E/4475
E/CN.4/972
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE TWENTY-FOURTH SESSION
5 February • 12 March 1968
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS: FORTY-FOURTH SESSION
SUPPLEMENT No. 4
UNITED NATIONS
(b) Political prisoners and opponents of apartheid should not be subjected to
discriminatory and harsh treatment because of their opposition to the policy of
apartheid;
(g) All prisoners, on Robben Island in particular, should be provided with
shoes at all times;
() The inhuman practices known as the "tausa dance" and "eerry-on" should be
immediately terminated in the South African gaols;
(g) Action should be taken to put an immediate end to the exploitation of
African convict labour;
(f) Every effort should be made to put an end immediately to any encouragement
by prison officials of the practices of homosexuality and lesbianism amongst
prisoners and detainees;
(g) Food given to non-white prisoners should be the same as that given to all
other prisoners and should be improved to increase its nutritional value;
(h) The clothing given to all prisoners should be such as is adequate for
the climatic conditions at all times;
(i) The bedding provided for prisoners should be adequate and should meet
varying climatic conditions, and beds should be provided to all prisoners;
() The toilet facilities provided in cells should be so constructed and
located as to meet reasonable hygienic prison conditions; and
(k) Due care and attention should be taken to ensure that only a reasonable
number of prisoners be placed in any prison cell and that they should be of the
same sex;
5. Also calls upon the Government of the Republic of South Africa to bring
to an end in each and every case all practices of torture and all cruel, inhuman
and degrading treatment of detainees or prisoners during interrogation and during
detention in prison, and to take immediate steps to ensure that the supervising
authorities keep a close watch on the behaviour of the police and prison officials
in conformity with the international rules concerning detainees, and to establish
an effective system of remedies against violations of human rights in South
African police stations and prisons;
6. Requests the Economic and Social Council to recommend to the General
Assembly the adoption of the foliowing resolution:
for the text, see chapter XIX, draft resolution II.7
6 (XXIV). Question of human rights in the territories occupied
as a result of hostilities in the Middle East 2l/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling provisions of the Geneva Conventions of l2 August 19l9 regarding
the protection of civilian persons in time of war,
2l/ See paras. 1l0-210 above.
-151Mindful
of the principle embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
regarding the right of everyone to return to his own country,
Recalling resolution 237 (1967), adopted by the Security Council on
1l June i67, in which the Council considered that essential end inalienable human
rights should be respected even during the vicissitudes of war and called upon the
Government of Israel, inter alia, to facilitate the return of those inhabitants who
had fled the areas of military operations since the outbreak of hostilities,
Recalling also resolution 2252 (ES-V) of the General Assembly, which welcomed
with great satisfaction Security Council resolution 237 (1967), of ll June 1967,
and called for humanitarian assistance,
1. Notes with appreciation the resolutions adopted by the Security Council
and the General Assembly in accordance with the provisions of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Conventions of 19l9 regarding human
rights in the territories occupied as a result of the hostilities in the Middle
East;
2. Affirms the right of all the inhabitants who have left since the
outbreak of hostilities in the Middle East to return and that the Government
concerned should take the necessary measures in order to facilitate the return of
those inhabitants to their own country without delay;
• Requests the Secretary-General to keep the Commission informed upon
developments with respect to operative paragraphs l and 2 above.
7 (XX1v). Question of the establishment of regional commissions
on uan ris 25/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling resolution 21ll A (XXI) adopted by the General Assembly on
26 0co~er 1566 in which the Assembly invited the Economic and Social Council and
the Commission on Human Rights "to give urgent consideration to ways and means of
improving the capacity of the United Nations to put a stop to violations of human
rights wherever they may occur",
Recalling its resolution 6 (XXIII) in which it decided to set up an ad hoc
study group to study in all its aspects, the proposal to establish regional
commissions on human rights within the United Nations family,
Noting the report of the ad hoc Study Group established under resolution
6 (aTJ n document E/N./9Ga6 a Aad.1,
l. Requests the Secretary-General to transmit the report of the ad hoc
Study Group to Member States for their comments on the part concerning regional
commissions;
25/ See paras. 211-2l5.
-152E/
4621
E/CN.4/1007
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE TWENTY-FIFTH SESSION
17 February - 21 March 1969
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS: FORTY-SIXTH SESSION
UNITED NATIONS
6 (000). Question pfhumen rights in the territories
occupied as a result of hostilities in the
Middle East27
T'he @omission on Human Rights,
jM.indfyl of the principle embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
recognizing the right of everyone to return to his country,
Recalling Security Council resolution 237 (1967) of 1/ June 1967, General Assembly
resolutions 2252 (ES-V) of 4 July 1967 and 2341B (XX1I) or 19 December 167, resolution
6 (XXIV) of the Commission on Human Rights and Economic and Socia Council resolution
1336 (LIV) of 31 May 1968 and General Assembly resolution 2452 (XIII) of 19 December
1968 which called upon the Government of Israel to take effective and immediate steps
for the return without delay of those inhabitants who fled the areas since the outbreak
of hostilities.
Further recalling the telegram dispatched by the Commission on Human Rights on
8 March 1968, celling upon the Government of Israel to desist forthwith from acts of
destroying homes of the Arab civilian population in areas occupied by Israel, and to
respect human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Bearing jr mind that the Security Council resolution 237 (1967) of 14 June 1967,
General Assembly resolution 2252 (ES--V) of 4 July 1967, Economic and Social Council
resolution 1336 (XLIV) of 31 May 1968, and resolution 6 (XX1V) o° the Commission on
Human Rights have called for the application of Geneva Conventions of l2 August 1949
in the territories occupied by Israel,
Noting that the Security Council has once again expressed its concern for the
safety, welfare and security of the inhabitants of the Arab territories under military
occupation by Israel, and deplored the delay in the implementation of resolution
237 (1967),
Noting also resolution I on respect for and implementation of human rights in
occupied territories, adopted by the International Conference on Human Rights on
7 May 1968 (A/CONF.32/41) and General Assembly resolution 24/3 (XIII) of 19 December 1968,
Deeply concerned about the reported continuation of human rights violations as
well as violations of the Geneva Conventions 12 August 19/9 in the territories occupied
by Israel,
Having received the report of the Secretary--General (E/N.4/999),
l. Reaffirms the inalienable right of all the inhabitants who have left since the
outbreak of hostilities to return, and calls upon the Government of Israel to
immediately implement the United Nations resolutions to this effect,
2, Deplores Israel's continued violations of human rights in the occupied
territories, particularly the acts of destroying homes of Arab civilian population,
deportation of inhabitants and the resorting to violence against inhabitants expressing
their resentment to occupation and galls upon the Government of Israel to put an immediate
end to such acts,
Adopted at the l01/th meeting on l March 196, see para. 22l above.
-- 183 3.
Dresses its deep concern on Israel's refusal to abide by the Geneva Convention
of 12 August 1949 relative to the Protection of Ciilian Persons in Time of War, and
galls once again upon the Government of Israel to fully respect and apply that Convention;
4. Decides to establish s special Working Group of Experts composed of the
ambers of the A oz Working Croup of Experts established under Commission resolutions
2 (XIII) and 2 (XIV) with the following mandate:
(g) To investigate allegations concerning Israel's violations of the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Fersons in Time of War of
12 August 1949, in the territories occupied by Israel as a result of hostilities in
the Middle Zast;
(b) To receive communications,to hear witnesses, and use such modalities of
procedure as it may deem necessary;
(g) To report, with its conclusions and recommendations, to the Commission's
twenty-sixth session;
5. De@ides to include the question of human rights in the territories occup ied
as a result of hostilities in the Middle East as a separate item of priority on the
agenda of the Commission's twenty-sixth session.
7 (00). Question of human rights arising out of
a+iliis 5r a5 137 E._227 ' lU. • • ++ r . ti UL.h
The Commission on Human Rights
Deeply concerned at the conflict affecting the Middle East, which continues to
constitute an explosive factor that might spark off a universal conflagration, and at
its consequences for the civil populations,
iwgre of its legal and moral obligation to foster universal resoct for fundamental
hzan rights an freedoms, to promote conditions which guarantee such respect and to
eliminate harm and suffering which constitute an affront to civilization.
Makes g fervent gppea] to all Governments, their peoples and world pnblic opinion
to spare no efforts to ensure e peaceful settlement of the conflict affecting the Middle
Dast through respect for the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and through
the implementation of the relevant resolutions of the Security Council, in particular
resolution 2/2 (1967) of 22 November 1967, and, meanwhile, to ensure in that region
respect for the fundamental rights of all human beings which will greatly contribute
in creating conditions for the restoration of peace.
2/ 5/ Adopted at the l0L5th meeting on 4 March 1969, sce para. 228 above.
- 184 E/
4621
E/CN.4/1007
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE TWENTY-FIFTH SESSION
17 February - 21 March 1969
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS: FORTY-SIXTH SESSION
UNITED NATIONS
3. Expresses its Reep concern on Israel's refusal to abih. by the Geneva Convention
of 12 August 1949 relative to the Protection of Ciilian Persons in Time of War, and
clls gnge again pon the Government of Israel to fully respect and apply that Convention;
4. Decides to establish a special Working Group of Experts composed of the
aombors of tho A log Working Group of Experts established under Commission resolutions
2 (XX1II) and 2 (XIV) with the following mandate:
(g) To investigate allegations concerning Israel's violations of the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Fersons in Time of War of
12 August 1949, in the territories occupied by Israel as a result of hostilities in
the Middle Zast;
(p) To receive communications, to
procedure as it may deem necessary;
hear witnesses, and use such modalities of
(g) To report, with its conclusions and recommendations, to the Commission's
twenty-sixth session;
5. Dg@ides to include the question of human rights in the territories occupied
as a result of hostilities in the Middle East as a separate item of priority on the
agenda of the Commission's twenty-sixth session.
7 (XXV). of
The Commission on Human Rights
Deeply_concerned at the conflict affecting the Middle East, which continues to
constitute an explosive factor that night spark off a universal conflagration, and at
its consequences for the civil populations,
Agre of its legal and moral obligation to foster universal respect for fundamental
hvnan rights and freedoms, to promote conditions which guarantee such respect and to
eliminate harm and suffering which constitute an affront to civilization.
Makes g fervent gppeal to all Governments, their peoples and world pnblic opinion
to spare no efforts to ensure e peaceful settlement of the conflict affecting the Middle
ast through respect for the principles of the Charter of the Inited Nations and through
the implementation of the relevant resolutions of the Security Council, in particular
resolution 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967, and, meanwhile, to ensure in that region
respect for the fundamental rights of all human beings which will greatly contribute
in creating conditions for the restoration of peace.
2g/ Adopted at the 10l5th meeting on L March 1969, soe para. 228 above.
- 184 COMMKSMN
ON HUMAN RMHTS
ON THE TWENTY-SMTH SESStOM
February - 27 March 1970)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
RECORDS: FORTY-EIGHTH SESSION
SUPPLEMENT No. 5
UNITED NATIONS
COMMISSION ON RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE TWENTY-SIXTH SESSION
(24 February - 27 March 1970)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS: FORTY-EIGHTH SESSION
SUPPLEMENT No. 5
UNITED NATIONS
E/4816
E/CN.4/1039
Recognizing the contribution of the report of the Group to the continuing
efforts of the United Nations to investigate and thus expose the gross and flagrant
violation of human rights in southern Africa,
Having examined the report of the Group (E/CN.4/1020 and Add.1-3),
1 . Expresses its appreciation of the work of the Ad Hoc Working Group of
Experts and looks forward to receiving a more detailed report from it at the
twenty-seventh session of the Commission;
Endorses the observations, conclusions and recommendations of the Group;
3 . Requests the Economic and Social Council to forward the report of the
Group to the Special Committee on the Policies of Apartheid of the Government of
the Republic of South Africa, the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to
the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial
Countries and Peoples and the United Nations Council for Namibia;
4. Requests the Group to study, from the point of view of international penal
law, the question of apartheid, which has been declared a crime against humanity;
3. Requests the International Labour Organisation to include, as far as
possible, a report on forced labour in the African Territories under Portuguese
domination in its paper to be submitted to the Economic and Social Council at its
forty-eighth session in accordance with Council resolution 1 4 1 2 XLVl);
6. Requests the Economic and Social Council to adopt the following draft
resolution:
/For the text, see chapter XXIV. draft resolution III./
$ (XXVI). Model rules of procedure for United Nations bodies
dealing with violations of human rights 25/
The Commission on Human Rights.
Taking into account the note by the Secretary-General of 1 8 February (E/CN.4/1021),
Decides to resume consideration of the above-mentioned document at its
twenty-seventh session.
10 (XXVl). Question of human rights in the territories occupied as
a result of hostilities in the Middle East, including
the report of the Special Working Group of 26/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Mindful of the principles embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
recognizing the inherent dignity and equal and inalienable rights of to
justice, freedom and peace,
25/ Adopted at the 1079th meeting, on 1 9 March 1970. See X, 1 7 4 - 1 7 9.
2 6 / Adopted at the lc82nd meeting, on 23 March 1970. See chap. XI, paras. 134-198.
- 7 9 -
Recognizing the contribution of the report of the Group to the continuing
efforts of the United Nations to investigate and thus expose the gross and flagrant
violation of human rights in southern Africa,
Having examine@ the report or the Group (E/CN.A/1020 and Add.1--3),
l. Expresses its appreciation of the work of the Ad Hog Working Group of
Experts and looks forward to receivinga more detailed report from it at the
twenty--seventh session of the Commission;
2. Endorses the observations, conclusions and recommendations of the Group;
• Requests the Economic and Social Council to forward the report of the
Group to the Special Committee on the Policies of Apartheid of the Government of
the Republic of South Africa, the Speciel Committee on the Situation with regard to
the Implementation of the Declaretion on the Granting of Independence to Colonial
Countries and Peoples and the United Nations Council for Nemibie;
• Requests the Group to study, from the point of view of international penal
law, the question of apartheid, which hes been declared a crime against humanity;
5. Requests the International Labour Organisation to include, as far as
possible, a report on forced labour in the African Territories under Portuguese
domination in its peper to be submitted to the Economic and Social Council at its
forty--eighth session in accordance with Council resolution 1ll2 (XLVI);
6. Requests the Economic end Social Council to edopt the following draft
resolution:
fso the text, see chapter XMIV, draft resolution III.]
9 (XXVI). Model rules pf procedure for United Nations bodies
@dealing with violations pf human rights 25/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Taking into g@count the note by the Secretary--General of 18 February 1970
(E/CN./1021),
Decides to resume consideration of the above--mentioned document at its
twenty-seventh session.
10 (XXVI). Question of human rights in the territories occupied as
a result pf hostilities in the Middle Fast. including
the report pf the Special Working group of Experts 26/
The Commission pn Humen Rights,
Min@dful of the principles embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
recognizing the inherent dignity and equal and inalienable rights of peoples to
justice, freedom and peace,
25/ Adopted at the 1079th meeting, on 19 Merch 1970.
26/ Adopted at the 1082nd meeting, on 23 March 1970.
-79See
chap. K, paras. 17l--179.
See chap. XI, paras. 13l-198.
Recalling resolution I of the International Conference on Human Rights of
May I968 in which the Conference requested the Commission on Human Rights to keep
the question of respect for and implementation of human rights in occupied
territories under constant review,
Recalling also Security Council resolutions 237 (1967) and 259 (1968) and
General Assembly resolution 2252 (ES-V), in which the Council and the Assembly
called upon Israel to ensure the safety, welfare and security of the inhabitants of
the areas where military operations have taken place and to facilitate the return
of those inhabitants who had fled the areas since the outbreak of and
General Assembly resolutions 2535 B XXIV), which reaffirmed the inalienable rights
of the people of Palestine, and 2546 (XXIV), in which the Assembly expressed its
at called 1949,
Recalling further its resolution 6 (XXV) by which it decided to establish a
special working group of experts to investigate allegations concerning Israel's
violations of that Convention,
Bearing in mind that the said Convention is binding upon Israel,
Recalling its resolution 5 B (XXVl) in which it considered violations of the
Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 as war crimes and an affront to humanity in
addition to being crimes,
Gravely concerned about the deteriorating conditions of human rights in the
militarily occupied territories in the Middle East,
Gravely disturbed about recent reports of the planned mass deportation of the
Palestinian refugees (numbered from the occupied Gaza Strip by the Israeli
occupying authorities,
Having received and studied the report of the Special Working Group established
under resolution 6 (XXV) to investigate allegations concerning Israel's
violations of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons
in Time of War in the territories militarily occupied by Israel,
1. Notes with dismay the refusal of Israel to co-operate with the
above-mentioned Working Group established by the Commission on Human Rights;
Endorses the conclusions of the Working Group concerning:
(a) The applicability of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War to all the occupied areas including occupied
Jerusalem;
(b) The existence of violations of that Convention in the Israeli occupied
territories;
3. Condemns Israel's refusal to apply that Convention and its violation of
the provisions of that Convention, in particular the following violations:
80-
Recalling resolution I of the International Conference on Human Rights of
May 1968 in which the Conference requested the Commission on Human Rights to keep
the question of respect for and implementation of human rights in occupied
territories under constant review,
Recalling also Security Council resolutions 237 (1967) and 259 (1968) and
General Assembly resolution 2252 (ES--V), in which the Council end the Assembly
called upon Israel to ensure the safety, welfare and security of the inhabitants of
the areas where military operations have taken place and to facilitate the return
of those inhabitants who had fled the areas since the outbreak of hostilities, and
General Assembly resolutions 2535 B (XXIV), which reaffirmed the inalienable rights
of the people of Palestine, and 25l6 (XXIV), in which the Assembly expressed its
grave concern et the continuing violations of human rights in the territories
occupied by Israel and celled upon Israel to comply with its obligations under the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War
of 12 August 19l9,
Recalling further its resolution 6 (XV) by which it decided to establish a
special working group of experts to investigate allegations concerning Israel's
violations of that Convention,
Bearing in mind that the said Convention is binding upon Israel,
Recalling its resolution 5 B (XXVI) in which it considered violations of the
Geneva Conventions of l2 August 19l9 as war crimes and an affront to humanity in
addition to being crimes,
Gravely concerned about the deteriorating conditions of human rights in the
militarily occupied territories in the Middle East,
Gravely disturbed about recent reports of the planned mass deportation of the
Palestinian refugees (numbered 300,000) from the occupied Gaza Strip by the Israeli
occupying authorities,
Having received and studied the report of the Special Working Group established
under resolution 6 (XV) to investigate allegations concerning Israel's
violations of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons
in Time of War in the territories militarily occupied by Israel,
l. lNotes with dismay the refusal of Israel to co-operate with the
above--mentioned Working Group established by the Commission on Human Rights;
2. Endorses the conclusions of the Working Group concerning:
(a) The applicability of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War to all the occupied areas including occupied
Jerusalem;
(b) The existence of violations of that Convention in the Israeli occupied
territories;
• Condemns Israel's refusal to apply that Convention and its violation of
the provisions of thet Convention, in particular the following violations:
-80(
a) The total or partial destruction of villages and cities in the occupied
territories;
(b) The establishment of Israeli settlements in the militarily occupied Arab
territories;
(c) The unlawful deportation and expulsion of civilian population;
(d) The coercive acts to compel the civilian population under its military
occupation to collaborate with the occupying Power against their will;
(e) The abrogation of the national laws in occupied territories contrary to
the Convention and the relevant resolutions of the Security Council and the General
Assembly;
(f) All policies and measures of collective punishment;
^* Deplores all policies and actions aiming at the deportation of the
Palestinian refugees from the occupied Gaza Strip;
5 . Expresses its grave concern over:
(a) The use of means of coercion to extract information and confession in
violation of the relevant provisions of the Convention;
(b) The ill-treatment and killing of civilians without provocation;
(c) The detention of people by virtue of administrative orders for periods that
are automatically renewed ad infinitum;
(d) The deprivation of those detainees of any guarantee concerning the length
of detention and fair trial;
(e) The deprivation of the accused persons of having counsel of their choice,
and the prevention of the counsel, in the cases where a counsel was chosen, from
discharging their duties satisfactorily;
(f) The destruction and usurpation of movable and immovable property;
6. Calls upon Israel once more to observe strictly that Convention in the
occupied territories;
Further calls upon Israel immediately:
(a) To rescind all measures and to desist forthwith from taking any action
prejudicial to the national laws, systems and practices in the occupied
territories;
(b) To refrain from establishing settlements in the occupied territories;
(c) To cease immediately from compelling the inhabitants of the occupied
territories to collaborate with the Israeli occupying authorities;
-81-
(a) The total or partial destruction of villages and cities in the occupied
territories;
(b) The establishment of Israeli settlements in the militarily occupied Arab
territories;
(c) The unlawful deportation and expulsion of civilian population;
() The coercive acts to compel the civilian population under its military
occupation to collaborate with the occupying Power against their will;
(e) The abrogation of the national laws in occupied territories contrary to
the Convention and the relevant resolutions of the Security Council and the General
Assembly;
(f) All policies and measures of collective punishment;
• Deplores ell policies and actions aiming at the deportation of the
Palestinian refugees from the occupied Gaza Strip;
5. Expresses its grave gongern over:
(a) The use of means of coercion to extract information and confession in
violation of the relevant provisions of the Convention;
(b) The ill--treatment and killing of civilians without provocation;
(e) The detention of people by virtue of administrative orders for periods that
are automatically renewed a infinitum;
(d) The deprivation of those detainees of any guarantee concerning the length
of detention and fair trial;
(e) The deprivation of the accused persons of having counsel of their choice,
and the prevention of the counsel, in the cases where a counsel was chosen, from
discharging their duties satisfactorily;
(f) The destruction and usurpation of movable and immovable property;
6. Calls upon Israel once more to observe strictly that Convention in the
occupied territories;
7. Further calls upon Israel immediately:
(a) To rescind all measures and to desist forthwith from taking any action
prejudicial to the national laws, systems and practices in the occupied
territories;
(b) To refrain from establishing settlements in the occupied territories;
(c) To cease immediately from compelling the inhabitants of the occupied
territories to collaborate with the Israeli occupying authorities;
-81(
d) To ensure the immediate return of deported and transferred persons to
their homes without any formalities the fulfilment of which would render their
return impossible;
(e) To refrain from demolishing houses in contravention of the relevant
provisions of the Convention;
(f) To restore the property confiscated or otherwise taken from its owners
in contravention of the provisions of the Convention;
8. Also calls upon Israel to desist forthwith from deporting the
Palestinian civilians from the Gaza Strip;
$. Commends the Special Working Group for its work and decides that the
Working Group should continue to investigate and report the Israeli violations of
that Convention which occur in the militarily occupied Arab territories since the
outbreak of hostilities and to examine in particular:
(a) The evidence concerning the cases of torture taking place in the Israeli
prisons against prisoners in the occupied territories;
(b) Other cases of violation of the Convention in the occupied territories
which it has not yet investigated, including those that took place during the
period investigated by the Group;
(c) The establishment of settlements in the occupied territories in
contravention of the provisions of the Convention;
1 0 . Calls upon Israel to receive the Special Working Group, to co-operate
with and to facilitate its task in carrying out its mandate as specified in the
preceding paragraph;
1 1 . Decides to continue to include the question of the violation of human
rights in the territories occupied as a result of hostilities in the Middle East
as a separate item of priority on the agenda of the Commission's twenty-seventh
session;
1 2 . Requests the Secretary-General to give the widest publicity to the entire
report and to report at the twenty-seventh session on the publicity given to it;
1 3 . Further requests the Secretary-General to bring the report of the Special
Working Group, together with this resolution, to the attention of the General
Assembly, the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council.
