Israel/Palestine
In reply to the discussion: UK raises concerns over Israel's treatment of Palestinian children [View all]azurnoir
(45,850 posts)in its entirety
Todays resolution was drafted by the Palestinian Authority and adopted by the Human Rights Council with 27 states voting in favour, three against, and 16 abstentions. It follows the second report of a Committee of Independent Experts, established to monitor the domestic investigations into violations committed during the conflict, which was submitted to the Human Rights Council on 18 March 2011. The report concurred with Amnesty Internationals assessment that more than 18 months since the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict documented crimes under international law committed by both sides the Israeli authorities and the Hamas de facto administration have failed to conduct investigations meeting the required international standards of independence, impartiality, thoroughness, effectiveness and promptness.
The September 2009 report of the UN Fact-Finding Mission, led by Justice Richard Goldstone, concluded that both the Israeli military and Palestinian armed groups had committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity during the conflict. It recommended that if the authorities failed to conduct credible, independent investigations meeting international standards within six months, the Security Council should refer the issue to the ICC. Todays resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council recommends that the General Assembly reconsider the UN Fact-Finding Mission report at its 66th session, which begins in September 2011, and refer the report to the Security Council, which has not yet considered it.
The General Assembly has already twice called on the domestic authorities to conduct credible, independent investigations into the serious violations of international humanitarian and international human rights law documented by the UN Fact-Finding Mission, in resolutions adopted in November 2009 and February 2010. Those calls have clearly been ignored, and the General Assembly must submit the issue to the Security Council without delay. In doing so, the General Assembly should also ensure that the two reports of the Committee of Independent Experts are brought before the Security Council, despite the fact that todays Human Rights Council resolution failed to refer these reports to the General Assembly.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International notes that the ICC Prosecutor has yet to seek a determination from the judges of the Pre-Trial Chamber on whether he can open an investigation into crimes committed during the conflict on the basis of a declaration issued by the Palestinian Authority in January 2009. That declaration accepted the jurisdiction of the ICC over crimes committed on the territory of Palestine since 1 July 2002. Legal experts dispute whether the Palestinian Authority is a state capable of making such a declaration under the Rome Statute. If the judges were to determine that the ICC could act on the declaration, a referral by the Security Council would not be required for the ICC to open an investigation. Amnesty International continues to urge the ICC Prosecutor to seek this determination as soon as possible.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE15/021/2011/en/8d30cd31-448a-4b10-9c02-cd4da79939e7/mde150212011en.html
one can only wonder why you would chose a source that can not be cut and pasted from