In Iran, approximately 2,345 people have been arrested on charges related to “national security.” Many of these, as well as more arbitrarily arrested during the January protests, are being held in harsh conditions and incommunicado detention. The state has also cut internet access to prevent external sharing of information. Three protesters were publicly hanged in March after being convicted of “waging war against God” based on “confessions” obtained under torture. Many more are at imminent risk of execution.

Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, issued a statement stressing the grave nature of this situation:

It is unconscionable that even as the population is reeling from conflict and mass bereavement amid the ongoing aerial bombardment by Israel and the USA, the authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran continue to weaponize the death penalty to eradicate dissenting voices and further terrify people.

The wave of repression and arbitrary detentions extends across the Midlle East. In Bahrain, activist Sayed Mohammed al-Mousawi died in custody in March after suspected torture. Human Rights Watch has also decried Bahrain’s blanket ban on protests.

In Qatar and the UAE, authorities have announced hundreds of detentions for sharing information showing the impact of strikes. In Kuwait, authorities imposed a new decree of imprisonment and steep fines for anyone who “undermine[s] the prestige of the military” or works toward eroding public trust in the armed forces. In Jordan, at least four government critics have been arrested. For example, Omar Awad was taken from the streets by security forces without explanation and has been denied contact with his family and lawyers.

In Palestine, Türk warned of similar trends. Israeli authorities have detained 200 Palestinians on the occupied West Bank since the US-Israeli war on Iran began, including for posting on social media, or on suspicion of “incitement” or “glorifying the enemy.” Rights groups have also reported a rise in direct violence by Israeli forces and settlers. One school principal in Dura, outside Hebron, was physically assaulted and had his home vandalized by Israeli authorities in response to a post he reportedly published in support of Iran. Israel has also recently passed legislation providing for a death penalty to apply selectively to Palestinians for particular crimes.

Türk summarized the increased restrictions on rights, stating:

We are witnessing a sharp securitisation of civic space across the region, with severe restrictions imposed by governments on people exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. Waves of arrests and broad clampdowns, mostly on vaguely defined accusations, have had a deeply chilling effect on people, many of whom are already living with uncertainty, fear and anxiety.

Türk called on states to respect their obligations under international human rights law related to freedom of expression and assembly, ensuring access to legal counsel, due process, and a fair trial.

From JURIST, April 2. Used with permission. Internal links added.

Image: Pixabay

Órlaith Roe, the ICJP’s public affairs and communications officer, spoke critically of the proposed legislation, stating:

Israel’s targeted killing of Palestinians is part of a longstanding and deeply disturbing pattern. The death penalty bill contravenes the very foundations of international law and marks a draconian escalation in Israel’s codification of ethnic cleansing policies against Palestinians. It not only constitutes a direct assault on the right to life, but does so in a manner that is both openly discriminatory and grossly disproportionate.

The Knesset has recently debated two related controversial bills. One would expand death penalty sentencing to the occupied West Bank by amending the Israeli Penal Law 5737-1977 and relevant military regulations. The other would introduce special provisions and create a special military court to prosecute those accused of involvement in the October 7, 2023 attacks in southern Israel. In both cases, death by hanging is mandated.

The proposed legislation would impose the death penalty as a mandatory sentence for any person who willfully or negligently causes the death of an Israeli citizen out of a motive of “racism or hostility toward the public,” aiming to “harm the state of Israel” or the “revival of the Jewish people in its homeland.” The sentencing provision would only apply in military courts that oversee cases involving West Bank Palestinians, while Israeli citizens accused of similar acts would likely face lower sentencing standards.

Human rights organizations in January this year warned that the proposed bills may constitute some of the most extreme and dangerous legislative measures ever employed by Israel against Palestinians.

Although several provisions of Israeli law allow for the imposition of the death penalty, both within Israel and on the West Bank, Israel has become a de facto abolitionist state with respect to capital punishment, having not carried out an execution since 1962. However, if brought to the floor, passage of the “Death Penalty for Terrorists Bill” is highly likely given broad political support across both coalition and opposition parties.

