Vol 7 No.1

Permanent URI for this community

7th Undergraduate Research Conference Proceedings

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1

The Colonial Code of War: How International Humanitarian Law’s Success is in Its Failure
(Deanship of Research - Al-Quds University, 2025-06-01) Ali Jallad; Jana Lozanoska
Upon examination, it is quite obvious to see the imperial logic still embedded within the fabrics of IHL. Nowhere is this more evident than in Gaza. Gaza epitomises the failures of IHL as a tool of justice. Despite the insurmountable amount of evidence revealing genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity committed by the IOF, international legal mechanisms were incapable of providing any form of justice or meaningful accountability. The ICJ’s provisional measures in the South Africa V Israel case fell short, by not calling for a ceasefire, nor calling it what it is; a genocide. The ICC’s belated arrest warrants of Israeli leadership were undermined by the ICC’s arrest warrants on Hamas leadership, which further reinforced its institutional bias and focus on non-state actors. In the end, IHL has not failed, its inabilities are by design. IHL succeeded in promoting and pushing Eurocentric values across the world through the logic of empire. The only failure IHL has was its inability to fully mask the nature and brutality of its imperial inner workings. We must continue to reject the notion and illusion of neutrality and build systems based in genuine and equitable justice, free from the shackles of colonialism. The people of Gaza and all the oppressed people of the world deserve nothing less.