Asian Human Rights Commission Statement Calling for Humanitarian Intervention
MIDDLE EAST: When Will the First Ship or Airplane Carrying Peacekeepers Arrive?
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We reproduce below the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) statement calling for the immediate dispatch of peacekeepers and human rights monitors to the Occupied Territories of Palestine to implement a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the escalating violence. This statement is a declaration of support for the proposal put forward by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson. We urge everyone to participate in urging all parties concerned to expedite these missions.
WHEN WILL THE FIRST SHIP OR AIRPLANE CARRYING PEACEKEEPERS ARRIVE?
Asian Human Rights Commission Statement Calling for Humanitarian Intervention
April 14, 2002
We are living at an important and agonizing moment of history when the human rights law developed after the Second World War is being put to the test. A familiar theme in human rights discourse in recent times is humanitarian intervention. As regards the Occupied Territories of Palestine, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, addressing the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva on April 11, 2002, has called for immediate intervention.
\”The situation is so dangerous and the humanitarian and human rights situation so appalling that I think the proposition that a force should be sent in there to create a secure environment, as well as provide space for diplomatic and political negotiations, can no longer be deferred,\” Annan said. It remains to be seen whether the secretary-generals words be honoured or defeated by more powerful actors. AHRC supports this call and further states that a failure to take this course of action will severely damage the credibility of the international communitys claim to uphold international law and to defend international justice. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, said on April 4, \”I have had occasion in the past to call for human rights observers to be stationed in the Occupied Territories and Special Rapporteur [John] Dugard has done likewise. Today I ask a simple question: When the Security Council has situations where it feels there is a particular
need to brief itself, it sends a visiting mission. Would it not be right for this commission to dispatch immediately a visiting mission that would travel to the area and return expeditiously to the commission with their findings and recommendations. Surely, the protection of human rights would require such a step as a very minimum.\”
Will anything be done to alter the situation? It is time to act. We call upon the international community to act now.
We particularly draw attention to the situation of civilians. Some have died or have been wounded in suicide bombings, which even Chairman Arafat has condemned. Large numbers of civilians have been killed by the Israeli military, and there are complaints of massacres and mass graves. Civilians have also been affected severely by the destruction of water and electricity supplies, the deprivation of access to hospitals and the denial of the right of movement. Behind such violence, the Israeli occupation and the expansion and consolidation of this occupation remains. Will the international community have the will to intervene to end all of these human rights violations following the call of the secretary-general of the United Nations? This is now the question. We urge everyone to unite in calling for such an intervention to take place immediately. Let us wait to see when the first plane will leave, the first ship will arrive and the first batch of peacekeepers will arrive in thi
s important mission. This we owe to all affected people, both Palestinians and Israelis, as well as other people in the Middle East and elsewhere. Let us hope and pray that this humanitarian intervention will not prove to be a lie.
To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER
SAMPLE LETTER
I am writing to urge the immediate implementation of the proposal by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and for the immediate dispatch of a peacekeeping force to the Occupied Territories of Palestine and to send human rights monitors as proposed by Mary Robinson, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. I am writing with the belief that these are genuine proposals and that the determination to implement them exists. I am looking forward to seeing pictures of the first batch of U.N. peacekeepers arrive in the Occupied Territories of Palestine. To delay this or to subvert this proposal is to be complicit in the continuing violence.
I urgently hope you will do all in your power to make these proposals come true immediately.
Thank you.
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SEND LETTER TO:
1. Mr. Kofi Annan
Secretary-General
United Nations Room S-3800
New York NY 10017
U.S.A.
Fax: +1 212 963 4879/2155
E-mail: ecu@un.org
2. Mr. Colin Powell
Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20520
U.S.A.
Tel: +1 202 647-4000
Fax: +1 202 261-8577
E-mail: Secretary@state.gov
3. Mrs. Mary Robinson
High Commissioner for Human Rights.
OHCHR-UNOG
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Fax: +41 22 917 9012
E-mail: webadmin.hchr@unog.ch
[PLEASE MARK: ATTENTION – HIGH COMMISSIONER MARY ROBINSON]
4. Mr. Javier Solana
Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union
15 rue de l’Association
1000 Brussels
BELGIUM
Tel: +32 2 500-4412
Fax: +32 2 500- 4470
E-mail: ueo.secretariatgeneral@skynet.be