From JURIST, March 31. Used with permission.

Update: The bill mandating the death penalty for West Bank Palestinians convicted in “terrorist” attacks was passed by the Knesset on March 30. The bill to retroactively impose the death penalty for those accused in the October 7 attacks remains pending. (ToI)

Photo: RJA1988 via Jurist

The report stated: “The displacement in the occupied West Bank…at the hands of the Israeli military appears to indicate a concerted Israeli policy of mass forcible transfer throughout the occupied territory, aimed at permanent displacement, raising concerns of ethnic cleansing.”

The report charged that the military has enabled the drastic escalation in settler violence on the West Bank: “Settler violence continued in a coordinated, strategic and largely unchallenged manner, with Israeli authorities playing the central role in directing, participating in or enabling this conduct.”

The pervasive and persistent impunity prevents the implementation of an effective solution to reduce settler violence, the report stated. “Israeli measures to formally and informally support the militarization of the settler movement both amplified the severity of settler violence against Palestinians and rendered it extremely difficult to distinguish between instances of settler violence and instances of State violence.”

In addition, Israeli authorities are implementing policies to render their annexation of West Bank territory irreversible.

The report found that the Israeli military’s transfer of power to civilian settler authorities and measures taken to confiscate Palestinian lands for settlement expansion “amounted to an institutionalised regime of systematic discrimination, oppression and violence by Israel against Palestinians,” violating the international prohibition on racial segregation and apartheid.

According to the report, UN member states’ efforts to end and prevent Israeli settler violence through sanctions remained largely ineffective:

Sanctions previously imposed by the United States of America were rescinded on 20 January 2025, while sanctions by other States have primarily targeted individual settlers rather than affiliated entities or organizations, lessening the capacity of such measures to combat widespread, concerted settler violence. Sanctioned individuals have frequently circumvented restrictions by transferring assets or receiving financial support from pro-settlement networks.

In October 2025, a total of 42 settler attacks resulted in 131 injured Palestinians, the highest number recorded in a single month since 2006. The report also found that gender-based violence was a contributing factor triggering displacement. “Other attacks led to family separation, in which women and children were forced to leave, while male family members remained to attempt to retain possession of lands and properties.”

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called on Israel “to immediately and completely cease and reverse the establishment and expansion of settlements, for the evacuation of all settlers, and an end to the occupation of Palestinian territory.”

From JURIST, March 19. Used with permission.

Photo: B’Tselem

Thameen Al-Kheetan, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that Israeli strikes in Lebanon have killed hundreds, including children, and destroyed homes and healthcare facilities, while Hezbollah rockets have injured civilians in Israel. Mass displacement has forced families into overcrowded areas, with access to healthcare, food and education severely disrupted.

Israeli warnings and forced displacement orders, coupled with open threats of Gaza-level destruction, have deepened fears and worsened humanitarian conditions, Al-Kheetan said. He added:

In many instances, Israeli airstrikes have destroyed entire residential buildings in dense urban environments, with multiple members of the same family, including women and children, often killed together. Such attacks raise serious concerns under international humanitarian law. People displaced by the fighting and living in tents along Beirut’s seafront have also been hit. And in recent days, at least 16 medical staff have been killed.

The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health confirmed that since March 2, Lebanon has recorded 912 deaths, including 111 children, and 2,221 injured in attacks.

Article 48 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, Additional Protocol 1 mandates that parties to a conflict must distinguish between civilians and combatants, and between “civilian objects and military objectives.” Parties must direct their operations only toward military objectives. Israel’s apparent targeting of civilians and civilian objects in Lebanon potentially constitute war crimes, Al-Kheetan found.

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk has called for an immediate halt to the fighting and accountability for all violations. He also urged the international community to increase support for Lebanon’s humanitarian response.

From JURIST, March 17. Used with permission.

