Human rights situation in the OT – CHR – Letter from Palestine

QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE

OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES, INCLUDING PALESTINE

Letter dated 25 October 2001 from the Permanent Observer for Palestine

to the United Nations Office at Geneva addressed to the United Nations

High Commissioner for Human Rights

With reference to our last letter to Your Excellency, dated 24 October 2001, concerning the last massacre perpetrated by the Israeli occupation forces against the Palestinian unarmed civilian population in Beit Rima village north of Ramallah in the Palestinian occupied West Bank, and as a result of the continuation of this Israeli massacre all during the late hours of yesterday, the number of victims increased to 21 martyrs in addition to several more wounded.

This massacre comes as a continuation of the unlimited list of massacres at the hands of the Israeli military occupation forces against the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory. It also constitutes new evidence of the flagrant violation by the Israeli Government, as well as its occupation forces, of the principles of human rights as laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the two International Covenants on Human Rights, international humanitarian law, the Fourth Geneva Convention and particularly the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

I would be grateful if you would have this letter distributed as an official document of the fifty-eighth session of the Commission on Human Rights under agenda item 8.

(Signed):  Nabil RAMLAWI

Ambassador

Permanent Observer