the occupation, in addition to the interim measures issued by the International Court of Justice during the same year, to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza, and to improve the humanitarian situation in the besieged sector for 19 years.

5- Affirming and committing to continue “taking effective measures to end the Israeli occupation, and supporting the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and the establishment of their independent state.” And calling on all countries to take concrete steps to end the Israeli occupation and support efforts to achieve peace and justice.

6- Urging the international community to join the Hague Group and adhere to the principles of the international system based on the rule of law, as a basis for peaceful coexistence and cooperation among states.

How will the Hague Group support the International Courts of Justice and the International Criminal Court?

The Guardian reports that “the formation of the Hague Group comes amid challenges to the rulings of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court,” and the great pressure they are facing from the United States and President Donald Trump, who has introduced a bill that would impose wide-ranging sanctions on the International Criminal Court because the court issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Galant.

According to the newspaper, South Africa and Malaysia will launch a campaign to protect and support the rulings of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court in the face of what it described as defiance of the orders of the International Court of Justice and the attempts of the US Congress to strike the International Criminal Court through the use of sanctions, after the two courts pursued the Israeli occupation and its leaders.

The move comes at a time when the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice are facing unprecedented challenges to their authority in cases related to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine and people smuggling in the Mediterranean.

South Africa's Minister of International Relations, Ronald Lamola, said the campaign aims to ensure compliance with international law and protect vulnerable groups. "The establishment of the Hague Group sends a clear message that no country is above the law and no crime will go unpunished," he added.

South Africa filed a lawsuit against Israel before the International Court of Justice, accusing it of committing genocide in Gaza. The occupying state rejected this claim and launched a counter-campaign to respond to South Africa and the countries that joined it in its lawsuit before the International Court of Justice.

The Guardian says that these steps, which will be determined by the group, reflect the growing anger in the global south over what is seen as double standards by Western powers when it comes to international law.

The International Criminal Court is at risk of sanctions from the Trump administration, but the international community and the court have the tools to respond, experts say, according to the British website MEE .

Senate Republicans are pressuring Trump to issue a new executive order against the court, as Netanyahu is scheduled to visit the White House on Tuesday, February 4, 2025.

The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC, and therefore is not legally obligated to arrest Netanyahu and extradite him to The Hague, said Adam Keith, accountability director at Human Rights First. Depending on who is responsible and how many are targeted, sanctions have the potential to halt the court’s operations, Keith said.

“We know from the experience of 2020 that the court can keep the lights on and continue to function if it has two prosecutors on the roster,” Keith told Middle East Eye. But he added that if the numbers were larger, the impact could be significant.

In the 2020 order, Trump claimed that the ICC's investigations into the United States constituted a national emergency, necessitating the sanctions.

“This time, he (Trump) could have done exactly the same thing,” said Keith, who served for ten years as a civil servant in the US State Department (2007-2017). “He could have even copied and pasted the exact text of the executive order.”

But according to Kenneth Roth, an American lawyer who served for three decades as executive director of Human Rights Watch until 2022, Trump should fear the consequences of his decision to sanction the ICC.

“If Trump takes this step, he should not expect the same negative response he got from Fatou Bensouda,” Roth told Middle East Eye, referring to the former ICC prosecutor who Trump has imposed sanctions on.

“Karim Khan could easily have acted differently,” he added, citing the ICC’s authority to bring charges of obstruction of justice against those who try to pressure its staff.

“The penalties will be fully proportionate to what is prohibited by the crime of obstruction of justice,” Roth explained. Article 70 of the Rome Statute prohibits crimes against the administration of justice, including: “obstructing, intimidating or corruptly influencing an official of the Court for the purpose of compelling or persuading him not to perform his duties or to perform them improperly; and retaliating against an official of the Court on account of duties performed by him or another official.”

"The threat is not arrest, but that Trump may not be able to travel to most European countries," Roth added.

All 125 ICC member states, including all EU countries, are required to cooperate with the court if an official is indicted.

“Trump’s world will get a lot smaller,” Roth said, citing the example of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has restricted his travel, including to the BRICS summit in South Africa, after an arrest warrant was issued for him by the International Criminal Court in 2022.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Evenson, director of Human Rights Watch's international justice program, warned that sanctions on the ICC would have immediate repercussions on human rights groups and nongovernmental organizations that engage with the court.

She said that once sanctions are imposed on an ICC official, US-based NGOs will have to comply with the sanctions or face sanctions.

These international rights experts say that the states parties to the International Criminal Court should publicly oppose the idea of sanctions, in order to send a message to Washington that they will work collectively to protect the court.

That's what happened last Monday when ICC member states expressed their support for the court during a session of the UN Security Council, where Khan briefed the council on the situation in Darfur.

Therefore, if sanctions are issued, there are measures that ICC member states can take to counter their impact. It is possible, for example, to use the blocking statute to protect the court within Europe.

Ultimately, the EU blocking law is a regulation that aims to protect EU companies and individuals from the effects of extraterritorial sanctions imposed by third countries, essentially preventing them from complying with foreign laws that might harm their business operations within the EU, even if those laws target activities outside the EU’s jurisdiction.

The law primarily focuses on protecting EU operators from certain US sanctions that are considered extraterritorial, such as those imposed on Cuba and Iran.

In a statement to MEE , the European Union expressed its support for the court and its opposition to potential sanctions. An EU spokesperson said: “We are following the process in the US closely and are also in contact with the International Criminal Court.”

“The European Union and its Member States are strongly committed to supporting international criminal justice and combating impunity. We support the International Criminal Court and the principles enshrined in the Rome Statute. The European Union respects the independence and impartiality of the Court,” he added.

Source: Yemen Youth Net + Arabi Post