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The Gaza Tribunal, “people’s court” formed to investigate alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza, issued the Sarajevo Declaration on Thursday, condemning the Israeli “regime” and calling for global accountability and justice.
Reading the declaration, Professor Penny Green, a tribunal member and noted academic, underscored the Palestinian right to self-determination, describing it as “unquestionable and fundamental,” and a universal legal norm (jus cogens).
The tribunal convened in Sarajevo from May 26 to 29 to assess alleged war crimes and human rights violations committed in Gaza following Oct. 7, 2023. Organizers say the tribunal aims to fill a gap left by “the failure of international institutions to uphold justice.”"
Sessions were held at the International University of Sarajevo and covered a wide range of issues, including the political economy of genocide, Gaza’s destruction, the crime of starvation, the global response to genocide, the role of people’s tribunals, and the criminalization of student protests.
Since October 2023, Israeli military operations in Gaza have killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children. The continued bombardment has devastated nearly the entire territory and led to critical shortages of food and basic necessities, fueling the threat of famine.
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The Sarajevo Declaration voiced “collective moral outrage at the continuing genocide in Palestine,” and committed to “working with partners across global civil society to end the genocide and to ensure accountability for perpetrators and enablers” in the pursuit of a “free Palestine.”
“We condemn the Israeli regime, its perpetration of genocide, and its decades-long policies and practices of settler colonialism, ethno-supremacism, apartheid, racial segregation, persecution, unlawful settlements, the denial of the right to return, collective punishment, mass detention, torture and cruel and inhuman treatment and punishment, extrajudicial executions, systematic sexual violence, demolitions, forced displacement and expulsions, ethnic purges and forced demographic change, forced starvation, the systematic denial of all economic and social rights, and extermination,” the declaration stated.
The document rejected “the destructive ideology of Zionism, as the official state ideology of the Israeli regime, of the forces that colonized Palestine and established the Israeli state on its ruins, and of pro-Israel organizations and proxies today.”
It also called for “decolonization across the land, an end to the ethno-supremacist order, and the replacement of Zionism with a dispensation founded on equal human rights for Christians, Muslims, Jews, and others.”
The declaration also demanded an immediate cessation of Israeli military operations, a full withdrawal of military forces, and an end to “genocide, forced displacement and expulsions, settlement activities, the siege of Gaza, and restrictions on movement in the West Bank.”
The tribunal condemned “the continued complicity of governments in the perpetration of Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Palestine,” and criticized “the shameful role of many media corporations in covering up the genocide, dehumanizing Palestinians, and disseminating propaganda fueling anti-Palestinian racism, war crimes, and genocide.”
Reaffirming the Palestinian right to self-determination, the tribunal emphasized that it is “jus cogens and erga omnes (a universal rule not subject to exception and binding on all states) and is non-negotiable and axiomatic.”
Other demands included the immediate resumption of unrestricted humanitarian aid to Gaza and the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Lebanese and Syrian territory.
The declaration urged governments and international organizations “to end the historic scandal of inaction that has characterized the past nineteen months, to urgently respond with all means at their disposal to end the Israeli assault and siege, to uphold international law, to hold perpetrators to account, and to provide immediate relief and protection to the people of Palestine.”
It also acknowledged the ongoing efforts of the independent special procedures of the U.N. Human Rights Council and the U.N. refugee agency UNRWA, applauding “principled action to defend the rights of the Palestinian people.”
The Gaza Tribunal was launched in London in November 2024 by a coalition of academics, human rights advocates, intellectuals and civil society organizations. It was formed in response to “the total failure of the organized international community to implement international law” in Gaza.
Following the Sarajevo assembly, the tribunal is set to hold its final hearing in Istanbul in October, where a Jury of Conscience will present a draft report of its findings and decisions, based on testimony from witnesses and Palestinians affected by the crisis.
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