“Today we witness in real time how the promise of ‘never again’ is broken and tested in the eyes of the world,” said the Commission’s chair Judge Navi Pillay, who will receive the Sydney Peace Prize in November. “The ongoing genocide in Gaza is a moral outrage and a legal emergency.”

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, has determined Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide. 

At a press conference in Geneva, the Commission members Judge Pillay and Chris Sidoti said that their extensive investigation has led to the conclusion that Israeli authorities and security forces “committed four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”.

These acts are: killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians, and imposing measures intended to prevent births.

In an extraordinary moment of clarification, Chris Sidoti, noted that the fifth condition for genocide was not met – that is the transfer of children from one group to another. Rather, as the report noted, the genocidal intention of Israel has included the actual targeting of the children of Gaza as a way of ending any future for this community.

The Commission urged Israel and all countries to fulfil their obligations under international law “to end the genocide” and bring those responsible to account.

The Sydney Peace Foundation calls on the Australian Government to act on our international obligations: demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, restore UN-led humanitarian access, stop arms transfers and enabling inputs (like jet fuel and parts), investigate and sanction complicity. Nothing less will suffice.

“This report provides the clarity we need to courageously live up to our obligations under international law and act to stop the genocide. A failure to stand up for peace with justice in Palestine will ultimately be failure to stand up for peace with justice everywhere,” said Melanie Morrison, Director of the Sydney Peace Foundation.

Judge Navi Pillay will be in Sydney on 6 November to accept the Sydney Peace Prize at the Sydney Town Hall where she will be joined by Chris Sidoti and other experts in international justice.

The post Sydney Peace Foundation Statement on Findings of Genocide in Gaza appeared first on Sydney Peace Foundation.

The trophy’s design was inspired by raindrops, which start off small, but send ripples outwards which overlap with one another. This reflects the interconnectedness of our lives; no action is isolated, and even the smallest of ‘drops’ can be significant.

“The idea was layers and layers of different rings, connecting and overlapping,” Mr McGinness says. “[It represents] the effect one drop has on other people.” Like ripples, every step towards peace has the power to radiate outwards, impacting lives far beyond our own.

Movement is central to his art. “That’s what I love about steel. You can sort of suspend pieces in animation,” he says. In this work, it reminds us that peace is carried forward by action and motion, and that rather than being fixed, peace is always evolving and changing shape.

When he was commissioned to make the trophy, Mr McGinness wanted to create something unique: “I didn’t want to make just a stock piece,” he says. “I was actually very honoured to make this trophy. I think [peace] is probably the most important thing we have at the moment.”

With stainless steel as his medium, he invented his own formula for steel dye which he makes himself. The process of creating his work involves hours of designing, making sure the intricate pieces will stay together. He then puts his designs into a program to be read by a laser, which cuts them with precision.

“I think my wife put it best once. She said that I’m trying to combine tradition with technology,” he says.

He developed his expert steel-working skills through a 21-year career as a steel fabricator working in mine sites, towns, and remote communities. In 2008, he wondered whether he could put his steel-working skills to a different use. Taking inspiration from his parents, both of whom were painters, he began by creating works of Australian animals.

“I wanted to do something a little bit different, and came up with the idea of doing my own style of Aboriginal art in steel,” he says. “I couldn’t see anybody else doing that.”

More of Wayne McGinness’ work can be found on his company website, Aboriginal Steel Art.

By Molly Teskey, University of Sydney Intern

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In recognition of her lifelong commitment to peace, the Sydney Peace Foundation is proud to announce the establishment of the ‘Dr Hannah Middleton Scholarship in Peace and Conflict Studies’ at the Universidade Nacional Timor Lorosa’e (UNTL) in Timor-Leste. The cost of supporting a student through the Masters in Peace and Conflict Studies is around $5,000 per year, making each scholarship a meaningful and tangible investment in Hannah’s vision of solidarity and justice and opening opportunities for the next generation of peacebuilders

Through this scholarship, Hannah’s legacy of solidarity, courage and justice will continue to inspire and empower future leaders in one of the world’s youngest nations.

Emeritus Professor Stuart Rees has generously directed funds to support the inaugural scholarship. For those who wish to support the Dr Hannah Middleton Scholarship in Peace and Conflict Studies please email us at info@sydneypeace.org.au.

Ending a Journey
Barely concealed,
tears speak of goodbyes
plus invitations for a final chat.
Not acknowledged, courage
in a life of humanity
fueled this decision to end as you lived.
With common will for freedom
you gift wrapped selflessness,
because you needed no accolades.
Now you have decided
that immobility is no way to live
that refusing food and medicine
could show
that even in a final chapter
a way of leaving
might teach others how to live.
This hurried poem
ponders explanations,
precious days
still hold mysteries,
as in explaining courage,
just one more secret
to be unraveled.
Stuart for Hannah, June 9, 2025

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By Emeritus Professor Stuart Rees

In response to the announcement made by Melanie Morrison, director of the Sydney Peace Foundation and by Clover Moore, Lord Mayor of Sydney, patron of the Foundation, Navi Pillay said: “I am deeply honoured to accept Australia’s premier international prize for peace. The award is not mine alone. It belongs to all those who, across decades and continents, have stood up against injustice, often at great personal cost. It belongs to every survivor who found the courage to testify, to every human rights defender who remains steadfast in the face of threats of hostility and to every young person who dares to believe in a better, more just world.”

