Students at the Félix Houphouët-Boigny University of Cocody, in Abidjan, the largest in the country, “firmly condemn the assassination of civilians” in the Gaza Strip, in a motion.
This motion was read this Friday, June 14, 2024, during a conference moderated by the Ivorian lawyer, Pierre Dagbo, on the theme “The recognition of States in international law: Case of the Palestinian State”.
Sopie Apia Carène, spokesperson for students at the Félix Houphouët-Boigny University of Cocody, the largest university in the country, read a motion of support for the Palestinian people, in Amphi E of the Faculty of Law.
“The students of the Félix Houphouët-Boigny University of Abidjan, gathered on June 14, 2024, provide their support to the people and condemn with the greatest firmness the assassination of civilians in Palestine,” she declared.
According to Sopie Apia Carène, in six months, or 252 days, today, “massacres of the Palestinian population” have caused massive exoduses of people numbering between 200 and 250,000 people, since October 2023.
During an exchange debate, the Ivorian lawyer, Pierre Dagbo, one of the members of the Collective of Lawyers in the World for the Palestinian Cause, argued that we need a Palestinian state alongside a Jewish state, insisting that “this is what the extremists refuse today” in Israel.
A “genocidal war”
Special guest at this conference, the Palestinian ambassador to Ivory Coast, Abdal Karim Ewaida, affirmed that “this barbaric and genocidal war in the Gaza Strip and all the occupied territories has left more than 37,000 dead and counting. 80,000 injured.
The conflict also caused “the destruction of more than 70% of the infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. For him, the international community did not rise to the occasion and failed on several occasions to achieve a ceasefire.
However, several European countries, including Spain, Norway and Slovenia, on May 22 and 29, 2024, announced their recognition of the State of Palestine to express their belief in the two-state solution as the only viable solution to the Palestinian question.
Recognition of a State at the UN
The Palestinian diplomat said that 147 countries out of 193 United Nations member states plus the Vatican are in favor of a Palestinian state. But, in international law, it is the Montevideo Convention on Rights, a treaty signed in Montevideo on December 26, 1933, which defines a State.
To build a state, four criteria are required, including a government, a territory, a population and the ability to enter into relationships with international society. He explained that for this purpose, Palestine was created as part of the Oslo process in the 1990s and its authorities are recognized.
Regarding the territory, Abdal Karim Ewaida shared that “according to the United Nations, it would be the territory before the 1967 war”, which is taken into account, which involves the West Bank, East Jerusalem (capital) and the Gaza strip.
For Palestine to be recognized as a full-fledged state at the UN, there must be a proposal from the Security Council, where out of the 15 members, at least nine are in favor and then a vote by the General Assembly in the presence of all 193 members of the organization.
The Palestinian strategy
Abdal Karim Ewaida, revealed that following a request for membership in the UN, in 2011, it was recently, on April 8 and 11, 2024, that a new request for membership from Palestine was transmitted to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
However, the request for recognition of the State of Palestine did not have a favorable response at the UN Security Council, where a veto from the United States prevented the request from being submitted to the 193 member states for decide at the General Assembly.
Today, Palestine deploys a strategy with all universal and regional organizations including the United Nations, as a priority, as well as the European Union and the Arab League. Western European countries Norway, Ireland and Spain recently recognized the State of Palestine
On November 29, 2012, Palestine submitted a request to the UN to be recognized as an observer state of the organization. This has enabled Palestine to join various international organizations since then.
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