Summary
KC, barrister at Matrix Chambers and member of the Bars of Ireland, Northern Ireland and England and Wales, counsel for South Africa in South Africa v. Israel (Genocide Convention), who presented the argument on risk of further genocidal acts, risk of irreparable prejudice and urgency on 11 January 2024 (Verbatim record CR 2024/1 — Public sitting of 11 January 2024, oral argument of South Africa (South Africa v. Israel), PDF p.4, p.56-73).
Details
- Her speech opens and closes in French, with an apology to the francophone Members of the Court that none of South Africa’s submissions is presented in French (PDF p.56, p.73).
- She presents the daily toll as evidence of urgency: on current figures an average of 247 Palestinians killed each day, 48 mothers and over 117 children among them, 629 wounded each day, and over 1,703 killed since the proceedings were initiated on 29 December 2023 (PDF p.59-62).
- She argues the Court’s case law on urgency and irreparable prejudice — including The Gambia v. Myanmar, Ukraine v. Russian Federation, Georgia v. Russian Federation and Armenia v. Azerbaijan — is satisfied on facts of much greater severity, and that any scaling up of humanitarian relief by Israel would be no answer, following Iran v. United States (PDF p.61-70).
- She closes with two photographs of a hospital whiteboard bearing an MSF doctor’s message, “We did what we could. Remember us”, and with Pastor Munther Isaac’s Christmas Day sermon in Bethlehem (PDF p.72-73).
Related pages
Verbatim record CR 2024/1 — Public sitting of 11 January 2024, oral argument of South Africa (South Africa v. Israel), South Africa v. Israel (Genocide Convention), Provisional measures, Max du Plessis, Vaughan Lowe