Commentators on the choice of Navi Pillay convey why her Sydney Peace Prize Lecture in the Sydney Town Hall, on Thursday 6 November, will show a life of courageous striving for the ideals of a common humanity, achievements which should give hope to generations and should be an inspiration to young people.

Professor Ben Saul, UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism, said, “Navi Pillay is an icon of the international human rights movement, from confronting apartheid and promoting gender equality in South Africa to serving on the highest national and international courts.’

Lord Mayor Clover Moore explains, ‘The Sydney Peace Foundation honours judge Pillay for her unwavering commitment to human dignity and her profound impact on international human rights law.’

Evidence of such judgments is easily found in Pillay’s career. Born into a Tamil family living under South African apartheid, she became the first non-white woman to open a law practice in Natal Province and the first non-white woman judge of the High Court of South Africa.

Attaining those positions required gutsy determination to overcome discrimination and prejudice. She recalls, “As a child in South Africa, I could not enter parks or beaches reserved for whites.

“When I became a lawyer, no-one would hire me because of my gender, the colour of my skin and my economic status. I was told that white secretaries would not like to take dictation from a black woman.”

Pillay came to global attention in her early 30s when she won a legal case for recognising the rights and better living conditions for South African dissidents jailed under apartheid’s Terrorism Act. In a subsequent Robben Island case, she challenged the Terrorism Act and, for the first time, provided concrete evidence that prisoners had been tortured.

The centrality of human rights

Pillay’s career and the achievements which impressed a Sydney jury revolve around a commitment to a philosophy, language and practice to promote universal human rights. She explains, “There can be no lasting development in a given society without respect for all human rights, economic, social and cultural as well as civil and political rights.”

Armed with that philosophy, she has campaigned against violence against women and the need to abolish harmful practices, female genital mutilation and forced child marriages. In her hopes about the future, she imagines, “The world needs coalitions to create a more values-led, ethical globalisation, and, in particular, in a century when women can make a difference.”

Promotion of human rights as the means of attaining human dignity echoes a theme expressed by Pillay’s illustrious predecessor, Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and recipient of the Sydney Peace Prize in 2002. In Sydney, 23 years ago, Robinson was rewarded for “courage in standing up for the powerless against the interests of powerful individuals and institutions”.

She reminisced that in Ireland, human rights abuses had precipitated the conflicts and in the eventual process of peace through reconciliation and bridge-building, restoration of human rights became both goal and potential panacea. The Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement, signed on 10 April 1998, confirmed Robinson’s judgment.

Never shirking responsibility to adjudicate abuses of power

Exercising similar views and skills, from 1995-2003, Pillay became a judge and then president of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, created to adjudicate people charged with the Rwandan genocide and other human rights violations. Other positions with worldwide responsibilities included her appointment as a judge in the International Criminal Court and as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights 2008-2014.

An Australian audience in November will also be able to hear Pillay’s judgment about death and destruction in Gaza and on the West Bank. As chair of the UN Commission inquiring into war crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Pillay has found that Israeli forces have committed gender-based violence with intent to humiliate and further subordinate the Palestinian community. UN experts have concluded that genocidal acts were evident in the destruction of maternity wards in Gaza, of reproductive health care facilities and embryos at a fertility clinic.

Chris Sidoti, the Australian lawyer colleague of Pillay’s on the Commission, concludes, “Sexual violence is now so widespread that it can only be considered systematic. It’s got beyond the level of random acts by rogue individuals.”

Pillay writes, “The evidence collected reveals a deplorable increase in sexual and gender-based violence to terrorise Palestinians and perpetrate a system of oppression that undermines their rights to self-determination.”

In this most recent, demanding judicial role, Pillay displays her life enhancing manner of exercising power, not from the top down but always with respect to evidence, to the needs and hopes of vulnerable usually powerless people.

She also has a reputation for kindness and warmth to all whom she encounters, whatever their status. Her courage in public life appears influenced largely by her legal knowledge and judicial skills, but to emphasise that dimension of her work would mean overlooking the tenets of humour, humility and a basic humanity, without which we are all lost.

That will no doubt be her message to Australians at an award dinner in Sydney on 5 November and at the Sydney Peace Prize Lecture. Both events could generate optimism, offering a sense of hope and each would show, in memorable ways, the style and content of visionary leadership.

This article was originally published in Pearls and Irritations on 5 June 2025.

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The Gala Dinner is the Sydney Peace Foundation’s annual fundraising event. This iconic evening, held in the gracious Refectory in the Holme Building at the University of Sydney. offers you and your guests an opportunity to hear from inspiring speakers including Dr Navi Pillay.

Tickets are now on sale. 

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Judge Pillay will be in Sydney to accept the award to accept the award at the Sydney Peace Prize Lecture and Award Ceremony at the Sydney Town Hall.

Tickets are now on sale. 

The post Sydney Peace Prize Lecture and Award Ceremony appeared first on Sydney Peace Foundation.

A former judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the International Criminal Court, and the first woman of colour to serve as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Judge Pillay has consistently championed international justice, truth-telling, and the protection of human dignity.

The Peace Prize jury selected Judge Pillay from a field of strong and venerable candidates “for a lifetime of advocating for fundamental human rights, peace with justice and the rights of women, all of which serves a clarion call in the face of a growing culture of impunity for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, towards accountability and responsibility”.

Judge Pillay was officially announced as the 2025 recipient of the Sydney Peace Prize at Sydney Town Hall on Thursday 22 May. The announcement ceremony was hosted by Sydney Peace Foundation patron and Lord Mayor of Sydney Clover Moore, and attended by distinguished guests from the international legal, diplomatic, and human rights communities. 

