HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL CONCLUDES SUBSTANTIVE DEBATE ON SITUATION IN OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES, SUDAN
Discussion also Addresses Religious Intolerance; Migrants and Human Rights Defenders
The Human Rights Council, in a midday meeting, concluded its first substantive debate under agenda item 4, namely, the implementation of General Assembly resolution 60/251 of 15 March 2006, under which it took up issues concerning the situation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine; the Peace Agreement in Sudan; religious or racial discrimination; and promoting the human rights of migrants and human rights defenders.
Occupation was the worst form of human rights violation, and was a permanent aggression according to the General Assembly, a speaker said on the topic of the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories. The Middle East was saturated with violence, and needed no further complications, another said. The international community and the United Nations should intervene and provide protection to the Palestinian people due to the continued violation of international humanitarian law.
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Statements
GEBRAN SOUFAN (Lebanon) said the Human Rights Council should implement the Commission on Human Rights resolutions and statements concerning Lebanon aimed at ensuring the release of the remaining Lebanese nationals who were taken into detention under the Israeli occupation of South Lebanon; the disclosure of the fate of Lebanese missing persons due to the Israeli occupation; and the return the Lebanese mortal remains in Israel. Lebanon reserved the right to seize the Council again for further consideration and to request the appointment of a special mechanism on the question of the Lebanese detainees and missing persons due to the Israeli occupation of South Lebanon, should this issue remain unsolved.
Lebanon cautioned against the negative outcomes of the clash between the freedom of expression and the freedom of belief, and invited the Council to benefit from Lebanon’s experiment where both liberties were exercised in harmony and synergy. Lebanon proposed the establishment of a working group to study the shortcomings in international law and draw the conclusions and guidance to avoid the abuse of the rights of both freedoms and address the defamation of religion.
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BASHAR JA'AFARI (Syria) said the Council was meeting in its first session, and it was hoped it would be more credible than the Commission, which had relentlessly condemned the Israeli occupation of the occupied Palestinian territories, but had not ended it. This situation had been passed on to the Council. It was one of the oldest issues on the table. Occupation was the worst form of human rights violation, and it was a permanent aggression according to the General Assembly. The Council should boldly and squarely confront these violations, and should do so without trying to tailor-make international humanitarian law to fit the whims and desires of certain members. This was a refusal to selectively politicise certain issues.
Many in the Golan were perishing in prisons and were being collectively punished. Israeli violations of human rights were not confined to the Golan citizens, but nuclear waste had also been buried there. The Council should send a fact-finding mission to the occupied territories, and it was within its competence and duties to do so. The Council should protect the rights of the Palestinian and Arab people, restore their rights, and not try to reinterpret the resolution 61/251.
MOHAMMAD ABU-KOASH (Palestine) said the Palestinian people had been subjected to gross and systematic violations of their human rights under the Israeli occupation since 1967. Although the Commission on Human Rights had adopted various resolutions condemning those violations, the Palestinian people continued to suffer from the brutal policies and practices by the Israeli occupying power, which was perpetrating such grave breaches of international humanitarian law and human rights law with both political and legal impunity. The Council now brought to life the hope that it would more effectively resolve human rights violations around the world. The credibility and efficacy of the new Council was to be gauged by its ability to offer action-oriented solutions to the human rights violations plaguing the daily lives of the Palestinian people.
The current precarious human rights and humanitarian conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory stemmed from the severe collective punishment imposed on the Palestinian people for exercising their democratic right in the January 2006 parliamentary elections. Collective punishment had taken the form of both an economic siege and repeated Israeli military aggressions against the civilian population
ITZHAK LEVANON (Israel) said it had strong reservations with respect to the numerous glaring omissions in the agenda item, including the indiscriminate terrorist attacks which were important and should be considered with regards to Israel’s action in self-defence. Indiscriminate rockets continued to be targeted at innocent civilians, including women and children. No reference was included on the incitement to hatred and anti-Semitism, nor to Governments’ incitement to violence against Jews and Judaism in several countries. This was part and parcel of any discussion of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and part of any achievement of even minimal credibility for the Council. It would be proper for the Council to take note of the previous day’s dreadful event, which highlighted Israel’s security concerns.
The Middle East was saturated with violence, and needed no further complications. The international community should intervene and bring the situation to an end. Radical failure called for radical change, and the Council should live up to its promises. This change was not, however, evident today, and the Council’s members should remember the road not taken, instead of going down the same old road in a march of folly.
