Human rights lawyer slams UN blacklist of Hamas for sexual violence as ineffective

Human rights lawyer Anne Herzberg, a legal advisor for NGO Monitor, does not believe that the recent UN blacklisting of Hamas is likely to make much practical difference.

“You don't need a UN report to tell people what happened. If you're in court, you have the evidence – I don't need it filtered through a UN official to know that someone has been the victim of egregious international crimes,” Herzberg told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. Herzberg further added, “There will be extreme pressure placed on the Secretary-General to add the IDF to the list for next year,” which would undermine the efforts to seek justice for the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre victims and their families.

“What was accomplished by getting Hamas on that list?” Herzberg asked, noting that Israel rarely receives fair treatment at the United Nations – an organization she said has long been dominated by authoritarian regimes with an anti-Western agenda.

"I just think the value is minimal. I don't think the people behind this effort are; I certainly don't think they have any bad intentions. I just think they're naive and don't really understand the system," Herzberg said.

“That is the danger. These UN bodies don't deserve any legitimacy or credibility… Why are we giving them credit that they don't deserve?” she added.

The human rights lawyer expressed concerns that “now, when we do have extensive and legitimate criticisms against these bodies,” Israel critics will respond, “'Well, they put Hamas on the list, so they can't possibly be biased.'”

Last year, the United Nations excluded Hamas from its sexual violence blacklist despite comprehensive evidence of mass rapes of Israeli women committed by Hamas terrorists during and after the Oct. 7 massacre in 2023.

In June, UN Secretary-General António Guterres added Israel to its blacklist of countries and organizations harming children in conflict zones.

This week, Guterres put Israel 'on notice' over allegations of sexual violence against Palestinians.

The Hamas terror group is already sanctioned by the United States, the European Union, and numerous countries worldwide. Herzberg asserted that there are other ways to address the crimes against humanity committed by Hamas operatives.

“There are already a host of mechanisms, there can be lawsuits,” she said, adding that the IDF's current military campaign is further degrading Hamas’ governing and military capabilities.

“I don't really see what this report is doing to move the needle… There may be individual victims who will feel justified by it, but it's not moving the needle for anything concrete; it's not getting them money. It's not getting perpetrators put in jail,” Herzberg concluded.

In May, the Israeli Ministerial Committee for Legislation greenlighted a bill that seeks to prosecute Oct. 7 terrorists on charges of genocide against the Jewish nation. The bipartisan bill was initiated by Simcha Rothman, a lawmaker from Israel's Religious Zionism party, and Yulia Malinvsky, a lawmaker who belongs to the Yisrael Beitenu opposition party.

At the time, Rothman argued that “When it comes to the Nukhba terrorists, from a legal standpoint, the State of Israel remains stuck in a mindset that predates October 7. The current legal tools are inadequate and irrelevant for addressing an act of genocide and mass murder."