On accepting the prize, Judge Pillay said: “I am deeply honoured to accept Australia’s premier international prize for peace, awarded by the Sydney Peace Foundation. To be recognised for a lifetime’s work devoted to human rights, peace, justice and equality is both humbling and profoundly meaningful. This award is not mine alone. It belongs to all those who, across decades and continents, have stood up against injustice – often at great personal cost. It belongs to every survivor who found the courage to testify, to every human rights defender who remains steadfast in the face of threats and hostility, and to every young person who dares to believe in a better, more just world. We live in a world today still marred by war, poverty, racism and inequality. But we also live in a world where voices for justice are louder, more connected, and more courageous than ever before. The path ahead is neither easy nor short, but it is a path we must walk together – with integrity, with compassion, and with determination.”

City of Sydney Lord Mayor and Sydney Peace Foundation Patron Clover Moore said: “In a world where human rights are too often disregarded and justice delayed, Navi Pillay stands as a fearless defender of the rule of law. From challenging apartheid in South Africa to holding war criminals accountable on the global stage, her lifelong pursuit of justice reminds us that peace is not passive – it demands courage, integrity, and action. The Sydney Peace Prize honours her unwavering commitment to human dignity and her profound impact on international human rights law. As victims of wars across the globe continue face intolerable suffering, it is hard to remain optimistic and to believe that the rule of law will triumph. This award, and Navi’s extraordinary lifelong contribution to peace, remind us that we all have a responsibility to speak up about violations to human rights, corruption, repression, discrimination and inequality and that when we do, we can shape a better world.”

Professor Ben Saul from the University of Sydney Law School and United Nations Special Rapporteur said: “Navi Pillay is an icon of the international human rights movement, from confronting apartheid and promoting gender equality in South Africa, to serving on highest national and international courts, to leading the United Nations’ global human rights system. She has driven the law in progressive new directions, built lasting coalitions of human rights defenders, held the most powerful governments to account, and above all brought hope to victims.”

Melanie Morrison, Director of the Sydney Peace Foundation, said: “With the international rules-based order under threat, this year we acknowledge a beacon of integrity in global justice. Judge Navi Pillay has spent decades holding the most powerful to account and giving voice to the victims of atrocities – from apartheid South Africa and the Rwandan genocide, to ongoing human rights abuses in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Myanmar.” 

The Sydney Peace Prize will be formally awarded to Judge Pillay later in November 2025. She will travel to Australia to accept the Prize on Thursday 6 November at Sydney Town Hall.

About the Sydney Peace Prize

The Sydney Peace Prize is Australia’s international prize for peace, awarded by the Sydney Peace Foundation at the University of Sydney. The Prize recognises leading global voices that promote peace, justice and nonviolence. Laureates include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Professors Noam Chomsky and Joseph Stiglitz, Patrick Dodson, Naomi Klein, the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

For over two decades, the Sydney Peace Prize has been awarded with the generous support of the City of Sydney, the University of Sydney and a broad coalition of donors and partners. Please join us on this journey for a fairer, more just world. For more information email peace.foundation@sydney.edu.au.

Media enquiries:

Melanie Morrison, Director, The Sydney Peace Foundation

E: melanie.morrison@sydney.edu.au

M: +61 (0) 401 996 451

University of Sydney Media Office

E: media.office@sydney.edu.au

M:  +61 2 8627 0246 (diverts to mobile)

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By Dr Eyal Mayroz, University of Sydney

The event, hosted by the Sydney Peace Foundation with support from USYD Faculty of Medicine and Health, was very timely—or more accurately, long overdue.

To be sure, many of us have been passionate and dedicated to addressing other man-made catastrophes, particularly the horrors in Gaza (my own tally of invited media engagements has been 140 on Israel-Palestine, compared to one only on Sudan). However, absent greater public attention to Sudan, the three-way dependency between media, audiences, and policymakers will remain at a standstill, allowing countless innocents to be massacred invisibly.

Now entering its third year, the war has reportedly claimed 150,000 lives, displaced 13 million people, and left 30 million (more than half the country’s population) fully dependent on humanitarian aid.

The term “civil war” is actually misleading, as we are witnessing a protracted power struggle between two brutal generals and their forces, both sides guilty of numerous mass atrocities against innocent civilians (though one side bears significantly more responsibility).

In the worst-affected western province of Darfur, an area the size of France, intermittent genocide has been taking place…since late 2003.

And the world remains silent.

Global media attention, and consequently public interest, has focused elsewhere, allowing governments to do what they do best—make moralizing statements of condemnation while committing vastly insufficient funds for humanitarian aid.

Under-resourced and understaffed NGOs—the few still operating on the ground in Darfur (most having withdrawn due to high risks to their staff)—are struggling against a fresh wave of mass killings, displacement, rape, insecurity, and enormous difficulties in bringing lifesaving aid into the war zone.

The absence of food, water, medicines, and other essentials led the UN to declare a state of famine in North Darfur, a year ago already. Yet, without political will to stop the fighting, conditions continue to deteriorate.

Three weeks ago, most of the 500,000 African-Sudanese inhabitants of Darfur’s largest IDP camp, Zamzam, were forced to flee for their lives after a long-warned-about assault by the RSF, a reincarnation of the original Janjaweed responsible for the 2004-2005 genocide. This is another ethnically targeted campaign of mass destruction, murder, and rape.

