RIGHTS-MIDDLE EAST: UN to Debate Outbreak of Palestinian-Israeli Violence

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Oct 10 2000 (IPS) - The explosion of violence in the Palestinian territories, which has meant at least 90 deaths in the last 12 days, will be the subject of debate in a Special Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

By an overwhelming majority of its 53 member states, the maximum UN forum for human rights decided in favour of a petition presented by a group of Arab nations.

With the deadline past for the commission’s member countries to communicate their decision, at 1800 GMT Tuesday, 48 governments had expressed their support for the special session. There were three nations that failed to respond, one that voted against and one abstention, though UN officials did not divulge how each country had voted.

It is the first time since its creation in 1947 that the Commission on Human Rights has called a special session to study the situation of the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

The commission has held only four special sessions, all within the last decade. Two involved the conflicts in Yugoslavia and another covered the genocide occurred in Rwanda.

The most recent special session, held a year ago, ordered an investigation into the massacres of civilians committed following East Timor’s referendum on independence.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, applauded the commission’s decision Tuesday. This fifth special session is to begin Oct 18 at the United Nations in Geneva, and is not expected to last more than three days.

The petition to call a special session was presented last week by Algeria’s permanent representative in Geneva, Mohamed-Salah Dembri, on behalf of the Permanent Council of the League of Arab States.

In recent days, various sectors of the UN have mobilised in an attempt to calm the outbreak of violence, perpetrated primarily by Palestinian civilians and Israeli soldiers.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan went to the centre of conflict, meeting separately Tuesday with Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

Meanwhile, the Office of the High Commissioner announced that Italian diplomat Giorgio Giacomelli, special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, designated by the UN Commission on Human Rights, would visit the region Oct 11 to 15.

Giacomelli will obtain “firsthand insight into the present human rights situation,” which continues to be a source of great concern, according to Robinson’s office.

The violence turned dramatically worse following the Sep 28 visit of conservative Israeli political leader Ariel Sharon to the compound of a seventh century Moslem shrine – a site that is also considered sacred to Jews – located in East Jerusalem. Moslems viewed Sharon’s visit as a threat to the Islamic shrine, the third holiest place in Islam.

The UN Security Council criticised the Israeli politician’s act, calling it a “provocation.” The council’s official position on the matter, adopted last Saturday, was approved with 14 votes in favour, none against, and the abstention of the United States.