Trade is already testing the Hague Group’s resolve. Colombia, once a co-chair of the coalition, supplied coal to Israel for years, and its new president has signed a decree to resume those exports. Colombia also walked away from the group in August, leaving South Africa to steer it alone, according to Middle East Eye.
The group was founded in January 2025 by Colombia, South Africa, Bolivia, Honduras, Cuba, Malaysia, Namibia and Senegal. Its purpose is to push for enforcement of international law over Israel’s conduct in Gaza and the West Bank. Colombia is the third founding member to go in six months. Honduras and Bolivia withdrew in March, after presidential victories by Nasry Asfura and Rodrigo Paz.
What Colombia’s new government did
Colombia left after the election of right-wing populist Abelardo de la Espriella. In under two months in office, Middle East Eye reported, he appointed a new ambassador to Israel, recognised Israel’s claim over the Golan Heights, abolished visa requirements for Israelis, restored the Colombia-Israel Free Trade Agreement and withdrew from South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
Guillaume Long, the group’s diplomatic adviser, put it bluntly: “We are seeing Colombia deliver on what it offered: to boycott, sabotage, withdraw from multilateralism, and of course abandon its cause for Palestinian self-determination.”
Mauricio Jaramillo Jassir, a former deputy foreign minister under Gustavo Petro, argued that the reversal may also breach legal obligations. The constitution lets the president run diplomacy, he said, but within international law, including the duty of third-party states under the 1948 Genocide Convention to prevent and punish genocide. The departures of Colombia, Honduras and Bolivia also leave Latin America and the Caribbean, home to 8.2 percent of the world’s population, without a seat.
What the group does
Long stressed that the group does not write or pass new norms of international law. It is a platform where states can set out strategies, coordinate measures and discuss enforcement, much of which, he said, happens at the domestic level.
That coordination continues. This month, at the 81st session of the UN General Assembly, 40 countries met to discuss how states can enforce international law collectively. Long told the outlet there is a growing consensus among most UN members that attacks on the institutions of international justice are outrageous. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, at the BRICS summit in Delhi on September 12, called for comprehensive Security Council reform.
The group has also faced criticism over its remaining co-chair. A report by BDS South Africa said that Pretoria’s regulatory authority over coal exports from Richards Bay conflicts with its Hague Group commitments. Malaysia, by contrast, seized a container of suspected strategic cargo bound for Israel at the Port of Tanjung Pelepas on August 8, and more shipments a week later.