The use of the word “mass” can easily hide the fact that these are individual persons, women, children, elderly, and men, all with names and faces, and families who love them, if they are still alive, so important to try to keep that in mind.

I could continue on and on, but to keep this post concise, I’ll refer you to the highly authoritative update by Nathaniel Raymond, Director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health, who for the past two years has been “satellite tracking” and alerting the world to the unfolding mass atrocities. Nathaniel’s recent webinar is titled: “Watching a Genocide Unfold from Space: Monitoring Attacks on Civilians in Sudan.“

It is incumbent on all of us to pay more attention, make much more noise, and push more media to cover the situation in Sudan. Let’s show our Sudanese brothers and sisters, both here and in Sudan, that for us Australians, innocent Black lives matter as much as Brown and White.

Eyal Mayroz

PS. The UAE, Australia’s main trading partner in the Middle East, is the primary weapons supplier to the murderous RSF. Sudan recently took the UAE to the International Court of Justice on charges of aiding genocide, but the case was dismissed earlier this week due to jurisdictional issues (a matter of legal constraints unrelated to the merits of the case itself).

Despite well-documented evidence linking the UAE to the RSF and the prolonging of this war, we have yet to hear any response from Canberra on this troubling relationship.

The post Don’t Look Away From the Genocide in Sudan appeared first on Sydney Peace Foundation.

For eight agonising days, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) repeated the same haunting words: “Their fate remains unknown”.

For eight days, I searched feverishly, refreshing news pages for updates, desperately seeking answers. We cannot simply bear witness. We must honour Mostafa Khufaga, Saleh Muamer, Ezzedine Shaath, Mohammad Bahloul, Mohammed Al-Heila, Ashraf Abu Labda, Raed Al-Sharif, and Rifaat Radwan, who paid the ultimate price, for the good of humanity.

Rules exist everywhere, even in war. The international rules-based order was founded on the promise that even in war, humanity would prevail. The wounded would be treated and people who save lives would be protected, not deliberately targeted.

But in Gaza, that promise lies in ruins. The medic massacre of eight PRCS workers is not merely a war crime; it is an assault on the very essence of international humanitarian law and justice. It is an attack on humanity itself, marking one of our darkest hours.

First responders take tremendous risks to reach the injured and the vulnerable. Yet, the PRCS has been obstructed by Israeli forces long before October 2023. Israeli tanks block their passage, and checkpoints force them to undergo searches to delay and deny them entry—obstacles no other ambulance service in the world faces.

On March 23, 2025, when the news first broke that PRCS teams had been besieged in Rafah, time froze. My heartbeat increased, my anxiety escalated, and yet, after bearing witness to atrocity after atrocity, nothing could have prepared me for the overwhelming grief and mourning that would envelop me.

As Palestinians, we have been trapped in a constant state of grief and mourning. Israel had just unilaterally shattered the ceasefire and increased the scale of its genocide against Palestinians. Emboldened, my worst fears grew, and eight days later, reality shattered me.

It was far worse than I could have possibly imagined. Eight heroic PRCS volunteers were brutally massacred in a direct attack on medical workers, the Geneva Conventions, and International Humanitarian Law. They were found shot at point-blank range, buried under sand in a mass grave, some with their hands tied. Four ambulances were destroyed. Alongside them lay six Gaza Civil Defence members and one UN worker.

This is the largest massacre of humanitarian workers in modern warfare.

Since October 2023, 30 members of the PRCS have been killed. Each time they respond to an emergency, they know they are a target. They leave their homes with smiles, and some never return – killed in their own ambulances.

Yet, they endure – for the good of humanity.

The footage Refaat Radwan recorded of the massacre before his own death shook me to my core. The medics, knowing their fate, recited the Shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith. One asks, “Forgive me, Mother. Mother, forgive me. This is the path I chose. To help people. Forgive me, Mother. By God, I only chose this path to help people. Forgive me.”

This is what broke me. The raw, gut-wrenching truth. There are no words.

Hassan Hosni Al-Hilla was too sick to take his shift that night, so his 21-year-old son, Mohammad, covered it. Little did he know, it would be his last.

I ask: What could be more selfless than the men and women of PRCS—often entire families volunteering together—enduring the same brutal conditions as the rest of Gaza, yet risking their lives against a genocidal military, all to provide urgent, life-saving care?

The Red Cross and Red Crescent are universal symbols of hope, protection, and humanity. They are internationally recognised emblems of neutrality and protection during peace and conflict. They are meant to guarantee the safety of humanitarian workers. Yet, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the PRCS has continually been targeted.

Though neutrality remains a contested concept, it is crucial to ensuring humanitarian workers can deliver aid and maintain access in crises like this.

Last November, as a member of the Sydney Peace Prize Jury and Council, I proudly awarded the Sydney Peace Prize to the 16 million-strong network of volunteers and staff of the International Federation and Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. When awarding the 2024 Prize, the Jury particularly acknowledged the PRCS, which, operating in the most dangerous conditions, has been attacked, tortured, or forcibly disappeared, with ambulances and facilities damaged or destroyed. The jury was determined to honour their courage, determination, and resilience.

The PRCS has been working day and night to provide life-saving aid to two million women, men and children in Gaza, enduring relentless bombardment, displacement and starvation by Israel in what Amnesty International and the UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese have determined to be genocide.

Emergency Medical technician Hanadi says she has witnessed colleagues leave smiling only to return killed in their own ambulances. She knows they are a target whenever they are on a mission. They visit a site that has been struck, knowing they may well be struck too.

