##UN human rights staff urge leadership to declare Israel’s war in Gaza a genocide
Internal letter also calls on UN member states to suspend arms sales, saying ‘criticising Israel is not enough’
Hundreds of employees of the United Nations’ leading human rights agency have backed an internal letter telling its leadership to declare Israel’s offensive in Gaza a genocide and to call on UN member states to suspend arms sales to Israel.
The 1,100-word letter, signed by about a quarter of the 2,000 staff of the Geneva- and New York-based Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), says the Israeli offensive in Gaza meets the legal threshold of genocide and that this means “arms sales, transfers and related logistical or financial support to Israeli authorities” constitutes a clear breach of international law by all those involved.
OHCHR employees told the Guardian they were frustrated with the failure of agency’s head, Volker Türk, to “move beyond condemning Israel”.
“The messaging has been the same for almost two years. Criticising Israel is not enough. He needs to be saying exactly what steps member states need to take to meet their obligations to prevent genocide and very firmly pointing out the legal consequences for leaders, officials and private businesses if they don’t,” said one staff member who signed the letter.
Another praised Türk’s criticism of Israel for grave breaches of international law and apparent war crimes but charged that the decision to avoid clearer public statements about genocide was “a political not a legal choice”.
The letter, seen by the Guardian, says that based on the “available evidence and authoritative assessments by the UN-appointed experts, as well as legal and [international humanitarian law] professionals, the legal threshold [for genocide] has been met. [We] therefore urge the Office to state the legal characterization publicly.”
