WASHINGTON, February 6, 2025— The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) calls on world leaders to unequivocally denounce United States President Donald Trump’s unlawful proposal to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza. Such actions are blatant and in direct violation of international law. CIEL also decries the US withdrawal from the Human Rights Council and other international bodies, further isolating the country at a time when global cooperation is crucial to address planetary crises and human rights challenges.
The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) issues the following statement:
As a non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening and promoting respect for international human rights and environmental law, CIEL unequivocally condemns the unlawful proposals for the United States to “take over” Gaza. The forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza is a clear violation of international law, amounting to a crime against humanity and war crime.
The President’s threat to seize the territory and remove its residents without their consent is an open call to commit crimes that signals not just the continued complicity of the United States in Israel’s genocidal acts to date but direct engagement in ethnic cleansing, forced deportation or transfer of civilian populations, and other grave violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. The proposal is as inhumane as it is unlawful. Such predatory occupation of Gaza is a direct assault on Palestinians’ fundamental right to self-determination. Trump’s statements, which sound more like those of a real estate baron than a public leader, reflect a brazen abuse of power, callous greed, and fundamental disrespect for the law, human rights, and human dignity.
These offensive statements and inhumane proposals came on the same day that Trump withdrew the United States from the Human Rights Council, as he did during his first term; prohibited any future funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for the Near East (UNRWA), which has been the backbone of the humanitarian response in Gaza; and called for reconsideration of US participation in other international organizations, conventions, and treaties. Already, since returning to office, Trump has undermined global health, safety, and security by withdrawing from the World Health Organization and the Paris Agreement and attempting to defund and shutter USAID. These moves deepen US isolationism and reject multilateralism at a time when escalating planetary crises and conflicts demand greater international cooperation and a renewed commitment to upholding legal obligations and fundamental principles of international law and justice.
Of the slew of policies announced and decisions taken by the administration in its first days, many are facially unlawful and push the bounds of the law and the limits of executive power. They take aim at the regulatory state; roll back environmental, civil rights, and human rights protections; and undo decades of progress —- inadequate as it has been —- in curbing pollution, strengthening environmental justice, and addressing mounting global challenges that pose threats to life, livelihoods, the environment, and our collective future.
Other States and elected leaders within the US must speak out and oppose these dangerous and unlawful acts and reaffirm their strong commitment to universal human rights, the international rule of law, and the institutions that safeguard both. At the same time, the Human Rights Council’s members should take full advantage of the US departure to achieve progress in areas where the United States has actively obstructed the advancement of international human rights norms, including with respect to transnational corporate accountability.
We will not allow the head of the US government to openly flout the law and trample on rights, costing lives and imperiling our planet. We will unite and resist in solidarity with communities around the world, working for justice and peace.
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