The Red Crescent symbol emblazoned on their ambulances and on their uniforms should guarantee their protection. They should never be a target.

The Geneva Conventions and International Humanitarian Law distinguish between civilians and enemy combatants, defining the rules of war. Yet in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, international law has been defied over and over – horror after horror, war crime after war crime.

Civilians, humanitarians, medical workers and journalists are specifically protected, but no one and nowhere is safe in Gaza. Homes, schools, shelters, hospitals, and places of worship have all come under attack or been destroyed.

While we once debated who struck Al-Ahli Hospital in October 2023, today, the entire medical system in Gaza has collapsed.

Furthermore, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, remains imprisoned.

We must demand justice. We must ensure that the perpetrators of the Gaza medic massacre, one of the most shameful periods in modern history, are held accountable. They must be brought to trial and face justice.

We must defend the Red Cross and Red Crescent emblems. We must protect the brave, selfless teams that embody the best of us. We must uphold International Humanitarian Law and the promise of the Geneva Conventions because, for the good of humanity, we cannot afford to fail.

Mohamed Duar is a member of Sydney Peace Prize Jury and Council. He is also Amnesty International Australia’s Occupied Palestinian Territory Spokesperson. He holds a Master of Human Rights from the University of Sydney.

The article was originally published in The New Arab: The Gaza medic massacre is an attack on all of humanity on 25 April, 2025

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After 466 days of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, we welcome the limited ceasefire which came into effect on 19 January, and call on our Governments to support every effort to permanently end the ongoing atrocities. The past 16 months have illustrated with devastating clarity that Israel is not committed to complying with international law. The fragility of the Gaza ceasefire underscores the risk of further violations and the need to halt arms exports to Israel, including F-35s. This is also highlighted by Israel’s continued illegal use of military fighter jets in the occupied West Bank, especially Jenin. 

Partners to the F-35 programme have individually and collectively failed to prevent these jets from being used to commit serious violations of international law by Israel, most obviously  across the occupied Palestinian territory, including international crimes, despite overwhelming evidence in this respect. States have either been unwilling to observe their international legal obligations and/or claimed that the structure of the F-35 programme means that it is not possible to apply arms controls to any end-user, making the entire programme incompatible with international law.

Israel’s unprecedented bombardment and destruction of Gaza has led to immeasurable human suffering, environmental devastation, and humanitarian catastrophe. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered provisional measures on Israel to prevent genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza in January 2024. In December 2024, Amnesty International’s investigation concluded that Israel has committed and is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and Human Rights Watch reported that ‘Israeli authorities are responsible for the crime against humanity of extermination and for acts of genocide’.

A temporary ceasefire does not signify an end to Israel’s violations of international law or nullify the longstanding risk that arms transfers to Israel might be used to commit or facilitate such violations. This includes, but is not limited to, Israel’s ongoing occupation and annexation of the Palestinian territories, which the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concluded is unlawful.

Israel has killed more than 46,707 people in Gaza and the remains of an estimated 10,000 more people are still under the rubble. At least 90 percent of Palestinians in Gaza have been forcibly displaced, in conditions unfit for human survival. Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked civilian objects, including aid distribution sites, tents, hospitals, schools and markets. Around 69 percent of all structures in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged by the bombardment. Despite these devastating realities and crimes on the ground, our governments have continued to supply Israel through the F-35 programme. 

F-35 programme

Governments from a number of F-35 partner countries – namely Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, and the UK – have restricted some arms exports to Israel due to the risk of these weapons being used by Israel to commit violations of international law in Gaza. In September 2024, the UK government found that it was “unable to conclude anything other than” that for certain UK arms exports to Israel, including F-35 jets, there is a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law in Gaza. Alarmingly, despite these irrefutable admissions, there has been a concerted effort to sustain the transfer of components to the F-35 programme, allowing for ongoing direct and indirect transfer to Israel. 

A number of incoherent positions have been put forward by F-35 partner countries allowing for the continued export of F-35 parts and components to Israel, including stating that arms licences to Israel have been suspended while allowing transfers under existing licences or supplying “indirectly” via the US or other F-35 partners. The UK has argued that for reasons of international peace and security it has disregarded its own arms export licensing criteria and international legal obligations to continue exporting components to the F-35 programme, allowing for onward transfer to Israel, claiming that it is a “matter of such gravity that it would have overridden any […] further evidence of serious breaches of IHL”. Effectively, there are no circumstances in which this supply of F-35 components would be suspended.

These jets have been operating in Gaza armed with munitions, including 2,000 lb bombs – explosives with a lethal radius up to 365 m, an area the equivalent of 58 football pitches. In June 2024, a UN report identified these bombs as having been used in “emblematic” cases of indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on Gaza that “led to high numbers of civilian fatalities and widespread destruction of civilian objects”. 

On 2 September 2024, the very day the UK Government announced an exemption for F-35 components, Danish NGO Danwatch revealed that an F-35 was used in July to drop three 2,000 lb bombs in an attack on a so-called “safe zone” on Al-Mawasi in Khan Younis, killing 90 Palestinians. This bombardment follows the pattern of Israeli attacks in Gaza in violation of international humanitarian law.

Legal obligations and developments

All partners to the F-35 programme are States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), with the exception of the United States, which is a signatory. State Parties to the ATT are required to prevent both direct and indirect transfers of military equipment and technology, including parts and components, where there is an overriding risk that such equipment and technology could be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law (IHL) or international human rights law. 

