In Bogotá, at the top of the Hague group (more than 30 participants), Israel accused of genocide

Reunited urgently in Bogotá, more than thirty countries and several UN representatives have launched a strong signal: Israel must account for the crimes committed in Gaza. Welcomed by Colombia and co -chaired by South Africa, the summit of the Hague group intends to end that its members are not detour a “genocide” of the Palestinian people.

Born in January 2025 in the Dutch city of which he bears the name, the Hague group is a coalition of Eight Global South countries – Colombia, Namibia, Senegal, Malaysia, Cuba, Bolivia, Honduras and South Africa – which have been enforced to enforce international law in the face of Israeli impunity. Supported by international NGOs, lawyers and figures from the diplomatic world, the group militates for the application of arrest mandates of the International Criminal Court, the suspension of arms sales in Israel and the sidelining of its military-industrial complex. China, Turkey and Algeria, without formally belonging to this permanent coalition, nevertheless participate at the Bogotá summit, alongside many guest delegations.

Figures of international diplomacy, legal experts and human rights defenders participate in this unprecedented rally, marked by the impactful declarations of Francesca Albanese, special rapporteur of the UN, despite the sanctions imposed on him by Washington. “There is nothing to negotiate. Israel must immediately withdraw from Gaza, “she said, also calling for states to break any military, economic and diplomatic link with Tel Aviv. “Israel commits crimes as he breathes. The only way to protect the Palestinians, but also the Israelis is to stop it. »»

While the United States castigates the initiative, qualifying the Hague Group threatening against its interests and those of Israel, the countries present on the contrary defend the rigorous application of international law. “It is not the militarization of international law. This is its application, ”said Annelle Sheline, a former American spode, who resigned in 2024 in the face of Washington support for bombing on Gaza.

The conference opened with poignant testimonies, such as that of the American-Palestinian doctor Thaer Ahmad, who worked in the hospitals of Khan Younès. He denounced the use of famine and thirst as weapons of war, while the Palestinian representative at the UN, Riyad Mansour, hammered: “The values that we thought universal are in pieces – like the tens of thousands of hungry civilians, killed or mutilated in Palestine. »»

With this summit, a geopolitical tilting is emerging. Faced with the inaction or the complicity of the great Western powers, global southern states take the lead of a multilateral front to defend international law. The Hague group is no longer satisfied with symbolic declarations: it wants to impose sanctions, cut economic ties and support legal proceedings against Israel. This repositioning of the South in the defense of human rights could redraw power relations on the international scene, by making Palestine a central cause of the new multipolar order. “The Bogotá summit will remain like the moment when states have finally decided to do what is right,” said Albanese on the eve of the conference.