International law died in Bosnia. It went into clinical death and was kept on life support to deceive the world—until Palestinians, through their sacrifice, turned off the machines.
Esad Širbegović is a writer and analyst based in Zurich, Switzerland. He is also a member of the International Expert Team at the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada. In 2022, he served as the Director of the International Expert Team for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, focusing on the Srebrenica genocide denial case at the University of Vienna. Esad’s work is deeply rooted in his personal experiences and centres on the critical issues of Islamophobia and genocide.
On March 6, Switzerland decided that the Conference of the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions, scheduled for March 7 in Geneva, would not take place. This decision, made due to “deep differences” among signatory states, once again demonstrates how systematically devalued Palestinian lives are under international law. Western powers, which otherwise insist on the rule of law and universal human rights, have once again shown that these values do not apply when it comes to Palestinians.
The Excuse: “Lack of Consensus”
International law died in Bosnia. It went into clinical death and was kept on life support to deceive the world—until Palestinians, through their sacrifice, turned off the machines.
The conference on the application of the Fourth Geneva Convention in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, was supposed to discuss the protection of civilians under Israeli occupation. However, Switzerland, as the depositary of the Convention, announced on March 6 that the conference would not be held due to “deep differences” among the signatory states.
Despite the UN General Assembly’s call on September 18, 2024, and months of consultations, it became clear on February 27, 2025, that there was no political will to hold the conference. In other words, the very states that consistently insist on upholding international law refuse to apply it when it comes to Israel’s crimes against Palestinians.
This decision is not the result of a “lack of consensus,” but a demonstration of power. Even though 124 states called for a discussion on Palestinian rights under occupation, 14 opposed it and managed to block the conference. Even the support of 90% of the international community was not enough for justice to prevail.
The Geneva Conventions and Selective Justice
The decision to cancel the conference is not a bureaucratic act but a political signal of how deeply racism and Islamophobia are embedded in Western states. The same states that normally invoke rules and institutions now refuse even a symbolic discussion of the crimes in Palestine. This is not just a betrayal of Palestinians—it is a betrayal of the very principles upon which international law was supposedly built.
Watching the world deny Palestinians even the minimal protection that international law could provide, it is impossible not to see the same story that unfolded in Bosnia. International law, as proclaimed by the West, did not die because Donald Trump abandoned it. It died because the very same people who swear by its sanctity enforce it selectively—upholding it for some while abolishing it for others.
International law died in Bosnia. It went into clinical death and was kept on life support to deceive the world—until Palestinians, through their sacrifice, turned off the machines.
If justice is selective, it is not justice. If the Geneva Conventions apply to Ukraine but not to Palestine, then they are not universal laws—they are instruments of domination.
The Rejection of Law: Bosnia and Palestine
Where were the rules when Dutch soldiers in Srebrenica stood by and watched as Mladić’s forces separated men and boys—or even assisted in it, becoming accomplices to The Obmana—the Genocide of Bosniaks?
The same voices that now remain silent are the ones who claim Srebrenica was a “dark stain” in history. The same ones who, after World War II, established the Geneva Conventions—not to protect everyone, but to control who gets to invoke justice and who does not.
The Geneva Conventions, created to limit the brutality of war, are now legal fossils—documents pulled out of drawers when needed to justify sanctions, invasions, and military interventions, but never to protect the oppressed. Those in power decide whom the conventions protect.
If justice applies only to some, then it is not justice. It is hegemony disguised as law. And the world knows it.
But the world does not want to know. Because if it truly looked in the mirror, it would see that those who stand by and watch genocide unfold are no different from those who commit it.
The cancellation of the conference on the Fourth Geneva Convention confirms that the international legal system is not designed to protect all—it is primarily an instrument for preserving the power and interests of Western states. Switzerland’s argument that there is “no consensus” among the signatories is a political admission that powerful states do not want to sanction Israel, no matter how blatantly it violates international law.
When the World Ignores Calls for Protection, the Result Is Genocide
When the international community ignored Bosnia’s calls for protection in the 1990s, the result was the genocide in Srebrenica. When Bosniaks were stripped of their right to defend themselves, the result was The Obmana—four years of systematic genocide. Today, the international community refuses to protect Palestinians, and the result is genocide in Gaza, unfolding before the eyes of the world.
From Solferino to Gaza: At the Grave of Justice
Henry Dunant, who witnessed the horrors of war in the 19th century and dreamed of a system to protect human suffering, would be furious today. His ideals were not only betrayed in theory but in practice.
Dunant witnessed the Battle of Solferino in 1859, where the wounded died without aid. His book “A Memory of Solferino” (1862) inspired the founding of the International Committee of the Red Cross and led to the first Geneva Convention in 1864. This treaty, signed by 12 states, laid the foundation for the later development of international humanitarian law.
After World War II, the four Geneva Conventions were adopted in 1949, with the Fourth Geneva Convention being crucial for the protection of civilians in occupied territories. This convention prohibits collective punishment, forced displacement, and the colonization of occupied land, clearly placing Israel in violation of international law. Yet, in 2025, we see the international community refusing even a symbolic condemnation of Israel’s war crimes.
If the Geneva Conventions are now nothing more than empty words, if those who created them now trample on them, then we are left with only one question:
What do we do when the laws are dead, but injustice lives?
The answer does not come from international institutions. It does not come from the West. It does not come from those who selectively apply the law. The answer comes from those who refuse to remain silent. From those who reject a world where some lives are valued more than others.
Because if Palestinians cannot rely on the world, then the world does not deserve their silence.
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