These and other binding obligations are contained within Articles 6 and 7 of the ATT. States are also bound by the obligation to ensure respect for IHL under Common Article 1 to the Geneva Convention and customary IHL, which requires states “to refrain from transferring weapons if there is an expectation, based on facts or knowledge of past patterns, that such weapons would be used to violate the Conventions”.

All F-35 partners have additional legislation reinforcing these international obligations at either national or European level. Continued arms transfers to the Israeli government are contrary to US law, which for example, prohibits the transfer of military aid to governments that restrict the delivery of US humanitarian assistance. Additionally, all F-35 partners have ratified or acceded to the Genocide Convention, and have committed to “prevent and punish” the crime of genocide. 

These obligations are reinforced by pronouncements of the ICJ, including where the Court reminded States Parties to the Genocide Convention of their international obligations regarding the transfer of arms to parties to an armed conflict, to avoid the risk that such arms might be used to violate the Convention in April 2024 (para 24). In July 2024, the ICJ clarified that states must not aid or assist Israel in its unlawful occupation of occupied Palestinian territory, including through economic or trade dealings. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in November 2024.

Legal and political responses 

Across the jurisdictions of F-35 partner countries legal and political interventions have sought to enforce governments’ national and international legal obligations to halt arms exports to Israel, including parts for the F-35 jets. Legal cases have been undertaken in Australia, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, the UK, and the US. 

In the UK, Al-Haq and Global Legal Action Network are taking the UK government to the High Court in a Judicial Review challenging the decision to exclude components for the global F-35 programme from the September 2024 suspension of around 30 arms licences to Israel. In November 2024, the Dutch Supreme Court of the Netherlands was advised by its advocate general to uphold the ruling by the Hague Court of Appeal ordering the Dutch Government to block the export of F-35 parts from the Netherlands to Israel. It followed litigation brought by Oxfam Novib, PAX and The Rights Forum.

In Australia, Al Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, represented by the Australian Centre for International Justice, made submissions requesting the Defence Minister revoke all current or extant export permits to Israel including via this US. As a result, the Government undertook a review which revealed that Australia had ‘lapsed’ or ‘amended’ 16 export licences to Israel. The groups remain concerned that no transparency exists in relation to this review, including whether F-35 parts were in consideration. Further cases are ongoing in F-35 partner countries Canada and Denmark, as well as Germany and Belgium. 

Conclusion

The failure by all F-35 partner nations to apply their domestic, regional or international legal obligations by halting the supply of F-35 parts and components to Israel has led to devastating and irreparable harm to Palestinians in Gaza. This failure indicates that partner nations are effectively either unable or unwilling to implement their purported arms export control regimes, or that they chose to apply the law selectively, excluding Palestinians from its protection. We call on all F-35 partners to do everything in their power to bring the F-35 programme in line with their legal obligations and immediately halt the direct and indirect transfer of F-35 parts and components to Israel.

Signatories

Australia (F-35 Programme Partner)

Amnesty International Australia
AusRelief
Australian Centre for International Justice
Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN)
Australian Social Workers for Palestine
Canberra Palestine and Climate Justice
Central West New South Wales for Palestine & We Vote for Palestine
Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine
Disrupt Wars
Free Gaza Australia
Free Palestine Melbourne
Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN)
Independent & Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) Geelong & Vic Southwest
Inner West for Palestine
Institute of non-violence
Jewish Council of Australia
Jews Against the Occupation ’48
Just Peace
Knitting Nannas, Central Coast and Midcoast
Medical Association for Prevention of War
Mums for Palestine
Neptune’s Pirates
No Weapons for Genocide
Northern Rivers Friends of Palestine
Palestine Action Group Muloobinba
Palestine Network Shining Waters Region (PalNet SW), The United Church of Canada
People’s Climate Assembly
Rising Tide
Settlement Services Australia
Social and Ecological Justice Commission (United Church of Canada)
Sydney Peace Foundation
Quakers Australia
Wage Peace

The post Joint Statement by 230+ Organisations – Stop Arming Israel appeared first on Sydney Peace Foundation.

The Peace and Social Justice Scholarship supports Master of Social Justice students at the University of Sydney, honouring Marty Morrison’s legacy of activism, compassion, and commitment to human rights and equality.

n 2025, the University of Sydney will launch the Peace and Social Justice Scholarship, established by Melanie Morrison and her siblings to honour their mother, Marty Morrison. Marty, a lifelong educator and activist, was dedicated to peace, human rights, and social justice – values she passed on to her family and inspired in countless others around the world.

A lifetime of activism

Marty Morrison’s scholarship will support students pursuing a Master of Social Justice within the School of Social and Political Sciences, helping to ensure her legacy continues to inspire future generations.

Early life and lasting influences

Born Martha Elizabeth Hessell in Winslow, Arizona, Marty grew up immersed in a deep commitment to social justice. Her father, Reverend William Hessell, was a Methodist minister who actively advocated for the rights of African Americans. Marty’s early experiences – such as organising meals for Japanese American friends following the Pearl Harbor internments – ignited her lifelong dedication to equity and compassion.

During her years at UCLA, her activism grew as she took part in civil rights actions, including sit-ins against racial discrimination. Her career later took her around the world as an educator, with teaching roles in Singapore, Thailand, Palestine, and Jakarta – each experience reinforcing her belief that education could drive social change. At the age of 82 in 2010, Marty took the extraordinary step of travelling to Palestine to teach and participate in peaceful protests, demonstrating the tireless passion and commitment she maintained throughout her life.