- 8 2 -
(d) To ensure the immediate return of deported and transferred persons to
their homes without any formalities the fulfilment of which would render their
return impossible;
(e) To refrain from demolishing houses in contravention of the relevant
provisions of the Convention;
(f) To restore the property confiscated or otherwise taken from its owners
in contravention of the provisions of the Convention;
8. Also calls upon Israel to desist forthwith from deporting the
Palestinian civilians from the Gaza Strip;
9. Commends the Speciel Working Group for its work and decides that the
Working Group should continue to investigate and report the Israeli violations of
that Convention which occur in the militarily occupied Arab territories since the
outbreak of hostilities and to examine in particular:
(a) The evidence concerning the cases of torture taking place in the Israeli
prisons against prisoners in the occupied territories;
(b) Other cases of violation of the Convention in the occupied territories
which it has not yet investigated, including those thet took place during the
period investigated by the Group;
(c) The establishment of settlements in the occupied territories in
contravention of the provisions of the Convention;
10. Calls upon Israel to receive the Specie] Working Group, to co-operate
with and to facilitate its task in carrying out its mandate as specified in the
preceding paragraph;
ll. Decides to continue to include the question of the violation of human
rights in the territories occupied as a result of hostilities in the Middle East
as a separate item of priority on the agenda of the Commission's twenty-seventh
session;
l2. Requests the Secretary--General to give the widest publicity to the entire
report and to report at the twenty-seventh session on the publicity given to it;
15. Further requests the Secretary--General to bring the report of the Special
Working Group, together with this resolution, to the attention of the General
Assembly, the Security Council end the Economic and Sociel Council.
-82E/
4949
E/CN.4/1068
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE TWENTY-SEVENTH SESSION
(22 February - 26 March 1971)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS: FIFTIETH SESSION
SUPPLEMENT No. 4
UNITED NATIONS
relating to the right of peoples under colonial and alien domination to selfdetermination
and to submit its conclusions and recommendations to the General
Assembly, through the Economic and Social Council, as soon as possible,
Believing that effective application of the principle of self-determination of
peoples is the essential basis for recognition and observance of human rights and
that self-determination means that all peoples have the right freely to determine
their political status without external interference and to pursue their economic,
social and cultural development,
l. Requests the secretary-General to prepare an annotated collection of all
the resolutions adopted by the various organs of the United Nations, the specialized
agencies and the regional organizations relating to the right of peoples under
colonial and alien domination to self-determination;
2. Decides, making use of this collection, to continue the consideration of
this question with a view to appointing a special rapporteur at its twenty-eighth
session.
B
The @omission on Hunan Rights,
Bearing in mind General Assembly resolution 2649 (XXV) of 30 November 1970,
by which the Commission on Human Rights is requested to study the question of the
implementation of United Nations resolutions relating to the right of peoples
under colonial and alien domination to self--determination,
Having considered this question, in pursuance of the request by the General
Assembly, at its twenty-seventh session,
Decides to recommend to the Economic and Social Council the following draft
resolution:
[or the text, see chapter XX, draft resolution VI
9 (XVII). Questionof the violation pf human rights in the territories
occupied as a result of hostilities in the ifiddle Ease2l
The Commission pn Human Rights,
Guided by the purpose and principles of the Charter of the United Nations,
Bearing in mind the Universal Declaration on Human Rights,
2/ Adopted at the ll20th meeting, on l5 March 1971. See chap. IV, para. 173.
-79Reaffirming
that the Huan Rights and fundamental freedoms as provided for in
the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War
of August l2, 1949,2l/ and in other relevant international instruments, fully apply
to all the territories occupied by Israel as a result of the hostilities in the
Middle East, including occupied Jerusalem,
Recalling Security Council resolutions 237 (1967) of 14 June 1967 and 259 (1968)
of£ 27 epem~er 1968 and General Assembly resolution 2252 (ES--V) of 4 July 1967,
in w h ich the Council and the General Assembly called upon Israel to ensure the
safety, welfare and security of the inhabitants of the areas where military
operations have taken place and to facilitate the return of those inhabitants who
have fled these areas since the outbreak of hostilities,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 2//3 (XX1II) of 19 December 1968,
2546 (XIV) of 1l December 1969, 2674 (V) of 9 December 1970, and 2675 (XV)
of 9 December 1970,
Further recalling General Assembly resolution 2727 (XXV) of 15 December 1970
in which the Assembly requested the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli
Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories,
pending an early termination of Israeli occupation, to continue its work in order
to ensure the safeguarding of the human rights of the population in the occupied
territories,
lso recalling its resolution 6 (XXV) by which it decided to establish a
special Working Group of Experts to investigate allegations concerning Israel's
violations of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons
in Time of War of August 12, 1949, and resolution l0 (XVI) in which it condemned
Israel's grave violations of human rights as well as its violations of the Geneva
Convention in the occupied territories,
Haying studied the report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli
Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories??/
@gravely gongerned by the fact that Israel's violations of human rights in the
occupied territories continue unabated, in total disregard of the appeals and
resolutions adopted by the United Nations, the specialized agencies, the
International Conference on Human Rights held at Teheran in 1968 and the XXIst
International Conference of the Red Cross held in Istanbul in September 1969,
Alarmed by the fact that Israel continues the establishment of settlements in
the occupied territories including occupied Jerusalem, while it refuses to permit
the return of the refugees and displaced persons to their homes, a right the denial
of which by Israel constitutes an affront to humanity and a grave violation of
international lay,
l. Condemns Israel's continued violations of human rights in the occupied
territories, including policies aimed at changing the status of these territories;
2l/ United Nations, Treaty Series, Vol. 75 (1950), No. 973.
22/ A/8089.
-802.
Condemns specifically the following policies and practices of Israel:
(a) Denial of the right of the refugees and displaced persons to return to
their homes;
(b) Resort to collective punishment;
(g) The deportation and expulsion of the citizens of the occupied territories;
(g) Arbitrary arrest and detention of the citizens of the occupied
territories;
(g) Ill treatment and torture of prisoners;
(f) Destruction and demolition of villages, town quarters, houses and
confiscation and expropriation of property;
(g) Evacuation and transfer of sections of the population of the occupied
territories;
(h) Transfer of parts of its own civilian population into the occupied
territories;
3. Strongly deplores Israel's policies in the occupied territories aimed at
placing the population in a general state of repression, fear and deprivation, and
particularly deplores:
(g) Requisition of hospitals and their transformation into police stations;
(b) Abrogation of the national lays and interference with the judicial
system;
(g) Refusal to allow the text books approved by the Director-General of the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization for schools in
the occupied territories, and the insistence on forcing upon school children an
alien system of education;
4. galls upon Israel once again to comply fully with its obligations under
the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War
of August 12, 1949;
5. Again galls upon Israel to enable forthwith the refugees and displaced
persons to return to their homes;
6. Once again galls pon Israel to heed and to implement the many
resolutions adopted by the United Nations organs and the specialized agencies
for the safeguarding of human rights in the occupied territories;
7. Reaffirms that all measures taken by Israel to colonize the occupied
territories including occupied Jerusalem are completel y null and void;
-818.
Declares that Israel's continued and increasing violations of the human
rights of the population of the occupied territories, and its deliberate and
persistent refusal to abide by its legal obligations under the United Nations
Charter, international law, and the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection
of Civilian Persons in Time of War of August 12, 1949, indicate the necessity of
collective action on the part of the international community to ensure respect for
the human rights of the population of the occupied territories;
9. [rges the International Committee of the Red Gross to co-operate with
the United Nations organs, and particularly with the Special Committee to
Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the
Occupied Territories in the fulfilment of its task to ensure the safeguarding of
the human rights of the population of the occupied territories, and to inform the
Commission on Human Rights at its twenty-eighth session of the steps it has taken
in this regard;
10. Requests the Secretary-General to give wide publicity to United Nations
documents dealing with the violations of human rights in the occupied territories,
and in particular to the report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli
Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population in the Occupied Territories,
and to use United Nations media of information in disseminating information on the
conditions of the population of the occupied territories, the refugees and displaced
persons;
11. Decides to include the question of the violation of human rights in the
territories occupied as a result of hostilities in the Middle Bast as a separate
item of high priority on the agenda of the Commission's twenty-eighth session.
10 (XXVII). Report of the Secretary-General on Human Rights
gd Scientific and Technological Develorzer[237
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling that, in its resolutions 2450 (XXIII) of 19 December 1968 and
2727 (XV) of l5 December 1970, the General Assembly expressed its profound concern
at certain consequences which current scientific and technological developments
have for human rights,
Reaffirming that scientific discoveries and their technological applications
open up vast prospects for economic, social and cultural progress and for raising
the level of living, and that, for that very reason, they may constitute an
important factor in the effective application of human rights for all individuals
and all peoples,
Being convinced that the favourable opportunities opened up by the scientific
and technological revolution should be utilized in the interests of society as a
whole and not to increase social and property inequality or to intensify the
_2 Adopted at the ll27th meeting, on 18 March 1971. See chap. V, para. 190.
-82COMMISSION
ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE TWENTY-EIGHTH SESSION
( 6 March --7 April 1972)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS: FIFTY-SECOND SESSION
SUPPLEMENT No. 7
UNITED NATIONS
E/5113
E/CN.4/1097
of discrimination on the basis of colour faced by people of African origin in
all countries, and of the measures being taken and to be taken to combat such
policies and practices, with a view to the submission of a report to the General
Assembly by the Commission on Human Rights through the Economic d Social Council
as soon as possible, but not later than at the twenty-ninth session of the
General Assembly, together with recommendations for action to combat such
policies and practices, in accordance with section III, paragraph 6, of General
Assembly resolution 278l (XVI);
2. Requests the Economic and Social Council to transmit to Member States,
the Special Committee on Apartheid and the International Law Commission the
report of the Ad Hoc Working Group of Experts concerning the question of apartheid
from the point of view of international penal law (E/CN.l/1075), submitted under
resolution 8 (XXVI) of the Commission on Human Rights for their comments;
3. Decides to consider again at its twenty-ninth session the question of
the elimination of racial discrimination.
3 (XXVIII). Question of the violation of human rights in the
territories occupied as a result of hostilities
in the Middle East 13/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations,
as well as the principles and provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights,
Bearing in mind the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of l2 August 19l9,
Recalling all the relevant resolutions adopted by the various United Nations
organs on the subject of the protection of the human rights of the inhabitants
of the Arab territories occupied by Israel,
Recalling also that in accordance with the provisions of the Charter of the
United Nations and those of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Member
States bear a special responsibility to ensure the protection of human rights and
to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights and in the dignity and worth of
the human person,
Recalling further that, in accordance with article 1 of the said Geneva
Convention, States parties have undertaken not only to respect but also to ensure
respect for the Convention in all circumstances,
Taking note of the reports submitted to and/or discussed in the different
competent organs of the United Nations on the aforementioned subject,
Gravely concerned at all acts and policies that affect the status or the
character of those occupied territories and the basic rights of the inhabitants
thereof, such as:
13/ Adopted at the l16lst meeting on 22 March 1972. See chap. III,
paras.63 -67.
-5l(
a) The declared intention of annexing certain parts of the occupied Arab
territories,
() Te establishment of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and
the transfer of parts of the civilian population into those territories,
(c) The evacuation, transfer, deportation and expulsion of the inhabitants
of occupied territories,
(d) The destruction and demolition of villages, quarters and houses and
the confiscation and expropriation of property,
(e) The denial of the right or the refugees and displaced persons to return
to their homes,
(f) Collective punishment and ill-treatment of prisoners and detainees,
(g) Administrative detention and holding of prisoners incommunicado,
Noting with regret that the aforementioned acts have not been rescinded
in spite of the numerous resolutions adopted on the subject,
Deploring the persistent defiance and disregard by Israel of all United
Nations resolutions on the protection of human rights of the inhabitants of
the occupied territories and on the preservation of the demographic composition
and geographic character thereof,
Taking note of the fact that the Geneva Convention of 12 August 19l9
(article 1l7) has considered unlawful deportation or transfer, unlawful
confinement, deprivation of the rights of fair and regular trial, taking of
hostages and extensive destruction and appropriation of property as grave breaches
of the Convention,
Noting that the Charter of the International Military Tribunal of Nuremberg
as confirmed by General Assembly resolutions 3 (I) of 13 February 19l6 and
95 (1) of ll December 19l6 has considered as war crimes the "grave breaches" later
enumerated in the Geneva Conventions of l2 August 19\9,
Recalling its resolution 5 B (XXVI), which considered violations of the
Geneva Conventions as war crimes and an affront to humanity,
l. Strongly calls upon Israel to rescind forthwith all measures and to
desist from all policies and practices affecting the demographic structure or the
physical character of the occupied Arab territories and the human rights of
their inhabitants;
2. Calls upon the Government of Israel to permit all persons who have fled
the occupied territories or who have been deported or expelled therefrom to
return to their homes without conditions;
3. Reaffirms that all measures taken by Israel to annex or settle the
occupied territories are null and void;
-52l.
Calls upon the Government of Israel, once more, to comply fully with
its obligations under the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War:
5. Also calls upon Israel once more to respect and implement the resolutions
adopted by the Commission and other competent organs on the question of the
protection of the human rights of the inhabitants of the occupied territories;
6. Requests all States Members of the United Nations and all States parties
to the fourth Geneva Convention of l2 August 19l9 to do their utmost to ensure
that Israel respects the principles of human rights and fulfils its obligations
under that Convention;
7. Considers that grave breaches of the fourth Geneva Convention committed
by Israel in the occupied Arab territories constitute war crimes and an affront
to humanity;
8. Decides to place on the provisional agenda of its twenty-ninth session
as a matter of high priority the item entitled "Question of the violation of
human rights in the territories occupied as a result of hostilities in the Middle
East".
4 (XXVIII). Draft convention on the suppression and punishment
of the crime of apartheid 1l/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 2786 (XXVI), which recognized the need
to take further effective measures for the suppression and punishment of the crime
of apartheid,
Noting the urgency and importance of this question in view of the
continuing crime of apartheid being committed by the racist rgimes in southern
Africa against the African population,
Emphasizing the need to take effective national and international measures
for the suppression of the crime of apartheid and the punishment of those who are
guilty of perpetrating it,
Having considered the draft convention on the suppression and punishment of
the crime of apartheid and the draft protocol on the suppression and punishment
of the crime of apartheid to be annexed to the International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, contained in documents
A/C.3/L.1871 and E/CN./L.1189.
Taking into account the report of the Ad Hoc Working Group of Experts under
Commission resolution 8 (XV1), and Commission resolution 2 (XXVIII).
Noting that it does not have time to consider fully the aforementioned draft
convention and draft protocol,
1l/ Adopted at the 1163rd meeting on 23 March 1972. See chap. II,
paras.lo -8.
-53COMMISSION
ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE TWENTY-NINTH SESSION
(26 February-6 April 1973)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS: FIFTY-FOURTH SESSION
SUPPLEMENT No. 6
UNITED NATIONS
E/5265
E/CN.4/1127
2 (XX10). Activities pf non-governmental organizations
to combat racism and raoicl discrimination 26/
The Commission on Humen Rig h ts,
Recalling Economic and Social Council resolutions 1588 (L) and 1591 (1),
Having noted the reports received from non-governmental organizations pursuant
to the aforementioned resolutions,
Recommends the following draft resolution for adoption by the Economic and
Social Council:
[For thg text, sec chapter Ml below, draft resolution I]
3 (XX10). Exploitation pf labour through illicit
and clandestin traffickinr 27/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Noting General Assembly resolution 2920 (XVII) end Economic and Social
Council resolution 1706 (LIII),
Reoomends that the Economic and Social Council should adopt the following
draft resolution:
[For the text.see ghapter ggpelo, daft resolution II]
4 (0XI0). Guestion of the violation of human rights in the territories
@copied as a resits@hostilities jfheiHi@dig@zsEzg]
The Commission pn Human Rights,
Guided by the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations, as
well as the principles and provisions of the Universal Declaration of Hunan ights,
Bgring in mind the provisions of the fourth Genova Convention of l2 August
1949, relative to the protection of civilian persons in time of wer,
Recalling the pertinent United Nations resolutions on the protection of hunan
rights and the fundamental freedoms of the inhabitants of the occupied Arab
territories,
26/ Adopted at the l204th meeting, on 9 Marc 1973. See chap. IV above,
paras. 53-56.
27/ Adopted at the 1208th meeting, on 23 larch 1973. See chap. V above,
paras. 91-100.
23/ Adopted t the l210th noting, on 14 March 1973.
paras. 116-123.
--68Soe
chap. VI above,
Further recalling that the General Assembly ir its resolution 2949 (XVII)
declared "that changes carried out by Isreel in the occupied Arb territories in
contravention of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 are null and void," and called
upon all States "not to recognize any such changes and nesures carried out by
Israel in the occupied Arab territories",
Taking note of the reports of the United Nations and other international
humanitarian organizations on the situation of the inhabitants of the occupied
lrab territories,
Greatly alarmed by the continuation of the violations of human rights and
fundamental froedoms, by Israel, in the occupied Arab territories, in particular
the destruction of houses, expropriation of Arab properties, ill treatment of
prisoners, the pillaging of the archeologicel and cultural heritage and the
exploitation of the natural resources of those territories,
Deeply concerned by the fact that Israel continues to establish Israeli
settlements in the occupied Arb territories, encourages massive immigration to
that end, continues to deport and transfer the indigenous Arab population and
refuses the return of the refugees and displaced persons to their hores,
Convinced that Israel's deliberate policy of annexation and of settlement in
the occupied Arab territories is in contravention of the Cherter of the
United Nations, international humanitarian law and basic human rights and
fundamental freedoms,
Deploring Israel's persistent defiance of the relevant resolutions of the
United Nations and its continued policy of violating the basic human rights of the
population in the occupied Arab territories,
l. Doplores Israel's continued grave breeches of the fourth Geneva
Convention in the occupied Arab territories, which were considered by the
Commission on Hunan Rights es war crinos and an affront to humanity;
2. Reaffirms that all measures taken by Israel to change the demographic
structure and status of the occupied lrab territories, including occupied
Jerusalem, are null and void;
3. Calls upon Israel to comply with its obligations under the Charter of
the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the principles of
international humanitarian law, to abide by its obligations under the fourth
Geneva Convention and to respect end implement the relevant United Nations
resolutions;
4. Further galls upon Israel to stop immediately the establishment of
settlements in the occupied Arab territories and to rescind all policies and
measures affecting the physical character and demographic composition of those
territories;
5. Calls pen all States to do their utmost to ensure that Israel respects
the principles of human rights and fundamental freedoms and that it desists from
all acts and policies aimed at chaning the p h ysical character and demographic
composition of the occupied Arab territories, particularly through the establishment
of settlements and the deportation and transfer of the Arab population;
--69--
6. Considers that Israel's policy of settling parts of its population,
including immigrants, in the occupied rab territories, is flagrant violation of
article 49 of the fourth Genova Convention, as well as of the relevant
Unitd Nations resolutions, and calls upon all States and organizations not to
assist Israel in any way to onable it to pursue its policy of colonizing the
occupied Arab territories;
7. Requests the Secretary--General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, specialized
agencies and regional inter-governmental organizations, and to give it the widest
possible publicity and to report to the Commission on Hunan Rights at its next
session;
8. Dgcides to place on the provisional agenda of its thirtieth session, as a
matter of high priority, the iten entitled "Questions of the violation of hunan
rights in the territories occupied as a result of hostilities in the Middle East".
5 (XXIX). Draft principlgsrelating to quality
inthg administration pf justice 2/
The Commission pn ran Rights,
Having heard the statement of the Special Rapporteur of the Sub--Commission on
Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities on the study on equality
in the administration of justice,
Having receivgd the comments of several Governments submitted pursuant to
resolution @ (Xii) of the omission on the draft principles relating to
equality in the administration of justice (E/CN.4/11l2 and Add.1-8),
Recommends to the Economic and Sooil Council the adoption of the following
draft resolution for submission to the General sserbly:
[For the trt.see chapter MIbelow, draft resolution III]
6 (XXIX). Study gf discrimination in therattgrofpolitical
rights and draft general principles pn frgedon and
non-discriminatior in the matter pfpolitical rirhts 3@/
The Cgmmission pn Human Rights,
Rgcommends to the Economic and Social Council the adoption of the following
draft resolution:
[For the tort,soc chapter MK[below. draft resolution Iv]
29/ Adopted at the l217th mooting, on 20 Merch 1973.
paras. 132-155, above.
5/ Adopted at the l217th mooting, on 20 Mrch 1973.
paras. 140-144, above.
--70-
See chap. VII,
See chap. VII,
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE THIRTIETH SESSION
(4 February-8 March 1974)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS:FIFTY-SIXTH SESSION
SUPPLEMENT No. 5
UNITED NATIONS
E/5464
E/CN.4/1154
XIX. RESOLUTIONS AND OTHER DECISIONS ADOPTED BY
THE COMMISSION AT ITS THIRTIETH SESSION
A. Resolutions
1 (XXX). Question of the violation of human rights in the territories
occupied as g result of hostilities in the Middle East 30/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations,
as well as the principles and provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights,
Bearing in mind the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of l2 August 19\9, 31/
Recalling the pertinent United Nations resolutions on the situation in the
occupied territories and on the protection of human rights and the fundamental
freedoms of the inhabitants of the occupied Arab territories, including the
resolutions of the Commission on Human Rights,
Taking note of the reports of the United Nations and other international
humanitarian organizations on the situation of the occupied Arab territories and
their inhabitants,
Greatly_alarmed by the continuation of the violations of human rights and
fundamental freedoms by Israel in the occupied Arab territories, in particular the
destruction of houses, expropriation of Arab properties, ill-treatment of prisoners,
pillaging of the archaeological and cultural heritage and exploitation of the
natural resources of those territories, and interference in family life and
religious freedom and practices,
Deeply concerned over Israel's persistence in establishing settlements in the
occupied Arab territories, implementing massive programmes of immigration,
continuing the deportation and transfer of the indigenous population and refusing
the return of the refugees and displaced persons to their homes,
l. Deplores Israel's continued grave breaches in the occupied Arab
territories, of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons
in Time of War, of 12 August 19l9, which have been considered by the Commission on
Human Rights as war crimes and an affront to humanity;
30/ Adopted at the 125lth meeting, on ll February 197l, by 2l votes to 1, with
8 abstentions. See chapter III, paragraphs 30--37.
