The Press Release (see below) points to one of the many tireless efforts of the former UN Deputy Human Rights Commissioner – who has been Acting HR Commissioner for much of his mandate – to draw the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) attention to the Zionist-Israeli genocide in Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria.

This is the third attempt.

The ICC Prosecutor simply does not respond. Even if the complainant is the former Acting UN Human Rights Commissioner.

Is this an indication of the Zionist Israeli power? Or the cowardice of the ICC and its hand-in-hand disregard and disrespect for Human Rights? Or is it fear for life that prevents the Prosecutor from acting on the complaint?

All is possible in today’s lawless world, where democracy has become a worthless, ridiculous slogan, where, as an  example, Romania, a EU country, a NATO country, has a leading conservative candidate, who is anti-EU and Anti-NATO and anti-Russian Sanctions candidate, leading by 20 points, losing the elections.

European “interference” is obvious and presented with as much proof as possible to the French media by Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, who has been told by the French Secret Service to suppress conservative votes. See this.

Human Rights? What for? We are moving ever faster into an irrecoverable abyss. It’s the matrix that implodes. But the Law of the Universe comprise all the Matrix, also those who believe they are in control of what is inside and outside of the matrix —they will be pulled down into the bottomless abyss, because there is nothing outside and above the Law of the Universe.

—Peter Koenig, May 27, 2025

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PRESS RELEASE 26 May 2025

GENEVA INTERNATIONAL PEACE RESEARCH INSTITUTE (GIPRI)

FOLLOW-UP COMMUNICATION TO THE ICC ON EU COMPLICITY IN GENOCIDE

By Alfred de Zayas

On 15 May 2025, the Geneva international Peace Researched Institute^[1] submitted a follow-up communication to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, calling for an investigation of the complicity by the European Commission, in particular by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Foreign Minister Kaja Kallas, in the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).

The follow-up communication, signed by 37 prominent experts in international law, including former UN rapporteurs, builds on the 29-page legal brief filed by GIPRI on 22 May 2024^[2], documenting the European Commission’s complicity within the meaning of article III e of the 1948 Genocide Convention and article VI of the Statute of Rome.  Hitherto the ICC Prosecutor has failed to initiate an investigation under article 15 of the ICC statute.

The 2024 and 2025 GIPRI communications document the military, economic, diplomatic, political and propagandistic support provided by Ursula von der Leyen, Kaja Kallas and others European officials to the State of Israel, thereby enabling it to continue perpetrating war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Palestinian people. The communications call for a total arms embargo against Israel.

GIPRI’s communication documents in detail the fact that European Commission officials are personally criminally responsible for complicity in the war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide having been committed (and still being committed) by the Israeli armed forces in the OPT, to the extent that they have aided, abetted and otherwise assisted in the commission or attempted commission of such crimes, within the meaning of Article 25(3)(c) of the Rome Statute. Mrs. von der Leyen and Kaja Kallas enjoy no functional immunity before the ICC by virtue of article 27 of the Statute.

Official statements expressing unconditional support to Israel amount to giving encouragement and moral support to members of the IDF, involved in the commission of crimes against the Palestinian population in the OPT. Should von der Leyen and others have acted pursuant to their legal duty to help prevent the commission of genocide, rather than sought to “ensure freedom of action for Israel in the continuation of the campaign”, the atrocities would have been less likely to occur.

GIPRI renews its call on the Prosecutor to initiate an investigation as also demanded by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese,^[3].  On 4 May 2025 Albanese called for accountability of  Ursula van der Leyen and other European Union officials for complicity in genocide^[4]: “The fact that the two highest figures of the EU continue business as usual engagements with Israel is beyond deplorable …I’m not someone who says, ‘History will judge them’ — they will have to be judged before then. And they will have to understand that immunity cannot equate with impunity.”^[5]

Since the filing of the May 2024 GIPRI communication, the genocide in Gaza has not only continued but has become more deliberate and systematic.  The complicity of European institutions is public record. At issue is not only the crime of complicity, but also the concerted effort to deny that the crimes and atrocities committed by Israeli forces against Palestinians constitute genocide, and the attempt by European institutions to downplay the use of hunger as a weapon of war and to postulate Israel’s so-called right of “self-defense”, which as Albanese and many professors of international law have stated, cannot be claimed by an occupying state, an occupation which moreover has been declared illegal by the ICJ.

Pursuant to numerous United Nations resolutions, it is the population under occupation that has a right of self-defense against the occupier. Moreover, under the Geneva Conventions an occupier must protect, not massacre a population, must ensure their safety and food security. The crime of apology of genocide can also be understood as a form of “incitement” to hatred and violence within the meaning of article III c of the Genocide Convention, and contrary to article 20 ICCPR.

GIPRI makes reference to the three orders of the International Court of Justice in the case South Africa v. Israel^[6], pertinent findings laid down in the ICJ Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024^[7], and the Reports of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel^[8]. In this connection, GIPRI highlights the oral submissions made by 39 countries before the ICJ in the hearings that took place from 28 April to 2 May 2025 concerning the forthcoming Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of Israel in relation to the Presence and Activities of the United Nations, Other International Organizations and Third States in and in relation to the Occupied Palestinian Territory.^[9]

GIPRI recalls the erga omnes obligations of all States to prevent genocide. If there was ever a case for the application of the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect (R2P), this is it!  GIPRI will continue demanding accountability and encourages non-governmental organizations and the legal community to submit additional information to the ICC under article 15 of the Rome Statute, addressing them to the International Criminal Court, Boîte Postale 19519, 2500 CM,
La Haye. Pays-Bas.  [email protected]    Fax +31 70 515 8555

They can also submit petitions online.  https://otplink.icc-cpi.int/faqs

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Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst, regular author for Global Research, and a former Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020). Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.

Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, Professor of international law and history at the Geneva School of Diplomacy, has been a visiting professor at numerous universities in the US, Canada, Germany, Spain and Switzerland. From 2012 to 2018 he was the UN’s Independent Expert on International Order and produced 14 reports for the UN General Assembly and Human Rights Council, formulating “ 25 Principles of International Order”. From 1980 to 2003 he was a senior lawyer with the UN Human Rights Office in Geneva, served as Secretary of the UN Human Rights Committee and Chief of the Petitions Department. He is the author of ten books including “Building a Just World Order” (Clarity Press, 2021), “The Genocide against the Armenians” (Haigazian University Press, Beirut, 2010, translated into Spanish and Polish), “United Nations Human Rights Committee Case Law” (N.P.Engel, Strasbourg, 2009). He has published numerous articles concerning the Armenian genocide and the right of self-determination of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh and has spoken on these issues before the European Parliament. He is a US and Swiss national, resides in Geneva, Switzerland, with his wife Carla, a Dutch jurist, and was President of P.E.N. International Centre Suisse from 2006-9 and again from 2013-17.

Featured image is from Rick Bajornas/United Nations/Flickr

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