Stories of impact: Compassion in action

The impact of Marty’s work lives on in the stories her family remembers. One that stands out is her support for Jarnil, an Afghan refugee detained on Nauru. Marty’s advocacy – alongside that of other dedicated supporters – helped bring Jarnil and his family to Australia, where they have since thrived. His children now pursue promising careers, with one studying law in Melbourne. They often express how Marty “not only changed our lives but saved them.”

A scholarship to continue her vision

For her children, this scholarship feels like a natural continuation of Marty’s lifelong commitment to human rights and social justice.

Marty’s husband, Bill Morrison, attended the University on a government scholarship, and Marty herself had briefly studied anthropology there—a pursuit she greatly enjoyed.

Inspiring the next generation of advocates

Melanie and her siblings hope that the scholarship’s recipients will feel inspired by their mother’s unwavering dedication to peace and justice. Marty often questioned why societies have ministers for war but not for peace. Her children remember this as a reminder of her vision for a more compassionate world.

Empowering change through education

Through this scholarship, the Morrison family aims to support students committed to social justice, empowering them to work toward a more resilient and peaceful world. “By choosing a Master of Social Justice, these students gain the skills to stand for change,” Melanie explained. “We believe this scholarship will enable future advocates to continue her work and create a world that values peace and justice.”

This scholarship is valued at $8,000 per annum for one year for a recipient enrolled full-time, or $4,000 per annum for two years for a recipient enrolled part-time. Through this scholarship, students will gain not only financial support but also the opportunity to immerse themselves in the social justice landscape, helping them develop the skills to advocate for real, lasting change in their communities.

Marty’s broader influence

Marty was particularly focused on advocacy for refugees, the elimination of racial discrimination, and gender equality. Her work extended far beyond her immediate family, influencing policies and individuals worldwide. Her advocacy on behalf of refugees, her commitment to peace protests, and her work on gender equality and racial justice all reflect her belief that a better world is not only possible but achievable.

A family’s continued commitment

Through the establishment of this scholarship, the Morrison family hopes to carry forward Marty’s mission of peace and justice, both at the University and in their own lives. Melanie Morrison, through her work with the Sydney Peace Foundation, continues to advocate for the causes their mother championed.

“The Peace and Social Justice Scholarship is one of many ways the University of Sydney is working to build a future rooted in equity and compassion. Others who wish to honour Marty’s legacy can contribute to this fund, ensuring that future generations of social justice leaders continue to be supported.”

With this scholarship, Marty Morrison’s legacy of compassion, resilience, and dedication will continue to guide and inspire students to drive change and create a more peaceful, just world for years to come.

This scholarship was generously funded by Tanya Burrows, Kim Morrison, and Melanie Morrison.

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Jagan Chapagain, Secretary General of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) will be in Sydney to accept Australia’s international prize for peace, which recognises leading global voices who advocate for peace, for justice and for our common humanity. 

As we commemorate the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Geneva Conventions, we face unprecedented challenges to International Humanitarian Law. It’s in this context that the 2024 Sydney Peace Prize honours a remarkable movement of over 16 million people. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement are recognised for its advocacy for peace, for its work saving lives and preventing the suffering of people affected by armed conflict, and for its commitment to International Humanitarian Law.

Jagan Chapagain, Secretary General of the IFRC, said: “This award is a testament to the dedication of our 191 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ staff and volunteers. Many are working in some of the most challenging and dangerous environments in the world. Their dedication reflects the fundamental principles and values that define our Movement.”

Melanie Morrison, Sydney Peace Foundation Director, said: “In a year of immense humanitarian need and suffering, this international Movement is there to support those targeted in conflicts across the globe – from Sudan to Syria, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Israel and Lebanon, and Ukraine, Afghanistan to Yemen. The Movement’s unwavering commitment to principles of international humanitarian law remind us that humanity must always come first.”

University of Sydney Vice-President, External Relations, Kirsten Andrews, said: “The University congratulates the Sydney Peace Foundation and City of Sydney in awarding this year’s Sydney Peace Prize to the International Red Cross and the Red Crescent Movement, in recognition of the ongoing and vital importance of their work during a time of increasing global conflict.”

“The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is saving lives every day in more than 191 countries and is a deserving recipient of the 2024 Sydney Peace Prize,” Lord Mayor Clover Moore AO, said. “This movement of more than 16 million humanitarians works in shockingly difficult and dangerous circumstances to provide a lifeline to those suffering in over 100 armed conflicts around the world.

“My congratulations and thanks to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Your courageous and critical work is inspiring and reminds us of how precious it is to live in peace.”

The Sydney Peace Prize Lecture and Award ceremony is on Monday 18 November at 6:30pm at Sydney Town Hall and the Gala Dinner is being held on Thursday 21 November at the Sheraton Grand, Hyde Park.  This year the Sydney Peace Prize award funds will be directed to support the humanitarian work of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.

The Sydney Peace Prize Lecture and Award ceremony is on Monday 18 November from 6:30pm to 8pm at the Sydney Town Hall. Tickets are available here.

ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS AND RED CRESCENT MOVEMENT

191 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies together constitute a worldwide humanitarian movement. Its mission is to prevent and alleviate human suffering wherever it may be found. It’s to protect life and health and ensure respect for the human being, in particular in times of armed conflict and other emergencies. It’s also to work for the prevention of disease and for the promotion of health and social welfare, to encourage voluntary service and a constant readiness to give help by the members of the Movement, and a universal sense of solidarity towards all those in need of its protection and assistance.

