When

Monday, November 25, 2019 from 12:00 (noon) to 1:00 p.m.

Where

WCC 3019, Harvard Law School (**please note that there has been a room change; the event will now take place in WCC 3019)

Event Information

Is Palestine a state? And if so, when did it become a state? The question has long perplexed international lawyers and has been answered unsatisfactorily. Given that Palestine has instituted cases before the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), an answer to this very difficult question is in need of clarity.

Victor Kattan, Senior Research Fellow at the Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore (NUS), will address these questions on Monday, November 25, in a talk that will explore four key stages in the Palestinian people’s long quest to achieve statehood: (i) 1919, when the Covenant of the League of Nations was adopted; (ii) 1948, when the United Kingdom terminated its mandate over Palestine; (iii) 1988, when Jordan recognized the secession of the Palestinian people to establish a state in the territories occupied by Israel in the June 1967 war; and (iv) 2012, when the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution conferring on Palestine non-member observer state status.

Kattan is also an Associate Fellow at NUS Law and an associate member of Temple Garden Chambers in London. He was a legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team during the UN General Assembly’s decision to confer observer statehood on Palestine on 29 November 2012.

Co-sponsored by the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School and the HLS Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (HLS PILAC).

Lunch will be provided.

Image credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe (“The General Assembly adopted a resolution granting to Palestine the status of non-member observer State in the United Nations. The vote was 138 for, 9 against, with 41 abstentions. A view of the electronic boards showing a tally of the vote in the Assembly Hall. 29 November 2012. United Nations, New York.”)