AhlulBayt News Agency: Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital, Sarajevo, will host the first public session of the Gaza Tribunal on Monday, May 26, 2025.
The Gaza Tribunal is a people’s tribunal, established as an independent initiative with humanitarian and moral objectives to investigate Israel’s ongoing war crimes in Gaza.
The tribunal is led by Richard Falk, former UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, and will convene its sessions in Sarajevo from May 26 to 29.
Discussions will cover settler-colonial genocide, genocide frameworks, apartheid, forced population transfer, protection of civilians, shortcomings of the UN system, and the criminalization of protests.
As part of the program, panels will be held on Political Realism and Contemporary Geopolitics and Political Economy of Genocide, along with a special session titled From Srebrenica to Gaza.
On the final day, the Sarajevo Declaration, prepared with contributions from all participants, will be presented to the public.
The tribunal is organized with the support of the Islamic Cooperation Youth Forum, which includes 66 member bodies, comprising 50 national youth organizations and 16 minority Muslim youth organizations.
The Gaza Tribunal was formally launched in London in November 2024 by a coalition of academics, intellectuals, human rights advocates, and civil society representatives in response to what they describe as “the total failure of the organized international community to implement international law” in Gaza.
Following the assembly in Sarajevo, the tribunal plans to hold its final hearing session in October 2025 in Istanbul, Turkey.
During this event, a Jury of Conscience will present a draft of the tribunal’s findings and decisions, drawing on testimonies from witnesses and statements from Palestinians affected by the crisis.
All Sarajevo sessions will be broadcast live online.
The tribunal aims to operate transparently, independently of global power structures, and without restrictions, while completing its work within an accessible timeline.
While not a substitute for international legal bodies like the International Criminal Court (ICC) or the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the Gaza Tribunal functions as a complementary forum, providing credible legal findings and helping to raise global awareness on the issue.
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