The Movement is guided by the Geneva Conventions and its Fundamental Principles: Humanity, Impartiality, Neutrality, Independence, Voluntary Service, Unity and Universality.

ABOUT THE SYDNEY PEACE PRIZE

The Sydney Peace Prize is Australia’s international prize for peace, awarded by the Sydney Peace Foundation at the University of Sydney. The Prize recognises leading global voices that promote peace, justice and nonviolence. Laureates include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mary Robinson, Joseph Stiglitz, Patrick Dodson, Naomi Klein, the Black Lives Matter Global Network and the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

The Foundation advocates for peace with justice – recognising that to achieve true and lasting peace, we must, beyond ending war and violent conflict, address deep injustices and structural inequality.

MEDIA ENQUIRIES:

Melanie Morrison, Director, Sydney Peace Foundation 

E: melanie.morrison@sydney.edu.au 

M: 0401 996 451 

University of Sydney media office

E: media.office@sydney.edu.au

M:  +61 2 8627 0246 (diverts to mobile)

Australian Red Cross Media

E: media@redcross.org.au 

Ph: 1800 733 443

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Kate Miranda, Director, NSW at Australian Red Cross will talk on the work of the Australian Red Cross, its 110 year anniversary celebration, the essential humanitarian work of the ARC, ICRC and IFRC and the Sydney Peace Prize.

In November, this year’s Peace Prize will be presented to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (the Movement), a humanitarian network of 17 million volunteers and staff, for saving lives and preventing the suffering of people affected by armed conflict, for the Movement’s commitment to International Humanitarian Law, with the Council specifically wishing to acknowledge the work of the Palestinian Red Crescent.

This year is particularly significant as it marks the 75^th anniversary of the adoption of the Geneva Conventions, to which the ICRC’s impartial, neutral and essential work is bound.

President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Kate Forbes, will be visiting Sydney in November to receive the $50,000 Sydney Peace Prize at the award ceremony at Sydney Town Hall on Monday, 18 November where she will give the 2024 Sydney Peace Prize lecture. Later in the week she will be the guest of honour at our Gala Dinner on Thursday, 21 November at the Sheraton on the Park.

Don’t miss this Member Lecture to discuss insights into this years Sydney Peace Prize.

The Sydney Peace Foundation’s book Conversations in Peace Volume 2 of Sydney Peace Prize Lectures from 2012-2022 will be on sale for $25.

Biographies

Kate Miranda is the Director NSW at Australian Red Cross, Non-Executive Director, Adjunct Fellow at Macquarie University and UTS Business School. She specialises in corporate communications and organisational strategy and has more than 20 years’ experience in not-for-profit management, federal government advisory roles and media relations. Kate began her career as a journalist for the ABC.

Dr Jane Fulton, our Philanthropy Director at the Sydney Peace Foundation, spearheads our fundraising efforts. Following the completion of her PhD on environmental conflict at Sydney University, she worked with the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, the Foundation’s birthplace, before joining the UNDP in New York. She is dedicated to fostering resilient and inclusive communities, with a keen focus on the Sustainable Development Goals.

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We are living in an era of overlapping crises: from climate catastrophe to devastating wars, alongside the age-old ravages of inequality at home and across the globe. As these struggles escalate, many ordinary people are questioning their own responsibility, and possibility their complicity, in these disasters. What prospects are there for responding? What avenues for meaningful action?

With the ongoing wars in Gaza and Ukraine, these concerns have come into sharper focus. This panel of experts, with a particular focus on the context of financialised globalisation, will examine some of these uncomfortable questions, and our moral and ethical obligations to address adverse human rights and climate justice impacts.

Professor David Kinley holds the Chair in Human Rights Law at the University of Sydney Law School. David has worked for 25 years as a consultant and adviser on international and domestic human rights law in (or with agencies from) China, Vietnam, Indonesia, South Africa, Bangladesh, Thailand, Iraq, Nepal, Laos, the Pacific Islands, and Myanmar. His particular expertise is in human rights and the global economy, focusing on the respective roles and responsibilities of corporations and states.

Dr Claire Parfitt is a Lecturer in Political Economy at the University of Sydney, where she completed her doctorate in 2020. A critical engagement with ethical investing and corporate sustainability, her research contributes to debates in the social studies of finance, moral philosophy, economic geography, cultural economy, intellectual property and interdisciplinary accounting literatures.

Dr Richard Denniss: Executive Director of the Australia Institute. Richard is a prominent Australian economist, author and public policy commentator, and has spent the last twenty years moving between policy-focused roles in academia, federal politics and think-tanks. He was also a Lecturer in Economics at the university of Newcastle and former Associate Professor in the Crawford School of Public Policy at ANU. He is a regular contributor to The Monthly and the author of several books including: Econobabble, Curing Affluenza and Dead Right: How Neoliberalism Ate Itself and What Comes Next?

This panel will take the form of an extended Q&A. Please consider sending your questions in the registration form.

This event is hosted by the Sydney Peace Foundation with the support of the University of Sydney and the Australia Institute.

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The Gala Dinner is the Sydney Peace Foundation’s annual fundraising event. This memorable evening offers you and your guests an intimate opportunity to hear from inspiring speakers including the Asia Pacific Regional Director of the International Federation of Red Cross Societies, Alexander Matheou, Professor Emily Crawford, Vice President (Engagement) at the University of Sydney, Kirsten Andrews. The evening is hosted by Anton Enus.

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