Resources on the Occupied Palestinian Territories
The scale of suffering has shocked our global conscience, with many from the international community speaking out and demanding urgent action to protect children and their communities from violence.
This page compiles resources in a time of serious violations of children’s rights. Resources include those related to legal mechanisms and challenges, ongoing campaigns and initiatives, and educational and creative resources. We will keep this page updated and if you would like to make suggestions for resources that should be added please contact us.
Legal mechanisms and challenges
These are the mechanisms that are collecting evidence, as well as the ongoing legal challenges and calls for accountability.
International Court of Justice (ICJ): South Africa has brought a case against Israel, accusing it of genocide in its military attacks on Gaza. In its written submission from 29 December 2023, South Africa argued that Israel has breached the UN Genocide Convention and asked the ICJ to order an immediate halt to Israel’s military operations. On 26 January 2024, the ICJ issued its order on provisional measures, finding that there are plausible grounds that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The ICJ ordered Israel to prevent genocide; prevent its military from committing genocide; prevent and punish incitement to genocide; allow urgently needed services and humanitarian assistance into Gaza; preserve all associating evidence; and report to the Court in one month on the implementation of these measures. Read more.
UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territories: The Commission has been collecting and preserving evidence of war crimes committed since 7 October 2023 in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel. It will share this evidence with courts, especially the International Criminal Court (ICC) to support prosecutions. Learn more about the Commission and how to engage through its call for submissions. Also see the Commission's latest report on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, covering from May 2021 to August 2023.
International Criminal Court (ICC): The ICC has been conducting an investigation into the situation in Palestine, looking at crimes committed since June 2014, covering Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Many NGOs have called for support for investigations, including the European Center for Constitutional Human Rights and Human Rights Watch. ESCR-Net has called for immediate action by the ICC prosecutors in this collective letter, following two of their members and allies, Al-Haq and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, submitting a lawsuit to the ICC. South Africa has also referred Israel to the ICC over the Gaza attacks. Read the Court’s records on the investigation and guide to understanding the ICC. The Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the ICC has opened a digital platform to enable people to submit information and evidence online to the ICC (see guidance for submissions from Justice for All).
Defence for Children International - Palestine v. Biden: The Center for Constitutional Rights, on behalf of plaintiffs including DCI-P and Al-Haq, filed a case in US federal court against three high-level US officials for violations of customary international law. The lawsuit sets out how the US officials have failed to prevent the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza and also helped advance grave crimes by continuing to provide Israel with unconditional military and diplomatic support.
UK government’s arms exports to Israel: Al-Haq and Global Legal Action Network, with the support of the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, have applied for a judicial review of the UK government’s export licence for the sale of British weapons to Israel, arguing that the items sold are capable of being used in Israel’s actions against Palestinians. The UK’s arms export criteria says that if there is a “clear risk” a weapon might be used in serious violation of international humanitarian law then the arms export should not be licensed. The High Court dismissed the case in February 2024 on the grounds that it must be “clear” that there is a risk the weapons might be used in a violation of international law and that this has to be “a serious violation”. The Court held that the threshold for establishing that the government's conclusion was “irrational” had not been met. The applicants announced that they will appeal this decision.
Dutch government’s arms exports to Israel: Human rights groups in the Netherlands, including Oxfam Novib, The Rights Forum, Pax and Amnesty International, took the government to court over its export of F-35 fighter jet components to Israel. They argued that it is violating its own ban on weapons exports when there is a risk that humanitarian law is being breached. On 15 December a Dutch court said that supplying the parts was a political decision that judges should not interfere with. The organisations who brought the case plan to appeal.
Australian government’s arms exports to Israel: Palestinian and Australian human rights organisations, including Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, with the support of the Australian Centre for International Justice have launched a legal challenge in Australia’s high court to bring more transparency to arms exports. They are seeking access to all permits which have allowed the export of arms and weapons to Israel by the Minister of Defence since 7 October 2023.
The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) has filed evidence with Scotland Yard’s War Crimes Unit in the United Kingdom in relation to war crimes being committed in Gaza. The complaint names nine UK citizens who are allegedly fighting with the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and four UK government officials. This follows Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism police launching an appeal for witnesses travelling through British airports to report allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Notice of intention to prosecute in Canada: The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians Legal Working Group for Canadian Accountability has issued a notice to the government of its intention to prosecute Canadian officials for their role in aiding and abetting Israel’s war crimes. The notice includes a “stark warning that Canadian government officials could be individually liable and face charges before the International Criminal Court if there is evidence they have aided and abetted Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity”.