31/ United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, No. 973, p. 26T.
--l72.
Deplores Israel's persistent defiance of the relevant resolutions of the
United Nations and its continued policy of violating the basic human rights of the
inhabitants of the occupied Arab territories;
3. Reaffirms that all measures taken by Israel to change the physical
character, the demographic structure and the status of the occupied Arab territories,
including occupied Jerusalem, are null and void;
4. Declares that Israel's policy of annexation, establishment of settlements
and transfer of an alien population to the occupied territories is in contravention
of the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, the principles
and provisions of international law concerning occupation, the principles of
sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the basic human rights and fundamental
freedoms of the people;
5. Calls upon Israel once more to comply with its obligations under the
Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to
acknowledge and abide by its obligations under the Geneva Convention relative to
the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and to implement all the
relevant United Nations resolutions;
6. Further calls upon Israel to stop immediately the establishment of
settlements in the occupied Arab territories and to rescind all policies and
measures affecting the physical character and demographic composition of those
territories;
7. Reaffirms that Israel's policy of settling parts of its population and new
immigrants in the occupied territories is a flagrant violation of the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and of
the relevant United Nations resolutions;
8. Calls upon all States to do their utmost to ensure that Israel respects
the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War and that it desists from all acts and policies aimed at
changing the physical character and demographic composition of the occupied Arab
territories, particularly through the establishment of settlements and the
deportation and transfer of the indigenous inhabitants;
9. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, specialized
agencies and regional intergovernmental organizations and to give it the widest
possible publicity and to report to the Commission on Human Rights at its next
session;
10. Decides to place on the provisional agenda of its thirty-first session, as
a matter of high priority, the item entitled "Question of the violation of human
rights in the territories occupied as a result of hostilities in the Middle East".
-8--
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE THIRTY-FIRST SESSION
(3 February-7 March 1975)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS: FIFTY-EIGHTH SESSION
SUPPLEMENT No. 4
UNITED NATIONS
E/5635
E/CN.4/1179
E/5635
E/CN.4/1179
page 62
12. Decides that the Ad Hog Working Group of Experts, whose membership shall
be constituted by the Chairman of the Commission,20/ should continue carefully to
observe and survey further developments concerning the policy of apartheid and
racial discrimination present in the situation prevailing in Namibia and
Souther Rhodesia;
13. Regsts the Group to study the private goal and farm goal systems, the
development of the separate homelands policy and its effects on the right to
self--determination, as well as the farm labour system in the Republic of South Africa;
l4. Requests the Group to study the consequences of apartheid as regards the
African family and to inquire into the particular difficulties of the student
movements in South Africa and Namibia;
15. equests the Group to submit a report on its findings to the Commission
not later than at the Commission's thirty-third session and to present an interim
report to the Commission at its thirty-second session;
16. Recommends to the Economic and Social Council to request the
Secretary-General to appeal to the United Nations Commissioner for Namibia to
establish appropriate collaboration with the Ad Hoc Working Group of Experts;
17. Recommends to the Economic and Social Council and the General Assembly
to make arrangements for adequate and sufficient financial resources and staff to
be provided to the Ad Hoc Working Group of Experts in order to enable it to carry
out its mandate;
18. Invites the Economic and Social Council to request the Secretary-General
to give wide publicity to the report of the Ad Ho Working Group of Experts
(E/CN.4/1159);
19. Recommends that the Economic and Social Council adopt the following
draft resolution:
[For the text, see chapter I, section A draft resolution I.]
6 (XXXI). Question of the violation of human rights in the territories
occupied as g result of hostilities in the Middle East
2
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations,
as well as the principles and provisions of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights and the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection
of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949,22/
20/ For the composition of the Ad_ Hog Working Group of Experts see
chap. VIII, para. 90, above.
2/ Adopted at the l3l5th meeting, on 2l February l975, by 22 votes to l,
with S abstentions. See chap. VII, paras. 54, 55 and 57.
22/ United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, p.287.
E/5635
E/N.4/1179
page 63
Recalling the pertinent United Nations resolutions on the situation in the
occupied territories and the protection of the human rights and fundamental freedoms
of the inhabitants of the occupied Arab territories, and in particular
General Assembly resolutions 3236 (XX10), 3240 (XXIX) and 3336 (XX1X),
Taking into account that the General Assembly has reaffirmed, in
resolution 326 (XX[X), the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people in
Palestine, including:
(a) The right to self--determination without external interference,
(b) The right to national independence and sovereignty,
Taking note of the reports of the United Nations and other international
humanitarian organizations on the situation of the occupied Arab territories and
their inhabitants, in particular the report of the Special Committee to Investigate
Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied
Territories (A/9817),
Greatly_ alarmed by the continuation of the violations of human rights and
fundamental freedoms by Israel in the occupied Arab territories, in particular the
continued occupation of these territories and the measures aiming at annexation as
well as the continuing destruction of houses, expropriation of Arab properties and
ill-treatment of prisoners,
Deeply_ concerned over Israel's persistence in establishing settlements in the
occupied Arab territories, implementing massive programmes of immigration, continuing
the deportation and transfer of the indigenous population and refusing their return,
Recalling also resolution IX adopted by the International Labour Conference at
its fifty-ninth session, in 1974, which declares that any military occupation of
territory constitutes in itself a permanent violation of basic human rights and
fundamental freedoms and in particular of trade union and social rights,
Noting the conclusion of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices
Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories that the
Israeli occupying forces were responsible for the deliberate and total destruction
of Quneitra and that this constituted a violation of article 53 of the fourth Geneva
Convention of l2 August 1949 and fell within the scope of article l47 of that
Convention,
Seriously_ concerned that the population of the occupied Arab territories are
hindered in the exercise of their inalienable rights to national education and
cultural 1 ife,
Taking into consideration that the General Assembly has adopted
resolution 33i@ (XTr), which qualifies as an act of aggression the invasion or
attack by the armed forces of a State of the territory of another State, or any
military occupation, however temporary, resulting from such invasion or attack, or
any annexation by the use of force of the territory of another State or part thereof,
E/5635
E/CN.4/1179
page 64
l. Deplores Israel's continued grave violations, in the occupied Arab
territories, of the basic norms of international law and of the relevant international
conventions, in particular the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War of l2 August 1949, which have been considered by the
Commission on Han Rights as war crimes and an affront to humanity, as well as its
persistent defiance of the relevant resolutions of the United Nations and its
continued policy of violating the basic human rights of the inhabitants of the occupied
Arab territories;
2. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Arab people to return to their
homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted and calls for
their return,
3. Reaffirms also that Israel's policy of settling parts of its population and
new immigrants in the occupied territories is a flagrant violation of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and
of the United Nations resolutions and urges all States to refrain from any action that
might be exploited by Israel in carrying out its policy of colonizing the occupied
territories;
4. Reaffirms further that all measures taken by Israel to exploit the human,
natural and all other resources and wealth of the occupied Arab territories infringe
upon the permanent sovereignty of the Arab people over their natural resources and
calls upon Israel immediately to rescind all such measures and to compensate and make
full restitution for the exploitation and depletion of their human and natural
resources;
5. Reaffirms that military occupation of territory constitutes a grave threat
to international peace and security and is in itself a permanent violation of the
Charter of the United Nations and of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
6. Declares that Israel's policy of annexation, establishment of settlements
and transfer of an alien population to the occupied territories is in contravention
of the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, the principles
and provisions of international law, the principles of sovereignty and territorial
integrity and the basic human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people;
7. Further declares that all measures taken by Israel to change the physical
character, the demographic structure and the status of occupied Arab territories are
null and void;
8. Censures in the strongest terms all measures taken by Israel to change the
status of Jerusalem;
9. Condemns Israel for its deliberate destruction and devastation of the town
of Q@uneitra and considers these acts as a grave breach of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of l2 August 1949;
l0. Calls upon Israel once more to comply with its obligations under the
Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to
acknowledge and abide by its obligations under the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and to implement all the relevant
United Nations resolutions;
E/5635
E/CN.4/1179
page 65
11. Calls upon all States to do their utmost to ensure that Israel respects the
provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in
Time of War and that it desists from all acts and policies aimed at colonizing and
changing the physical character and demographic composition of the occupied Arab
territories, particularly through the establishment of settlements and the deportation
and transfer of the indigenous inhabitants;
l2. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, specialized
agencies and regional intergovernmental organizations and to give it the widest
possible publicity, and to report to the Commission on Human Rights at its next
session;
13. Decides to place on the provisional agenda of its thirty-second session, as
a matter of high priority, the item entitled "Question of the violation of hman
rights in the territories occupied as a result of hostilities in the Middle East".
+22/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and the
Universal Declaration of Human ights as well as the other related international
instruments,
Deeply concerned over Israel's continued policies and practices of suppressing
the inhabitants of the occupied Arab territories in their struggle to attain their
inalienable rights, entailing arbitrary imprisonment and inhumane treatment, which
did not even spare religious personalities such as Archbishop Capucci, Archbishop of
the Greek Catholic Church in the occupied Arab West Bank,
l. Deplores the policies and practices of desecration of Moslem and Christian
shrines, disrespect and ill-treatment of religious leaders and violations of rights
of worship in the Arab territories occupied by Israel;
2, Calls upon Israel to ensure freedom of worship and accord the esteem, regard
and protection due to the religious shrines and personalities in accordance with the
established traditions in the region, particularly in Jerusalem, which have been
fully respected by all authorities throughout the centuries;
5. Further calls upon Israel to rescind its aforementioned pclicies and
release immediately Archbishop Capuci.
2/ Adopted at the l3l5th meeting, on 2l February 1975, by 2l votes to 6,
with 5 abstentions. See chap. VII, paras. 54, 56 and 57.
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE THIRTY-SECOND SESSION
(2 February- 5 March 1976)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS: SIXTIETH SESSION
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
E/5768
E/CN.4/1213
E/5768
E/CN. 4/1213
page 54
2 (XXXII). Question of the violation of human rights in the
territories occupied as a result of hostilities
in the lMidle East l4/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations, as
well as the principles and provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War of l2 August 1949,
Recalling the pertinent United Nations resolutions on the situation in the
occupied territories and the protection of the human rights and fundamental freedoms
of the inhabitants of the occupied Arab territories,
Taking into account that the General Assembly has, in resolution 3376 (XXX),
reaffirmed its resolution 3236 (XXIX), which confirmed the inalienable rights of the
Palestinian people in Palestine, and has expressed grave concern that no progress
has been achieved towards:
(a) The exercise by the Palestinian people of their inalienable rights in
Palestine, including the right to self--determination without external interference
and the right to national independence and sovereignty,
(b) The exercise by Palestinians of their inalienable right to return to their
homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted,
Taking into consideration that the General Assembly has adopted
resolution Zif (XX), which defines as an act of aggression the invasion or attack
by the armed forces of a State of the territory of another State, or any military
occupation, however temporary, resulting from such invasion or attack, or any
annexation by the use of force of the territory of another State or part thereof,
Recalling also resolution IX adopted by the International Labour Conference at
its fifty-ninth session, in l974, which declares that any military occupation of
territory constitutes in itself a permanent violation of basic human rights and
fundamental freedoms and, in particular, of trade union and social rights,
Taking note of the reports of the United Nations and other international
humanitarian organizations on the situation of the occupied Arab territories and
their inhabitants, in particular the report of the Special Committee to Investigate
Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied
Territories (A/10272),
Greatly alarmed by the continuation of the violations of human rights and
fundamental freedoms by Israel in the occupation of these territories and the
measures aiming at annexation, as well as the continuing destruction of homes,
expropriation of Arab properties and ill-treatment of prisoners,
l4/ Adopted at the 2352nd meeting, on l3 February 1976, by a roll-call vote of
23 in favour, l against and 8 abstentions. See chap. V.
E/5768
/CN. 4/1213
page 55
Deploring Israel's continued persistence in establishing settlements in the
occupied Arab territories, implementing massive programmes of immigration, continuing
the deportation and transfer of the indigenous population and refusing their return,
Recalling the conclusion of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli
Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories
that the Israeli occupying forces were responsible for the deliberate and total
destruction of Quneitra and that this constituted a violation of article 55 of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of
12 August 1949 and fell within the scope of article l47 of that Convention,
Seriously concerned that the population of the occupied Arab territories are
hindered in the exercise of their inalienable rights to national education and
cultural life,
l. Deplores once again Israel's continued grave violations, in the occupied
Arab territories, of the basic norms of international law and of the relevant
international conventions, in particular the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of l2 August 1949, which are considered
by the Commission on Human Rights as war crimes and an affront to humanity, as well
as its persistent defiance of the relevant resolutions of the United Nations and its
continued policy of violating the basic human rights of the inhabitants of the
occupied Arab territories;
2. Reaffirms that military occupation of territory constitutes a grave threat
to international peace and security and is, in itself, a continuous violation of the
Charter of the United Nations and of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
3. Reaffirms further the condemnation of Israel for the deliberate
destruction and devastation of the town of Quneitra and considers these acts as a
grave breach of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons
in Time of War of l2 August 1949;
4. Calls upon Israel to take immediate steps for the return of the
Palestinians and the other displaced inhabitants of the occupied Arab territories to
their homes;
• Calls upon Israel to desist forthwith from establishing new settlements in
the occupied Arab territories and to commence immediately with the removal of the
existing settlements;
6. Deplores the measures taken by Israel to exploit the human, natural and
all other resources and wealth of the occupied Arab territories and calls upon
Israel immediately to rescind all such measures and to compensate and make full
restitution for the exploitation and depletion of their human and natural resources;
7. Declares that all measures taken by Israel to change the physical
character, the demographic structure and the status of occupied Arab territories
are null and void, and considers these changes as an impediment to the achievement
of a just and lasting peace;
8. Reaffirms its call upon Israel to ensure freedom of worship and accord
the esteem, regard and protection due to the religious shrines and personalities in
B/5768 E/C. 4/1213
page 56
accordance with the established traditions in the region, particularly in Jerusalem,
which have been fully respected by all authorities throughout the centuries;
9. Declares all measures taken by Israel with a view to changing the
institutional structure and established religious practices in the sanctuary of
Al-Tbrahimi mosque in the city of Al-Khalil null and void;
10. Calls upon all States not to recognize any such changes and measures
carried out by Israel in the occupied Arab territories and invites them to do their
utmost to ensure that Israel respects the provisions of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War;
11. Censures in the strongest terms all measures taken by Israel to change
the status of Jerusalem;
12, Condemns in particular the following Israeli policies and practices:
(a) Measures aiming at annexation of parts of the occupied territories;
(b) The intensification of action aiming at the establishment of Israeli
settlements therein and the transfer of an alien population thereto;
(c) The destruction and demolition of Arab houses;
() The confiscation and expropriation of Arab property in the occupied
territories and all other transactions for the acquisition of land involving the
Israeli authorities, institutions or nationals, on the one hand, and the inhabitants
and institutions of the occupied territories, on the other;
(e) The evacuation, deportation, expulsion, displacement and transfer of Arab
inhabitants of the occupied territories and the denial of their right to return;
(f) Mass arrests, administrative detention and ill-treatment of the Arab
population;
(g) The pillaging of archaeological and cultural property;
(h) The interference with religious freedoms and practices, as well as family
rights and customs;
(i) The hindrance of the exercise by the population of the occupied
territories of their rights to national education and cultural life;
15. Requests the Secretary--General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized
agencies and regional intergovernmental organizations and to give it the widest
possible publicity and to report to the Commission on Human Rights at its next
session;
14. Decides to place on the provisional agenda of its thirty-third session, as
a matter of high priority, the item entitled "Question of the violation of human
rights in the territories occupied as a result of hostilities in the Middle East".
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE THIRTY-THIRD SESSION
(7 February-11 March 1977)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS: SIXTY-SECOND SESSION
SUPPLEMENT No. 6
UNITED NATIONS
2l6!
E/CN.4/1257
page 68
XXI. RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE
COMMISSION AT ITS THIRTY-THIRD SESSION
A, Resolutions
1 (XXX111). Question of the violation of human rights
in the territories occupied as g result
of hostilities in the Middle East
22l
The Comission pn Human Rights,
Guided by the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations, as
well as the principles and provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War of l2 August 1949,
ecallin; the pertinent United Nations resolutions on the situation in the
occupied territories and the protection of the human rights and fundamental freedoms
of the inhabitants of the occupied Arab territories,
Taking into account that the General Assembly has, in resolution 3l/20,
recalled its resolution 3376 (XXX), in whioh it expressed grave concern that no
progress has been achieved towards:
(a) The exercise by the Palestinian people of its inalienable rights in
Palestine, including the right to self-determination without external interference
and the right to national independence and sovereignty,
(b) The exercise by Palestinians of their inalienable right to return to
their homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted,
Taking into consideration that the General Assembly has adopted
resolution 33if (x) which defines as an act of aggression the invasion or attack
by the armed forces of a state of the territory of another State, or any military
occupation, however temporary, resulting from suoh invasion or attack, or any
annexation by the use of force of the territory of another State or part thereof,
Welcoming the statement adopted by the becurity Council at its 1969th meeting,
on ll November 1976, by whioh the Council, inter alia, expressed its grave anxiety
and concern over the present serious situation in the occupied Arab territories as
a result of continued Israeli occupation,
22/ Adopted at the 1390th meeting, on 15 February 1977, by a roll-call vote
of 23 in favour, 3 against and 6 abstentions, See chap. II,
page 69
Taking note of the reports of United Nations organs, specialized agencies and
international humanitarian organizations on the situation of the occupied Arab
territories and their inhabitants, in particular the report of the Special Committee
to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the
Occupied Territories (A/31/218),
Greatly alarmed by the continuation of the violations of human rights and
fundamental freedoms by Israel in the occupied Arab territories, particularly the
measures aiming at annexation, as well as the continuing establishment of settlers'
colonies, mass destruction of homes, torture and ill-treatment of detainees,
expropriation of properties and imposition of discriminatory economic legislation,
l. Expresses its grave anxiety and concern over the deteriorating serious
situation in the occupied Arab territories as a result of the continued Israeli
occupation and aggression;
2. Calls upon Israel to take immediate steps for the return of the
Palestinians and the other displaced inhabitants of the occupied Arab territories
to their homes;
• Deplores once again Israel's continued violations, in the occupied Arab
territories, of the basic norms of international law and of the relevant
international conventions, in particular, Israel's grave breaches of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War
of l2 August 1949, which are considered as war crimes and an affront to humanity,
as well as Israel's persistent defiance of the relevant resolutions of the
United Nations and its continued policy of violating the basic human rights of the
inhabitants of the occupied Arab territories;
4, Condemns in particular the following Israeli policies and practices:
(a) The annexation of parts of the occupied territories;
(b) The establishment of Israeli settlers' colonies therein and the transfer
of alien population thereto;
(c) Mass destruction and demolition of Arab houses;
(d) The evacuation, deportation, expulsion, displacement and transfer of
Arab inhabitants of the occupied territories, and the denial of their right to
return;
(e) Mass arrests, administrative detention and ill-treatment of the Arab
population;
(r)
violation
The torture and
of the relevant
ill--treatment
provisions of
of persons
the Geneva
under detention
Conventions;
and the
(g) The confiscation, expropriation and all transactions for the acquisition
of Arab property and land by Israeli authorities and individuals;
()
occupied
The exploitation of human, natural and all other resources
territories and the promulgation of discriminatory economic
of the
legislations;
page 70
(i) The pillaging of archaeological and cultural property;
()
right to
The denial to the
national education
population of tle occupied
and cultural life;
Arab territories of their
() The interference with religious freedoms and practices;
5, Condemns once more the massive deliberate destruction of Qneitra
perpetrated during Israeli occupation and prior to the withdrawal of Israeli forces
from that city in 1974, and considers this act as a grave breach of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War
of 12 August 1949;
6. Reaffirms that all such measures taken by Israel to change the physical
character, demographic composition or status of the occupied Arab territories or
any part thereof, including Jerusalem, are all null and void, and calls upon Israel
to rescind all such measures already taken and to desist forthwith from taking any
further action which tends to change the status of the occupied Arab territories,
including Jerusalem;
7. Declares all measures taken by Israel with a view to changing the
structure, status, and established religious practices in the sanctuary of
AI-Tbrahimi Mosque in the city of Al--Khalil null and void and calls upon Israel to
rescind all such measures already taken;
8, Calls upon Israel to release all Arabs detained or imprisoned as a result
of their struggle for self--determination and the liberation of their territories,
and to acoord to them, pending their release, the protection envisaged in the
relevant provisions concerning the treatment of prisoners of war and, in this
context, requests the Secretary--General to collect all relevant information
concerning detainees, such as their number, identity, place and duration of
detention, and to make this information available to the Commission at its next
session;
9, Further calls upon Israel onoe more to comply with its obligations under
the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
and to acknowledge and abide by its obligations under the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War;
10, Reiterates its call upon all States, international organizations and
specialized agencies not to recognize any changes carried out by Israel in the
occupied territories and to avoid actions which might be used by Israel in its
pureuit of the policies and practices referred to in the present resolution;
ll, Re@guests the Secretary--General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized
agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations and the international
humanitarian organizations and to give it the widest possible publicity, and to
report to the Commission on Human Rights at its next session;
page 7l
12, Decides to place on the provisional agenda of the thirty-fourth session
as a matter of high priority, the item entitled "Question of the violation of human
rights in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine", and requests the
Secretary-General to bring to the attention of the Commission all United Nations
reports appearing between sessions of the Commission that deal with the situation
of the civilians of these territories,
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 31/106/3, which reaffirms that the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of
12 August 1949 is applicable to all the Arab territories occupied by Israel
since 1967, including Jerusalem,
1. Deplores the failure of Israel to acknowledge the applicability of that
Convention to all the Arab territories it has occupied sine 1967, including
Jerusalem;
2. Urgently palls onoe more upon Israel to acknowledge and to comply with the
provisions of that Convention in all the Arab territories it has occupied since 1967,
including Jerusalem;
3. Urges pnoe more all States parties to that Convention to exert all efforts
in order to ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions thereof in all the
Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
4. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized
agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations and the international
humanitarian organizations.
