Can India export weapons to Israel?

Can India export weapons to Israel?

Sub: IR

Sec: Int org

Context: A Bench of the filed by former civil servants, academics, and activists. The petition, in Ashok Kumar Sharma and Others vs Union of India, had of existing licences and the withholding of further licences by the government to public sector and private companies, for exporting military equipment to Israel during the ongoing war.

Background of the petition:

• The challenge was in view of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in January, ordering provisional measures against Israel, for violations in the Gaza strip, of obligations under the Genocide Convention.
• The provisional measures included an immediate halt to all killings and destruction being perpetrated by Israel.
• In light of this judgment, United Nations experts warned against the transfer of weapons to Israel which may “constitute serious violation of human rights…and risk State complicity in international crimes”.
• In July, the ICJ rendered a detailed opinion declaring that the sustained abuse by Israel renders “Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory unlawful”. The ICJ observed that “all States are under an obligation not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence”.

What is Genocide Convention?

• The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention) is an instrument of international law that codified for the first time the crime of genocide.
• The Genocide Convention was the first human rights treaty adopted by the General Assembly of the UN on 9 December 1948.
• It signified the international community’s commitment to ‘never again’ after the atrocities committed during the Second World War.
• Its adoption marked a crucial step towards the development of international human rights and international criminal law as we know it today.
• According to the Genocide Convention, genocide is a crime that can take place both in time of war as well as in time of peace.
• The definition of the crime of genocide, as set out in the Convention, has been widely adopted at both national and international levels, including in the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Relevant provisions of Genocide Convention pertaining to the case:

India is obligated under the Genocide Convention to take all measures within its power to prevent genocide. Article III of the Convention makes states’ complicity in genocide a punishable offence. The obligation not to supply weapons to states that are possibly guilty of war crimes is an obligation directly based on common Article 1 of the Geneva Convention. The principles in these Conventions are peremptory norms of international law. India, therefore, cannot export any military equipment or weapons to Israel, when there is a serious risk that these weapons might be used to commit war crimes.