The Guardian’s legal affairs correspondent reports on the reverberations of the UN Gaza report:
International criminal justice would be “immensely damaged” by a failure to implement any of the recommendations of the UN report, experts said, as Israel and armed groups in Gaza announced their refusal to implement independent investigations.
The report, which was described yesterday as a milestone by lawyers, states that a failure to conduct investigations should result in a referral to the international criminal court after six months.
“This is an authoritative UN mission of inquiry that says there should be accountability for the actions of both sides for what occurred,” said Daniel Machover, a partner at Hickman and Rose solicitors in London.
“It’s very difficult to ignore an authoritative report like this. It’s realistic to think that the security council will act, and I would like to see the Obama administration passing a resolution that requires Israel to bring prosecutions where there is sufficient evidence,” Machover added. “In my view hopefully there will be some kind of resolution, but my fear is that it won’t be strong enough.”