Dr Victor Kattan on Verfassungsblog - Apartheid or Systemic Discrimination? A Connotative Reading of the ICJ's Advisory Opinion

HRLC member Dr Victor Kattan has recently published an article on Verfassungsblog on the 2024 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the 'Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem'

In his contribution, Dr Kattan argues that the expression "systemic discrimination", which the ICJ referred to multiple times throughout its opinion, was used as a synonym for "apartheid", even though it did not link this description to a breach of Article 3 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination – for there does not appear to be any substantial difference between apartheid and systemic discrimination. This is because the word "systemic" is associated with crimes against humanity, which as Dr Kattan explain, is how apartheid is defined as a crime in international law.

You can read the article here.