Legal Experts Call for UN General Assembly Action to Protect Gaza

Gaza Tribunal urges governments to authorize an armed humanitarian force before it’s “too late”

The Gaza Tribunal, an independent international initiative led by legal scholars and human rights advocates, has urged the United Nations General Assembly to invoke its authority and deploy an international protective force to Gaza.

At a press conference in Istanbul, the tribunal’s president Richard Falk, former UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinian Rights, said the world must act immediately to prevent what he called “the final and most lethal phase of genocide.”

“If we do not take serious and drastic action now,” Falk warned, “it will be too late to save the surviving people of Gaza.”

The Tribunal’s statement, titled “Time to ACT: Mobilizing Against Israel’s Planned Conquest of Gaza City and Central Gaza,” emphasized that global inaction has allowed the humanitarian crisis to reach catastrophic proportions.

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Empowering the UN General Assembly beyond the Security Council veto

The Gaza Tribunal called for world governments to bypass the Security Council—paralyzed by repeated vetoes—and empower the General Assembly to take decisive action under international law.

Falk referenced two key legal instruments that could be applied to the Gaza case:

• The 1950 “Uniting for Peace” resolution, which allows the General Assembly to act when the Security Council fails to maintain peace.

• The 2005 Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine, designed to prevent atrocities like the Rwandan genocide and Srebrenica massacre.

“These frameworks exist precisely to confront moments like this,” Falk said. “They are meant to ensure that the world does not watch genocide unfold in real time.”

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A call for moral courage and international solidarity

The tribunal’s Istanbul declaration described the situation in Gaza as “a collapse of humanity” that demands immediate moral and political action.

“Governments must act before it’s too late,” Falk said. “The UN General Assembly should be empowered to organize a protective, armed intervention to ensure aid delivery and safeguard the population.”

He noted that this intervention could draw from precedents established during the Korean War and the Suez Crisis, where the General Assembly successfully acted in place of a deadlocked Security Council.

The Gaza Tribunal, established in London in 2024, brings together jurists, academics, and civil society leaders to document violations, mobilize public opinion, and press governments to uphold international law.

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Context: A humanitarian crisis without precedent

Since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, Israel’s military operations in Gaza have killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health officials in the enclave — figures the UN has deemed credible.

Aid agencies warn of widespread famine, the collapse of medical infrastructure, and the displacement of nearly 90% of Gaza’s population.

Amnesty International this week accused Israel of pursuing a “deliberate policy of starvation” — an allegation that Israeli officials deny, saying military operations are aimed solely at Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists that calls for a ceasefire “embolden Hamas,” while rights groups argue that the ongoing blockade has turned Gaza into “a zone of slow, deliberate annihilation.”

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Pushing for debate at the upcoming UN General Assembly

Falk said the Gaza Tribunal intends to bring its proposal to the UN General Assembly in New York next month, urging member states to adopt a resolution enabling immediate protective intervention.

“The General Assembly has the power—and the moral obligation—to act when the Security Council cannot,” he said.

The Tribunal’s proposal would mark the first major attempt in decades to revive the Uniting for Peace mechanism in response to an ongoing genocide allegation.

Falk emphasized that this step would not constitute interference in Israel’s sovereignty but rather a legal humanitarian intervention to protect civilians and restore international law’s credibility.

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“The world cannot claim ignorance anymore”

Falk, 94, reflected on the moral dimension of the crisis:

“We are witnessing genocide with unprecedented transparency. No one can say they didn’t know. The only question left is whether humanity still has the will to stop it.”

He concluded that the Gaza Tribunal’s mission is not only to document crimes but to challenge global paralysis and reassert the UN’s founding principles.

“International law was built to protect the defenseless,” he said. “If it cannot do so in Gaza, then the system itself stands condemned.”

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