The Ugandan government has distanced itself from the ruling by Justice Julia Ssebutinde against the emergency measures ordered of Israel to protect Palestinians at the International Court of Justice.
The issue came up at the ICJ after South Africa filed a case accusing Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinian people – particularly in Gaza.
A 17-judge panel at the ICJ voted in favour of six provisional measures that order Israel to protect Palestinians including punishing and preventing acts of genocide and allowing humanitarian aid into war-battered Gaza but in her dissenting ruling, Justice Sebutinde ruled against punishing Israel.
In a statement on Saturday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary, Vincent Bagiire said the views by Justice Ssebutinde don’t represent the views of the Ugandan government.
“The government categorically clarifies that, the position taken by Judge Sebutinde is her own individual and independent opinion, as is the case with all other Judges, in accordance with Article 2 of the ICJ Statute. Therefore, her opinion does not in any way, reflect the position of the Government of the Republic of Uganda,” Bagiire said.
He said Uganda still stands by the decisions and positions of the recently concluded 19th NAM Summit held in Kampala earlier this month.
“Uganda reaffirms the decisions and positions of the recently concluded 19th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), held in Kampala where head of state condemned the continuing Israeli military campaign against the defenseless Palestinian people, and deplored the killing of over 21,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in the period between October and December 2023, over 70% of whom were children and women, and the wounding and maiming of over 55,000 Palestinian children, women and men in bombardments by air, land and sea by the Israeli occupying forces, as well as ongoing attacks by occupying forces and settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, that killed over 300 Palestinians, including 79 children, and wounded more than 3,800 people in the same period, in addition to the killing of 200 other Palestinians in 2023,”Bagiire said.
He added,” The heads of state at the 19th NAM Summit called for an immediate end to the Israeli military aggression and siege on the Gaza Strip and for immediate, unimpeded and sufficient humanitarian assistance at scale, to meet the enormous needs of the Palestinian civilian population and to enable urgently needed reconstruction and recovery, especially of homes and vital infrastructure, including in particular of hospitals, schools and water, sanitation and electricity networks, in accordance with the recent Security Council and General Assembly resolutions on this matter.”
