NEW YORK, July 29, 2025 (WAFA) - The Hague Group held a Ministerial Meeting in New York on the margins of the United Nations High-Level Conference on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution.
The meeting, convened by the Foreign Ministers of Colombia and South Africa and hosted by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC), brought together representatives from member states, including Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the State of Palestine.
Since its establishment in January 2025, The Hague Group serves as a Global South initiative to uphold international law in response to Israel’s ongoing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.
The meeting followed the emergency session in Bogotá on 16 July 2025, in which 12 governments adopted a Joint Statement committing to immediate legal and political actions to hold Israel accountable. These actions include: a comprehensive arms embargo; proceedings at the ICC and ICJ; enforcement of court rulings; boycott of settlement products; and targeted sanctions. An urgent call was made to other states to join the initiative.
Türkiye announced its endorsement of the Joint Statement and its intent to implement its provisions. The Hague Group Ministers emphasized that collective action is essential to protect Palestinian rights, end the illegal occupation, and preserve the international legal order threatened by Israel’s impunity.
The Foreign Ministers of Colombia and South Africa underscored the need for moral clarity and immediate action, warning that silence and inaction enable continued atrocities. They highlighted the legal duty of all states to prevent complicity and assist in halting the genocide and occupation.
Minister Varsen Shahin reaffirmed the State of Palestine’s deep gratitude to all Hague Group members for their solidarity, commitment to action, and refusal to remain passive in the face of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide being perpetrated by Israel, the occupying Power, against the Palestinian people in Gaza and throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.
Shahin stressed the importance of this convening of The Hague Group on the margins of the International Conference on Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, mandated by the General Assembly and co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France.
Both initiatives, she noted, reflect the commitment of the vast majority of the international community to multilateral action rooted in international law as the path to a peaceful, just, comprehensive, and lasting solution. They also reflect a collective insistence on upholding our legal obligations and acting now with responsibility in the face of this catastrophic humanitarian crisis and profound human suffering—nowhere more than in Gaza, amid massacres, starvation, and the forced displacement of nearly the entire population, and in the West Bank, under escalating Israeli violence, terror, and threats of annexation.
Minister Shahin stressed that the international community cannot remain silent in the face of these atrocities, nor allow this historic injustice to continue. She called for the mobilization of political will to take all necessary actions to fulfill legal, political, humanitarian, and moral obligations to halt the genocide, end Israel’s illegal occupation of the territory of the State of Palestine, and realize the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right of return and self-determination, and the right to an independent State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital.
This, she affirmed, is the key to justice, peace, security, and stability—and to finally ending the 77-year Nakba inflicted on the Palestinian people.
Shahin urged immediate action to stop Israel’s destruction of Palestinian life and its annexation of Palestinian land, stressing that the very existence of the Palestinian people and their State are at stake—as are the cardinal principles underpinning the international system, including the right to self-determination, the prohibition on acquisition of territory by force, international humanitarian law, and universal human rights. “Israel must be stopped,” she concluded. “It cannot be allowed to get away with these crimes any longer.”
Additional remarks were delivered by the Foreign Minister of Bolivia, the Deputy Minister of Türkiye, and the delegations of Norway, Cuba, and Malaysia. Briefings were also provided by Palestine Red Crescent Society President Younis Al-Khatib and representatives of UNRWA, OCHA, and UNICEF.
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