A Spanish political party takes a law reform to Congress which would allow Spanish justice to prosecute possible Israeli crimes in Gaza: The proposal aims to reintroduce the concept of "universal jurisdiction" into the Spanish legal system so that the courts can once again prosecute serious crimes and human rights violations committed outside Spain. This would mean that the Spanish justice system could investigate and judge possible crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip if there were Spanish victims, if there were a "link with Spain" or if Israel were accused of genocide. While the proposal is being introduced in this context, the application of the law would not be restricted to crimes committed in any specific country.
Independent legal opinion by experts finds the closure of Gaza constitutes a crime against humanity. Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR) tasked four highly qualified international criminal and human rights law practitioners and/or academics to draft a technical legal opinion that evaluates whether or not the closure of Gaza qualifies as the crime against humanity of persecution, addressing all possible justifications for the closure of Gaza. This legal opinion was submitted to the ICC in January 2023. Following the events in October 2023, LPHR requested a follow-up opinion from independent legal experts.
Campaigns and initiatives
These are ongoing campaigns that can guide you in taking action - or initiatives and actions to be aware of.
Demand a ceasefire in Gaza: List of actions you can take, including signing petitions, finding protests and contacting your elected officials in various countries.There are more than 2 million signatures on global petitions, including Change.org, Avaaz, and Amnesty International. More than 800 organisations from all over the world, including CRIN, have signed.
Global Day of Action: On Monday 18 December, organisations and individuals from more than 90 countries across the world will push for a sustained ceasefire in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory to protect all civilians affected by the conflict. Use this social media toolkit to take action and let’s start sharing our collective call for a #CeasefireNOW.
Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) has prepared template tweets from the UK, US and the EU to demand a ceasefire, as well as a template letter for contacting your MP in the UK. To find your Member of the European Parliament go here.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign has information on national marches, days of action and ceasefire now posters.
International experts called on the UN Secretary General to add both Israel and Palestinian armed groups to his list of perpetrators of grave violations against children in armed conflict (the so-called “list of shame”) with immediate effect.
Call on the UK government to stop sending arms and military components to Israel which are being used on attacks in Gaza. Read this new report from the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, The Palestine Solidarity Campaign and War on Want on UK arms for Israel.
Petition to commission an inquiry into UK Arms trade with Israel “to establish whether there is a risk of UK manufactured arms and components being used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian law”.
Open letter on EU and several European states’ concerning decision to suspend and review of funding to Palestinian and Israeli NGOs.
Tech for Palestine, a loose coalition of 2000+ founders, engineers, product marketers, community builders, investors, and other tech folks working towards Palestinian freedom.
Parliamentarians for Ceasefire. A global call for ceasefire in Gaza initiated by a German MP and a US congresswoman. As of 15 February 2024, the call has been signed by 562 parliamentarians from across the world.
Open Call to UN Member States to stop arms transfers to Israel and Palestinian armed groups signed by 16 leading humanitarian and human rights organisations.
Educational and creative resources
These include resources related to communication and the conflict, including how to address restrictions of freedom of expression.
Maslaha has developed advice for families on how to approach UK schools to raise concerns about how they’re addressing the siege on Gaza. They developed this resource in response to concerns about children being policed for showing grief for the war crimes they were witnessing - and for families to understand their rights to freedom of speech and advice on how they can raise their concerns with schools. Download this here.
Visualising Palestine is dedicated to using data and research to visually communicate Palestinian experiences to provoke narrative change. They have a library of visual resources, including ones focused on children.
European Legal Support Center defends and empowers advocates for Palestinian rights across mainland Europe and the United Kingdom through legal means. They offer free legal support for people demonstrating in Europe and monitor repression of Palestinian advocates.
Skin Deep has curated a season of stories centring underexplored areas of Palestinian life and liberation. Read this here.
Migrants in Culture developed a drawing for reflection and resilience kit which can help in processing feelings.
Palestine at Home is a Palestinian cookery series coordinated by Amnesty International UK that aims to showcase Palestinian food and cooking as a form of resistance.
The Palestine Festival of Literature is working with major artists to read out the case file from South Africa’s ICJ case against Israel. Watch the videos here.
See CRIN's previous statement on children's rights in Palestine and Israel from 1 November 2023.