Photo: Doaa Albaz

Al-Haq has submitted a detailed response to the United Nations (UN) questionnaire for civil society organisations (CSOs) on initiatives towards early warning and prevention of genocide, outlining its sustained efforts to alert the international community to the serious and escalating risk of genocide against the Palestinian people, particularly in the Gaza Strip.

In its response, Al-Haq emphasises that genocide is preceded by identifiable warning signs. Decades of unlawful occupation, settler-colonial apartheid, systemic racial discrimination, and denial of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination created the structural conditions in which Israel’s ongoing mass atrocity crimes have unfolded. Persistent patterns of war crimes and crimes against humanity, combined with widespread dehumanising rhetoric and incitement by Israeli officials, constituted clear early warning indicators long before October 2023. After October 2023, Al-Haq’s repeated calls to the UN Special Advisors on Genocide and the Responsibility to Protect to intervene were met with silence and inaction.

Recalling the jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice, Al-Haq underscored that the obligation to prevent genocide arises the moment a State knows, or should know, of a serious risk that genocide may occur. Since the onset of Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, Al-Haq – together with other Palestinian CSOs – has repeatedly called on States and international bodies to take urgent measures to prevent Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people and related international crimes. For instance, in October 2025, Al-Haq and the Al-Quds Community Action Centre made a submission to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), urging it to use its Early Warning and Urgent Action procedure to address the ongoing genocide in Gaza alongside its follow-up to Palestine v. Israel. Since Operation Al-Aqsa Flood in October 2023, Al-Haq has routinely stressed the need to prioritise an immediate, meaningful and permanent ceasefire and States’ binding, erga omnes obligations – pursuant to customary international law, the Geneva Conventions, and the Genocide Convention – to, inter alia, impose a comprehensive arms embargo and targeted sanctions and ensure the rapid, uninhibited entry and distribution of aid.

The extensive accountability efforts Al-Haq is engaged in, across multiple jurisdictions, were also outlined. Al-Haq has supported or initiated legal challenges aimed at halting arms exports to Israel in countries including the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, Australia, and the United States. While several courts have recognised the serious risk that genocide is being committed in Gaza, in an abuse of the principle of separation of powers many have deferred to executive authorities, allowing arms transfers to continue despite acknowledged risks. In addition, Al-Haq has supported universal jurisdiction complaints against Israeli officials and dual nationals implicated in international crimes and pursued corporate accountability cases against companies profiting from unlawful settlements and Israel’s unlawful occupation.

Al-Haq supports its accountability efforts through its Monitoring and Documentation Department and Forensic Architecture Investigation Unit (FAI), which collect and preserve affidavits and video testimony, and produce forensic and spatial evidence on the commission of the full array of international crimes being perpetrated by Israel. This archive also serves to support future processes of accountability, memorialisation, and remembrance.

Despite these varied and sustained efforts, Al-Haq highlighted that early warning has not translated into effective prevention. Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people and ongoing Nakba continues amid a complete absence of political will and ongoing material, financial and diplomatic support from powerful States.