Conference to tackle protecting civilians in Palestinian Territories
The protection of civilians in the occupied Palestinian Territories will be the focus of an international conference in Geneva next week, the Swiss Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.
The 196 signatories of the Geneva Conventions have been invited to the meeting on March 7 at a technical level, with UN ambassadors present, the ministry said.
A declaration, particularly concerning the Fourth Geneva Convention, which protects civilians who "find themselves, in case of a conflict or occupation, in the hands of a party to the conflict or occupying power of which they are not nationals," is planned, according to the ministry.
Similar meetings to reaffirm the Geneva Conventions were held in 1999, 2001 and 2014. The last of these saw participation from approximately 120 countries.
"The four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the two Additional Protocols of 1977 as well as the Additional Protocol of 2005 form the core of humanitarian international law," the Swiss Foreign Ministry stated. "They protect persons who are not, or are no longer, taking part in hostilities."
The conventions originated from an initiative by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) based in Geneva, which monitors their compliance. All states worldwide, including non-state actors, are bound by the conventions.
The ICRC describes its role as follows: "We take action to assist the victims of armed conflict and other violence, and at the same time promote respect for international humanitarian law and its implementation in domestic law."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Taliban urges Afghans to ‘come home' after Trump travel ban
The Taliban has urged Afghans hoping to emigrate to the US to return home after Donald Trump banned its citizens from entering the country. This week, the US president signed a sweeping travel ban targeting citizens from 12 countries, including Afghanistan, to stop 'foreign terrorists'. Responding to the ban on Saturday, Mohammad Hassan Akhund, the Afghan prime minister, urged citizens to return to their country, saying they would be protected even if they worked with US-led forces in the two-decade fight against the Taliban insurgency. 'For those who are worried that America has closed its doors to Afghans... I want to tell them, 'return to your country, even if you have served the Americans for 20 or 30 years for their ends, and ruined the Islamic system',' he said in a speech broadcast by state media. 'Come back to your ancestral land and live in an atmosphere of peace,' he added. The Taliban returned to power in 2021 after the withdrawal of US and UK troops. It led to a chaotic evacuation effort and forced millions to flee amid fears of reprisal for working with Washington. Although Taliban authorities declared a 'general amnesty' for those who worked with the Western-backed forces, the UN has since recorded hundreds of reports of extrajudicial killings, detentions and abuses. An investigation by the international body last year found that authorities were responsible for 218 extrajudicial killings of former government officials and Afghan forces, 14 enforced disappearances, over 144 instances of torture and ill treatment, and 424 arbitrary arrests and detentions between Aug 15 2021 and June 30 2023. Over the past four years, the Taliban government has also imposed harsh restrictions on women and girls which the UN says amount to 'gender apartheid'. In most provinces, women have been banned from travelling or leaving their houses without a man, prohibited from working, while girls are no longer allowed to attend secondary school or higher education. The US has not had a working embassy in Afghanistan since 2021 and Afghans must apply for visas in third countries, principally Pakistan, which has recently ramped up campaigns to expel Afghans. The Trump administration said the measure was meant to protect US citizens from 'aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes'. The move, which comes into effect on Monday, follows a terror attack in Colorado that authorities blamed on a man they said was in the country illegally. 'The recent terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, has underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted,' Mr Trump said in a video message from the Oval Office posted on X. 'We don't want them.' Credit: The White House His administration added that Afghanistan lacks a competent central authority for issuing passports or civil documents, lacks appropriate screening and vetting measures, and claimed that Afghans who visit the US have a high visa-overstay rate. In January, Mr Trump also suspended a core refugee programme, all but ending support for Afghans who had allied with the US and leaving tens of thousands of them stranded. On Saturday, Hibatullah Akhundzada, a leading Taliban figure, also weighed in, calling Mr Trump an 'oppressor'. He blamed the US for the deaths of Palestinian women and children in Gaza and linked this allegation to the travel ban. 'You are committing acts that are beyond tolerance,' he said. The US president also barred nationals of Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from entering the country. The ban is the latest move in Mr Trump's crackdown on immigration after he ended access to asylum at the US's southern border, ordered extensive immigration raids across the country and banned foreign students from Harvard. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
China confirms upcoming trade talks with the US