Image via Flickr

The interventions illuminate the legal issues the court will be facing at trial. One key issue is what constitutes the mens rea, or the mental threshold, of the crime of genocide. According to Namibia, the court may infer the required genocidal intent based on the scale, systematic nature, intensity, duration, and repetition of acts listed in Article II of the Genocide Convention. It is also Namibia’s contention that other acts, such as forced displacement, starvation of civilians, and repeated killing of children, are relevant, if not compelling evidence, in determination of the required genocidal intent.

On the other hand, Hungary, Fiji and the US asked the court to maintain a high threshold in inferring genocidal intent from a “pattern of conduct.” They contended that the court may only rely on such criteria when the pattern of conduct is so unambiguous that genocidal intent is the “only reasonable inference.” Hungary argued that the Genocide Convention drafters intended a narrow scope for the crime of genocide, such that its exceptional gravity is distinguished from other internationally wrongful acts and breaches of international humanitarian law. Hungary warned that any attempt to broaden the scope of criteria for genocide risks blurring that boundary and opening the floodgates to politicized litigation.

Apart from the mental element, Namibia argued that the crime of genocide can be committed by either action or omission, including failing to provide life-sustaining necessities or withholding humanitarian assistance.

Fiji stressed the context of urban warfare. The nation called on the court to consider the deliberate use of civilian infrastructure by combatants  to maximize civilian casualties when the other party takes military actions. Fiji warned that if the court decides to include such military actions in the crime of genocide, this could expose states to genocide charges when they participate in peacekeeping missions, criminalizing actions that would be legitimate but for a terrorist organization’s strategy of using civilians as shields.

Fiji also urged the court not to allocate special probative status to UN reports, arguing that these reports rely on secondary sources that are not necessarily accurate and are not disinterested witnesses. In September 2025, an independent UN commission concluded that the Israeli forces have committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Earlier this week, the Netherlands and Iceland also filed declarations of intervention. The Netherlands called upon the court to lower the threshold for “serious bodily or mental harm” when the victim is a child. Iceland warned that the “only reasonable inference” standard should not render inferring genocidal intent effectively impossible.

The court has invited South Africa and Israel to file written observations following these submissions.

From JURIST, March 14. Used with permission. Internal links added.

See our last reports on the ICJ case and genocide accusations against Israel.

Photo: ICJ

The experts also noted Israel’s restriction of Palestinians’ ability to participate in religious life, especially during the current holy month of Ramadan. In 2025, there were 73,871 settler incursions into al-Aqsa mosque compound. Additionally, al-Aqsa mosque has been closed to practitioners following the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The group of experts, including Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, stated:

Under the cover of an existential war against the Palestinians, Israel is accelerating measures that alter Jerusalem’s demographic composition, religious character and legal status, destroying the remnants of the pluralistic fabric that Jerusalem has represented for centuries, for Muslims, Christians and Jews… What is being done to this world symbol of spiritual coexistence and shared heritage is irreversible.

The statement warned of a “de-Palestinisation” of Jerusalem.

Urging immediate international action, the statement called on all states to refrain from “recognizing or aiding” the ongoing occupation of Palestinian territories. In July 2024, the International Court of Justice ruled in an advisory opinion that the continued Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories is unlawful. In the opinion, the court stated that Israel must “cease immediately all new settlement activities, and…evacuate all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

Earlier this month, Amnesty International warned that Israeli authorities have intentionally implemented policies aimed at dispossessing Palestinians in the West Bank, rendering the occupied territory’s annexation “irreversible.” The United Nations Human Rights Council in a new report also found that Israeli policy and settler violence in the West Bank are aimed at uprooting Palestinian communities.

The experts who drafted the warning are Francesca Albanese, Ben Saul, Ashwini K.P., Gina Romero, George Katrougalos, Tlaleng Mofokeng, Michael Fakhri and Surya Deva. The eight are members of the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. The Special Procedures constitute the largest body of independent experts in the UN human rights system. The experts are independent and work on a voluntary basis, not receiving a salary for their work.

From JURIST, March 7. Used with permission. Internal links added.

