Australia’s new UN counter-terror chief fears world repeating ‘same mistakes’ of the past in Israel-Gaza conflict
Prof Ben Saul cautions that exceeding the limits of international law only breeds extremism and discontent, and is no recipe for peace.
As he takes office as the UN’s sole special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism this week, Prof Ben Saul’s purview is dominated by what he views as one serious, though not unprecedented, “mistake”: countering terrorism with military might.
“Unfortunately, when 9/11 came, the same kind of pressure to take the gloves off became manifest pretty quickly,” says the incoming monitor and Challis chair of international law at the University of Sydney, as he reflects upon Israel’s siege of Gaza in response to Hamas’s attacks on 7 October.
“We know that overreach and exceeding the well-accepted limits of international law, human rights law and the law of armed conflict is a serious mistake, which does not make communities or the world safer.”
Rather, it breeds ongoing radicalisation, extremism and discontent which, he says, is not a recipe for peace.
(Daisy Dumas Guardian Media 2 Nov 2023)