In 2024, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal. The UN General Assembly followed with a resolution demanding Israel’s withdrawal within one year. In a separate case brought by South Africa, the ICJ issued emergency measures to prevent genocide in Gaza — measures that were ignored.

Despite these rulings, many governments — especially in the West — continued to send weapons, block ceasefire efforts, and undermine the international legal institutions they claim to uphold. This gap between law and enforcement is precisely what The Hague Group, convened by the Progressive International, was created to close. 

This initiative brings together governments that refuse to remain passive while international law is openly defied. Grounded in legal obligations and shaped by shared histories of colonialism and struggle, these states are stepping forward not just with words, but with coordinated legal and diplomatic action.

The founding members of The Hague Group include Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, Senegal, and South Africa. These countries are not new to injustice — they have lived it. Their histories are marked by anti-colonial revolutions, resistance to apartheid, and battles for democratic self-determination. They know what impunity looks like when international norms are applied selectively — and what it takes to confront it.

This is not a symbolic formation. The Hague Group is already taking coordinated steps to:

• Uphold UN Resolution A/RES/ES-10/24, support the requests of the International Criminal Court and implement the provisional measures of the International Court of Justice; 
• Prevent provision or transfer of weapons to Israel; 
• Prevent docking of vessels that carry military fuel and weapons to Israel; and
• Take further measures to end the Israeli occupation and remove obstacles to the realisation of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including the right to their independent State of Palestine.

For years, global institutions have condemned Israeli aggression in carefully worded resolutions, while continuing to arm, fund, and protect the very system they critique. The Hague Group is different.

It is not beholden to the veto powers of the UN Security Council. It does not wait for Western approval. It does not confuse neutrality with justice. It moves together — on the basis of existing law — to do what others refuse: enforce it.

European governments routinely speak the language of human rights while violating their own legal obligations. They invoke the ICC against some states while attacking it when it turns its attention to Israeli officials. The Hague Group presents a clear challenge to that selective enforcement. It asks: if the Global South can act, why won’t you?

The Hague Group acts through governments — but it opens a space for people, institutions, and movements to do the same.

• Support the BDS Movement: Boycott, divest from, and sanction the companies and institutions profiting from apartheid and war.
• Use the Watermelon Index: Identify corporate complicity and organise to sever those ties — especially in your workplace.
• Put pressure where it matters: Demand that your government support The Hague Group — or explain why it refuses.
• Build power beyond borders: Organise locally and transnationally to turn this legal initiative into a material shift.

The Hague Group is not the end — it is a beginning. A sign that states can act differently, that law can be reclaimed from the powerful, and that complicity is not inevitable. But this break will not sustain itself. It must be backed, expanded, and sharpened by all those who refuse to stand by. It is not a guarantee, but an invitation — to act, to organise, to transform. 

This campaign gives us the tools to say: not in our name. Led by voices from the Global South, it calls on the world to enforce international law where others have failed.

Sign the petition, contact your representatives, and share it widely.

Because the powerful count on our silence—and fear our collective action.

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