36 Human Rights Organizations: Mass Pager Explosions in Lebanon Violate International Human Rights Law and Amount to a Genocide, and Those Who Ordered and Planned Their Implementation Must be Held Accountable

The undersigned human rights organizations consider the mass explosions carried out by the Israeli occupation and apartheid entity on pagers and handheld transceivers on Tuesday and Wednesday (September 17-18, 2024) to be a flagrant violation of the international human rights law and the international humanitarian law and amount to a genocide. They call on international human rights institutions to criminalize these attacks and work to urgently hold those involved accountable based on international criminal justice. The organizations also call on the United Nations agencies to adopt the position of the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner in calling for accountability, questioning, and explicit condemnation.

In a briefing to the Human Rights Council on 18 September 2024, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said[1], “Widespread simultaneous explosions across Lebanon and in Syria yesterday [Tuesday], where detonating pagers killed at least 12 people […] are shocking, and their impact on civilians unacceptable.”

“Simultaneous targeting of thousands of individuals, whether civilians or members of armed groups, without knowledge as to who was in possession of the targeted devices, their location and their surroundings at the time of the attack, violates international human rights law and, to the extent applicable, international humanitarian law. There must be an independent, thorough and transparent investigation as to the circumstances of these mass explosions, and those who ordered and carried out such an attack must be held to account,” the High Commissioner added.

For his part, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, expressed in a press statement on September 18, 2024, his deep concern over reports of the explosion of a large number of telecommunication devices across Lebanon and also in Syria on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing at least 11 people, including children, and injuring thousands.

“What has happened is particularly serious, not only because of the number of victims that it caused, but because of the indications that exists that this was triggered, I would say, in advance of the normal way to trigger these things, because there was a risk of this being discovered,” Guterres said. “Because, obviously, the logic of making all these devices explode is to do it as a pre-emptive strike before a major military operation.”[2] 

Lama Fakih, Middle East and North Africa Director at Human Rights Watch, said, “Customary international humanitarian law prohibits the use of booby traps – objects that civilians are likely to be attracted to or are associated with normal civilian daily use – precisely to avoid putting civilians at grave risk and produce the devastating scenes that continue to unfold across Lebanon today. The use of an explosive device whose exact location could not be reliably known would be unlawfully indiscriminate, using a means of attack that could not be directed at a specific military target and as a result would strike military targets and civilians without distinction. A prompt and impartial investigation into the attacks should be urgently conducted.”[3]

In addition, these recent attacks by the Israeli occupation and apartheid entity were in the context of the war crimes and genocide they continue to commit in occupied Palestine, which have claimed thousands of victims, including children and women, since October 7, 2023.

Signatory Human Rights Organizations:

1. Mauritanian Association for Human Rights
2. The Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights
3. Bahrain Human Rights Society
4. Khiam Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture-Lebanon
5. Scandinavian Institute of Human Rights
6. International Institute for Peace, Justice and Human Rights / Geneva
7. Amman Center for Human Rights Studies (ACHRS)
8. French Observatory for Human Rights
9. Damascus Center for Theoretical and Civil Studies
10. Global Network for the Defense of the Palestinian People
11. Sahel Organization for Defending Human Rights and Supporting Education and Social Peace/Mauritania
12. Freedom House Organization to defend human rights and combat slavery and its remnants/ Mauritania
13. Civil Solidarity Association - Mediterranean / Tunisia
14. The Egyptian Foundation for the Advancement of Children's Rights   / Egypt
15. The Jordan Federation of the independent Trade Unions
16. The Moroccan Association for Women Progressive
17. The International Commission for Supporting the Rights of the Palestinian People
18. Tunis Center for Freedom of the Press
19. Al-Miezan Association for Human Rights Development / Iraq
20. The Jordan Society for Human Rights
21. International Center for Supporting Rights and Freedoms/Swiss Association
22. The Bahrain Forum for Human Rights
23. Gulf Institute for Democracy and Human Rights/Australia
24. The Academic Assembly for the support of Palestine-Lebanon
25. Moroccan Association for Human Rights
26. Qana Center for Human Rights/Lebanon
27. Insan Organization for Rights and Liberties/Yemen
28. The Moroccan Coalition for Human Rights Bodies
29. Moroccan League for the Defense of Human Rights
30. Moroccan Commission for Human Rights
31. Moroccan Anti-Bribery Association
32. Oyoun Foundation for Human Rights/ Morocco
33. The Moroccan Network for the Protection of Public Money / Morocco
34. The Al-Karama Forum for Human Rights/Morocco
35. The Medical Association for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Abuse/Morocco
36. Human Rights & Democracy Media Center “SHAMS"/Palestine