2 (00XI11). Status of the International Covenants
on man Tis2l
The Commission pn Human Rights,
ecalling its resolution l2 (XXXII) inviting all Member States to consider the
question of ratification of the International Covenants on Human Rights in the near
future,
2/ Adopted at the l390th meeting, on 15 February 1977, without a vote,
See chap. II,
2A/ Adopted at the 1396th meeting, on 18 February 1977, without a vote,
See chap. IV,
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE THIRTY-FOURTH SESSION
(6 February- 10 March 1978)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1978
SUPPLEMENT No. 4
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1978
E/1978/34
E/CN.4/1292
VI. RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE
COMMISSION AT IFS THIRTY--FOURTH SESSION
A. Resolutions
1 (XXX1v). @estion of the violation of human rights in
the occupied Arab territories, including
Palestine
The Commmission pn Human Rights,
guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations as
well as the principles and provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
Bearing in mind the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of l2 August 2949 and of other
relevant conventions and regulations,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 32/5, 32/14, 32/20, 32/40, 32/42, 32/90,
32/9i, 32/12, 32/16 an 32/171, •
[Taking into account that the General Assembly has, in resolution 3l/20,
recalled its resolution 3376 (0XX), in which it expressed grave concern that no
progress has been achieved towards:
(a) The exercise by the Palestinian people of its inalienable rights in
Palestine, including the right to self--determination without external interference
and the right to national independence and sovereignty,
(b) The exercise by Palestinians of their inalienable right to return to their
homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted,
Taking into consideration that the General Assembly has adopted
resolution 331@ (iK), which defines as an act of aggression the invasion or
attack by the armed forces of a State of the territory of another State, or any
military occupation, however temporary, resulting from such invasion or attack, or
any annexation by the use of force of the territory of another State or part
thereof,
Recalling the statement adopted by the Security Council at its 2969th meeting,
on ll November 1976, by which the Council, jnter alia, expressed its grave anxiety
and concern over the serious situation in the occupied Arab territories as a
result of continued Israeli occupation,
24/ Adopted at the l440th meeting, on l4 February 21978, by a roll-call vote
of 23 in favour, 2 against and 7 abstentions. See chap. II.
--100--
Taking note of the reports of the United Nations organs, specialized agencies
and international humanitarian organizations on the situation of the occupied Arab
territories and their inhabitants,
Taking into account the report of the Special Committee to Investigate
Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied
Territories, 25/ which contained, inter alia, public statements made by leaders of
the Government of Israel, indicating Israel's determination to pursue and
consolidate its expansionist and annexationist policies,
Noting with@deep concern the fears expressed by the Special Committee "that
the situation of civilians in the occupied territories, especially the situation
of the detainees which has been shown during recent months to be a matter of
particular concern, may deteriorate still further in the near future" and its
statement that "The international community must assume its responsibilities to
ensure the protection of the fundamental rights of civilians in the occupied
territories, 26/
Greatly_alarmed by the continuation of the violations of human rights and
fundamental freedoms by Israel in the occupied Arab territories, particularly the
measures aiming at annexation, as well as the continuing establishment of
settlers' colonies, mass destruction of homes, torture and ill--treatment of
detainees, expropriation of properties and imposition of economic and fiscal
measures aimed at the exploitation of the population of the occupied territories,
l. Expresses its grave anxiety and concern over the deteriorating serious
situation in the occupied Arab territories as a result of continued Israeli
occupation and aggression, in particular:
(a) The intensification of the establishment of settlers' colonies;
(b) The continued and increasing use of arbitrary detention, torture,
ill--treatment and cruel treatment of Arab detainees and prisoners;
2. Calls upon Israel to take immediate steps for the return of the
Palestinians and the other displaced inhabitants of the occupied Arab territories
to their homes;
• Declares that Israel's grave breaches of the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of l2 August 1949 are war
crimes and an affront to humanity;
4. Conders the following Israeli policies and practices:
(a) The annexation of parts of the occupied territories;
(b) The establishment of Israeli settlements therein and the transfer of an
alien population thereto;
25/ A/32/284, para. 14.
26/ Ibid.
-10l(
c) The evacuation, deportation, expulsion, displacement and transfer of
Arab inhabitants of the occupied territories, and the denial of their right to
return;
() The confiscation and expropriation of Arab property in the occupied
territories and all other transactions for the acquisition of land involving
Israeli authorities, institutions or nationals on the one hand, and inhabitants
or institutions of the occupied territories on the other;
(e) The destruction and demolition of Arab houses;
(f) Mass arrests, administrative detention and ill-treatment of the Arab
population;
(g) The ill-treatment and torture of persons under detention;
(h) The pillaging of archaeological and cultural property;
(i) The interference with religious freedoms and practices as well as
family rights and customs;
(i) The illegal exploitation of the natural wealth, resources and population
of the occupied territories;
5. Further condemns administrative and legislative measures by the Israeli
authorities to encourage, promote and expand the establishment of settlers'
colonies in the occupied territories, which further demonstrate Israel's
determination to annex those territories;
6. Reaffirms that all measures taken by Israel to change the physical
character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the
occupied territories, or any part thereof, including Jerusalem, are null and void,
and that Israel's policy of settling parts of its population and new settlers in
the occupied territories constitutes a flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and of the relevant
United Nations resolutions;
7. Demands that Israel desist forthwith from the policies and practices
referred to in paragraphs 4, 5 and 6 above;
8. Demands that Israel cease forthwith all acts of torture and ill-treatment
of Arab detainees and prisoners;
9. Calls upon Israel to release all Arabs detained or imprisoned as a
result of their struggle for self--determination and the liberation of their
territories, and to accord to them, pending their release, the protection
envisaged in the relevant provisions concerning the treatment of prisoners of war;
10. Renews its request to the Secretary-General to collect all relevant
information concerning detainees, such as their number, identity, place and
duration of detention, and to make this information available to the Commission at
its thirty--fifth session;
-102ll.
Condemns once more the massive deliberate destruction of Quneitra
perpetrated during Israeli occupation and prior to the withdrawal of Israeli forces
from that city in 1974, and considers this act a grave breach of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War;
12. Reiterates its call upon all States, in particular the States parties to
the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War, in accordance with article 4 of that Convention, and upon international
organizations and specialized agencies not to recognize any changes carried out by
Israel in the occupied territories and to avoid taking any action or extending
any aid which might be used by Israel in its pursuit of the policies of annexation
and colonization or any of the other policies and practices referred to in the
present resolution;
13. Calls upon Israel to report, through the Secretary-General, to the
Commission at its thirty-fifth session on the implementation of paragraphs 2, 7, 8
and 9 above;
14. Requests the Secretary--General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized
agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations and the international
humanitarian organizations and to give it the widest possible publicity, and to
report to the Commission on Human Rights at its thirty--fifth session;
15. Decides to place on the provisional agenda of the thirty--fifth session,
as a matter of high priority, the item entitled "Question of the violation of
human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine", and requests
the Secretary--General to bring to the attention of the Commission all United Nations
reports appearing between sessions of the Commission that deal with the situation
of the civilians of these territories.
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling its resolution l B (XXXIII) and General Assembly
resolutions 3092 A (XXVIII) and 32/91 A,
Bearing in mind that the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of
12 August 1949 must be fully applied in all circumstances to all persons who are
protected by those instruments, without any adverse distinction based on the
nature or origin of the armed conflict or on the causes espoused by or attributed
to the parties to the conflict,
Recalling resolution 10, on the application of the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of l2 August 1949 in the
occupied territories in the Middle East, of the Twenty-third International
Conference of the Red Cross held in Bucharest in October l977,
27/ Adopted at the l440th meeting, on l4 February 1978, without a vote.
See chap. II.
--103--
Taking into account that States parties to the Geneva Conventions of
12 August 1949 undertake, in accordance with article l thereof, not only to respect
but also to ensure respect for the Conventions in all circumstances,
l. ErDresseg its deep concern at the consequences of Israel's refusal to
apply fully and effectively the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War in all its provisions to all the Arab territories
occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;
2. eaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War is applicable to all the Arab territories occupied
by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
3. Strongly deplores the failure of Israel to acknowledge the applicability
of that Convention to the territories it has occupied since 1967, including
Jerusalem;
4. Calls pron Israel to abide by and respect the obligation arising from
the Charter of the United Nations and other instruments and rules of international
law, in particular the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, in all the Arab territories
occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;
5, Urges pnce more all States parties to that Convention to exert all
efforts in order to ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions thereof
in all the Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized
agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the international
humanitarian organizations and non-governmental organizations,
2 (0XX1v). [he right of peoples to self-determination and
its a lication to oles under colonial or
alien domination pr foreig occupation 28
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recallinggeneral Assembly resolutions 1514 (Xv), 3236 (0x10), 32/14, 32/20,
32/4 an 32/42,
Recognizing that the Palestinian people are entitled to self--determination
in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other relevant
United Nations resolutions,
Recalling further Economic and Social Council resolutions 1865 (LVI) and
1866 (NI),
2g8/ Adopted at the l440th meeting, on 14 February 1978, by a roll-call vote
of 25 in favour, against and 4 abstentions. See chap, VII.
-10lCOMMISSION
ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE THIRTY-FIFTH SESSION
(12 February-16 March 1979)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1979
SUPPLEMENT No. 6
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1979
E/1979/36
E/CN.4/1347
XXIV. RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE
COMMISSION AT ITS THIRTY-FIFTH SESSION
A. Resolutions
(XXXv). Question of the violetion of human rights in
the occupied Arab territories, including
Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations
as well as the principles and provisions of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights,
Bearing in mind the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of l2 August 1949 and of other
relevant conventions and regulations,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions, 32/5 of 28 October 21977,
32/14 f T November 1977, 32/20 o£ 25 November 1977, 32/40 of 2 December 1977,
32/42 of 7 December 1977, 32/90 and 32/9 of 13 December 1977, 32/122 of
16 December 1977, 32/161 and 32/27l of 19 December 1977 and 33/113 of
18 December 1978,
Taking into aceout that the General Assembly has, in resolution 3l/20
of 24 ivenber 1976, recalled its resolution 3376 (Xx) o£ 10 November 1975, in
which it expressed grave concern that no progress has been achieved towards:
(a) the exercise by the Palestinian people of its inalienable rights in
Palestine, including the right to self-determination without external
interference and the right to national independence and sovereignty,
(b) the exercise by Palestinians of their inalienable right to return
to their homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted,
Raking into consideration that the General Assembly has adopted
resolution 331f (xx) or if December 1974, which defined as an act of
aggression the invasion or attack by the armed forces of a State of the
territory of another State, or any military occupation, however temporary,
resulting from such invasion or attack, or any annexation by the use of
force of the territory of another State or part thereof,
Recalling the statement by the Security Council at its 1969th meeting
on ll November 1976 by which the Council, inter alia, expressed its grave
anxiety and concern over the serious situation in the occupied Arab
territories as a result of continued Israeli occupation.
7/ Adopted at the l489th meeting, on 21 February 1979, by a roll-call
vote by 20 votes to 2, with 9 abstentions. See chap. II.
-99Taking
note of the reports of the United Nations organs, specialized
agencies and in particular the reports of the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization, the International Labour Organisation
and the World Health Organization and international humanitarian organizations
on the situation of the occupied Arab territories and their inhabitants,
Taking into account the report of the Special Committee to Investigate
Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied
Territories, 8/ which contained, inter alia, public statements made by leaders
of the Government of Israel, indicating Israel's determination to pursue and
consolidate its expansionist and annexationist policies,
Noting with deep goncer the conclusion arrived at by the Special Committee
that "the Government of Israel consciously follows a policy which is in violation
of the Fourth Geneva Convention, in particular article 47 which prohibits
annexation of territories under military occupation of the occupying power, and
article 49 which prohibits the transfer of citizens of the occupying power into
the occupied territories",
Greatly concerned by the continuation of the violations of human rights and
fundamental freedoms by Israel in the occupied Arab territories, particularly the
measures aiming at annexation, as well as the continuing establishment of
settlers' colonies, mass destruction of homes, torture and ill--treatment of
detainees, expropriation of properties and imposition of economic and fiscal
measures aimed at the dispossession and exploitation of the population of the
occupied territories,
Expressing its grave anxiety and concern over the deteriorating serious
situation in the occupied Arab territories as a result of continued Israeli
occupation and aggression, in particular:
(a.) the intensification of the establishment of settlers' colonies,
(b) the continued and increasing use of arbitrary detention, torture,
ill-treatment and cruel treatment of Arab detainees and prisoners,
(c) collective punishment, in particular the blowing up of Arab houses,
l. Calls upon Israel to take immediate steps for the return of the
Palestinians and the other displaced inhabitants of the occupied Arab territories
to their homes and property;
2. Declares that Israel's grave breaches of the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of l2 August 1949 are war
crimes and an affront against humanity;
3. Condemns the following Israeli policies and practices:
(a) The annexation of parts of the occupied territories;
(b) The establishment of Israeli settlements therein and the transfer of
an alien population thereto;
28/ 4/33/356
-100-
(c) The evacuation, deportation, expulsion, displacement and transfer of
Arab inhabitants of the occupied territories, and the denial of their right to
return5
() The confiscation and expropriation of Arab property in the occupied
territories and all other transactions for the acquisition of land involving
Israeli authorities, institutions or nationals on the one hand, and inhabitants
or institutions of the occupied territories on the other;
(e) The destruction and demolition of Arab houses;
(f) Mass arrests, administrative detention and ill-treatment of the Arab
population;
(g) The ill-treatment and torture of persons under detention;
(h) The pillaging of archaeological and cultural property;
(i) The interference with religious freedoms and practices as well as with
family rights and customs;
() The continuous interference with and obstruction of the educational
and scholastic activities and the brutal suppression of all forms of students'
opinion, expression and manifestations;
(k) The illegal exploitation of the natural wealth, resources and population
of the occupied territories;
4. Further condemns administrative and legislative measures by the Israeli
authorities to encourage, promote and expand the establishment of settlers'
colonies in the occupied territories, which further demonstrate Israel's
determination to annex those territories;
5. Reaffirms that all measures taken by Israel to change the physical
character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the
occupied territories, or any part thereof, including Jerusalem, are null and
void, and that Israel's policy of settling parts of its population and new settlers
in the occupied territories constitutes a flagrant violation of the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and of
the relevant United Nations resolutions;
6. Demands that Israel desist forthwith from the policies and practices
referred to in paragraphs , 4 and 5 above;
7. Demands that Israel cease forthwith all acts of torture and ill-treatment
of Arab detainees and prisoners;
8. Calls upon Israel to release all Arabs detained or imprisoned as a
result of their struggle for self--determination and the liberation of their
territories, and to accord to them, pending their release, the protection envisaged
in the relevant provisions of the international instruments concerning the
treatment of prisoners of war;
9. Renews its request to the Secretary-General to collect all relevant
information concerning detainees, such as their number, identity, place and
duration of detention, and to make this information available to the Commission
at its thirty-sixth session;
-101--
10. Condems once more the massive, deliberate destruction of Quneitra
perpetrated during Israeli occupation and prior to the withdrawal of Israeli
forces from that city in 1974, and considers this act a grave breach of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War;
1l.Reiterates its call upon all States, in particular the States parties
to the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time
of War in accordance with article l of that Convention, and upon international
organizations and specialized agencies, not to recognize any changes carried out
by Israel in the occupied territories and to avoid taking any action or extending
any aid which might be used by Israel in its pursuit·of the policies of
annexation and colonization or any of the other policies and practices referred
to in the present resolution;
12. Calls upon Israel to report, through the Secretary-General, to the
Commission at its thirty-sixth session on the implementation of paragraphs l, 6,
7 and 8 above;
15. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized
agencies and in particular the International Labour Organisation,
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and
the World Health Organization, the regional intergovernmental organization and
the international humanitarian organizations, and to give it the widest possible
publicity, and to report to the Commission on Human Rights at its thirty--sixth
session;
14. Decides to place on the provisional agenda of the thirty-sixth session,
as a matter of high priority, the item entitled "Question of the violation of
human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine", and requests
the Secretary-General to bring to the attention of the Commission all
United Nations reports appearing between sessions of the Commission that deal
with the situation of the civilians of those territories.
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling its resolution 1 B (XXXIV) and General Assembly
resolions 3092 A (XXVIII) o£ 7 December 1973, 32/91Ao£ 13 December 1977, and
33/113 A of 18 December 1978,
Bearing in mind that the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of
12 August l949 must be fully applied in all circumstances to all persons who are
protected by those instruments, without any adverse distinction based on the
nature or origin of the armed conflict or on the causes espoused by or attributed
to the conflict,
Recalling resolution 10, on the application of the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of l2 August 1949 in the
occupied territories in the Middle East, of the Twenty--third International
Conference of the Red Cross held in Bucharest in October 1977,
/ Adopted at the l489th meeting, on 21 February 1979, without a vote.
See chap. II.
-102--
Taking into account that States parties of the Geneva Conventions of
12 August 1949 undertake, in accordance with article l thereof, not only to
respect but also to ensure respect for the Conventions in all circumstances,
2. Expresses its deep conger at the consequences of Israel's refusal
to apply fully and effectively the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection
of Civilian Persons in Time of War in all its provisions to all the Arab
territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;
2. Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War is applicable to all the Arab territories
occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
3. Strongly.deplores the failure of Israel to acknowledge the applicability
of that Convention to the territories it has occupied since 1967, including
Jerusalem;
4. Calls upon Israel to abide by and respect the obligations arising from
the Charter of the United Nations and other instruments and rules of international
law, in particular the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, in all the Arab territories
occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;
5. Urges once more all States parties of that Convention to exert all
efforts in order to ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions thereof
in all the Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the
international humanitarian organizations and non--governmental organizations.
2 (XXv). [he right of peoples to self-determination and
its a lication to eoles under colonial or
alien domination or foreign occupation .9
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 1514 (XV) o£ 14 December 1960,
3236 KGXlX) 6? 22 November 1974, 3375 (Xx) and 3376 (XX0) or 10 November 1975,
32/4 of 7 November 1977, 32/20 0£ 25 November 1977, 32/40 of 2 December 1977,
32/42 of 7 December 1977 and 33/28 of 7 December 1978
Recalling further Economic and Social Council resolutions 1865 (IVI) and
1866 KVIJ or i7 Hay i974,
40/ Adopted at the 1489th meeting, on 21 February 1979, by a roll--call vote
of 23 votes to 5, with 5 abstentions. See chap. VII.
-103--
(4 February-14 March 1980)
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1980
3
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE THIRTY-SIXTH SESSION
( 4 February-14 March 1980)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1980
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
/1980/13
E/CN.4/1408
XXVI. RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE
COMMISSION AT ITS THIRTY-SIXTH SESSION
A. Resolutions
(XXXVI). Question of the violation of human rights in
the occupied Arab territories, including
Palestine
A 1/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations
as well as the principles and provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights,
Bearing in mind the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949 and of other
relevant conventions and regulations,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions, 32/5 of 28 October 1977,
32/14 of 7 November 1977, 32/20 of 25 November 1977, 32Ao of 2 December 1977,
32/42 of 7 December 1977, 32/90 and 32/91 of 13 December 1977, 32/122 of
December 1977, 3 2 / l 6 l and 171 of 19 December 1977, 33/113 of
December 1978 and 34/90 of 12 December 1979,
Taking into account that the General Assembly has, in resolution 31/20 of
24 November 1976, recalled its resolution 3376 (XXX) of 10 November 1975, in
which it expressed grave concern that no progress has been achieved towards:
(a) The exercise by the Palestinian people of its inalienable rights in
Palestine, including the right to self-determination without external
interference and the right to national independence and sovereignty,
(b) The exercise by Palestinians of their inalienable right to return to
their homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted,
Taking into consideration that the General Assembly has adopted
resolution 33l4 (XXIX) of l 4 December 1974, which defined as an act of aggression
the invasion or attack by the armed forces of a State of the territory of
another State, or any military occupation, however temporary, resulting from
such invasion or attack, or any annexation by the use of force of the territory
of another State or part thereof,
Adopted at the 1538th meeting, on 13 February 1980, by a roll-call vote
of 28 to 3, with 8 abstentions. See chap. II.
150-
XXVI. RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE
COMMISSION AT ITS THIRTY-SIXTH SESSION
A. Resolutions
1 (XXXVI). Question of the violation of human rights in
the occupied Arab territories, including
Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations
as well as the principles and provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights,
Bearing in mind the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of l2 August 19l9 and of other
relevant conventions and regulations,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions, 32/5 of 28 October l977,
32/1l or 7 November 1977, 32/20 of 25 November 1977, 32/0 of 2 December 1977,
32/2 of 7 December 1977, 32/90 and 32/91 of 13 December 1977, 32/122 of
16 December 1977, 32/161 and 32/17l of 19 December 1977, 33/113 of
18 December 1978 and 3l/90 of 12 December 1979,
Taking into account that the General Assembly has, in resolution 31/20 of
2l November 1i976, recalled its resolution 3376 (XX) of l0 November 1975, in
which it expressed grave concern that no progress has been achieved towards:
(a) The exercise by the Palestinian people of its inalienable rights in
Palestine, including the right to self--determination without external
interference and the right to national independence and sovereignty,
() Te exercise by Palestinians of their inalienable right to return to
their homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted,
Taking into consideration that the General Assembly has adopted
resolution 33il (xx) or il December 197l, which defined as an act of aggression
the invasion or attack by the armed forces of a State of the territory of
another State, or any military occupation, however temporary, resulting from
such invasion or attack, or any annexation by the use of force of the territory
of another State or part thereof,
1/ Adopted at the 1538th meeting, on l3 February 1980, by a roll-call vote
or 28to 3, with 8 abstentions. See chap. II.
-150Recalling
Security Council resolution 452 (1979) of 20 July 1979 which
strongly deplores the failure of Israel to abide by Security Council
resolutions of l 4 June of 21 May and of 25 September 1971 and the consensus statement by the President of the
Security Council on 11 November 1976 and Security Council resolution 446 (1979)
of 22 March 1979 and General Assembly resolutions 2253 (ES-V) and 2254 (ES-V)
of 4 and 14 July of October and 113 of December Taking note of the reports of United Nations organs, specialized
agencies, in particular of the reports of the International Labour Organisation,
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the
World Health Organization, and international humanitarian organizations on the
situation of the occupied Arab territories and their inhabitants,
Deeply alarmed by the conclusions of the Special Committee to investigate
Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the population of occupied
territories contained in paragraphs and of its report to the United
Nations General Assembly which contains inter alia the following conclusions:
"Z. %%J Israel's policy in the occupied territories is based on the
so-called 'homeland' doctrine which envisages a mono-religious (Jewish)
State established on territory that includes those territories occupied
by Israel in June In was this doctrine that was announced as the
basis for decision of the Government of Israel to authorize purchase of
land in the occupied territories by Israeli citizens and corporations.
In general it may be stated that, to the extent that the inhabitants
of the occupied territories do not form part of the religious group in
whose name the Government of Israel claims the right to establish itself,
these inhabitants have no rights vis-à-vis the governing authorities (in
this case the Government of Israel as a military occupation authority)
whenever the exercise of the rights happens to run counter to the
'homeland' policy."
