EU foreign ministers must use their meeting on 23 February with Nikolai Mladenov, Director-General of the Board of Peace and High Representative for Gaza, to demand that the board focuses on Palestinians’ rights, Amnesty International said.
The meeting in Brussels must also address the flaws of the Board of Peace mechanism and ensure it is aligned with human rights obligations under international law.
“The Board of Peace represents a dangerous assault on international law, and an attempt to create a parallel decision-making structure that bypasses and undermines the United Nations and international justice institutions.
The EU and its members states must be absolutely clear: this body is no substitute for the UN, the international human rights framework, or the global justice system painstakingly built over decades to uphold universal values, cooperation and equality.
Erika Guevara-Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns.
“When legal protections and the UN’s human rights and humanitarian architecture are needed more than ever, the EU must firmly resist any attempt to undermine them,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns.
“By sidelining accountability and marginalizing Palestinians, this mechanism erases the centrality of victims and their rights, while normalizing the very power dynamics that have enabled Israel’s unlawful occupation, apartheid and its ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza to continue with impunity.”
“Any EU engagement that does not place Palestinians’ rights at its core risks complicity in violations, which are likely to occur if this fundamentally flawed mechanism is not urgently made rights-compliant and aligned with international law.”
Nearly one year ago, on 24 February 2025, the EU hosted Gideon Sa’ar, Israel’s foreign minister at the EU-Israel Association Council. High Representative Kaja Kallas stated she was “glad to welcome” the foreign minister to Brussels and pledged that the EU would “continue to be an honest, open and viable, reliable partner to the region”.
Days later, Israel resumed its siege on Gaza, killing 15 paramedics and rescue workers, cut off electricity to a desalination plant and unilaterally ended a fragile truce by launching a series of deadly air strikes killing at least 412 Palestinians, including 174 children, in one of the bloodiest days of the genocide.
Since the announcement of the so-called “ceasefire” on 9 October 2025, Israeli authorities have continued committing genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip. An arbitrary, constantly shifting demarcating line, known as the Yellow Line, effectively creates a no-go zone for Palestinians across nearly 60 percent of the Gaza Strip causing further mass forced displacement of Palestinians and exacerbating already inhumane living conditions, while cutting off Palestinians from most of their fertile agricultural zones.
Israel’s suspension of the registration of 37 humanitarian international NGOs, set to take effect within days, will close health facilities and field hospitals, halt food distribution and cut off life-saving care for Palestinians across the OPT. The effect is likely to be catastrophic. Medical evacuations from Gaza are already obstructed, restricted entry of indispensable supplies and equipment, including medical supplies, and Israel’s cruel blockade continues despite the International Court of Justice’s orders to immediately reverse it.
In 2025, a record number of new settlements were approved (54), outposts established (86), and Palestinian homes demolished in Area C (1,269) in the occupied West Bank. State-backed settler violence and Israel’s suffocating policies led to the full or partial displacement of 22 Palestinian communities, while Palestinians are routinely targeted with arbitrary detention without charges or trial and torture and other ill-treatment while locked up.
Meanwhile the Knesset is considering changing the law to allow Israeli courts to expand their use of the death penalty with provisions designed to be selectively used against Palestinians, further entrenching Israel’s cruel apartheid system.
“Israel is not just openly flouting international law and crossing each of the EU’s red lines, it is doing so with utterly brazen disregard, as evidenced by numerous statements made by leading Israeli policymakers. Yet the EU’s response remains one of appeasement – breaching international law, the human rights of Palestinians and the EU’s own rules,” continued Guevara-Rosas.
“Lip service will not stop Israel from violating international law at will. A growing consensus is urging the EU to take principled action. This means suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which is conditional on respect for human rights, imposing a comprehensive arms embargo, enacting targeted sanctions against Israeli officials, and ending trade and investment with Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
“Now is precisely the moment to defend, uphold and enforce international law. Abandoning it would pose an existential threat for the EU and its legitimacy.”
Background
On 19 February, the first meeting of the Board of Peace was held in Washington. It is envisioned that 50 countries will join the Board of Peace, with 35 leaders showing interest so far. Of EU member states, Bulgaria and Hungary joined the Board of Peace as members. The EU, Cyprus, Czechia, Greece, Italy and Romania joined as observers.
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