Nations pausing UN Gaza funding could be violating genocide convention: Expert
A UN expert warned Sunday that countries defunding the UN agency for Palestinian refugees were breaching a court order to provide effective aid in Gaza and could be violating the international genocide convention.
A number of donor countries – including Australia, Britain, Finland, Germany and Italy – on Saturday followed the lead of the US in suspending additional funding to UNRWA, Reuters reported.
That came after Israel alleged that several of the UN agency’s staff members were involved in Hamas’s October 7 attack.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, warned that the decision to pause funding to UNRWA “overtly defies” the order by the International Court of Justice to allow effective humanitarian assistance” to reach Gazans.
“This will entail legal responsibilities – or the demise of the (international) legal system,” she wrote on X.
UNRWA reacted to the allegations by firing several staff and promising a thorough investigation into the unspecified claims, but Israel has nonetheless vowed to stop the agency’s work in Gaza after the war.
The row between Israel and UNRWA follows the UN’s International Court of Justice ruling on Friday that Israel must prevent possible acts of genocide in the conflict and allow more aid into Gaza.
Albanese, who is an independent expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, but who does not speak on behalf of the UN, highlighted the timing of the defunding decisions.
“The day after ICJ concluded that Israel is plausibly committing genocide in Gaza, some states decided to defund UNRWA,” she said.
By doing so, she said, countries are “collectively punishing millions of Palestinians at the most critical time, and most likely violating their obligations under the Genocide Convention”.
Also, UN officials and aid groups called for the countries to reconsider their defunding decision on Sunday, warning that its life-saving aid for some two million people in Gaza was in jeopardy.
“While I understand their concerns – I was myself horrified by these accusations - I strongly appeal to the governments that have suspended their contributions to, at least, guarantee the continuity of UNRWA’s operations,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Sunday, vowing to hold to account “any UN employee involved in acts of terror”.
Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA commissioner-general, also urged countries to “reconsider their decisions before UNRWA is forced to suspend its humanitarian response.”
At least 26,422 people have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza, the enclave’s health ministry said. With flows of aid like food and medicine into the territory just a trickle of pre-conflict levels, deaths from preventable diseases as well as the risk of famine are growing, aid officials say.