Middle East quartet

Subject:IR

Context:

• The United Nations (UN) Secretary-General has announced that the UN is unable to convene the Middle East Quartet to discuss the potential Israeli plan to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank.
• The Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights described the annexation of occupied territory as a serious violation of the Charter of the United Nations and the Geneva Conventions

Concept:

• The Quartet, set up in 2002, consists of the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia.
• Its mandate is to help mediate Middle East peace negotiations and to support Palestinian economic development and institution-building in preparation for eventual statehood.
• It meets regularly at the level of the Quartet Principals (United Nations Secretary General, United States Secretary of State, Foreign Minister of Russia, and High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy) and the Quartet Special Envoys.

UN Charter and Geneva Convention

• The Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols are international treaties that contain the most important rules limiting the barbarity of war.
• They protect people who do not take part in the fighting (civilians, medics, aid workers) and those who can no longer fight (wounded, sick and shipwrecked troops, prisoners of war).
• The Conventions and their Protocols call for measures to be taken to prevent or put an end to all breaches. They contain stringent rules to deal with what are known as “grave breaches”. Those responsible for grave breaches must be sought, tried or extradited, whatever nationality they may hold.
• The 1949 Geneva Conventions: The First Geneva Convention protects wounded and sick soldiers on land during war.
• The Second Geneva Convention protects wounded, sick and shipwrecked military personnel at sea during war.
• The Third Geneva Convention applies to prisoners of war
• The Fourth Geneva Convention protects civilians, including those in occupied territory.