BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee

Protection
realization of the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples.” 243 The international community has so far
failed to take action based on the ICJ ruling; some states have instead indicated that they may be inclined to recognize
the “new reality” created by Israel’s Wall in the 1967-occupied Palestinian territory.
On 20 July 2004, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution demanding that Israel and all member states comply
with the legal obligations stipulated in the Advisory Opinion, and requested that the Secretary-General establish a register
of damage caused to all natural or legal persons concerned. 244
In early 2005, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan forwarded a letter to the General Assembly setting out a framework for
the creation of such a register. According to this letter, the proposed registry “is not a compensation commission or claimsresolution
facility, nor is it a judicial or quasi-judicial body” but “a technical, fact-finding process of listing or recording
the fact and type of damage caused as a result of the construction of the Wall.” 245
On 15 December 2006, the General Assembly passed three resolutions pertaining to the establishment and functioning
of the Register. Resolution A/ES-10/L.20/Rev.1 officially established the Register of Damage to “serve as a record, in
documentary form, of the damage caused to all natural and legal persons concerned as a result of the construction of the
wall by Israel, the Occupying Power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem.” 246
The Register is to be a subsidiary organ of the UN, operating under the authority of the Secretary-General, and consisting
of a three-member Board and small secretariat headed by an Executive Director, as well as administrative and technical
staff, which will remain open for registration for the duration of the Wall in the occupied West Bank, including eastern
Jerusalem. 247 The Board will determine the eligibility criteria for the inclusion of damages and losses and the procedure
for the collection and registration of damage claims. 248
The Register of Damage will be based in Vienna and become operative in June 2007. It is required to co-operate with the
governments and authorities concerned to facilitate the process of collection, submission and processing of damage claims
in the OPT. 249 The Register of Damage will report to the General Assembly every six months.
4.6.9 Universal Jurisdiction
International law contains the obligation for states to prosecute perpetrators of war crimes and torture. Under the
principle of universal jurisdiction, some courts can exercise jurisdiction over gross violations of international human
rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law, regardless of where they were committed, and
often without the state having a connection to the perpetrator or the victim. “Universal jurisdiction laws seek to
prevent impunity, whereby human rights violators may evade accountability for their conduct.” 250 For example,
Spain, Belgium, Germany, and the United Kingdom have used these laws to convict criminals for human rights
abuses committed in other countries.
A number of initiatives have been undertaken in the past few years to hold accountable Israeli officials who allegedly
committed war crimes or crimes against humanity against Palestinians, including Palestinian refugees. One of
the first cases involved a complaint against then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for his role in the 1982 massacre at
the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila. More recently, cases have been brought in the United States, the United
Kingdom, New Zealand and other European states against Israeli military commanders and officials, including
those responsible for the one-ton bomb attack on a civilian area in Gaza in July 2002. 251 If found guilty, the
perpetrators of these crimes should be punished and reparation should be provided for harm suffered (see box on
reparations at the beginning of this chapter). However, for different reasons, all these cases have ended without
any satisfaction for the Palestinian victims. So universal jurisdiction provides some possibilities for the victims,
but there are certainly also many bariers to be overcome.
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