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NAJAT AL-HAJJAJI (Libya) said the occupation of the century had been going on for the last 50 years. Israel had been violating the rights of the Palestinians through continued occupation of their land. The Commission had been dealing with the situation of Palestinians without any result as to improvements on the ground. The defunct Commission did not do anything to bring any solution to the problem faced by the Palestinian people. The resolutions and condemnations of the Commission did not bend Israel from its practices. The international community was now watching what the Council could do to resolve the Palestinian issue.
NASSER RASHID AL NUAIMI (Qatar) said the setting up of the Council was a reflection of the will of the international community to work towards the promotion and protection of human rights, and it was hoped that its establishment would constitute a quantum leap in the success factor, and would allow for an avoidance of the shortcomings of the Commission, including politicisation and double-standards. One of its priorities should be the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories. The situation in Palestine could not be ignored, as the situation of human rights had deteriorated further.
The Council should take urgent steps to improve the economic situation in Palestine, and improve the human rights of the Palestinian people. It should retain this issue on its agenda. …
MAHY ABDEL LATIF (Egypt) said Israel had violated flagrantly the human rights of the Palestinian people, in defiance of the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice. Israel was imposing an economic and financial siege on the Palestinian people, and there was no excuse that could justify colonising and dominating a people, killing innocent civilians and children, especially as these were the future. The Council should take practical steps to deal with the Israeli violations of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, including in the Syrian Golan, and should continue to do so until the occupation was ended.
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MOSTAFA ALAEI (Iran) said Iran supported the statement of Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The gross and systematic violation of human rights by the Israeli regime in occupied Palestine and other Arab occupied territories was a cause for grave and deep concern for the international community in general and for the Islamic world in particular. …
NAJEEB AL-BADER (Kuwait) said regarding the violations which the Palestinian people were subjected to, there was concern as to the grave situation in the occupied Arab territories, and the situation of human rights there. The international community and the United Nations should intervene and provide protection to the Palestinian people due to the continued violation of international humanitarian law. There was a need to reaffirm respect for international law and international humanitarian law. The Council should take all necessary measures to put an end to the Israeli violations of human rights in all the occupied territories. A Commission of Inquiry should be set up.
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ELISABET BORSIIN BONNIER (Sweden) said that Sweden supported the statement made by Austria on behalf of the European Union. Sweden wished to address urgent and gross systematic violations of human rights. Sweden wished to that in a cooperative spirit. Today’s discussion had touched upon some crucial issues, including some of the most serious human rights situations that they faced today: in Darfur, in the occupied Palestinian territories, and in Burma/Myanmar. But the Council had only touched upon them.
What the Council needed to do now was to follow up, and follow through, on those and other challenges. The Council should look for different results-oriented ways and means to pursue issues before them and should plan the next sessions of the Human Rights Council accordingly.
OMER BERZINJI (Iraq) said this was a historical session of the Council, and wished to emphasise the need to protect the human rights of the Palestinian people and Arab people which remained violated by the Israeli occupation. The situation in the occupied Arab territories was deteriorating dangerously, and the Council should do its utmost to put an end to the suffering of the Palestinian people and the violation of the rights of Palestinians. The international community should ensure that humanitarian assistance and aid reached the Palestinian people. It was hoped that the Council would fulfil its obligation to respect and protect the rights of the Palestinian people and ensure a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.
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WARREN W. TICHENOR (United States) said that the success of this Council would depend on how it dealt with the mandate in General Assembly resolution 60/251 to address serious human rights situations. How the Council would deal with human rights situations in countries and regions like Sudan, the Middle East, Burma and Korea, for example.
Focusing on a few specific cases, the ultimate goal in the situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories was to establish two independent States, living side by side. The Hamas-led Government, however, rejected that. …
Right of Reply
A Representative of Palestine, speaking in a right to reply, assured the Israeli delegation that the Palestine Government was making efforts for the release of the Israeli soldier captured yesterday. The soldier was captured from a site where the Israelis were launching missiles against the Palestinians. The prisoners held by Israel had been suffering from different symptoms without getting medical care. All the Palestinians prisoners should be released.
A Representative of Syria, speaking in a right of reply, said that the Special Rapporteur on the situation of the occupied Palestinian territory, John Dugard, had been assigned by the Council to present a report in which he had said the violations of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory were unparalleled. The same was true of the situation of economic siege and the starvation policy of Israel. Israel had been attacking its neighbours for 39 years. Hamas did not at that point hold power. So the peace problems predated their coming to power. His delegation had a documentary film that showed how Israel had transformed mosques into cages of animals and nightclubs.
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For use of information only; not an official document
HRHRC06018E
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