Law

Right to development and national interest in the global context

International Patriotic Pact Organization – 2025 Forum United Nations, Geneva, Palais des Nations, 1 October 2025

Hans Köchler,* Austria

I

(24 October 2025) The General Assembly of the United Nations, in its resolution 41/128 of 4 December 1986, defined the right to development as an “inalienable human right” in the individual and collective sense. According to Paragraph 2 of Article 1 of the Declaration, this implies that all peoples enjoy the “inalienable right to full sovereignty over all their natural wealth and resources.”

Statement on the question of Palestine

On the occasion of the meeting of the “Nordic Initiative for a Diplomatic Accord in Israel and Palestine”

Edinburgh, 1 September 2025

by Hans Köchler*

(12 September 2025) “The time for debate and hesitation has passed …” These were the introductory words chosen by the IPC1 formally declaring famine in Gaza.2 This entirely avoidable, man-made disaster should give us pause. How could the international community – that has been propagating the universal values of humanity in virtually thousands of solemn proclamations and declarations – let this happen, after the unspeakable horrors of the Second World War?
Press Release

Forever-Occupation, genocide, and profit

Special Rapporteur’s report exposes corporate forces behind destruction of Palestine

«United Nations Human Rights», Office of the High Commissioner

(11 July 2025) Geneva (3 July 2025) – Israel’s genocide against Palestinians is being sustained by a system of exploitative occupation and profit, a UN expert warned today in a new report to the Human Rights Council that reveals how corporate profiteering and monetary gain has enabled and legitimised Israel’s illegal presence and actions.

Statement on behalf of civil society

Annual meeting in observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People convened by Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People in accordance with United Nations General Assembly resolution 32/40 United Nations Office at Vienna, 29 November 2024

Text of speech of Dr. Hans Köchler, President of the International Progress Organization, Vienna

At a special meeting on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, chaired by Vasco M. Samupofu, Ambassador of the Republic of Namibia, representatives of UN Member States, of the League of Arab States and other international organizations delivered statements in support of a just settlement of the Palestine problem on the basis of a two-state solution.

Apartheid and its consequences

International legal assessments of Israel’s actions in the Gaza war

by Prof. Norman Paech*

(29 November 2024) (CH-S) Israel is currently under strong suspicion of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip. This is an outrageous suspicion – but one that seems to be growing stronger with each piece of evidence. The Hamburg-based international law expert Professor Norman Paech is pursuing this line of enquiry, drawing on Israeli scholars of the Holocaust and genocide such as Raz Segal.

Unfortunately, the reporting of the major media houses in the West on the dramatic conditions in the Israeli-occupied territories is scant, relativising or even trivialising. As a result, the West runs the risk of becoming complicit in a humanitarian crime.

UNESCO’S Peace Vocation

by Alfred de Zayas,* Geneva

(15 November 2024) The UNESCO Constitution,1 adopted in London on 16 November 1945, places great importance on the dialogue of civilizations and the necessity of mutual respect for the promotion of peace and prosperity through enhanced educational, scientific and cultural cooperation. The Constitution, which has been amended and strengthened over the years, promotes learning about other cultures and trying to understand the perspectives of other peoples, always recognizing our commonalities as human beings and our responsibility vis-à-vis the common heritage of mankind.