PALESTINE: Israel prevents High Commissioner for Human Rights from monitoring occupied territories
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The UN Commission on Human Rights, meeting in its 58th session, issued a press statement on 16th April including the following reference to the obstacles placed by ‘the occupying power’ to the proposed visit by the High Commissioner on Human Rights to the occupied Palestinian territories:
The Commission on Human Rights decided by roll-call vote this
morning to express deep dismay that a request it had made for
the High Commissioner on Human Rights to visit the occupied
Palestinian territories and report on the situation there could
not be fulfilled “due to the absence of a positive response from
the occupying power”.
In the decision, which passed by a vote of 41 in favour and 2
opposed, with 9 abstentions, the Commission urged immediate
implementation of its resolution 2002/1, which called for the
visit, and urged the High Commissioner to report urgently to the
Commission on the deteriorating human rights situation in the
occupied Palestinian territories on the basis of reports from all
concerned organizations present there.
High Commissioner Mary Robinson told the Commission on Monday,
15 April, that she was unable to carry out the visit, as permission
to enter the occupied territories had not been given.
In plain language, Israel, as the ¡¥occupying power¡¦, has refused to allow Mrs. Mary Robinson (the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights) to visit the Occupied Territories (Palestine) to assess the human rights situation there, despite the request of the UN Commission on Human Rights.
SUGGESTED ACTION
Please write to the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to urge him to allow the High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit the occupied territories in accordance with UN Commission on Human Rights Resolution 2002/1. A sample letter and contact details are provided below.
To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER
SAMPLE LETTER
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
Office of the Prime Minister
3 Kaplan St., Qiryat Ben-Gurion
P.O. Box 187, 91919 Jerusalem
ISRAEL
Phone: 011-972-2-670-5555
Fax: 011-972-2-651-2631
Email asharon@knesset.gov.il
Hon. Prime Minister,
We draw you attention to the following extract from a press statement of the UN Commission for Human Rights issued on 16th April:
The Commission on Human Rights decided by roll-call vote this
morning to express deep dismay that a request it had made for
the High Commissioner on Human Rights to visit the occupied
Palestinian territories and report on the situation there could
not be fulfilled “due to the absence of a positive response from
the occupying power”.
We urge you to honour your international obligations by complying with the request of the Commission on Human Rights in facilitating the High Commissioner¡¦s visit immediately. We also request that international humanitarian agencies and also the international media be granted access to the area, so that the world may know the truth about what has been and is going on.
Thank you
