LETTERS: BASED on South Africa's legal action against Israel for genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), we should seriously consider bringing similar legal action against the United States on a similar matter.
On record, the US has been supporting and assisting Israel with a lot of money and military equipment which Israel has used to commit atrocities against the Palestinians.
From a legal point of view, the US should be equally responsible for committing atrocities against the Palestinians. Thus, the US should be prosecuted at the ICJ too for committing genocide.
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), or the Genocide Convention, is an international treaty that criminalises genocide and obligates state parties to pursue the enforcement of its prohibition.
It was the first legal instrument to codify genocide as a crime, and the first human rights treaty unanimously adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, on Dec 9, 1948, during the third session of the UNGA.
The Convention entered into force on Jan 12, 1951, and has 152 state parties as of 2022. The Convention defines genocide as any of five "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group".
These five acts include killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children out of the group. Countries which are members of this Convention should not commit genocide or associate themselves with any actions which can give rise to genocide.
Article 2 of the Genocide Convention defines genocide as ... any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Article 3 of the Genocide Convention defines the crimes that can be punished under the convention namely genocide; conspiracy to commit genocide; direct and public incitement to commit genocide; attempt to commit genocide, and complicity in genocide.
Both the US and Israel are the parties to this Genocide Convention. As such, both should be accountable for all their actions. Israel has been a party to the Genocide Convention since 1951. US President Ronald Reagan signed and accepted the Genocide Convention in 1988.
Malaysia signed the Genocide Convention in 1994. Therefore, Malaysia can emulate South Africa and initiate legal action against the US at the ICJ for its involvement in atrocities against the Palestinians due to its continuous support and military assistance to Israel.
DR MUZAFFAR SYAH MALLOW
Associate Professor,
Faculty of Syariah & Law,
University Sains Islam Malaysia
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times
