Situation in OPT – UN Human Rights Council discusses reports on health, right to food and human rights defenders – Human Rights Council press release (excerpts)

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Press release

Human Rights Council

Information Service	United Nations Office at Geneva
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HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL DISCUSSES REPORTS ON HEALTH, RIGHT TO FOOD AND HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS

Concludes Debate on Reports on Incitement to Racial and Religious Hatred and Promotion of Tolerance

22 September 2006

The Human Rights Council this morning discussed the reports of its Special Rapporteurs on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; the right to food; and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the situation of human rights defenders.

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Presentation of Reports on the Right to Health, the Right to Food and Human Rights Defenders

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HINA JILANI, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the situation of human right defenders,

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Ms. Jilani said she had conducted visits to Nigeria, Israel and Brazil under her mandate in 2006. She had assessed the situation of human rights defenders in 118 countries. …

Human rights defenders in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory carried out their activities against a backdrop of occupation, conflict, military operations in Palestinian civilian centres, including refugee camps, and in an institutionalized fear of terrorism. Security-driven laws and practices had created an environment in which activities for the defence of human rights had not escaped suspicion and repression. She had received credible accounts of serious harm, including killings, that human rights defenders had suffered and of oppressive practices that affected their freedom of expression.

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ITZHAK LEVANON (Israel), speaking as a concerned country, said with regards to the report of Ms. Jilani, she had made sincere efforts to present a balanced and comprehensive overview of the situation facing human rights defenders in the region. The findings regarding Israeli democracy and the corresponding freedoms of expression and action that existed and were protected by the laws of the country were appreciated, and Israel took its obligations in this regard very seriously.

The assessment regarding the difficulties faced by human rights defenders in the Palestinian Authority raised some concern, and it was hoped that her recommendations would be cause for useful introspection within Palestinian society. Regrettably, Israel’s security concerns did not diminish after its full disengagement from Gaza last year, and could even have increased. Israel sincerely hoped that violence in the region would soon abate and that implementation of the Road Map would result in the Two States solution, living side by side in peace.

For use of the information media; not an official record

2019-03-12T18:01:25-04:00

Situation in OPT – UN Human Rights Council discusses reports on health, right to food and human rights defenders – Human Rights Council press release (excerpts)

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