Reaffirming the fact that occupation itself constitutes a fundamental
violation of the human rights of the civilian population of the occupied Arab
territories,
1. Calls upon Israel to take immediate steps for the return of the
Palestinians and the other displaced inhabitants of the occupied Arab
territories to their homes and property;
Declares that Israel's grave breaches of the Geneva Convention
relative to the iProtection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949
are war crimes and an affront to humanity;
Condemns the following Israeli policies and practices:
(a) the annexation of parts of the occupied territories;
2/ A/34/1 5 1 -
Recalling Security Council resolution 452 (1979) of 20 July 1979 which
strongly deplores the failure of Israel to abide by Security Council
resolutions 237 (1967) or 1l June 1967, 252 (1968) of 22 May 1968 and 298 (1971)
of 25 September l97l and the consensus statement by the President of the
Security Council on ll November 1976 and Security Council resolution ll6 (1979)
of 22 March 1979 and General Assembly resolutions 2253 (ES-V) and 225l (ES-V)
or l and 1l July 1967, 32/5 or 28 October 1977 and 33/113 or 18 December 1978,
Taking note of the reports of United Nations organs, specialized
agencies, in particular of the reports of the International Labour Organisation,
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the
World Health Organization, end international humanitarian organizations on the
situation of the occupied Arab territories and their inhabitants,
Deeply alarmed by the conclusions of the Special Committee to investigate
Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the population of occupied
territories contained in paragraphs 367 and 368 of its report 2/ to the United
Nations General Assembly which contains inter alia the following conclusions:
"[../ Israel's policy in the occupied territories is based on the
so-called 'homeland' doctrine which envisages a mono-religious (Jewish)
State established on territory that includes those territories occupied
by Israel in June 1967. In was this doctrine that was announced as the
basis for decision of the Government of Israel to authorize purchase of
land in the occupied territories by Israeli citizens and corporations.
In general it may be stated that, to the extent that the inhabitants
of the occupied territories do not form part of the religious group in
whose name the Government of Israel claims the right to establish itself,
these inhabitants have no rights vis-~-vis the governing authorities (in
this case the Government of Israel as a military occupation authority)
whenever the exercise of the rights happens to run counter to the
'homeland' policy."
Reaffirming the fact that occupation itself constitutes a fundamental
violation of the human rights of the civilian population of the occupied Arab
territories,
l. Calls upon Israel to take immediate steps for the return of the
Palestinians and the other displaced inhabitants of the occupied Arab
territories to their homes and property;
2. Declares that Israel's grave breaches of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of l2 August 19l9
are war crimes and an affront to humanity;
3. Condemns the following Israeli policies and practices:
(a) the annexation of parts of the occupied territories;
2/ A/3/631.
- 151(
b) The establishment of Israeli settlements therein and the transfer
of an alien population thereto;
(c) The evacuation, deportation, expulsion, displacement and transfer of
Arab inhabitants of the occupied territories, and the denial of their right
to return;
(d) The confiscation and expropriation of Arab property in the occupied
territories and all other transactions for the acquisition of land involving
Israeli authorities, institutions or nationals on the one hand, and
inhabitants or institutions of the occupied territories on the other and most
recently the expropriation of the Arab electric company of Jerusalem;
(e) The destruction and demolition of Arab houses;
(f) Mass arrests, administrative detention and ill-treatment of the
Arab population and the torture of persons under detention;
(g) The pillaging of archaeological and cultural property;
(h) The interference with religious freedoms and practices as well as
with family rights and customs;
(i) The continuous interference with and obstruction of the educational
and scholastic activities and the brutal suppression of all forms of students
and (j) The illegal exploitation of the natural wealth, resources and
population of the occupied territories;
(k) The arming of the settlers in occupied territories to commit acts
of violence against the Arab civilians ;
h. Further condemns administrative and legislative measures by the
Israeli authorities to encourage, promote and expand the establishment of
settlers' colonies in the occupied territories, which further demonstrate
Israel's determination to annex those territories;
5. Reaffirms that all measures taken by Israel to change the physical
composition, institutional structure or status of territories, any thereof, Jerusalem, are and
Israel's policy of settling parts of its and new
in occupied territories constitutes a flagrant violation of Convention relative to the of Civilian Persons in of
and of relevant United Nations resolutions ;
6. Demands that Israel desist forthwith from the policies and practices
referred to in paragraphs 3, b and 5 above;
7. Penands that Israel cease forthwith all acts of torture and
of detainees and prisoners ;
-152-
(b) The establishment of Israeli settlements therein and the transfer
of an alien population thereto;
(c) The evacuation, deportation, expulsion, displacement and transfer of
Arab inhabitants of the occupied territories, and the denial of their right
to return;
() The confiscation and expropriation of Arab property in the occupied
territories and all other transactions for the acquisition of land involving
Israeli authorities, institutions or nationals on the one hand, and
inhabitants or institutions of the occupied territcries on the other and most
recently the expropriation of the Arab electric company of Jerusalem;
(e) The destruction and demolition of Arab houses;
(f) Mass arrests, administrative detention and ill-treatment of the
Arab population and the torture of persons under detention;
(g) The pillaging of archaeological and cultural property;
(h) The interference with religious freedoms and practices as well as
with family rights and customs;
(i) The continuous interference with and obstruction of the educational
and scholastic activities and the brutal suppression of all forms of students
opinion, expression and manifestation;
(5) Te illegal exploitation of the natural wealth, resources and
population of the occupied territories;
() The arming of the settlers in occupied territories to commit acts
of violence against the Arab civilians;
• Further condemns administrative and legislative measures by the
Israeli authorities to encourage, promote and expand the establishment of
settlers' colonies in the occupied territories, which further demonstrate
Israel's determination to annex those territories;
5. Reaffirms that all measures taken by Israel to change the physical
character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the
occupied territories, or any part thereof, including Jerusalem, are null and
void, and that Israel's policy of settling parts of its population and new
settlers in the occupied territories constitutes a flagrant violation of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War and of the relevant United Nations resolutions;
6. Demands that Israel desist forthwith from the policies and practices
referred to in paragraphs 3, l and 5 above;
7. Derends that Israel cease forthwith all acts of torture and
ill-treatment of Arab detainees and prisoners;
-1528.
Calls upon Israel to release all Arabso.detained or imprisoned as a
result of their struggle for self-determination and the liberation of their
territories, and to accord to them, pending their release, the protection envisaged
in the relevant provisions of the international instruments concerning the
treatment of prisoners of war;
9- Renews its request to the Secretary-General to collect all relevant
information concerning detainees, such as their number, identity, place and
duration of detention, and to make this information available to the Commission
at its thirty-seventh session;
Condemns once more the massive, deliberate destruction of Quneitra
perpetrated during Israeli occupation and prior to the withdrawal of Israeli
forces from that city in 197^, and considers this act a grave breach of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War;
1 1 . Reiterates its call upon all States, in particular the States parties
to the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time
of War in accordance with article 1 of that Convention, and upon international
organizations and specialized agencies, not to recognize any changes carried
out by Israel in the occupied territories and to avoid taking any action or
extending any aid which might be used by Israel in its pursuit of the policies
of annexation and colonization or any of the other policies and practices referred
to in the present resolution;
1 2 . Calls upon Israel to report, through the Secretary-General, to the
Commission at its thirty-seventh session on the implementation of paragraphs 1,
6, and above ;
1 3 . Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized
agencies and in particular the International Labour Organisation, the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the World Health
Organization, the regional intergovernmental organizations and the international
humanitarian organizations, and to give it the widest possible publicity, and to
report to the Commission on Human Rights at its thirty-seventh session;
Ik. Decides to place on the provisional agenda of the thirty-seventh session
as a matter of high priority, the item entitled "Question of the violation of
human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine", and requests
the Secretary-General to bring to the attention of the Commission all United
Nations reports appearing between sessions of the Commission that deal with the
situation of the civilians of those territories.
2. J/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling its resolution 1 B (XXXV) of February and General Assembly
resolutions A (XXVIII) of December 32/91 A of 13 December 1977,
113 A of December 1978, and resolution 34/B of 12 December 1979,
Adopted at the meeting, on 13 February by a roll-call vote
of 28 to 1, with 10 abstentions. See chap. II.
-153-
8. Calls upon Israel to release all Arabs&detained or imprisoned as a
result of their struggle for self-determination and the liberation of their
territories, and to accord to them, pending their release, the protection envisaged
in the relevant provisions of the international instruments concerning the
treatment of prisoners of war;
9. Renews its request to the Secretary-General to collect all relevant
information concerning detainees, such as their number, identity, place and
duration of detention, and to make this information available to the Commission
at its thirty-seventh session;
10. Condemns once more the massive, deliberate destruction of Quneitra
perpetrated during Israeli occupation and prior to the withdrawal of Israeli
forces from that city in 197l, and considers this act e grave breach of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War;
11. Reiterates its call upon all States, in particular the States parties
to the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time
of War in accordance with article l of that Convention, and upon international
organizations and specialized agencies, not to recognize any changes carried
out by Israel in the occupied territories and to avoid taking any action or
extending any aid which might be used by Israel in its pursuit of the policies
of annexation and colonization or any of the other policies and practices referred
to in the present resolution;
l2. Calls upon Israel to report, through the Secretary-General, to the
Commission at its thirty--seventh session on the implementation of paragraphs l,
6, 7 and 8 above;
13. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized
agencies and in particular the International Labour Organisation, the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the World Health
Organization, the regional intergovernmental organizations and the international
humanitarian organizations, and to give it the widest possible publicity, and to
report to the Commission on Human Rights at its thirty-seventh session;
1l. Decides to place on the provisional agenda of the thirty-seventh session
as a matter of high priority, the item entitled "Question of the violation of
human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine", and requests
the Secretary-General to bring to the attention of the Commission all United
Nations reports appearing between sessions of the Commission that deal with the
situation of the civilians of those territories.
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling its resolution l B (XXV) of 21 February 1979 and General Assembly
resolutions 3092 A (XVIII) or 7 December 1973, 32/9l A of 13 December 1977,
33/113 A of 18 December 197, and resolution 3l/90 B of l2 December 1979,
3/ Adopted at the 1538th meeting, on 13 February 1980, by a roll-call vote
of 28to l, with I0 abstentions. See chap. II.
-153Bearing
in mind that the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of
12 August 19^9 must he fully applied in all circumstances to all persons who are
protected by those instruments, without any adverse distinction based on the
nature or origin of the armed conflict or on the causes espoused by or attributed
to the conflict,
Recalling resolution 10, on the application of the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 19^9 in the
occupied territories in the Middle East, of the XXIIIrd International Conference
of the Red Cross held in Bucharest in October 1977,
Recognizing that the failure of Israel to apply the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 19^9,
poses a grave threat to world peace and security,
Taking into account that States parties to the Geneva Convention of
12 August 19^9 undertake, in accordance with article 1 thereof, not only to
respect but also to ensure respect for the Conventions in all circumstances,
1. Expresses its deep concern at the consequences of Israel's refusal to
apply fully and effectively the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War in all its provisions to all the Arab territories
occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;
2. Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War is applicable to all the Arab territories occupied
by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
3- Condemns the failure of Israel to acknowledge the applicability of that
Convention to the territories it has occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;
h. Calls upon Israel to abide by and respect the obligations arising from
the Charter of the United Nations and other instruments and rules of
international law, in particular the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, in all the Arab territories
occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;
5. Urges once more all States parties to that Convention to exert all
efforts in order to ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions thereof
in all the Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized
agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the international
humanitarian organizations and non-governmental organizations.
15k-
Bearing in mind that the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of
12 August i9l9 must be fully applied in all circumstances to all persons who are
protected by those instruments, without any adverse distinction based on the
nature or origin of the armed conflict or on the causes espoused by or attributed
to the conflict,
Recalling resolution l0, on the application of the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of l2 August 19l9 in the
occupied territories in the Middle East, of the XXIIIrd International Conference
of the Red Cross held in Bucharest in October 1977,
Recognizing that the failure of Israel to apply the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 19\9,
poses a grave threat to world peace and security,
Taking into account that States parties to the Geneva Convention of
12 August i9l9 undertake, in accordance with article l thereof, not only to
respect but also to ensure respect for the Conventions in all circumstances,
l. Expresses its deep concern at the consequences of Israel's refusal to
apply fully and effectively the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War in all its provisions to all the Arab territories
occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;
2. Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War is applicable to all the Arab territories occupied
by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
3. Condemns the failure of Israel to acknowledge the applicability of that
Convention to the territories it has occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;
l. Calls upon Israel to abide by and respect the obligations arising from
the Charter of the United Nations and other instruments and rules of
international law, in particular the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, in all the Arab territories
occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;
5. Urges once more all States parties to that Convention to exert all
efforts in order to ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions thereof
in all the Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized
agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the international
humanitarian organizations and non-governmental organizations.
-15l--
iyCN.4/1475
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE THIRTY-SEVENTH SESSION
COUNCIL
ill
A
(2 February-13 March 1981)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1981
SUPPLEMENT No. 5
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1981
E/1981/25
E/CN.A/1475
\ 1
XXVTII. RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE
COMMISSION AT ITS THIRTY-SEVENTH SESSION
A. Resolutions
1 (XXXVII). Question of the violation of human rights in the
Arab territories, including Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the. Charter of the United Nations as
well as. the principles and provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
Bearing in mind the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 1 2 August 1 9 4 9 and- of other
relevant conventions and regulations,
Recalling its resolution I (XXXVl) of 1 3 February 1 9 8 0 on the "Question of
Violation.of Human Rights in the Occupied Arab Territories, including Palestine",
and previous resolutions of the Commission on Human Rights on this subject,
Recalling General Assembly resolution E S - 7 / 2 of 2 9 July I98O, 3 5 / 7 5 of
5 December I98O and resolution 3 5 / 1 2 2 of 1 1 December I98O and all General Assembly
resolutions on Israeli 'violations of the human rights of the population of occupied
territories,
Recalling, in particular, Security Council resolutions 2 3 7 ( 1 9 & 7 ) of
1 4 June I 9 6 7 , 4 6 5 ( 1 9 8 0 ) of 1 March 198O, 4 6 8 ( 1 9 8 O ) of 8 May 1980, 4 6 9 (19S0) of
2 0 May 1980, 4 7 1 of 5 June I 9 8 O , 4 7 6 198O) of 3 0 June 1 9 8 O , 4 7 8 ( 1 9 8 O ) of
2 0 August 1980 and 4 8 4 ( 1 9 8 O ) of 1 9 December 1980,
Bearing in mind resolution No. II, adopted on 2 4 June 1980 by the
International Labour Conference at its sixty-sixth session, entitled "Resolution
concerning the Implications of Israeli Settlements in Palestine and other Occupied
Arab Territories in Connection the Situation of Arab Workers",
Taking note of the reports and of the resolutions of the World Health
Organization and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization concerning the health and educational conditions of the Arab
population in the Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories since 1 9 6 7 »
including Jerusalem,
Bearing in mind paragraph of the Programme of Action adopted by the World
Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace,
l/ Adopted at the 1595th meeting on 11 February 1981, by a roll-call vote of
31 to 3> with 8 abstentions. See chap. II.
- 188 -
XVIII. RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE
COMMISSION AT ITS THIRTY--SEVENTH SESSION
A. Resolutions
(XVII). Question pf the violation of human rights in the
occupied Arab territories. including Palestine = The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations as
well as the principles and provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
Bgearing in mind the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949 and of other
relevant conventions and regulations,
Recalling its resolution I (XXXVI) of 13 February 1980 on the "Question of
Violation.of Human Rights in the Occupied Arab Territories, including Palestine",
and previous resolutions of the Commission on Human Rights on this subject,
Recalling General Assembly resolution ES-7/2 of 29 July 1980, 35/75 of
5 December 1980 and resolution 35/122 of ll December 1980 and all General Assembly
resolutions on Israeli violations of the human rights of the population of occupied
territories,
Recalling, in particular, Security Council resolutions 237 (1967) of
14 June 1967, 465 (1980) of 1 March 1980, 468 (1980) o£ 8 May 1900, 469 1930) of
20 May 1980, 471 (1980) of 5 June 1980, 476 (1980) o£ 30 June 1980, 478 (1980) of
20 August 1980 and 484 (1980) of 19 December 1980,
Bearing in mind resolution No. II, adopted on 24 June 1980 by the
International Labour Conference at its sixty-sixth session, entitled "Resolution
concerning the Implications of Israeli Settlements in Palestine and other Occupied
Arab Territories in Connection with the Situation of Arab Workers",
Taking note of the reports and of the resolutions of the World Health
Organization and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization concerning the health and educational conditions of the Arab
population in the Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories since 21967,
including Jerusalem,
Bearing in mind paragraph 5 of the Programme of Action adopted by the World
Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace,
L/ Adopted at the l595th meeting on 1l February 198l, by a roll-call vote of
3l to 3, with 8 abstentions. See chap. II.
- 188 --
Taking into consideration that the General Assembly has adopted
resolution 3314 (XXIX) of 14 December 1974j which defined as an act of aggression
the invasion or attack by the armed forces of a State of the territory of another
State, or any military occupation, however temporary, resulting from such invasion
or attack, or any annexation by the use of force of the territory of another State
or part thereof,
1. Reaffirms the fact that occupation itself constitutes a fundamental
violation of the human rights of the civilian population of the Palestinian and
other Arab occupied territories;
2. Reiterates the alarm deeply expressed by the Special Committee to
investigate Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the population of the
occupied territories in its report 2/ submitted to the General Assembly at its
thirty-fourth session and confirmed in its report 3/ to the General Assembly at its
thirty-fifth session that Israel's policy in the occupied territories is based on
the so-called "Homeland" doctrine which envisages a mono-religious (Jewish) State
that includes also territories occupied by Israel since June 1967?
3« Calls upon Israel to take immediate steps for the return of the displaced
Arab inhabitants to their homes and property in Palestine and the other Arab
territories occupied since June 1967?
4. Declares that Israel's grave breaches of the Geneva Convention relative to
the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949 axe war crimes
and an affront to humanity;
5. Firmly re.jects and condemns Israel's decision to annex Jerusalem, declare
it as its "capital" and alter its physical character, demographic composition,
institutional structure and status, and considers all these measures and their
consequences null and void:
6. Shares the concern of the General Assembly expressed in
resolution 35/122 E of 11 December I98O, concerning reports indicating the intention
of the Israeli authorities to enact legislation embodying changes in the character
and status of. the occupied Syrian Arab Golan Heights and condemns the persistence
of Israel in changing the physical character, demographic composition, institutional
structure and legal status of the aforementioned area;
7. Condemns the following Israeli policies and practices:
(a) The annexation of parts of the occupied territories;
(b) The establishment of Israeli settlements therein and the transfer of an
alien population thereto;
2/ A/34/631.
1/ A/35/425.
- 189 -
,
laking into consideration that the General Assembly has adopted
resolution 3If (XXT) of TH December 1974, which defined as an act of aggression
the invasion or attack by the armed forces of a State of the territory of another
State, or any military occupation, however temporary, resulting from such invasion
or attack, or any annexation by the use of force of the territory of another State
or part thereof,
l. Reaffirms the fact that occupation itself constitutes a fundamental
violation of the human rights of the civilian population of the Palestinian and
other Arab occupied territories;
2, Reiterates the alarm deeply expressed by the Special Committee to
investigate Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the population of the
occupied territories in its report 2/ submitted to the General Assembly at its
thirty-fourth session and confirmed in its report 3/ to the General Assembly at its
thirty-fifth session that Israel's policy in the occupied territories is based on
the so-called "Homeland" doctrine which envisages a mono-religious (Jewish) State
that includes also territories occupied by Israel since June 1967;
• galls upon Israel to take immediate steps for the return of the displaced
Arab inhabitants to their homes and property in Palestine and the other Arab
territories occupied since June 1967;
4. Declares that Israel's grave breaches of the Geneva Convention relative to
the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of l2 August 1949 are war crimes
and an affront to humanity;
5. Firmly ejects and condemns Israel's decision to annex Jerusalem, declare
it as its "capital" and alter its physical character, demographic composition,
institutional structure and status, and considers all these measures and their
consequences null and void;
6. Shares the concern of the General Assembly expressed in
resolution 35/i22 of l] December 1980, concerning reports indicating the intention
of the Israeli authorities to enact legislation embodying changes in the character
and status of the occupied Syrian Arab Golan Heights and condemns the persistence
of Israel in changing the physical character, demographic composition, institutional
structure and legal status of the aforementioned area;
7. Condemns the following Israeli policies and practices:
(a) The annexation of parts of the occupied territories;
(b) The establishment of Israeli settlements therein and the transfer of an
alien population thereto;
2/ /34/651.
2/ A/35/425.
