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GENEVA – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Thursday said the imposition by the United States of America of further sanctions on judges and deputy prosecutors of the International Criminal Court should prompt the international community to take measures to protect them.

“The relentless intensification of US reprisals against international institutions and their personnel must stop,” Türk said.

As Türk has stressed, “sanctioning judges and prosecutors at national, regional or international levels, for fulfilling their mandate in accordance with international law standards, is an assault on the rule of law and corrodes justice.”

The High Commissioner called for a withdrawal of the sanctions against the two judges and two deputy prosecutors named on Wednesday, the four other judges and one prosecutor previously named, as well as Special Rapporteur appointed by the UN Human Rights Council on the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

“In the meantime, I call on States to take immediate steps to protect all of them, including by taking measures to encourage corporations operating within their jurisdiction not to implement the sanctions against these individuals,” he said.

“States need to step up to defend the institutions they have created to uphold and defend human rights and the rule of law. Those working to document, investigate and prosecute serious violations of international law should not have to work in fear.”

GENEVA – An amnesty law enacted in Peru violates international standards and is a backward step in the search for justice for the gross human rights violations committed during the country’s internal armed conflict, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said on Thursday.

The Peruvian President on 13 August signed into law legislation that grants amnesty to members of the security and armed forces and self-defence committees for crimes committed during the internal armed conflict that took place between 1980 and 2000. Hundreds of cases, both concluded and ongoing, will be affected by the new law.

“I am dismayed by the promulgation of this amnesty law. This is an affront to the thousands of victims who deserve truth, justice, reparations, and guarantees of non-recurrence, not impunity,” said the High Commissioner.

“International law, to which Peru is bound, clearly prohibits amnesties and statutes of limitations for gross violations of human rights and serious violations of international humanitarian law,” he added.

“This backward step in the pursuit of justice and reconciliation in Peru must be immediately reversed,” Türk stressed.

The Israeli Government’s plan for a complete military takeover of the occupied Gaza strip must be immediately halted. It runs contrary to the ruling of the International Court of Justice that Israel must bring its occupation to an end as soon as possible, to the realisation of the agreed two-State solution and to the right of Palestinians to self-determination.

On all evidence to date, this further escalation will result in more massive forced displacement, more killing, more unbearable suffering, senseless destruction and atrocity crimes.

The war in Gaza must end now. And Israelis and Palestinians must be allowed to live side by side in peace.

Instead of intensifying this war, the Israeli Government should put all its efforts into saving the lives of Gaza’s civilians by allowing the full, unfettered flow of humanitarian aid. The hostages must be immediately and unconditionally released by Palestinian armed groups. Palestinians arbitrarily detained by Israel must also be immediately and unconditionally released.