UNHRC mission to probe Israeli settlements in West Bank

UNHRC mission to probe Israeli settlements in West Bank

Palestinian Information Centre
07/07/2012

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- The UN's top human rights body has appointed three independent experts to conduct a fact-finding mission on how Israel's West Bank settlements affect the Palestinians.

The president of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Uruguay Ambassador Laura Dupuy-Lasserre, named on Friday evening three delegates to the panel who are French judge Christine Chanet, as the panel's leader, the Pakistani lawyer Asma Jahangir, and Botswana judge Unity Dow, as members.

Dupuy-Lasserre said that their mission will be to probe how the Israeli settlements impact "the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people".

It is noted that the Geneva-based 47-nation council passed a resolution in March to establish such a probe following a motion by the Palestinian Authority. Israel's ally the United States was the only member to vote against it. The UN considers Israeli settlements illegal under international law.

The council said that Israel's planned construction of new housing units in the West Bank and east Jerusalem "undermines the peace process and poses a threat to the two-state solution and the creation of an independent Palestinian state."

Thus, Dupuy-Lasserre emphasized during her speech that it is important that the panel starts working soon, noting that it is expected that the delegation shall submit its findings in a report to the UNHRC in March 2013.

Meanwhile, the Israeli foreign ministry condemned Friday's decision saying that "the establishment of this mission is another blatant expression of the singling out of Israel in the UNHRC. This fact-finding mission will find no cooperation in Israel and its members will not be allowed to enter the territories," the ministry said.

As the team will not be allowed access to Israeli settlements, they are likely to have to gather information from second-hand sources, including the media.

ENDS

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