Ukraine launched a case at the ICJ under the Genocide Convention in February 2022, accusing Russia of falsely claiming that acts of genocide have occurred in the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts of Ukraine and using this to justify its military operations there.

Ireland subsequently made an intervention echoing some of Ukraine’s key legal arguments, with then-foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney saying at the time that Ireland “has a strong interest in ensuring that the Convention is properly interpreted and applied”.

Ukraine also accused Russia of “planning acts of genocide in Ukraine” and contended Russia “is intentionally killing and inflicting serious injury on members of the Ukrainian nationality — the actus reus of genocide under Article II of the Convention”, though Ireland’s intervention did not address this element of the claim.

South Africa last month initiated ICJ proceedings alleging that Israel is breaching the Genocide Convention through acts and omissions “intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group, that being the part of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip”.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said the government does not intend to back the South African case and would leave the question of whether Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide for the ICJ to determine.

At a press conference hosted by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) today, Sinn Féin’s foreign affairs spokesperson Matt Carthy said the government’s position is “unacceptable”.

Mr Carthy said: “Ireland made a referral to the ICJ against Russia in respect of the war in Ukraine. Sinn Féin supported that position.

“It smacks of the double standards that have been evident since the was in Gaza began that governments, including Ireland, that made the referral against Russia now refuse to join the referral against Israel.

“Russia aggression against Ukraine has resulted in the killing of over 10,000 civilians, including 560 children, from a pre-war Ukrainian population of 43 million people, within 20 months. Russia must be held to account for its brutality.

“Israeli aggression in Gaza has resulted in the killing of 22,835 civilians, including almost 10,000 children, from a population of just 2.27 million in only three months. Israel must be accountable.

“The Israeli onslaught on Gaza has been coupled with collective punishment measures that have included the forced displacement of two million people and the denial of water, food, fuel and emergency supplies to the civilian population and a humanitarian and healthcare catastrophe that is worsening by the day.

“If the case for making a referral to the ICJ against Russia was strong, and it was, then the case for doing so in respect of Israeli aggression is beyond dispute.”