- 189 --
,
(c) The arming of settlers in the occupied territories to commit acts of
violence against Arab civilians, the perpetration of acts of violence by these armed
settlers against individuals, causing injury and death and wide scale damage to Arab
property;
(d) The evacuation, deportation, expulsion, displacement and transfer of Arab
inhabitants of the occupied territories, and the denial of their right to return;
(e) The confiscation and expropriation of Arab property in the occupied
territories and all other transactions for the acquisition of land involving Israeli
authorities, institutions or nationals on the one hand, and inhabitants or
institutions of the occupied territories on the other and, most recently, the
expropriation of the Arab electric company of Jerusalem;
(f) The destruction and demolition of Arab houses;
(g) Mass arrests, collective punishments, administrative detention and
ill-treatment of the Arab population and the torture of persons under detention,
the inhuman conditions in prisons, in particular in the Nafha prison;
(h) The pillaging of archaeological and cultural property;
(i) The interference with religious freedoms and practices as well as with
family rights and customs;
(j) The systematic Israeli campaign of repression against universities in the
occupied Palestinian territories, restricting and impeding academic activities of
Palestinian universities by subjecting selections of courses, textbooks and
educational programmes, admission of students and appointment of faculty members
to the control and supervision of the military occupation authorities, in clear
contravention of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War;
(k) The illegal exploitation of the natural wealth, resources and population
of the occupied territories;
Condemns the assassination attempts on the life of Bassam Shaka'a, Mayor
of Hablus, of Karim Khalaf, Mayor of Ramallah., and of Ibrahim Tawil, Mayor of
El-Bireh;
9. Calls upon the Israeli authorities to implement forthwith Security Council
resolution 484 1980) of December and previous resolutions calling for the
immediate return of the expelled Mayors of Hebron and Halhul so they can resume the
functions for which they were elected and appointed;
Further condemns administrative and legislative measures by the Israeli
authorities to encourage, promote and expand the establishment of settler colonies
in the occupied territories, which further demonstrate Israel's determination to
annex those territories, and strongly deplores the continuation and persistence of
Israel in pursuing those policies and practices and calls upon the Government of
Israel to rescind those measures, to dismantle the existing settlements and in
particular to cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction and
planning of settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied
since - -
(c) 'The arming of settlers in the occupied territories to commit acts of
violence against Arab civilians, the perpetration of acts of violence by these armed
settlers against individuals, causing injury and death and wide scale damage to Arab
property;
() The evacuation, deportation, expulsion, displacement and transfer of Arab
inhabitants of the occupied territories, and the denial of their right to return;
(e) The confiscation and expropriation of Arab property in the occupied
territories and all other transactions for the acquisition of land involving Israeli
authorities, institutions or nationals on the one hand, and inhabitants or
institutions of the occupied territories on the other and, most recently, the
expropriation of the Arab electric company of Jerusalem;
(f) The destruction and demolition of Arab houses;
(g) Mass arrests, collective punishments, administrative detention and
ill-treatment of the Arab population and the torture of persons under detention,
the inhuman conditions in prisons, in particular in the Nafha prison;
(n) The pillaging of archaeological and cultural property;
(i) The interference with religious freedoms and practices as well as with
family rights and customs;
() The systematic Israeli campaign of repression against universities in the
occupied Palestinian territories, restricting and impeding academic activities of
Palestinian universities by subjecting selections of courses, textbooks and
educetional programmes, admission of students and appointment of faculty members
to the control and supervision of the military occupation authorities, in clear
contravention of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War;
(k) The illegal exploitation of the natural wealth, resources and population
of the occupied territories;
8. Condems the assassination attempts on the life of Bassam Shaka'a, Mayor
of Nablus, of Karim Khalaf, Mayor of Ramallah, and of Ibrahim Tawil, Mayor of
EI-Bireh;
9. Calls upon the Israeli authorities to implement forthwith Security Council
resolution @@i (15@) of 19 December 1980 and previous resolutions calling for the
immediate return of the expelled Mayors of Hebron and Halhul so they can resume the
functions for which they were elected and appointed;
10. Further condemns administrative and legislative measures by the Israeli
authorities to encourage, promote and expand the establishment of settler colonies
in the occupied territories, which further demonstrate Israel's determination to
annex those territories, and strongly deplores the continuation and persistence of
Israel in pursuing those policies and practices and calls upon the Government of
Israel to rescind those measures, to dismantle the existing settlements and in
particular to cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction and
planning of settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied
since 1967;
190 --
t
f
11. Reaffirms that all measures taken by Israel to change the physical
character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the
occupied territories, or any part thereof, including Jerusalem, are null and void,
and that Israel's policy of settling parts of its population and new settlers in the
occupied territories constitutes a flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and of the relevant
United Nations resolutions;
12. Demands that Israel desist forthwith from the policies and practices
referred to in paragraphs 5> 6, 7> 10 and 11 above;
13. Demands that Israel cease forthwith all acts of torture and ill-treatment
of Arab detainees and prisoners;
14. Calls upon Israel to release all Arabs detained or imprisoned as a restilt
of their struggle for self-determination and the liberation of their territories,
and to accord to them, pending their release, the protection envisaged in the
relevant provisions of the international instruments concerning the treatment of
prisoners of war;
15. Renews its request to the Secretary-General to collect all relevant
information concerning detainees, such as their number, identity, place and duration
of detention, and to make this information available to the Commission at its
thirty-eighth session;
16. Condemns once more the massive deliberate destruction of Quneitra
perpetrated during Israeli occupation and prior to the withdrawal of Israeli forces
from that city in 1974? and considers this act a grave breach of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War;
17. Reiterates its call upon all States, in particular the States parties to
the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War
in accordance with article 1 of that Convention, and upon international
organizations and specialized agencies, not to recognize any changes carried out by
Israel in the occupied territories, including Jerusalem, and to avoid talcing any
action or extending any aid which might be used by Israel in its pursuit of the
policies of annexation and colonization or any other policies and practices referred
to in the present resolution;
18. Calls upon Israel, to report, through the Secretary-General, to the
Commission at its thirty-eighth session on the implementation of paragraphs 5> 6,
7, 9, 10, 13 and 14 above;
19. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized
agencies and in particular the International Labour Organisation, the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the World Health Organization,
the regional intergovernmental organizations and the international humanitarian
organizations, and to give it the widest possible publicity, and to report to the
Commission on Human Rights at its thirty-eighth session;
20. Decides to place on the provisional agenda of the thirty-eighth session as
a matter of high priority, the item entitled "Question of violation of human rights
in the Arab occupied territories, including Palestine", and requests the
-
•
ll. Reaffirms that all measures taken by Israel to change the physical
character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the
occupied territories, or any part thereof, including Jerusalem, are null and void,
and that Israel's policy of settling parts of its population and new settlers in the
occupied territories constitutes a flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and of the relevant
United Nations resolutions;
12. Demands that Israel desist forthwith from the policies and practices
referred to in paragraphs 5, 6, 7, 10 and ll above;
15. Demands that Israel cease forthwith all acts of torture and ill--treatment
of Arab detainees and prisoners;
14, Calls upon Israel to release all Arabs detained or imprisoned as a result
of their struggle for self--determination and the liberation of their territories,
and to accord to them, pending their release, the protection envisaged in the
relevant provisions of the international instruments concerning the treatment of
prisoners of war;
l5. Renews its request to the Secretary-General to collect all relevant
information concerning detainees, such as their number, identity, place and duration
of detention, and to make this information available to the Commission at its
thirty--eighth session;
16. Condemns once more the massive deliberate destruction of Quneitre
perpetrated during Israeli occupation and prior to the withdrawal of Israeli forces
from that city in 1974, and considers this act a grave breach of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War;
17. Reiterates its call upon all States, in particular the States parties to
the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War
in accordance with article l of that Convention, and upon international
organizations and specialized agencies, not to recognize any changes carried out by
Israel in the occupied territories, including Jerusalem, and to avoid taking any
action or extending any aid which might be used by Israel in its pursuit of the
policies of annexation and colonization or any other policies and practices referred
to in the present resolution;
18. Calls upon Israel, to report, through the Secretary-General, to the
Commission at its thirty-eighth session on the implementation of paragraphs 5, 6,
7, 9, 10, 13 and 14 above;
19. Requests the Secretary--General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized
agencies and in particular the International Labour Organisation, the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the World Health Organization,
the regional intergovernmental organizations and the international humanitarian
organizations, and to give it the widest possible publicity, and to report to the
Commission on Human Rights at its thirty-eighth session;
20. Decides to place on the provisional agenda of the thirty-eighth session as
a matter of high priority, the item entitled "Question of violation of human rights
in the Arab occupied territories, including Palestine", and requests the
- 191 Secretary-
General to "bring to the attention of the Commission all United Nations
reports appearing between sessions of the Commission that deal with the situation
of the civilians of those territories.
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling its resolution 1 B (XXXVl) of 13 February 1980 and General Assembly
resolutions 3092 A (XXVTII) of 7 December 1973, 32/91 A of 13 December 1977,
33/113 A of 18 December 1978, resolution 34/90 B of 12 December 1979» and
resolution 35/122 A of 11 December 1980,
Recalling Security Council resolutions 465 (1980) of 1 March I98O, 468 (198O)
of 8 May 1980, 469 (1980) of 20 May 1980, 471 (1980) of 5 June 198O, 476 (198O) of
30 June 1980, 478 (1980) of 20 August 1980 and 484 (1980) of 19 December 1980,
Bearing in mind that the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949
must be fully applied in all circumstances to all persons who are protected by those
instruments, without any adverse distinction based on the nature or origin of the
armed conflict or on the causes espoused by or attributed to the conflict,
Recognizing that the failure of Israel to apply the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949 creates a
situation fraught with danger,
Taking into account that States parties to the Geneva Convention of
12 August 1949 undertake, in accordance with article 1 thereof, not only to respect
but also to ensure respect for the Conventions in all circumstances,
1. Expresses its deep concern at the consequences of Israel's systematic
refusal to apply the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949 in all its provisions to Palestinian and
other Arab territories occupied since 1967> including Jerusalem;
2. Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War is applicable to all the Arab territories occupied
by Israel since 1967? including Jerusalem;
3. Condemns the failure of Israel to acknowledge the applicability of that
Convention to the territories it has occupied since 1967* including Jerusalem;
Calls upon Israel to abide by and respect the obligations arising from the
Charter of the United Nations and other instruments and rules of international law,
in particular the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, in Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied
since 1967j including Jerusalem;
&J Adopted at the 1595th meeting, on 11 February I98I, by a roll-call vote of
41 to 1. See chap. II.
-
• $
t
¢
Secretary-General to bring to the attention of the Commission all United Nations
reports appearing between sessions of the Commission that deal with the situation
of the civilians of those territories.
± 4/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling its resolution l B (XVI) of 13 February 1980 and General Assembly
resolutions 3092 A (XVIII) or 7 December 1973, 32/91 A of 13 December 1977,
33/113 A of 18 December 1978, resolution 34/90 B of 12 December 1979, and
resolution 35/122 A of ll December 1980,
Recalling Security Council resolutions 465 (1980) of l March 1980, 468 (1980)
o£ 8 May 1960, 469 (1980) o£ 20 May 1980, 471 (1980) of 5 June 1960, 476 (1980) o£
30 June 1980, 478 (1980) of 20 August 1980 and 484 (1980) of 19 December 1980,
Bearing in mind that the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of l2 August 1949
must be fully applied in all circumstances to all persons who are protected by those
instruments, without any adverse distinction based on the nature or origin of the
armed conflict or on the causes espoused by or attributed to the conflict,
Recognizing that the failure of Israel to apply the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949 creates a
situation fraught with danger,
Taking into account that States parties to the Geneva Convention of
12 August 1949 undertake, in accordance with article l thereof, not only to respect
but also to ensure respect for the Conventions in all circumstances,
l. Expresses its deep concern at the consequences of Israel's systematic
refusal to apply the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection o£ Civilian
Persons in Time of War of l2 August l949 in all its provisions to Palestinian and
other Arab territories occupied since l96], including Jerusalem;
2. Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War is applicable to all the Arab territories occupied
by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
3. Sonders the failure of Israel to ackmowledge the applicability of that
Convention to the territories it has occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;
4. Calls upon Israel to abide by and respect the obligations arising from the
Charter of the United Nations and other instruments and rules of international law,
in particular the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, in Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied
since 1967, including Jerusalem;
4/
41 to l.
Adopted at the l595th meeting, on ll February 198l, by a roll-call vote of
See chap. II.
- 192 --
"
5. Urges once more all States parties to that Convention to exert all efforts
in order to ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions thereof in all the
Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967> including Jerusalem;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized
agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the international
humanitarian organizations and non-governmental organizations.
2 (XXXVTl). The right of peoples to self-determination and
its application to peoples under colonial or
alien domination or foreign occupation 5/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December i960,
3236 (XXIX) of 22 November 1974, 3375 (XXX) and 3376 (XXX) of 10 November 1975,
32/14 of 7 November 1977, 32/20 of 25 November 1977, 32/40 of 2 December 1977,
32/42 of 7 December 1977, 33/28 of 7 December 1978, 34/65 B of 29 November 1979,
ES-7/2 of 29 July 35/169 of 15 December 198O,
Recalling further Economic and Social Council resolutions I865 (LVl) and
1866 (LVI) of 17 May 1974,
Reaffirming its resolutions 3 (XXXl) of 11 February 1975, 6 (XXXl) of
21 February 1975, 2 (XXXIV) and 3 (XXXIV) of 14 February and 2 (XXXV) of
21 February 1979 and 2 (XXXVl) of February 1930,
Bearing in mind the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable
Rights of the Palestinian People, 6/
Reaffirming that the Palestinian people are entitled to self-determination in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other relevant United Nations
resolutions,
Expressing its grave concern that the Palestinian people have been prevented by
force from enjoying their inalienable rights, in particular their right to
self-determination,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 35/l69 A of 15 December 198O which
expresses its grave concern that no just solution to the problem of Palestine has
been achieved and that this problem therefore continues to aggravate the Middle East
conflict, of which it is the core, and to endanger international peace and
security, and that Security Council resolution 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967 does
_5_/ Adopted at the 1595th meeting, on 11 February 1981, by a roll-call vote of
25 to 9, with 8 abstentions. See Chap. VII.
6/ Official Records of the General Assembly, Thirty-fifth Session,
Supplement No. 35, A/35/35.
-
d
5. Urges once more all States parties to that Convention to exert all efforts
in order to ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions thereof in all the
Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized
agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the international
humanitarian organizations and non-governmental organizations.
2 (CCXVII). [The right of peoples to self-determination and
its a lication to eo les under colonial or
alien domination pr foreign occupation 5
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolution l514 (XV) of l4 December 1960,
3236 (GT?) or 22 November 1974, (X0) and (XX) or 10 November 1975,
32/14 of 7 November 1977, 32/20 of 25 November 1977, 32/40 of 2 December 1977,
32/42 of 7 December 1977, 33/28 o£ 7 December 1978, 34/65 B o£ 29 November 1979,
ES--7/2 of 29 July 1980, 35/169 of 15 December 1900,
Recalling further Economic and Social Council resolutions 1865 (LVI) and
KV) 6F 17Hay i974,
Reaffirming its resolutions 3 (XXI) of 11 February 1975, 6 (XXX1) of
21 February 1975, 2 (XXXIv) and 3 (CXXIV) o£ 14 February 1978 and 2 (Xv) of
21 February 1979 and 2 (XVI) o£ 14 February 1900,
Bearing in mind the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable
Rights of the Palestinian People, 6/
Reaffirming that the Palestinian people are entitled to self--determination in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other relevant United Nations
resolutions,
Expressing its grave concern that the Palestinian people have been prevented by
force from enjoying their inalienable rights, in particular their right to
self--determination,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 35/169 A of 15 December 1980 which
expresses its grave concern that no just solution to the problem of Palestine has
been achieved and that this problem therefore continues to aggravate the Middle East
conflict, of which it is the core, and to endanger international peace and
security, and that Security Council resolution 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967 does
/ Adopted at the 1595th meeting, on 1l February 1981, by a roll-call vote of
25 to 9, with 8 abstentions. See Chap. VII.
6/ pfficial Records of the General Assembly, Thirty-fifth Session,
Supplemen if6. 35, I/5[35.
- 193 COMMISSION
ON HUMAN RIGHTS
SESSION
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
UNITED NATIONS
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE THIRTY-EIGHTH SESSION
(1 February- 12 March 1982)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1982
SUPPLEMENT No. 2
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1982
E/1982/12
E/CN.4/1982/30
XXVI. RESOLUTIONS AMD DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE
COMMISSION AT ITS THIRTY-EIGHTH SESSION
A. Resolutions
1. Question of the violation of human rights in the
Arab territories, including Palestine l/
2/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations
as well as the principles and provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights,
in mind the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949 .3/ an(^ °^ °"tner
relevant conventions and regulations,
into consideration that the General Assembly has adopted
resolution 3314 (XXIX) of 14 December 1974» which defined as an act of
aggression the invasion or attack by the armed forces of a State of the
territory of another State, or any military occupation, however temporary,
resulting from such invasion or attack, or any annexation by the use of force
of the territory of another State or part thereof,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions ES-7/2 of 29 July 1980, 36/15 of
28 October 1981, 36/120 of 10 December 1981, 36/147 of 16 December 1981 and
36/226 of 17 December 1981, and all General Assembly resolutions on Israeli
violations of the human rights of the population of occupied Arab territories,
Recalling, in particular, Security Council resolutions 237 (1967) of
14 June 1967, 465 (1980) of 1 March 1980, 468 (198O) of 8 May 1980, 469 (1980)
of 20 May 1980, 471 (1980) of 5 June 1980, 476 (1980) of 30 June 1980,
478 (1980) of 20 August 1980 and 484 (1980) of 19 December 198O.
Taking note of the reports and resolutions of the International Labour
Organisation, the World Health Organization and the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization concerning the conditions of the in the Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories since Jerusalem,
1/ Adopted at the 17th meeting on 11 February 1982, by a roll-call vote of
32 to 1, with 9 abstentions. See chap.II.
2/ Adopted at the 17th meeting on 11 February 1982, by a roll-call vote of
32 to 3» with 7 abstentions. See chap.II.
3/ United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, XXVJ. RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE
COMMISSION AT ITS THIRTY--EIGHTH SESSION
A, Resolutions
1982/21. Question of the violation of human rights in the
occupied Arab territories,including Palestine ]/
A 2/
The Commission gn Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations
as well as the principles and provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights,
Bearing in mind the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of l2 August 1949 3/ and of other
relevant conventions and regulations,
Taking into consideration that the General Assembly has adopted
resolution 33i4 XXIX) of 14 December 1974, which defined as an aot of
aggression the invasion or attack by the armed forces of a. State of the
territory of another State, or any military occupation, however temporary,
resulting from such invasion or attack, or any annexation by the use of force
of the territory of another State or part thereof,
eoalling General Assembly resolutions BS--7/2 of 29 July 1980, 36/15 of
28 October 1981, 36/120 of 10 December 1981, 36/147 of 16 December 198l and
36/226 of l7 December 198l, and ll General Assembly resolutions on Israeli
violations of the human rights of the population of occupied Arab territories,
Recalling, in particular, Security Council resolutions 237 (1967) of
14 June 1967, 465 (1980) of 1 Maroh 1980, 468 (1980) o£ 8 May 1980, 469 (1980)
o£ 20 May 1980, 471 (1980) of 5 June 1980, 476 (1980) o£ 30 June 1980,
478 (1980) of 20 August 1980 and 484 (1980) of 19 December 1980.
Taking note of the reports and resolutions of the International Labour
Organisation, the World Health Organization and the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization concerning the conditions of the population
in the Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories since 1967, including
Jerusalem,
l/ Adopted at the l7th meeting on ll February 1982, by a roll-call vote of
32 to l, with 9 abstentions. See chap.II.
2/ Adopted at the l7th meeting on ll February 1982, by a roll-call vote of
32 to3, with 7 abstentions. See chap.II.
3/ United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, p.287.
- 102 -
Review 4/ 1 XXXVIl) 11 1981 Question
1. territories 5
thirty-5/ 6/ jj so-Homeland" Jewish) tha.t 1967» an<^ ^ e affirmation by the Special self-rights 5
brea.ches 12 Additional 0/ condemnation a) Jerusalem5
(b) thereto 5
4/ TD/B/870.
5/ A/6/ 35/2/ A/36/632/Add.l and Add.l/Corr.l.
8/ A/32/144, annexes I and II.
- 103 -
Taking note of the report "Review of the economic conditions of the
Palestinian people in the occupied Arab territories" 4/ prepared by the
secretariat of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development,
Recalling its resolution l (XXXVII) of 1l February 198l on the "Question
of the violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including
Palestine", and previous resolutions of the Commission on Human Rights on this
subject,
l. Reaffirms the fact that occupation itself constitutes a fundamental
violation of the human rights of the civilian population of the Palestinian and
other Arab occupied territories;
2. Reiterates the alarm deeply expressed by the Special Committee to
Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the
Occupied Territories in its reports submitted to the General Assembly at its
thirty--fourth, 5/ thirty-fifth 6/ and thirty-sixth 7/ sessions, that Israel's
policy in the occupied territories is based on the so--called "Homeland" doctrine
which envisages a mono-religious (Jewish) State that includes also territories
occupied by Israel since June 1967, and the affirmation by the Special Committee
that this policy not only denies the rights to self--determination of the population
of the occupied territories but also constitutes the source of the continuing and
systematic violation of human rights;
3. Declares that Israel's grave breaches of the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of l2 August 1949 and of the
A~~itioal Protocols to the Geneva Conventions g/ are war crimes and an affront
to humanity;
4. Firmly rejects and reiterates its gondemnation of Israel's decision to
annex Jerusalem and alter its physical character, demographic composition,
institutional structure and status, and considers all these measures and their
consequences null and void;
5. Strongly condemns Israeli policies and practices, administrative and
legislative measures to promote and expand the establishment of settler colonies
in the occupied territories as well as the following practices:
(a) The annexation of parts of the occupied territories, including Jerusalem;
(o) The establishment of new Israeli settlements and expansion of the
existing settlements on private and public Arab lands, and the transfer of an
alien population thereto;
4/ TD/B/870.
5/ 4/34/631.
6/ A/5/425.
7/ A/36/632/Ad.1 and Add.1/Corr.1.
8/ A/32/144, annexes I and II.
