Third Committee
Summary record of the 32nd meeting
Held at Headquarters, New York, on Wednesday, 27 October 2010, at 10 a.m.
Chair: Mr. Al-Shami (Vice-Chair) ……………………………………… (Yemen)
Contents
The meeting was called to order at 10.15 a.m.
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Agenda item 68: Promotion and protection of human rights (continued) (A/65/36)
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23. Mr. McLay (New Zealand) …
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24. … He called for an immediate end to all violence in Israel and in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and said that restrictions of movement should be lifted to allow the passage of humanitarian aid. …
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41. Ms. Abubakar (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) said that, while her country appreciated the efforts being made by the international community to protect human rights, the actual exercise of those rights left something to be desired. There were flagrant violations in many regions of the world, notably in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, where the Palestinian people were being denied their right to self-determination. The international community needed to attach greater importance to those violations as it went about reforming the international human rights protection system through the creation of the Human Rights Council, which would soon be undergoing its first review in Geneva and New York.
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46. Ms. Rasheed (Observer for Palestine) said that her delegation wished to thank the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 for his report on the systematic daily violation by Israel, the occupying Power, of the rights of an entire people, including the rights to self-determination, life, property, food, subsistence, housing, education, health, development, water, freedom of movement and freedom of worship. Those violations had brought about the breakdown of Palestinian society and families, and the fragmentation of Palestinian territory. Israel had murdered, injured and maimed Palestinian civilians through the use of excessive blind force; committed extrajudicial killings and targeted assassinations; arbitrarily detained thousands of civilians; mistreated, humiliated and tortured Palestinian prisoners; destroyed the homes and possessions of Palestinians; and revoked residency permits and expelled Palestinians from East Jerusalem. In the occupied Gaza Strip, the practices and policies of the occupying Power following the Israeli military aggression of 2008, and in particular the illegal blockade that imprisoned the 1.5 million Palestinians who lived there, had exacerbated poverty and deprivation. Despite the efforts of the international community and Palestinian officials to reach a settlement of the conflict, Israel continued to sabotage the peace process with its campaign to colonize and populate Occupied Palestinian Territory, in particular the area in and around East Jerusalem. Israel disregarded the global consensus that such behaviour obstructed peace plans. The settlements were illegal; they violated the relevant provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention, customary law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The settlements and the building of the wall inside the Occupied Palestinian Territory had also resulted in the displacement of thousands of civilians.
47. From the highest levels of Government to its nearly 500,000 settlers, including within the ranks of the occupation forces, accountability for the crimes being committed against the Palestinian people was the exception rather than the rule. If Israel continued to be unaccountable, that would only encourage it to act with impunity in flagrant violation of international law, putting off still further the vision of a final end to the Israeli occupation and realization of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.
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59. Ms. Smith (Norway) …
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60. … In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Israeli occupation deprived the Palestinian population of its fundamental right to self-determination. …
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This record is subject to correction. Corrections should be sent under the signature of a member of the delegation concerned within one week of the date of publication to the Chief of the Official Records Editing Section, room DC2-750, 2 United Nations Plaza, and incorporated in a copy of the record.
Corrections will be issued after the end of the session, in a separate corrigendum for each Committee.
Document Type: Summary record
Document Sources: General Assembly, Human Rights Council
Subject: Access and movement, Gaza Strip, Human rights and international humanitarian law, Humanitarian relief, Living conditions, Occupation
Publication Date: 27/10/2010