Readers will be interested to hear that the Swiss Depository has accepted the instrument of accession of Palestine to the Geneva Conventions and the Additional Protocol I.

As readers may recall, on 13 September 1989, the Swiss Federal Council informed states parties that it was not in a position to decide whether a similar letter from the Palestinian Liberation Organisation constituted an instrument of accession, “due to the uncertainty within the international community as to the existence or non-existence of a State of Palestine.”

[Editor’s Note: For earlier coverage on the Palestine accession to the Geneva Conventions and other international treaties, see previous posts here, here, and here. Stay tuned on Friday for the next round in the debate between Fionnuala Ní Aoláin and Nimrod Karin on legal questions raised by these developments.]