Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)- Geneva
Human Rights on the Altar of Israel:
CIHRS Calls on the UN Human Rights Council to Endorse the Findings of the Fact Finding Mission on Gaza
Press Release
Today the United Nations fact finding report on the Israeli invasion of Gaza in December 2008 was presented before the Human Rights Council. The report deals with violations carried out by both Israeli armed forces and Palestinian armed groups. In the words of the head of the fact finding mission Justice Richard Goldstone, the mission and report were guided by the principle that “no state or armed group should be above the law” and that “failing to pursue justice for serious violations during any conflict will have a deeply corrosive effect on international justice.”
Such an approach holds true to the human rights and humanitarian standards that were born out of the brutality and horrors of World War II. These international standards, as manifest in this report, are now being trampled on and mocked by some states and organizations who appear to be motivated by the desire to provide blanket impunity for Israeli forces and its government.
According to Jeremie Smith, Director of CIHRS’ Geneva Office, “These actors, including Israel itself, , have attempted to distract the world from the detailed findings of the report by avoiding addressing its substance and, instead, have attacked and vilified the individuals who made up the fact finding mission, the mandate of the mission, the Human Rights Council and any NGO or entity that has endorsed the report’s findings.” These findings are clearly demonstrated: widespread and systematic war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed by Israeli forces during its invasion of the Gaza Strip and those who perpetrated such crimes must be held accountable, either by Israel or the international community if Israel continues to be unwilling or unable to do so.
The report is the most recent and one of the most forceful documents which acknowledge the impunity which Israel and some Palestinian armed groups have been granted by the international community and which must begin to be seriously addressed. Impunity for violations of international standards has consistently empowered extremist groups within both Israeli and Palestinian society; groups which hold their own populations hostage to suicidal policies motivated by irrational and fundamentalist agendas.
A strong commitment by members of the UN Human Rights Council to uphold the recommendations contained in the Gaza fact-finding report which attempts to begin to address impunity in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the referral of the report’s findings to the UN Security Council, would be a key step toward unlocking the political impasse and ending the cycle of violent retribution that currently poses a long term existential threat to both Israeli and Palestinian nationhood.
Furthermore, the acceptance or rejection of this report has emerged as an important crucible within which the legitimacy of the Human Rights Council will be judged, and may become a large factor on which its future effectiveness is dependent.
“It would be deeply damaging for the Human Rights Council if the European Union and other states who rightly proposed and lobbied for the amendment that preserved this Councils mandate on Sudan three months ago, to now abandon the same principles that animated those efforts and refuse to uphold this report. To do so will empower those governments, including many members of the Arab League, who would like to systematically dismantle the international human rights system, and may also ensure that future efforts by the Human Rights Council to give a voice to human rights victims throughout the world will be undermined by accusations of hypocrisy and double-standards,” continued Mr. Smith
CIHRS strongly urges the member states of the Human Rights Council to avoid the damage to the Human Rights Council that may result from the unprincipled rejection of this report’s findings and recommendations, and to ensure they do not stand on the side of impunity concerning this important issue.
Contact:
Arabic- Moataz El Fegiery ([email protected]), English- Jeremie Smith ([email protected])
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