{"id":235728,"date":"2020-05-01T13:35:51","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T17:35:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&p=235728"},"modified":"2020-05-04T13:36:28","modified_gmt":"2020-05-04T17:36:28","slug":"israeli-annexation-plans-would-lead-to-cascade-of-bad-human-rights-consequences-says-special-rapporteur-on-the-situation-of-human-rights-in-the-opt-press-release","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/israeli-annexation-plans-would-lead-to-cascade-of-bad-human-rights-consequences-says-special-rapporteur-on-the-situation-of-human-rights-in-the-opt-press-release\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli Annexation Plans Would Lead to \u201cCascade of Bad Human Rights Consequences\u201d Says Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the oPt – Press Release"},"content":{"rendered":"

GENEVA (1 May 2020) \u2013 An independent UN human rights expert warned today that the new Israeli coalition government\u2019s plan to proceed with annexing significant parts of the occupied West Bank, including the Jordan Valley, will create \u201ca cascade of bad human rights consequences\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cIsrael\u2019s decision to unilaterally march ahead with the planned annexation on July 1 undermines human rights in the region, and would be a severe body blow to the rules-based international order,\u201d said Michael Lynk, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967. It would also further undermine any remaining prospect for a just and negotiated settlement, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cIf Israel\u2019s annexation plans proceed, what would be left of the West Bank would become a Palestinian Bantustan, an archipelago<\/span>\u00a0of disconnected islands of territory, completely surrounded and divided up by Israel and unconnected to the outside world,\u201d the Special Rapporteur said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plan\u00a0would crystalize a 21st century apartheid, leaving in its wake the demise of the Palestinians\u2019 right to self-determination<\/span>. Legally, morally, politically, this is entirely unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Human rights violations arising from Israeli occupation would only intensify after the annexation, Lynk said. \u201cAlready, we are witnessing forced evictions and displacement, land confiscation and alienation, settler violence, the appropriation of natural resources, and\u00a0the imposition of a two-tiered system of unequal political, social and economic rights based on ethnicity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/b>Annexation has been strictly prohibited under international law since the adoption of the Charter of the United Nations in 1945. Drawing from the bitter lessons of two world wars fought within a generation, the international community outlawed annexation because it generates conflict, vast human suffering, political instability, economic ruin and systemic discrimination. Since 1967, the UN Security Council has affirmed the principle of \u201cthe inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory\u201d by force or war on numerous occasions with specific reference to Israel\u2019s occupation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The Special Rapporteur expressed deep alarm that Israel\u2019s annexation plans are being supported and facilitated by the United States. \u201cOn many fronts, the US was a positive force in the post-war years for the creation of our modern system of international law. It understood that a strong network of rights and responsibilities was the best path to global peace and prosperity. Now, it is actively endorsing, and participating in, a flagrant violation of international law. Its legal duty is to isolate perpetrators of human rights violations, not abet them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Lynk said the United Nations and its member states could no longer just offer criticism without consequences. \u201cThe looming annexation is a political litmus test for the international community. This annexation will not be reversed through rebukes, nor will the 53-year-old occupation die of old age,\u201d the Special Rapporteur said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cAs I stated in March, the international community should review its extensive menu of sanctions and countermeasures to stem this march towards\u00a0further illegality. Settlement products should not enter the international marketplace. Agreements, existing and proposed, with Israel should be reviewed. The current investigations at the International Criminal Court should be supported,\u201d the UN human rights expert underscored.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cThere has to be a cost to the defiance of international law,\u201d the Special Rapporteur said. \u201cOnly this can compel the Israeli political leadership to do the right thing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>ENDS<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Michael Lynk<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0was designated by the UN Human Rights Council in 2016 as\u00a0<\/span><\/i>the\u00a0Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967<\/i><\/a><\/span>. The mandate was originally established in 1993 by the then UN Commission on Human Rights.\u00a0Professor Lynk is Associate Professor of Law at Western University in London, Ontario, where he teaches labour law, constitutional law and human rights law. Before becoming an academic, he practiced labour law and refugee law for a decade in Ottawa and Toronto. He also worked for the United Nations on human rights and refugee issues in Jerusalem.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i>The Special Rapporteurs and Working Groups are part of what is known as the\u00a0<\/i>Special Procedures<\/i><\/a>\u00a0of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council\u2019s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i>UN Human Rights, Country Page:\u00a0<\/i>Occupied Palestinian Territory<\/i><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/i>Israel<\/i><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i>For more information and\u00a0media requests<\/b>, please contact Katarina Medlova (+41 22 917 9129 \/\u00a0<\/span><\/i>kmedlova@ohchr.org<\/i><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GENEVA (1 May 2020) \u2013 An independent UN human rights expert warned today that the new Israeli coalition government\u2019s plan to proceed with annexing significant parts of the occupied West Bank, including the Jordan Valley, will create \u201ca cascade of bad human rights consequences\u201d. \u00a0\u201cIsrael\u2019s decision to unilaterally march ahead with the planned annexation on […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"template-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[1329],"document-source":[2025],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[2849,1741,2185],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-235728","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-press-release","document-source-special-rapporteur-on-the-situation-of-human-rights-in-the-opt","document-subject-annexation","document-subject-human-rights-and-international-humanitarian-law","document-subject-legal-issues","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/235728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/235728\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=235728"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=235728"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=235728"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=235728"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=235728"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=235728"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=235728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}