Human rights situations/Conflict in Gaza – Human Rights Council debate – Press release excerpts)

HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL DISCUSSES HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATIONS THAT REQUIRE ITS ATTENTION

Hears Presentation of Reports from the Advisory Committee, the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the Forum of Minority Issues

17 March 2009

The Human Rights Council this afternoon took up its agenda item on human rights situations that require the attention of the Council, hearing from a series of States and non-governmental organizations of violations of human rights in countries all over the world.  …

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General Debate on Human Rights Situations that Require the Council’s Attention
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JANG IL HUN (Democratic Republic of Korea) said that first and foremost, human rights should be firmly guaranteed by national sovereignty. War and armed conflicts in various parts of the world were main factors that ruthlessly violated human rights. … Still vivid in the Democratic Republic of Korea’s memory was the tragedy of the twenty-first century that several hundreds with empty hands and naked fists, including women and children, who were murdered by the Israeli military attack on Gaza under the patronage of the United States. All these facts demonstrated that the human rights that were not guaranteed by national sovereignty were nothing but fiction and that there could be no human rights without national rights.

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MICHEAL TIERNEY (Ireland) …

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… Ireland was deeply concerned by the recent conflict in Gaza, especially its heavy impact on innocent civilians.

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ELIAS KHOURI, of the Union of Arab Jurists, recalled a remark made by Mr. d’Escoto Brockmann, the President of the General Assembly, who had said that it was important to place the situation in Iraq on the agenda of the Human Rights Council. The killing of over a million Iraqis and the displacement of over 5 million, as well as the pollution of the environment and attacks on minorities were gross violations of human rights. Those violations required the Council to place Iraq on its agenda and appoint a Special Rapporteur. Further, the arrest warrant against the President of Sudan was a dangerous precedent. Instead, a higher priority should be put on the prosecution of the perpetrators of human rights violations in Gaza and Palestine.

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For use of the information media; not an official record