The International Court of Justice issued a press release today to announce that the nation of Nicaragua has filed an application for “permission to intervene ‘as a party’” into the case of South Africa v. Israel. “Nicaragua states that it ‘has interests of a legal
nature that stem from the rights and obligations imposed by the Genocide Convention on all State Parties’ and flow from ‘the universal character both of the condemnation of genocide and of the cooperation required “in order to liberate mankind from such an odious scourge.”’”
Nicaragua’s full filing will be posted soon.
Citing various Articles of the Genocide Convention, the release states the relief which Nicaragua seeks by intervening into the case. First, it asserts that both South Africa and Israel “each have a duty to act in accordance with their obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, in relation to the members of the Palestinian group, to take all reasonable measures within their power to prevent genocide.”
Then, secondly, Nicaragua argues six reasons with respect to the State of Israel, for why it seeks to intervene. First, the State of Israel “has breached and continues to breach its obligations under the Genocide Convention….” In the next two points: b) it demands that Israel
“must cease forthwith any acts and measures in breach of those obligations … which would be capable of killing or continuing to kill Palestinians….” And c) it “must ensure that persons committing genocide, conspiring to commit genocide, directly and publicly inciting genocide, attempting to commit genocide and complicit in genocide … are punished by a competent national or international tribunal….”
Fourth, it “must collect and conserve evidence … of genocidal acts committed against Palestinians in Gaza, including such members of the group displaced from Gaza….”
Nicaragua’s fifth point of interest to intervene seeks to have the State of Israel “perform the obligations of reparation in the interest of Palestinian victims, including but not limited to allowing the safe and dignified return of forcibly displaced and/or abducted Palestinians to their homes, respect for their full human rights and protection against further discrimination, persecution, and other related acts, and provide for the reconstruction of what it has destroyed in Gaza….”
It is noteworthy that the Nicaragua government also announced on Feb. 1, that it had notified the governments of the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, and Canada, that if they continue to sell weapons to Israel and to suspend their withdrawal of funding for the UN Relief and Welfare Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Nicaragua would file charges against each of them at the International Court of Justice for violations of the Genocide Convention.
