The Hague Group: Co-Chairs Statement
The history of the Hague Group is included in the statement below. During the 80th UNGA, the Hague Group stated that they would have a meeting on the sidelines, at the time of Bibi Netanyahu’s speech. To my surprise, there was no press, and I could not find much about what they are doing and what they are involved in. We saw the activism in New York of President Petro of Colombia who had his visa revoked because of it. The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, has dismissed the US decision to revoke his visa and accused Washington of violating international law over his criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza.
“I no longer have a visa to travel to the United States. I don’t care. I don’t need a visa … because I’m not only a Colombian citizen but a European citizen, and I truly consider myself a free person in the world,” Petro said on social media on Saturday.
“Revoking it for denouncing genocide shows the US no longer respects international law,” he added in a post on X. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/28/i-dont-care-colombia-president-petro-hits-back-after-us-revokes-his-visa
Still, I saw no press but eventually found one group reporting: Progressive International. https://x.com/ProgIntl
Let’s go to the Statement, and then I will make a final comment:
Co-Chairs’ Statement: The Hague Group High-level Meeting to Halt the Gaza Genocide — New York, 26 September 2025
One year ago, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution A/RES/ES-10/24, demanding that the State of Israel comply with the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion of July 2024, giving the State of Israel twelve months to cease without delay its “unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
That deadline has now passed. Israel has defied the General Assembly, ignored the Court, and intensified its crimes. The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel has now concluded that Israel’s actions constitute a genocide. In the face of this grave reality, the international community must commit — not to rhetoric, but to action.
That is why The Hague Group was first established in January — to rally against complicity and end impunity — by collectively enforcing international law. Over the past year, states across the world have enforced concrete measures through national legislation and executive policies: halting arms transfers, blocking weapons shipments, suspending procurement from Israeli firms, ceasing energy exports and ensuring accountability through national and international courts.
Today, on the sidelines of the 80th UN General Assembly, The Hague Group convened more than thirty governments to consolidate these measures into a coordinated global strategy to halt the Gaza genocide. We affirm:
That accountability as a principle cannot be forsaken
That Israel cannot be permitted to continue its crimes with impunity;
That every state has obligations to prevent genocide and implement international law;
That coordinated enforcement — through our courts, ports, contracts, factories, and financial systems — an unavoidable path to justice for the people of Palestine.
Such coordination strengthens the global response to Israel’s ongoing crimes, setting a model for all states to immediately fulfil their legal obligations, and creating robust mechanisms for accountability at the national, regional, and international levels.
Colombia and South Africa, as co-chairs of The Hague Group, reaffirm our shared commitment to this mission. We stand together, not only for Palestine, but for the integrity of international law itself. The choice before every government is clear: complicity or compliance.
History will judge us not by the speeches we delivered, but by the actions we took. Together, we call on all states to join us in cutting ties of complicity across arms, finance, and energy — and in ensuring that justice is not delayed, but delivered.
The people of Palestine cannot wait — and The Hague Group will not rest until it has rallied the world to defend the international laws that protect them.
Rosa Villavicencio
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Colombia
Ronald Lamola
Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of the Republic of South Africa
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Despite the enthusiasm initially with the first meeting in January of this year, and then a further meeting around mid-year, the silence was deafening. So far, this is a talk shop that has accomplished nothing of what they set out to do.
Kudos to Petro, who stood up and said what needed to be said. History will judge us not by the speeches we delivered, but by the actions we took. The rest is a depiction of Global Governance that has no agency.
