UN Human Rights Council debate: New Zealand’s voice absent

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“All victims of human rights abuses should be able to look to the Human Rights Council as a forum and a springboard for action.” – Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General, 12 March 2007

On the 23 September more than 37 nations were represented at a Human Rights Council general debate on human rights in Palestine and other Occupied territories (some delegates also spoke for regional groups of countries). In addition to nation states, 18 non-governmental organisations also took the floor, including Defence for Children International, International Organisation for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Union of Arab Jurists, International Federation for Human Rights Leagues and INTLawyers.org. The debate was boycotted by Israel, the US and other pro-Israel states.

While, lamentably, most Security Council members were not present to voice support, broad points of agreement were established during the debate. The Human Rights Council heard that the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel had filed 107 complaints of war crimes in the State of Israel and that Israel had not looked into a single case. The Council was called upon to ensure that Israeli violations of international law were subject to independent criminal investigations according to the principles of international law. It was noted that the Human Rights Council had called for the establishment of a database of businesses involved in illegal Israeli Occupation settlement activity.

There are 440 Palestinian children in Israeli prisons, the highest number since the Israeli Prison Service began releasing data in 2008. All members of the Human Rights Council were urged to demand that Israel stop the use of imprisonment without trial against Palestinian children.

Since its unilateral ‘declaration of independence’, Israel has been forcibly displacing Palestinians.

The Council was reminded that more than 750,000 had been forcibly uprooted and expelled from their homes and land, or fled in fear for their lives after the brutal massacres perpetrated by Israeli forces during the 1948 ‘Nakba’ tragedy. Since 1948 the United Nations has continually failed to bring Israel into line with its international obligations. Palestinians were being deprived of their right to self-determination and Israel’s military Occupation violence and settlement building were continuing unrestrained. It was also noted that, since 2015, representatives of leading human rights organisations, particularly staff based in Europe, engaging with the International Criminal Court with regard to Israeli Occupation violations, had been subjected to death threats, intimidation and harassment. Israel should also cease its expansionist activities, delegates were told. Israel continues to prevent the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes and land in defiance of UN-recognition of that right. The delegate from The Union of Arab Jurists said that Israeli Occupying forces were perpetuating violations against the Palestinian people while supporting, with air cover, terrorist organisations in Syria. This has already been admitted to the news media by Israeli officials.

The International Youth and Student Movement for the United Nations was deeply concerned that a group of countries was boycotting this agenda item. In a joint statement with the American Association of Jurists they told the Council that the collective punishment being meted out against Palestinians included violations of the right to health, freedom of movement and earning a living, among many others. Also of concern to the Council members was Israel’s blatant disregard for international human rights and humanitarian law with the enormous toll on life and destruction in Gaza, as well as increasing human rights violations in the Occupied Syrian Golan Heights. Council delegates were concerned that turning a blind eye to brutal and systematic attempts by Israel to break the spirit of Palestinians risked the Council losing its credibility. It was felt that the relentless and unjustifiable human rights violations being committed by the Occupying power in Palestine needed to be condemned, especially as the resulting cycle of fear, hatred and violence had infected an entire generation across the Middle East. If the silence continues, there can be no hope of ever making a difference. Another delegate reaffirmed his country’s commitment to keeping this on the Council’s agenda because Israel’s relentless violations of international humanitarian law and principles of human rights will go on unhindered until the international community chooses to put an end to them.

The miserable living conditions of the people living under Israeli military Occupation were untenable, delegates were told; there were no coercive measures that Israel had not used against the defenceless population – house demolitions were particularly barbaric. More than one delegate warned that the removal of this item under discussion from the agenda would mean gifting Israel with impunity. The Council was told that it must step up because people all over the world were looking to the Human Rights Council to provide effective support for the preservation of human rights in all countries. Why does New Zealand not support the UN Human Rights Council? The Fourth Geneva Convention resulted from the greatest single calamity in modern history. As the world sinks into ever-greater lawlessness and barbarity, a revival of respect and resolute support for international law is desperately needed – have we forgotten so soon? If reason and civilisation are to have any hope of survival we must act urgently in their defence – else silence, duplicity and expediency will be our most certain downfall.

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