The IAGS, a 500-member body of academics founded in 1994, is the world's leading association of genocide scholars. Eighty-six percent of IAGS members voted in favour of a resolution stating that Israel's policies and actions in Gaza fulfil the definition of genocide set out in the 1948 United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Hundreds of United Nations staff have made an appeal to the body's human rights chief Volker Turk to publicly describe the war in Gaza as a genocide, saying his office's failure to do so undermines the global rights protection system. The appeal was made in a letter, signed by the Staff Committee on behalf of more than 500 employees at the Geneva-based Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and sent to Turk on Wednesday.
Demonstrators sang, delivered speeches, and marched past the courthouse, which is hearing a case by South Africa accusing Israel of committing genocide during its war on the besieged enclave.
As the military plans were put into action during a key diplomatic visit by President Biden, it underscores how seriously the Israeli government is treating the cessation of hostilities.
