Communiqué  issued by the 33rd ICFM

on the 29^th International Conference of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent

The Thirty Third Session of the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers, held in Baku, Republic of Azerbaijan, while expressing its deep concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian and Arab territories as a result of Israel’s continued violations of international law and international humanitarian law, calls on the International Movement of the Red Cross and Crescent to shoulder its responsibility in the face of what the Palestinian people are enduring in terms of the blatant violations perpetrated by Israel, the occupying power, against their rights. The Conference also calls on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to undertake affective action and to exercise its mandated authorities as enshrined in the Geneva Accord and, in line with its statute, in order to alleviate the plight of the citizens in the occupied Arab territories.

The Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers expresses its hope that the convening of the Twenty Ninth Conference of the International Cross and Red Crescent will represent an opportune occasion to redress certain situations deriving from Israel’s continued occupation of the Arab territories and its violations against international humanitarian law. On this occasion, the Foreign Ministers of the Islamic States call on the 29^th Conference of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent to:

1-     Direct the ICRC to recognize the Palestinian Red Crescent

2-     Direct the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to admit the Palestinian Red Crescent to its membership.

3-     Make it obligatory for Star of David to respect the international humanitarian law in the occupied Palestinian and Arab territories, and to observe the rule established by the international conference of the ICRCC in 1921.

4-     Enable the Syrian Red Crescent to exercise its tasks in the occupied Syrian Golan in accordance with the rules of the international humanitarian law, and to establish a hospital in the Golan equipped with ambulances of the Syrian Red Crescent, and to place the Red Crescent emblem on this hospital in accordance with the rules of 1921.

5-     Enable the Lebanese Red Cross to be active in the occupied Lebanese Sheba’a Farms and to deal with the humanitarian conditions there.

6-     Make it binding for the current as well as any potential national Member Committees to be respectful of the rules and principles of international humanitarian law.

7-     Not to approve the proposed amendments to the Statute of the International Federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent, and not to recognize the third distinctive anthem in the light of the rejection by Israel (the occupying force) of commitment of the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and its refusal to implement Rule 11 adopted by the International conference of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent in 1921.

Baku : 19 June 2006