- 103 --
c) The of settlers in the occupied territories to commit acts of
violence Arab civilians, the perpetration of acts of violence by these
armed settlers against individuals, causing injury and death and wide-scale
(d) The deportation, expulsion, displacement and transfer of
Arab inhabitants of the occupied territories, and the denial of their right to
e) The confiscation and expropriation of Arab property in the occupied
territories and all other transactions for the acquisition of land involving
Israeli authorities, institutions or nationals on the one hand, and inhabitants
or institutions of the occupied territories on the other 5
(f) The destruction and demolition of Arab houses;
(g) Ma.ss arrests, collective punishments, administrative detention and
ill-treatment of the Arab population and the torture of persons under detention,
cond itions prisons ;
(h) The pillaging of archaeological and cultural property;
(i) The interference with religious freedoms and practices as well as with
family rights and customs;
(j) The systematic Israeli repression against universities In the occupied
Palestinian territories, restricting and impeding academic activities of
Palestinian universities by subjecting selections of courses, textbooks and
educational programmes, admission of students and appointment of faculty members
to the control and supervision of the military occupation authorities;
(k) The illegal exploitation of the natural wealth, resources and population
of the occupied territories;
6. Calls upon Israel to take immediate steps for the return of the displaced
Arab inhabitants to their homes and property in Palestine and the other Arab
territories occupied since June 136"]°,
7. Calls the Israeli authorities to implement forthwith Security
1980) for the immediate return of the expelled Mayors of Hebron and Halhoul so that can resume the functions for which they were elected and appointed;
8. Demands that Israel desist forthwith from the policies and referred to in paragraphs 4 and 5 above;
9. Calls upon Israel to relea.se all Arabs detained or imprisoned a.s a, result
of their struggle for self-determination and for the liberation of their
territories, and to accord them, pending their release, the protection envisaged
in the relevant provisions of the international instruments concerning the
treatment of prisoners of war, and demands that Israel cease forthwith all acts of
torture and ill-treatment of Arab detainees and prisoners;
10. Reiterates its call to all States, in particular the States to
the Geneva. Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
- -
(c) The arming of settlers in the occupied territories to commit acts of
violence against Arab civilians, the perpetration of acts of violence by these
armed settlers against individuals, causing injury and death and wide-scale
damage to Arab property;
(a) The evacuation, deportation, expulsion, displacement and transfer of
Arab inhabitants of the occupied territories, and the denial of their right to
return;
(e) The confiscation and expropriation of Arab property in the ocoupied
territories and all other transactions for the acquisition of land involving
Israeli authorities, institutions or nationals on the one hand, and inhabitants
or institutions of the occupied territories on the other;
(f) The destruction and demolition of Arab houses;
(g) Mass arrests, collective punishments, administrative detention and
ill-treatment of the Arab population and the torture of persons under detention,
and the inhuman conditions in prisons$
(h) The pillaging of archaeological and cultural property;
(i) The interference with religious freedoms and practices as well as with
family rights and customs;
() The systematic Israeli repression against universities in the occupied
Palestinian territories, restricting and impeding academic activities of
Palestinian universities by subjecting selections of courses, textbooks and
educational programmes, admission of students and appointment of faculty members
to the control and supervision of the military occupation authorities;
() The illegal exploitation of the natural wealth, resources and population
of the occupied territories;
6. Calls upon Israel to take immediate steps for the return of the displaced
Arab inhabitants to their homes and property in Palestine and the other Arab
territories occupied since June 1967;
7. Calls upon the Israeli authorities to implement forthwith Security
Council resolution 484 (1980) of 19 December 1980 and previous resolutions calling
for the immediate return of the expelled Mayors of Hebron and Halhoul so that they
can resume the functions for which they were elected and appointed;
8. Demands that Israel desist forthwith from the policies and practices
referred to in paragraphs 4 and 5 above;
9. Calls upon Israel to release all Arabs detained or imprisoned as a result
of their struggle for self--determination and for the liberation of their
territories, and to accord them, pending their release, the protection envisaged
in the relevant provisions of the international instruments concerning the
treatment of prisoners of war, and demands that Israel cease forthwith all acts of
torture and ill--treatment of Arab detainees and prisoners;
10. Reiterates its call to all States, in particular the States parties to
the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
-- 104 in
accordance with article 1 of that Convention, and to international
and specialized agencies, not to recognize any changes carried out
Israel in the occupied territories, including Jerusalem, and to avoid taking
action or extending any aid which might be used by Israel in its pursuit of
the policies of annexation and colonization or any other policies and practices
referred to in the present resolution;
11. Galls upon Israel to report, through the Secretary-General, to the
Commission at its thirty-ninth session on the implementation of paragraphs 4
5 and 9 above;
12. Renews its to the Secretary-General to collect all relevant
information concerning detainees, such as their number, identity, place and
session5
13. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized
a.gencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations and the international
humanitarian organizations and to give it the widest possible publicity, and to
report to the Commission on Human Rights at its thirty-ninth session:;
14. Further requests the Secretary-General to bring to the attention of
the Commission all United Nations reports appearing between sessions of the
Commission that deal with the situation of the population of those occupied
territories;
15. Decides that a seminar on "Violations of human rights in the Palestinian
and other Arab territories occupied by Israel" be held at the United Nations Office
at Geneva, and requests the Secretary-General to make the appropriate arrangements
for the of this seminar and to to the Commission on Human
Rights at its thirty-ninth session;
16. Decides to pla.ce on the agenda of the thirty-ninth session
a.s a matter of high priority the item entitled "Question of the violation of human
rights in the Arab territories, including Palestine";
B 9/
Commission on Human Recalling its resolution 1 B (XXXVII) of 11 February 1981 and General Assembly
resolutions 3092 A (XXVIIl) of 7 December 1973, 32/91 A of 13 December 1977,
II3 of of December Recalling Security Council resolutions 465 (l980) of 1 March I98O, 468 (1980 )
May 198O, 4<$9 1980) 1980) l980)198O) of 1980) _9_/ Adopted at the 17th meeting on 11 February by a roll-call vote
of 41 to 1. See chap. II.
-
War,in accordance with article l of that Convention, and to international
organizations and specialized agencies, not to recognize any changes carried out
by Israel in the occupied territories, including Jerusalem, and to avoid taking
any action or extending any aid which might be used by Israel in its pursuit of
the policies of annexation and colonization or any other policies and practices
referred to in the present resolution;
l1. Calls pon Israel to report, through the Secretary-General, to the
Commission at its thirty-ninth session on the implementation of paragraphs 4
5 and 9 above;
12. Renews jts request to the Secretary--General to collect all relevant
information concerning detainees, such as their number, identity, place and
duration of detention, and to make this information available to the Commission
at its thirty-ninth session;
13. gquests the Secretary--General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized
agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations and the international
humanitarian organizations and to give it the widest possible publicity, and to
report to the Commission on Human Rights at its thirty-ninth session;
l44. Further requests the Secretary-General to bring to the attention of
the Commission all United Nations reports appearing between sessions of the
Commission that deal with the situation of the population of those occupied
territories;
15. Decides that a seminar on "Violations of human rights in the Palestinian
and other Arab territories occupied by Israel" be held at the United Nations Office
at Geneva and requests the Secretary--General to make the appropriate arrangements
for the organization of this seminar and to report to the Commission on Human
Rights at its thirty--ninth session;
16. Decides to place on the provisional agenda of the thirty-ninth session
as a matter of high priority the item entitled "Question of the violation of human
rights in the Arab occupied territories, including Palestine";
3 9/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling its resolution 1 B (XXXVII) of ll February 198l and General Assembly
resolutions 3092 A (XXVIII) of 7 December 1973, 32/91 A of 13 December 1977,
33/113 A o£ 18 December 1978, 34/90 B or 12 December 1979, 35/122 A of
11 December 1980 and 36/147 of 16 Deember 1981,
Recalling Security Council resolutions 465 (1980) of l March 1980, 468 (1980)
of 8 fay 1960, 469 (1980) of 20 May 1980, 471 (1980) of 5 June 1980, 476 (1980) of
30 June 1980, 478 (1980) o£ 20 August 1980 and 484 (1980) of 19 December 1980,
9/ Adopted at the l7th meeting on ll February 1982, by a roll--call vote
of 4l to l. See chap. II.
- 105 Recalling
resolution III on the application of the Fourth Geneva. Convention
of 12 August 1949 adopted by the XXIVth International Conference of the Red Cross
held at Manila in November 1981,
in mind that the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of
12 1949 must he fully applied in all circumstances to all persons who are
by those instruments, without any adverse distinction based on the nature
or origin of the armed conflict or on the causes espoused by or attributed to the
conflict,
that the persistent failure of Israel to apply the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of
12 August 1949 10/ creates a situation fraught with danger,
into account that States parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention of
12 August 1949 undertake, in accordance with article 1 thereof, not only to
respect but also to ensure respect for the Convention in all circumstances,
1. its deep concern at the consequences of Israel's systematic
refusal to apply the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949 in all its provisions to Palestinian and
other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem?
2. Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War is applicable to all the Arab territories occupied
by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem?
J. Condemns the failure of Israel to acknowledge the applicability of that
Convention to the territories it has occupied since 1967» including Jerusalem?
4. Calls upon Israel to abide by and respect the obligations arising from
the Charter of the United Hâtions and other instruments and rules of international
law, in particular the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, in Palestinian and other Arab
territories occupied since 1967* including Jerusalem?
5. Urged once more all States parties to that Convention to exert all
efforts in order to ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions thereof
in all the Arab territories occupied by Israel since 19^7» including Jerusalem?
6. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the
international humanitarian organizations and non-governmental organizations.
10/ United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, No. 973, p. 287.
-
Recalling resolution III on the application of the Fourth Geneva Convention
of l2 August 1949 adopted by the XXIVth International Conference of the Red Cross
held at Manila in November 198l,
Bearing in mind that the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of
12 August 1949 must be fully applied in all circumstances to all persons who are
protected by those instruments, without any adverse distinction based on the nature
or origin of the armed conflict or on the causes espoused by or attributed to the
conflict,
Recognizing that the persistent failure of Israel to apply the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of
12 August 1949 10/ creates a situation fraught with danger,
Taking into account that States parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention of
12 August 1949 undertake, in accordance with article l thereof, not only to
respect but also to ensure respect for the Convention in all circumstances,
l. Expresses its @deep @oncer at the consequences of Israel's systematic
refusal to apply the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War of l2 August 1949 in all its provisions to Palestinian and
other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;
2. Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War is applicable to all the Arab territories occupied
by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
• Condemns the failure of Israel to ackowledge the applicability of that
Convention to the territories it has occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;
4. Calls upon Israel to abide by and respect the obligations arising from
the Charter of the United Nations and other instruments and rules of international
law, in particular the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, in Palestinian and other Arab
territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;
5. Urged once more all States parties to that Convention to exert all
efforts in order to ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions thereof
in all the Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
6. Requests the Secretary--General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the
international humanitarian organizations and non-governmental organizations.
10/ United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, No. 973, p. 287.
- 106 --
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
SESSION
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
UNITED NATIONS
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE THIRTY-EIGHTH SESSION
(1 February- 12 March 1982)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1982
SUPPLEMENT No. 2
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1982
E/1982/12
E/CN.4/1982/30
1982/2. Question of the violation of human rights in the
occupied Arab territories, including Palestine ll/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations
as well as by the principles of international law,
Gravely alarmed by Israel's behaviour in ignoring all the relevant resolutions
of the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Commission on Human Rights and
other international organs of the United Nations concerning the Arab territories
occupied by Israel and its persistent violations of human rights in those
Reaffirming that the acquisition of territories by force is inadmissible,
according to the Charter of the United Nations, the principles of international
law, and relevant Security Council resolutions,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 3314 (XXIX) of 14 December 1974,
which defined as an act of aggression the invasion or attack by the armed forces
of a State of the territory of another State, or any military occupation
resulting from such invasion or attack or any annexation by the use of force
of the territory of another State or part thereof,
Recalling Security Council resolution 497/1981 of 17 December 1981, in
which the Security Council decided that the Israeli decision to impose its laws,
jurisidiction and administration in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is null
and void and without international legal effect,
Recalling its resolution 1 (XXXVIl) of 11 February 198I by which the
Commission on Human Rights condemned the Israeli policies and practices of
annexing parts of the occupied Arab territories,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 36/226 B of 17 December 198I by which
the General Assembly reaffirmed once more the applicability of the Geneva.
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of
12 August 1949 12/ to the occupied Syrian territory,
Recalling General Assembly resolution ES-9/l of 5 February 1982 in which
the Assembly strongly deplored the negative vote by a permanent member of the
Security Council which prevented the Council from adopting against Israel, under
Chapter VII of the Charter, the "appropriate measures" referred to in
resolution 497 (l98l) unanimously adopted by the Council;
1. Resolutely condemns the Israeli decision, dated 14 December 1981,
annexing the Golan Syrian territory occupied since 196J, through the imposition
of its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the occupied territory?
11/ Adopted at the 17th-meeting on 11 February 1982, by a. roll-call vote
of 22 to 11, with 7 abstentions. See chap. II.
12/ United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, No. 973, p. 287.
- 107 -
1982/2. Question pf the violation pf human rights in the
occupied Arab territories,including Palestine 1/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations
as well as by the principles of international law,
Gravely_ alarmed by Israel's behaviour in ignoring all the relevant resolutions
of the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Commission on Human Rights and
other international organs of the United Nations concerning the Arab territories
occupied by Israel and its persistent violations of human rights in those
territories,
Reaffirming that the acquisition of territories by force is inadmissible,
according to the Charter of the United Nations, the principles of international
law, and relevant Security Council resolutions,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 33l4 (XXIX) of 14 December 1974,
which defined as an act of aggression the invasion or attack by the armed forces
of a State of the territory of another State, or any military occupation
resulting from such invasion or attack or any annexation by the use of force
of the territory of another State or part thereof,
Recalling Security Council resolution 497/198l of 17 December 1981, in
which the Security Council decided that the Israeli decision to impose its laws,
jurisidiction and administration in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is null
and void and without international legal effect,
Recalling its resolution l (XXXVII) of ll February 198l by which the
Commission on Human Rights condemned the Israeli policies and practices of
annexing parts of the occupied Arab territories,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 36/226 B of I7 December 1981 by which
the General Assembly reaffirmed once more the applicability of the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of
12 August 1949 12/ to the occupied Syrian territory,
Recalling General Assembly resolution ES--9/l of 5 February 1982 in which
the Assembly strongly deplored the negative vote by a permanent member of the
Security Council which prevented the Council from adopting against Israel, under
Chapter VII of the Charter, the "appropriate measures" referred to in
resolution 497 (1981) unanimously adopted by the Council;
l. Resolutely_ condemns the Israeli decision, dated l4 December 198l,
annexing the Golan Syrian territory occupied since l967, through the imposition
of its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the occupied territory;
ll/ Adopted at the l7th meeting on 1ll February 1982, by a roll-call vote
of 22 to ll, with 7 abstentions. See chap. II.
12/ United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, No. 973, p. 287.
- 107 2.
Declares that the Israeli decision is null and void and without any
international legal effect and demands that Israel, the occupying Power, rescind
its illegal and pernicious act 5
3. Determines that the persistent defiance by Israel of the resolutions
and authority of the United Nations and the systematic violations of human rights
in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine, constitute a continuing
threat to international peace and security;
4. Calls upon all Member States to apply against Israel the measures
referred to in paragraphs 11, 12, 13 and 15 of General Assembly resolution ES-9/l
of 5 February 1982.
1982/3. The right of peoples to self-determination and its
application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation 13/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 1514 (XV) of 14 December i960,
(XXIX) of (XXX) (XXX) of of 1981
and 36/226 of 17 December 1981,
further Economic and Social Council resolutions I865 (LVl) :
and 1866 (LVI) of 17 May 1974,
Reaffirming its resolutions 2 (XXXVIl) of 11 February 1981 and 14 (XXXVIl)
of 6 March 1981,
Bearing in mind the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable
Rights of the Palestinian People, 14/ and especially paragraphs 49 to 72 of that
report,
Reaffirming that the Palestinian people are entitled to self-determination in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other relevant United Nations
resolutions, and expressing its grave concern that the Palestinian people have been
prevented by force from enjoying their inalienable rights, in particular their
right to self-determination,
Expressing its grave concern that no just solution to the problem of Palestine
has been achieved and that this problem therefore continues to aggravate the
Middle East conflict, of which it is the core, and to endanger international peace
and security,
13/ Adopted at the 17th meeting on 11 February 1982, by a roll-call vote
of 24 to 8, with 10 abstentions. See chap. VII.
14/ Official Records of the General Assembly, Thirty-sixth Session.
Supplement No. 35 (A/36/35).
2. Declares that the Israeli decision is null and void and without any
international legal effect and demands that Israel, the occupying Power, rescind
its illegal and pernicious act;
, Determines that the persistent defiance by Israel of the resolutions
and authority of the United Nations and the systematic violations of human rights
in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine, constitute a continuing
threat to international peace and security;
4. Calls upon all Member States to apply against Israel the measures
referred to in paragraphs ll, 12, l5 and l5 of General Assembly resolution ES-9/l
of 5 February 1982.
1982/3. The right of peoples to self--determination and its
a lication to eo les under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation l
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions l514 (XV) of l4 December 1960,
3236 (XT) F 22 November 1974, 3375 (0Xx) and 3376 (XX.) or 10 November 1975,
32/14 o£ 7 November 1977, 32/20 of 25 November 1977, 32/40 of 2 December 1977,
32/42 of 7 December 1977, 33/28 of 7 December 1978, 34/65 of 29 November 1979,
ES.7/2 of 29 July 1980, 35/169 of 15 December 1980, 36/120 of 10 December 198l
and 36/226 of 17 December 1981,
Recalling further Economic and Social Council resolutions 1865 (LVI)
and 16G KV oF TT Kay 1974,
Reaffiring its resolutions 2 (XXXVII) of 11 February 198l and l4 (XXXVII)
of 6 Maroh 1981,
Bearing in mind the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable
Rights of the Palestinian People, l4/ and especially paragraphs 49 to 72 of that
report,
Reaffirming that the Palestinian people are entitled to self-determination in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other relevant United Nations
resolutions, and expressing its grave concern that the Palestinian people have been
prevented by force from enjoying their inalienable rights, in particular their
right to self--determination,
Expressing its grave poncern that no just solution to the problem of Palestine
has been achieved and that this problem therefore continues to aggravate the
Middle East conflict, of which it is the core, and to endanger international peace
and security,
l/ Adopted at the l7th meeting on ll February 1982, by a roll-call vote
of 24 to 8, with l0 abstentions. See chap. VII.
l4/ official Records of the General Assembly, Thirty-sixth Session,
Supplement [o. 35 36735).
- 108 -
E/1983/13
E/CN.4/1983/60
REPORT ON THE THIRTY-NINTH SESSION
(31 11 Match 1983)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1983
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
1983
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE THIRTY -NINTH SESSION
G1 January - 1f Marth 18.3)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1983
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
te b
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 198.
XXVII RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS ADOPTED BY TEL
COMMISSION AT ITS THIRTY-NINTH SFS3ION
1983/l Question of the violation of human rights m the
occupied Arab territories, including Palestine \J
1 2 /
The Commission on Human Rights^
Guided "by the purposes and principles of Charter of the United Nations as
well as the principles and provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
Also guided by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
Bearing m mind the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons m Time of War of 12 August 1949 and of other
relevant conventions and regulations,
Taking into consideration that the General Assembly has adopted
resolution 3314 (.XXIX) of 14 December 1974, which defined as an act of aggression
"the invasion or attack by armed forces of a State of the territory of another
State, or any military occupation, however temporary, resulting from such invasion
or attack, or any annexation by use of force of the of another State
or part thereof",
Recalling General Assembly resolutions ES-7/2 of 29 July I98O, 37/88 of
10 December 1982, 37/123 of 16/20 December 1982 and all relevant General Assembly
resolutions on Israeli violations of the human rights of the population of occpuied
Arab territories s
Recalling, in particular, Security Council resolutions 237 (1967) of
14 June I967, 465 (I98O) of 1 March I98O, 468 (198O) of 8 May I98O, 469 (I98O) of
20 May I98O, 471 (1980) of 5 June I98O, 476 (I98O) of 30 June I98O, 478 (I98O) of
20 August I98O and 484 (I98O) of 19 December I98O,
Taking note of the reports and resolutions of the International Labour
Organisation, the World Health Organization and the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization concerning the conditions of the population m
the Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories since I967, including Jerusalem,
Recalling its resolution I982/1 of 11 February 1982 on the "Question of the
violation of human rights m the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine",
and previous resolutions of the Commission on Human Rights on this subject,
l/ Adopted at the 22nd meeting, on 15 February 1983, by a roll-call vote
of 29 to 1, with 12 abstentions. See chap. II.
2/ Adopted at the 22nd meeting, on 15 February 1983S by a roll-call vote
of 29 to 1, uith 13 abstentions. See chap. II
XVII RELDION A DBCIIONS ADOTED SY 'IN
COMMISSION AT ITS 'HITT-MITH SF3S.I
$ eoluton
1963/ esto af the volston of ha r. t¢ An the
godpedlrs ferrorag, clung lestue/
z/
gudedb the purposes and priaoplen cf the carter of tbe luted lato as
all ts the proplea a0d pr0sons of th [ere Declarator of lloa gbte
Bea.rt A a the po18ohs of the tlev Convention elate to the
Protection f ien Perone Tue of Mar of l? #gut 1949 and of otbb
relevant conventions astd regulator,
snot goaderattoe that the eeral Assesbly hes %dotoil
resolion S Tu,TT Ea»ob-er 1974, »heh defoed ae an act of agree.o
the 1a8or attack by the ard forces of 0tate of the territory of snot.her
ts he, or sn altar 0oops1on, bowever topora., resulting Aro sh a$Loo
or attaok, or a al.eoaton by the ts of force of the territory of soother State
or part ther8af"
_-tie see_seouteos_po-/2_or p a1y 19e0, ±1/%e or Deemer 982, 37/123 0¢ 16/20 pecesb«er 1982 ant all relevant Geera.l Asveeably
resolutions on Israel volaton of th bra rghte of the poplatot of dopa
Arab terrtorea,
%k8 pt of th retorts d resolutions of the Intertatoa Labour
Orgatoga«foe, he Mo1d Mesi t Orgazaton and the bruted Matos Bleatoa,
Setfa¢ and Cultarad Osarzato oonaumg th condition of the pcpulaton
tha Fala tam al other oacupied lab territories Lee 1967, clang Jorusalee,
Roe1Abs resolution 1g2 of 11 r»brusry 1982 on the "queen of e
violation of bu.an A#ht% th o0cup1d A territories, ela.lg Pleet'
ad prnos resolutions of the Coatsaon on Ia ugh4 0 th bec,
L/ Adopted at the 22ad eetun8, on 1 February 1985, by a roll-call vote
of29 to1, th l? abetendons, See cha. II.
