Friends Of The Hague Group Launches To Support Anti-Imperialist Models Of Multilateralism
The ongoing Israeli Genocide of Palestinians demonstrates that current international mechanisms are failing humanity.
Bogota, Colombia – Representatives of major international organizations will convene to launch the Friends of The Hague Group (FOTHG) in Bogota as The Hague Group (THG) holds an emergency ministerial meeting on Palestine at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on July 15 and 16. The Hague Group was established in January of this year in The Hague, Netherlands by the Plurinational State of Bolivia, the Republic of Colombia (current co-chair), the Republic of Cuba, the Republic of Honduras, Malaysia, the Republic of Namibia, the Republic of Senegal and the Republic of South Africa (current co-chair) so that states could work collaboratively using diplomatic and legal measures to enforce international law, specifically regarding Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians and the failure of current international institutions to hold those countries and leaders who are committing war crimes accountable.
FoTHG recognizes the role the United States and its EU/NATO partners have played in facilitating and supporting Israel’s genocide against Palestine and its related attacks on Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, and Iran that have created an atmosphere of global repression against opponents of genocide and adherents to people(s) centered-human rights. As such, it holds that supporting international efforts to uphold human dignity and end Israel’s unchecked reign of terror, no matter the potential repercussions, are of the utmost importance to humanity, peace, and justice.
FoTHG was convened by the Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO), Palestinian Assembly for Liberation (PAL) Commission on War Crimes, Justice, Reparations, and Return, Al Haq, and Palestinian Institute for Public Diplomacy (PIPD). Major international organizations that have joined the FOTHG so far include ALBA Movements, Black Alliance for Peace, CETIM, FIAN International, Friends of the Earth International, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, the International Coalition to Stop Genocide in Palestine (ICSGP), Global Solidarity for Peace in Palestine, the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, La Via Campesina, the World March of Women (MMM), the Transnational Institute, World Beyond War, World Forum of Fisherpeople, and the World Social Forum Assembly of Struggles and Resistance.
The Friends of The Hague Group (FoTHG) is firmly committed to pursuing the following objectives:
Work to support, defend, and expand the work, mission and resilience of THG;
Ensure meaningful Palestinian participation and input in the efforts of THG;
Encourage more countries to support Palestine by joining THG;
Mobilize similar organizations worldwide in support of THG’s demands and future initiatives;
Support THG in research to guide its work and facilitate the implementation of commitments at the state level;
Expand support for THG through our own diplomatic networks;
Support THG member states in monitoring compliance with the measures to which they explicitly commit.
In Bogotá, representatives of the convening Palestinian and founding international groups will hold their FoTHG first working meeting parallel to the meetings of The Hague Group, and will hold a formal press conference to announce their launch on Thursday, July 17 at 10am Bogotá time. The press conference will be held on Zoom with interpretation for listeners in Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish, and will be livestreamed in Spanish by ALBA Movimientos on its YouTube channel @ALBAMovimientos.
PNGO is a Palestinian NGO umbrella organization comprising 150 member organizations working in different developmental and humanitarian fields, with a mission of “[e]mpowering and protecting the autonomy of the Palestinian civil society, consolidating its role in the national struggle and democratization process based on the principles of democracy, social justice, rule of law, tolerance, and respect of human rights.” Amjat Shawa, PNGO General Director based in Gaza, states: “PNGO welcomes the founding of the Friends of the Hague Group as a necessary complement to important work of The Hague Group and other multilateral state efforts to put a stop to the ongoing genocide. As a major international social movement effort committed to taking leadership from Palestinian civil society, FoTHG promises to play a key role in ensuring that multilateral initiatives directly respond to the needs and demands of Palestinians, and that such efforts can succeed despite threats from Israel and its powerful allies that include war, economic sanctions, and coups d’état.”
La Via Campesina (LVC) is a global peasant-led movement comprising 180 local and national organizations in 81 countries and represents about 200 million small-scale food producers. Morgan Ody, LVC General Coordinator states: “We, as La Via Campesina, assert that the Hague Group represents a pivotal moment in the global struggle for justice and accountability. We therefore call on all governments and civil society organisations (CSOs) to immediately join The Hague Group and actively participate in its mission to uphold international law and protect the Palestinian people from continued war crimes and ethnic cleansing.”
Laura Capote of the operational secretariat of ALBA Movements—an anticapitalist, antiimperialist platform bringing together over 400 organizations across 25 countries—states: “For ALBA Movimientos, solidarity with the Palestinian people is one of our priorities. Our organization was founded on the premise of Fidel Castro’s assertion that ‘being internationalists is paying off our own debt to humanity.’ We are proud to be a founding member of the Friends of the Hague Group as part of our obligation to repay our enormous debt to the Palestinian people in particular, whose dignity and fight for self-determination in the face of the violent settler colonial project of Zionism has made them leaders in the global fight against fascism. Their struggle is our struggle.”
Jacqueline Luqman, Chairperson, Coordinating Committee, The Black Alliance for Peace, states: “The Black Alliance for Peace is a people(s)-centered human rights project against war, repression and imperialism that seeks to recapture and redevelop the historic anti-war, anti-imperialist, and pro-peace positions of the radical Black movement. Through our work to oppose both militarized domestic state repression, and the policies of de-stabilization, subversion and the permanent war agenda of the U.S. state globally, we recognize that Israel’s immunity granted by Western colonial nations is a reflection of the moral gulf between these states and the vast majority of humankind that subscribes to values that uphold People(s)-Centered Human Rights, self-determination, and dignity. The combination of Israel’s continued genocidal assaults and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people, and its bombings and occupations of portions of the sovereign nations of Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon, and its most recent unprovoked attack on Iran, prove that Israel and the U.S. are the most dangerous nations in the world. Their power must be dismantled. History will remember this moment and Israel’s barbaric acts as an indelible and ignominious stain on international ‘law’ and cooperation. BAP believes that FOTHG and others who join us in this important coalition will be remembered as those who defended humanity against them.”