Photo: RJA1988 via Jurist

“The ‘Board of Peace’ is a dangerous assault on international law, a mechanism designed to bypass the UN, weaken international justice institutions, and entrench the power dynamics that have long enabled Israel’s unlawful occupation, apartheid, and ongoing genocide in Gaza,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, senior director for research and advocacy at Amnesty International.

Guevara-Rosas added: “Any EU engagement that does not place Palestinians’ rights at its core risks complicity in violations, which are [more] likely to occur if this fundamentally flawed mechanism is not urgently made rights-compliant and aligned with international law.”

Guevara-Rosas further urged: “The EU and its member states must be absolutely clear: this body is no substitute for the UN, the international human rights framework, or the global justice system painstakingly built over decades to uphold universal values, cooperation, and equality.”

On Jan, 22, US President Donald Trump ratified the Charter of the Board of Peace, establishing the board as an official international organization. Trump serves as the chairman, with no mechanism for succession. Last November, the UN Security Council endorsed the BoP in Resolution 2803, as an international entity to maintain peace and security in Gaza, develop its infrastructure, disarm militants, and establish a viable Palestinian Authority.

Notably, the BoP Charter does not actually include any mention of Gaza, and Israeli news reports indicate that the US envisions the BoP resolving other global conflicts. Ali Khan, emeritus professor at the Washburn University School of Law, argues that “the BoP’s expanded scope in the Charter conflicts with Resolution 2803 and diverts attention from the work needed in Gaza to Trump’s self-authorizing roving agenda to settle wars.”

From JURIST, Feb. 23. Used with permission. Internal links added.

Photo: WAFA via WikimediaCommons

With many European countries hesitant to join, whether it will get off the ground remains to be seen. But the White House has also announced the Palestinian committee that is supposed to govern Gaza under the board’s supervision. The overall imperial bent of the Board of Peace and its troubling composition seem to confirm fears that Trump’s “peace plan” is leading nowhere good. For example, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted an invitation to join the board. Not only is he wanted on war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court, but this means he is now pencilled in to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza, a territory where many accuse him of directing a genocide.

From The New Humanitarian, Jan. 23. Internal links added.

Image via Wikipedia

The rights chief asserted that Israel has frequently violated the fair trial protections enshrined in the Fourth Geneva Convention for Palestinians in the West Bank or Gaza, adding that this “amounts to a war crime.”

Finally, Türk criticized the legislation’s “effect of applying the death penalty retroactively to those convicted of killings related to the horrific attacks on 7 October 2023, in violation of the principle of legality enshrined in international law.” Article 6(2) of the ICCPR states that a death sentence may be imposed only “in accordance with the law in force at the time of the commission of the crime.”

On Nov. 10, the Knesset plenum approved in its first reading Penal Law Bill (Amendment No. 159) (Death Penalty for Terrorists) 2025, sponsored by Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech. It includes a proposed amendment to the military law governing the occupied West Bank that would require military courts to impose mandatory death sentences for all convictions for intentional killing in the territory. Additionally, the legislation would amend the Israeli Penal Law to introduce the death penalty for the intentional killing of Israelis in an “act of terror.”

An Israel Prison Service guard is to administer the death penalty through gunshot, electric chair, hanging or lethal injection. This last method especially is thought by many scholars to violate international prohibitions on the use of torture.

Despite Israel’s 1991 ratification of the UN Convention against Torture, the nation has not yet codified a domestic statute that defines or criminalizes torture.

From JURIST, Jan. 3. Used with permission.

Note: Lawmakers from the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party wore noose-shaped lapel pins during a Dec. 8 committee meeting on the bill. The golden-colored pins were consciously reminiscent of the yellow ribbons worn by many Israeli politicians and officials to show solidarity with hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. The nooses were meant to symbolize the lawmakers’ “commitment to the demand for the death penalty for terrorists” and send “a clear message that terrorists are deserving of death,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir‘s office said in a statement.

Ben Gvir heads Otzma Yehudit, which is leading the effort to pass the bill. Currently, capital punishment in Israel is reserved for extremely rare cases, and has only been used a single time in the country’s history: the 1962 hanging of Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann. (ToI)

Photo: RJA1988 via Jurist

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