The Chinese government on Saturday confirmed Monday's meeting in the United Kingdom of its senior representatives with their US counterparts. Vice Premier He Lifeng will visit the UK from June 8 to 13 at the invitation of the British government, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry announced. During his stay, he will hold the first meeting regarding the economic and trade mechanism between China and the United States, the ministry said. It did not provide any additional details about the Chinese delegation. Trump announces talks US President Donald Trump announced on his online platform Truth Social on Friday that senior representatives from the US and China would meet in London for further trade talks. The US delegation will be led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Trump said. According to Trump, the talks will focus on the details of a trade agreement concluded in May between the two largest economies. In the tariff dispute, Trump had temporarily raised punitive tariffs on imports from China to the US to as much as 145%, prompting Beijing to respond with retaliatory tariffs. Disputes beyond tariffs Other contentious issues between the two countries include US restrictions on the sale of key technology products, such as chip design software, to China. Washington, in turn, is not happy with China's export controls on rare earths. The Commerce Ministry in Beijing once again justified the controls, stating that raw materials are goods for both civilian and military purposes, according to an evening statement. In line with the law, China has issued a certain number of export licences and is ready to strengthen exchanges with the relevant countries regarding rare earths.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Gaza rescuers say Israel fire kills 36, six of them near aid centre
Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 36 Palestinians on Saturday, six of them in a shooting near a US-backed aid distribution centre. The Israeli military told AFP that troops had fired "warning shots" at individuals that it said were "advancing in a way that endangered the troops". The shooting deaths were the latest reported near the aid centre run by the Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF) in the southern district of Rafah and came after it resumed distributions following a brief suspension in the wake of similar deaths earlier this week. Meanwhile, an aid boat with 12 activists on board, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, was nearing Gaza in a bid to highlight the plight of Palestinians in the face of an Israeli blockade that has only been partially eased. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that at around 7:00 am (0400 GMT), "six people were killed and several others wounded by the forces of the Israeli occupation near the Al-Alam roundabout", where they had gathered to seek humanitarian aid from the distribution centre around a kilometre (a little over half a mile) away. Palestinians have congregated at the roundabout almost daily since late May. AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls compiled by the civil defence agency or the circumstances of the deaths it reports. Samir Abu Hadid, who was there early Saturday, told AFP that thousands of people had gathered near the roundabout. "As soon as some people tried to advance towards the aid centre, the Israeli occupation forces opened fire from armoured vehicles stationed near the centre, firing into the air and then at civilians," Abu Hadid said. - Activist boat nears Gaza - The GHF, officially a private effort with opaque funding, began operations in late May as Israel partially eased a more than two-month-long aid blockade on the territory. UN agencies and major aid groups have declined to work with it, citing concerns it serves Israeli military goals. On Saturday, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said that the overall toll for the Gaza war had reached 54,772, the majority civilians. The UN considers these figures reliable. The war was sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures. Israel has come under increasing international criticism over the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, where the UN warned in May that the entire population was at risk of famine. The aid boat Madleen, organised by an international activist coalition, was sailing towards Gaza on Saturday, aiming to breach Israel's naval blockade and deliver aid to the territory, organisers said. "We are now sailing off the Egyptian coast," German human rights activist Yasemin Acar told AFP. "We are all good," she added. In a statement from London, the International Committee for Breaking the Siege of Gaza -- a member organisation of the flotilla coalition -- said the ship had entered Egyptian waters. The group said it remains in contact with international legal and human rights bodies and warned that any interception would constitute "a blatant violation of international humanitarian law". The Palestinian territory was under Israeli naval blockade even before Hamas's October 2023 attack and the Israeli military has made clear it intends to enforce it. "For this case as well, we are prepared," army spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said on Tuesday. - Body of Thai hostage recovered - "We have gained experience in recent years, and we will act accordingly." A 2010 commando raid on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, which was part of a similar attempt to breach Israel's naval blockade, left 10 civilians dead. The Israeli military has stepped up its operations in Gaza in recent weeks in what it says is a renewed push to defeat Hamas, whose October 2023 attack sparked the war. On Saturday, the military issued evacuation orders for neighbourhoods in northern Gaza, saying they had been used for rocket attacks. Separately, in a special operation in the Rafah area on Friday, Israeli forces retrieved the body of Thai hostage Nattapong Pinta, Defence Minister Israel Katz said. "Nattapong came to Israel from Thailand to work in agriculture, out of a desire to build a better future for himself and his family," Katz said. He was "brutally murdered in captivity by the terrorist organisation Mujahideen Brigades", the minister charged. The Mujahideen Brigades is an armed group close to Hamas ally Islamic Jihad that Israel has also accused over other deaths of hostages seized from Kibbutz Nir Oz near the border. The military said Nattapong's family and Thai officials had been notified of the operation. Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Nikorndej Balankura said the country was "deeply saddened" by his death. During the October 2023 attack, militants abducted 251 hostages, 55 of whom remain in Gaza, including 31 the Israeli military says are dead. bur-kir/dcp/ysm
