Deportation of Palestinian prisoners

Deportation constitutes a grave breach of international humanitarian law, namely Article 49 of the 4th Geneva Convention and, furthermore, a war crime according to Article 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, on the one hand.

On the other hand, if Palestinian prisoners are deported to third countries, they will most likely be deprived of the right to return to Palestine, thus violating international human rights law which guarantees the right of every person to leave his country and return to it. This is specifically set forth in Article 13(2) of the Universal Declaration of Human rights 1948, and Article 12(4) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966.