2 A@opted at the 22n setts, on l February 198, hr a roll-call vote
a e9 tel, uth 1 abstentions, See cbap. II
1l?
note of lie revolt of "the atiors of rumir rights u ile
LalPotiman and otler Arab t en oiieb pi ly Isiaei, held at Geneva
from 29 "fcvombcr to 3 "Oereiuber 1982, 3/
1 * Reaffirm'; the fact that occupation itself oor^ii utes a fundamental
violation of tho human rights of tne civilian populatior of the laic t m ? \ aid
otl er occupied Arab temtories
^ J^eite^ates ire alarm deeply expressed by the Special Coumittet. to
Investigate Israeli Pra ticcs Affecting the Human "Rights of the lopulTtnon of the
Occupied Territories m its reports submitted to the General Absently at its
thirty-fourth, 4/ thirty-fifth, 2/ thirty-sixth, 6/ and flirty seventh _/_/ session
thai Israel's policy m the occupied territories is based on the so-called
"Honeland" dor Irme whioh envisages a mono-religious (Jewish) State that includes
also territories occupied by Israel since June I967s and the affirmation by the
special Committee that this policy not only denie^ the right to self-dp-^rminatiori
of the population of the occupied territories but al°o constitutes the souice of
the continuing and systematic violation of human rights
3 Declares that Israel's continuous grave breaches of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons m fimc of Var of 12 August 1949 8_/
and of the Additional Protocols j j / to the Geneva Convpntions are war crimes and an
affront to humanity
I 11 mly rejects and reiterates its condemnation of Israel's decision to
annex Jerusalem and to change tho physical character, demographic ition,
institutional structure or status of the occupied territories, including trie
JToly city, and considers all these measures and their consequence- null and void
5 Strongly condemns Israeli policies and practices, administrative and
legislative measures to promote and expand the establishment of settler colonies
m the occupied territories as well as the following practices:
(a) l'he annexation of parts of the occupied territories, including Jerusalem
(b) Ph. continuing establishment of new Israeli settlements and expansion of
the existmg settlements on private and public Arab lands, and the transfer of an
alLen population thereto
(c) Ihe arming of settlers m the occupied territories to ommit acts of
violence against Aiab civilians, and the perpetration of acts of violence bj trese
armed settlers against individuals, causing injury and death and wide-scale damage
to Arab property
$J OT/HR/OER l/l/I
4/
5/ V3S/i2j
6/ A/36/632 and Add 1 and Add l/Corr 1
7/ A/3\ft85
&/ UPxted Nations, Treaty beries, vol 75, p 287
J,/ £/7j^/l4A, annexes I and I I
%41goto Li+ supst of the a0var a l%tor4 f le tilt fie
al«Es Near #rah ht01 4pf by Jut, he4 at Ger
fro 29 kvoater te "weber I8,
I, left th fat th 4gt2on 2t$4]f4rot $ fol.eet
el@to LW% as rgbt« of ta et pots of tee a
otl or spot la n11t041
etgt te alt# ply «pr.ad by th 9l Gel t
uv, Tat, ey two Aff«ts the Mun gh of th opt»o f
0cup e%or% 1 1t port. ubout«do th Corel A%bl $ 1t4
thortytouth, 4/ that£1fh, / thrty.rth, t/ d urty vet / »o
tbut rel% ply th ocipt rt bat au t .1f
H»Land" dire who.h ev1.is $oorel1go l) Sh% th$ med
lo rrot0 op04 by Isl n. Ju 1967, sot the ff0so0 b the
0oal Cotto th4 th poly not only did t rAgbt t Oder.tr
et the pop)tor o th 0uugpa tr1to bot al ottt t. 04 6f
l cunt1 ad ytat1 vol4ton of be At
belars tbat Ire1'e outrou rave ah of th 6era eve to.n
r6tat% Laton oft 61% Pero t of Ma.r or 12 act 194 g/
f the toad] Pt@cl 9/to th Gana 0oven0or war el
a±front to but,
4 'tgggte,egg'es_t.pong.see.tu9s_gt we den to nu Jae'TL TL,% e a1aI L, torte coo ton,
ottotoea truatue or tat of the 00pd terr1tor, plohe to
It1y tty, snd eondr all tr¢ %.} th2 com.qt neall al wot
tool'code ll pole and praetor, dot.rtv rd
legalatv cad t pro.sot$de0pa. th «t.Abt+hot f settle e0lo
Lh ope terr1to1 well a he follows pasta
(] le sex11 of part of th bacupod tone, melding hero.le
(b) t &onto tabla.ht of pee Israel ttle lap.0 0f
the #8n8 ottut. on pivot A pble Arb L.0l., d th t.4et ef
alwn population there
(e) ht rung of st/er th oopd tore t out ae 04
vol«use got A8.b 81v1an,ad th perptrton of et of vole b tl«
rod ttlera agent 1ndndal, 0og non n4et.h ad wheal de
to rt po09rt
{/ //an
4/ /34/61
/ //A2»
(/ A/6/62 a al anal A /cir l
2/ /34/+8
g/ 0mod Alton, et berg, vol 7,p 28]
' //4, snort' on 11
- n
f d) Jhe evacuation, depoitation, expulsion, displacement and transfer of Arab
mhabitarts of the occupied teiritories, and the denxal of their right to return
fe) The coniibcation and expropriation of Arab property m occupied
tecntoiies and all other transactions foi the acquisition »f land involving Israeli
aiLthoritnesf institutions or nationals on the one hand, and inhabitants or
11 _lj-tution_> of the occupied territories on the other,
(f) The destruction and demolition of Arab houses,
(0) Mas-s ariests, collective punishments, administrative detention and
ill-iicatmnt of the Arab population and the torture persons under detention;
and Lhe mhurran conditions in prisons
(h) Lhe nillagmg of archaeological and cultural prepert;
(1) the interference with religious freedoms and practices as /cell as with
firrily lights and customs
(0) The -y-tematic Israeli repression against cultural and educational
institutions, especially universities, m the occupied Palestinian territories,
closing them or restricting and impeding their academic activities by subjecting
selection courses, textbooks educational programmes, admission of students
and appointment of faculty members to control and supervision the military
authorities and "by the expulsion of numerous faculty members several
universities for refusing to sign statement^ containing positions, m
flagrant defiance and disregard their academic freedom,
(k) The illegal exploitation of the natural wealth, water and other resources
and the population of the occupied territories,
(1) The dismantlement of the municipal services by dismissing the elected
mayors a" well as the municipal councils and forbidding Arab aid funds,,
6 Calls upon Israel to take immediate steps for the return of the displaced
Arab inhabitants to their homes and property m Palestine and the other Arab
toiri tones occupied since June 196?
i Calls upon the Israeli authorities to implement forthwith Security Council
resolution 404 (1980) of 19 December I98O and previoub resolutions calling Tor the
immea.i_ate return of the expelled Mayors of Hebron and Halhoul so that can
resume the functions which they were elected and appointed,
8 Calls upon Israel to release all Arabs detained or imprisoned as a result
ol theLr struggle for ^elf-determination and for the liberation of their
terntories, and to accord them, pending their release, the protection envisaged
in relevant provisions the international instruments concerning the treatment
of -orisoners of car, and demands that Israel forth cith and
111—treatment Arab detainees prisoners,
Reiterates its call to all ^, m particular the States parties to
t f l
p
the Geneva <cnvention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons m Time of War,
in accordance with article 1 of that Convention, and to international organisations
and specialized agencies, not to recognize any changes carried out by Israel m the
o cupied te'1!! lories, including Jerusalem, and to avoid taking any action or
td) he evsoatoo, oatato tpolsuoo, lave.lest send treefer of Arab
ohabtsrta of the ooupied barho1,sod the deal of tbar raht to et
[e) he eollsaton sod eorato of Arab property n the oared
wee1oats ad all gtber castooa for the so91of aad1nvolong arel
athorites, nsttutooa or atonal on the one bead, ad babe or
t4tut1on othe ooobped tortores on tbe otber,
fl [he destruoto and domoton of nab bour,
) Mas.» a.1est, ooleatv poawbee, adtetratve dtent1oh and
llf stunt of the Arb popaion sad the torture of persona oder detention,
an the un.hara. pooltonae tn prions
] [be uteforanee wt elisious frodo sod pretie as ell st
fwy rights pd eusto
() fie yteat Ieael ropreeon ans cultural al «lueea toua.
Lt1tautos, epoosly uverstes, the ocuged Fales trap tetra,
loa tho or esir¢t and woad thee ado et1taos sobs
leto of eourea, teetbooks and educatona posse, also otdet
a ppoltavent of fsoult sober to the coo4rol sd aper.a0 of theta
occupation authoritiesndby tbe epalso at oeroe faculty bee of seal
weeste for rafaanng to %ts statement eoataints political pa1on,
flaarant gf'Lao ad of ther right to acadeu freedoe
i) [e 1llisal 0potato ot tbe natural wealth, vaster sod obe resourced
ad the popolaton of the ooooped terr1tor,
I) Ile dismantlement of the scpal tress b dot%lo4be elee let
yo a well a the ancpal ooele aodtorbddng Ab ad fans,
alls upon Larsel to take sedate tepa for the retu of tb aplaced
Aral nbab1taut% to t/er bootee and property Pao.the at th otheer rs.b
tortores oucuped cums hume 296
9},7Reho terson autorrites to let frtwth secote coco1
reeolaton ~ tl )of lbeebor 19 ad preLot re.goto aLug tart
moosle return of tbe spelled Mayors of lebrom sdaoel that they co
rene the fnotoo for wboh 4her ere elected ala90toad,
•••. NAE.EL.EL:EE:CT..a.as
owtires, ad to accord the, poodung ther roleame, the protection anesgel
n the 1elevat poisons of tbe ntemmatonal strut coooeroong tbe tree
04 0100rs 0f sat, ad des. tba le.rad cease fortbntb all acts of torture sd
Li.tgeateen$ of 4ab detaoeee and none#
[eieei(es ie call te all states, n ptoular the Stave perter to
the eneva aowentoo elatwe to tbe Potato of Lohan Persons of ll
oat u1th arole i of that Conver1on, sud to nteratonal orsaa.toe
ad pealed agenoes, not to reown2 a cha.gas aaoredouby Ionoel n tie
0up terlores, elude detosale, sate aodts8Los a, aco 0r
extending
any aid which might be u^ed by Israel m it<- pursuit of the policies of
annexation and colonization or any obher policies and practices referred lo m the
present resolution
10 Urges Israel to refrain irom the policies and practice violating human
rights in. the occupied territories, and to report, through the Secretary Generals
to the Commission at its fortieth session on the implementation of this resolution
11 Requests the General Assembly, through the Economic and Social ouncil,
to recommend to the Security Council the adoption against Israel of the measures
referred to m Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations for its persistence
m violating the human rights of the population the Palestinian and other
occupied territories
12 Bequests the Secretary-General to submit the report of the seminar on
violations of human rights m the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied
by Israel to the General Assembly at its thirty-eighth session and to draw its
attention particularly to tlit, conclusions, recommendations and appeal adopted by
the seminar
13 Renews its request to the Secretary-General to collect all relevant
information concerning detainees, suoh as their number, identity, place and
duration of detention, and to make this information available to the Commission at
its fortieth session
14 Bequests the Secretary-General to bring the present lesolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialised
agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations and the international
humanitarian organizations and to give it widest possible publicity, and to
report to the Commission on Human Rights at its fortieth session
15 lurther requests the Secretary-General to bring to the attention of the
Commission all United Nations reports appearing between sessions of the Commission
that deal with the situation of the population of those occupied territories
16 Decides to place on the provisional agenda of the fortieth session as a
matter of high priority the item entitled "Question of the violation of human rights
in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine"
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling i t s resolution I982/I B of 11 Tebruary 1982 and General Assembly
resolutions 309? A (X7VIII) of 7 December 1973, 32/91 A of 13 December 1977,
33/113 A 18 December 1978, 34/°0 B of 12 December 1979, 35/122 A 11 December I98O, 36/147 16 December I98I, and 37/88 A 10 December 1982,
Recalling Security Council resolutions 465 (I98O) of 1 March I98O, ^68 I98O)
8 May 1980, 469 (1980) of 20 May I98O, An (198O) of 5 June I98O, 476 (I98O) of
30 June I98C, ^78 (1980) of 20 August I98O and 48/1 (i960) of I9 December I98O,
10/ Adopted at the 22 d meeting on 15 February 1983, by a r o l l - c a l l vote of
39 to 1, irith 3 abstentions See chap II
- 115 -
acted .y ad whcih se.ht be Bed be Larael rt pureunt of the polee. ol
a0aeorator and ooloss.ton or ay other poles and practices referred L An the
present resolution
10 res loaoil to rafrsin roe tie poitoes and practice volatune hoc
ruhte tbe actprod terr1tones, and to epoat, though the Secrets oral,
te t/ L0tag0 at te fortieth aesslot the pleentato cf th reuolat0 ..sew±razz:rm.zrae. referred to a Lhate VII of tpa hatter of the (rited Mato for 2ts per%stet.
voling the baa rights f the population of the Pleetuan and other
o0oped Arab terr1toe
Be[_"he secretes-earl to seat the root et ee sonar on
w10ls@ot 0f rgit nn tb Pel0tat ii other hral ti0res cooped
by Irael to the General Asebly at Its thurtel@hth etso sol to drew ts
attention partoalarly to the oocla1oa, roooeodatone sod4ppeal adopted b
the sen.a.
1 encore_tgrest to the Sacetar.en6talto collect all rulevaat
nfora to coos8 deta16, sch sa the nuabee, identity,la.e al
drataoh of letenton, and to make th dons ton available te the iaoa
ta fortieth aes1on ..L...:EE'EE±zzz2a::.. 8@600026, the egooat [email protected] sod tbe tenational
isaotarah or@11st004 al toge rt the widest poesbl pubhot, ad to
fort to the Goat.a1ob on la gtsat ta fortieth eon
iutber reqsets the Secretary@neral to brig t the stet0 of th
Gao. EI CE.TL£os rsport appearng between esaons of the Cooson
that deal with the tuat1or of be population of those 0eaped atree
6 Dedes t page on the provisional sgends of the fortieth esaon At
utter or priority the to entitled guest1on of tie volte of bu rgte
th oopied Arab tetoree, eluding Faleetoe"
eosllig te resolution 19gt/1 of 11 February 1982 sod Cervera Ave«by
resort1ois 02 A (XVIII) of 7 December 1973, 32/91 A of 1 Decober 1977,
35/15 % of 18 December 1978, A/o of 12 boceber 1979, /22 A of
l Decambar 980, 36/147 of 16 bomber 1981, a.al 37/03 A of 0 Dec.aebec 198.2,
eoalng Secunty tounel resolution 465 (1900) of I Mee 1900, 468 (1900)
of TO,"469 (1980) sf 20 My 190, A71 41980) or 5 e 1900, 416 (1980) of
30 Ju0. 1980, +7 (990) a£ 20 August 1980 a.al 48 (980) a£ 19 pecebe 1980,
1o/ Adopted at tb 2? d meeng oi 1 Petry I983,by a roll-al
39 7nth3 abctentons See chap II
115 Recalling
resolution lit on the. application of the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian 1 ersons in Time of War of 12 August 1949 adopted by
the Twenty-fourth International Conference of the Red Cross held at Manila m
November I98I,
Bearing in mind that the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949
must he fully applied m all circumstances to all persons who are protected "by those
instruments, without any adverse distinction based on the nature or origin of the
armed conflict or on the causes espoused by or attributed to the conflict,
Recognizing that the persistent failure of Israel to apply the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons m Time of War creates
a situation fraught dangei,
Taking into account that States parties to the fourth Geneva Convention of
12 August 1949 undertake, m accordance with article 1 thereof, not only to respect
but also to ensure respect for the Convention m all circumstances,
1, Expiesses^it^ deep concern at bhe consequence of Israel's systematic
refusal to~~apply the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons m Time of War of 12 August 1949 l n all its provisions to Palestinian and
other Arab territories occupied since 19^7, including Jerusalem
2 Beaffirms that the Geneva Convention re]ative to the Protection of
ivilian Persons m Time of War F applicable to all the Arab territories occupied
by Israel since 1S6"J} including Jerusalem
3 Condemn1- the failure of Israel to acknowledge the applicability of that
Convention to the territories it has occupied since 19^7) including Jerusalem,
4 Calls upon Israel to abide by and respect the obligations arising from
the charter of the united Nations and other instruments and rules of international
law, in particular the provisions the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons m Time of War, m Palestinian and other Arab
territories occupied since 1°67, including Jerusalem
5 Urges once more all States parties to that Convention to exert all efforts
m order to ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions thereof m all the
Arab territories occupied by Israel since I967, including Jerusalem,
6 Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized
agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the international
humanitarian organizations and non-governmental organi ations
1^83/2 Question, of the violation of human rights in the
occupied Arab territories, including Palestine II/
Havmp examined the situation m the occupied Arab territories, including
Palestine and the occupied Syrian Gclan Heights,
11/ Adopted at the 22nd meeting, on 15 February 1983, by a roll-call vote of
27 to 2, with 13 abstention- bee chap II
eel\o rsolutdn IIt on th apt of th 0v Covet.oi rut.v
o t¢ Pot&eon of Cul .so a fa 6 llr o ? As$ I949 dpt by
th lean-fourth Intra opal onf'eron of th hod Gros bald at Ml
ovte 1901,
good that tb prov. of tb Gerv "onrvetc of 1? Au. 19493
uet Lr1f ppiied n all oret to Al pron vto are potted y th
strut, soi.hots frv.arr dietetoi bdoe ti • one erg of th
armed oonflai oe on tbe aaos »pot18 o «tt0tad t th coafe,
eees.hat the pareteat flare st ml to sly the ov
vet fl to th Proteton of Coln Pero An fl a Mr are«
«taton fraught with da8
outsout that State parties to the f'oath eov no of
2 #ct[uluaIataa, osorde nth rtell thereof, net on fret
but 3lo to tr¢ rap«t for tb (opvto an al 4ire ta,
..d; .A Ee?R..L.EE:.':ZEE «rwoo A of Mar of 2 Agut 49 An al ts prov.om. to alto a04
othanr Arah irrtors o4pd 004 I96, ncdne hrs.
Raff1rd tht the 0news Coveto r«]t1vet¢ th Poteet0 of
vu rue.LS-TM of lr pploable to al the Arab» terr±tor ope
y Israel «no 196/, nel4 Jnrlo
Set, fore at trl to +aooze_the ptveat of that
oavto tarn1tore it bot oopd bee 197, c Ide Merl,
.4..2A...LE ZIEL; ZEE::: la0, part4our t pooh. of th en.eve. o.et04lbw te tie
Pert1o of Lila fro t fr, n Pat al othr Arb
ten1tort oc0pol see 167, m Idng Jerald
Ire one sre all Stat pre4 t tbat onoon to rt all effort
n or6r t¢tr¢ r%et for ad coal it.ht pr0w1. tref th
Arab tto 00pd by I«l 1967, plhng 4el.,
6 IR'he Seoretr-Geer to braes the pre«at rotor to attest0n 6l wrneent«, the cot«at ttd Maio organ., th p-zed
48co., th rota it4overt] rg.at4o, th Lr.at10T
ht 0gt%t40 l 00goer.et.4l 0.81 ti0..
gton gt tolton. gt.gee Ehtg t
EE#FI IF EOE,EWE .NE.. 1/
Aehe guAg.gg RA±,
11/ Adopted at th 22l t, e 1 February 198, ty roll+all t of
27to,tbl «buttoner b tbsp IT
E/1983/13
E/CN.4/1983/60
REPORT ON THE THIRTY-NINTH SESSION
(31 11 Match 1983)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1983
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
1983
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE THIRTY -NINTH SESSION
G1 January - 1f Marth 18.3)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1983
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
te b
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 198.
Recalling resolution lit on the. application of the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian 1 ersons in Time of War of 12 August 1949 adopted by
the Twenty-fourth International Conference of the Red Cross held at Manila m
November I98I,
Bearing in mind that the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949
must he fully applied m all circumstances to all persons who are protected "by those
instruments, without any adverse distinction based on the nature or origin of the
armed conflict or on the causes espoused by or attributed to the conflict,
Recognizing that the persistent failure of Israel to apply the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons m Time of War creates
a situation fraught dangei,
Taking into account that States parties to the fourth Geneva Convention of
12 August 1949 undertake, m accordance with article 1 thereof, not only to respect
but also to ensure respect for the Convention m all circumstances,
1, Expiesses^it^ deep concern at bhe consequence of Israel's systematic
refusal to~~apply the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons m Time of War of 12 August 1949 l n all its provisions to Palestinian and
other Arab territories occupied since 19^7, including Jerusalem
2 Beaffirms that the Geneva Convention re]ative to the Protection of
ivilian Persons m Time of War F applicable to all the Arab territories occupied
by Israel since 1S6"J} including Jerusalem
3 Condemn1- the failure of Israel to acknowledge the applicability of that
Convention to the territories it has occupied since 19^7) including Jerusalem,
4 Calls upon Israel to abide by and respect the obligations arising from
the charter of the united Nations and other instruments and rules of international
law, in particular the provisions the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons m Time of War, m Palestinian and other Arab
territories occupied since 1°67, including Jerusalem
5 Urges once more all States parties to that Convention to exert all efforts
m order to ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions thereof m all the
Arab territories occupied by Israel since I967, including Jerusalem,
6 Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized
agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the international
humanitarian organizations and non-governmental organi ations
1^83/2 Question, of the violation of human rights in the
occupied Arab territories, including Palestine II/
Havmp examined the situation m the occupied Arab territories, including
Palestine and the occupied Syrian Gclan Heights,
11/ Adopted at the 22nd meeting, on 15 February 1983, by a roll-call vote of
27 to 2, with 13 abstention- bee chap II
eel\o rsolutdn IIt on th apt of th 0v Covet.oi rut.v
o t¢ Pot&eon of Cul .so a fa 6 llr o ? As$ I949 dpt by
th lean-fourth Intra opal onf'eron of th hod Gros bald at Ml
ovte 1901,
good that tb prov. of tb Gerv "onrvetc of 1? Au. 19493
uet Lr1f ppiied n all oret to Al pron vto are potted y th
strut, soi.hots frv.arr dietetoi bdoe ti • one erg of th
armed oonflai oe on tbe aaos »pot18 o «tt0tad t th coafe,
eees.hat the pareteat flare st ml to sly the ov
vet fl to th Proteton of Coln Pero An fl a Mr are«
«taton fraught with da8
outsout that State parties to the f'oath eov no of
2 #ct[uluaIataa, osorde nth rtell thereof, net on fret
but 3lo to tr¢ rap«t for tb (opvto an al 4ire ta,
..d; .A Ee?R..L.EE:.':ZEE «rwoo A of Mar of 2 Agut 49 An al ts prov.om. to alto a04
othanr Arah irrtors o4pd 004 I96, ncdne hrs.
Raff1rd tht the 0news Coveto r«]t1vet¢ th Poteet0 of
vu rue.LS-TM of lr pploable to al the Arab» terr±tor ope
y Israel «no 196/, nel4 Jnrlo
Set, fore at trl to +aooze_the ptveat of that
oavto tarn1tore it bot oopd bee 197, c Ide Merl,
.4..2A...LE ZIEL; ZEE::: la0, part4our t pooh. of th en.eve. o.et04lbw te tie
Pert1o of Lila fro t fr, n Pat al othr Arb
ten1tort oc0pol see 167, m Idng Jerald
Ire one sre all Stat pre4 t tbat onoon to rt all effort
n or6r t¢tr¢ r%et for ad coal it.ht pr0w1. tref th
Arab tto 00pd by I«l 1967, plhng 4el.,
6 IR'he Seoretr-Geer to braes the pre«at rotor to attest0n 6l wrneent«, the cot«at ttd Maio organ., th p-zed
48co., th rota it4overt] rg.at4o, th Lr.at10T
ht 0gt%t40 l 00goer.et.4l 0.81 ti0..
gton gt tolton. gt.gee Ehtg t
EE#FI IF EOE,EWE .NE.. 1/
Aehe guAg.gg RA±,
11/ Adopted at th 22l t, e 1 February 198, ty roll+all t of
27to,tbl «buttoner b tbsp IT
Recallinp J 96^7 1982,
Takiiv_ > _ of I he report of tho Special Committee to Investigate Israeli
Practices A± < ctmg the Huwan Rights of the Population of the Occupied
Territories, l'2J
Gravely alarmed "by Israel's behaviour in systematically ignoring all ie3evant
resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Commission on Human
Rights and other organs of the United Nations concerning the Arab territories
occupied by Israel and its persistent violations of human rights in those
territories,
Reaffirming that the acquisition of territories by force is inadmissible under
the Charter of the United Nations, the principles of international law and relevant
United Nations resolutionsf
Recalling General Assembly resolution 3314 (XXIX) of 14 December 1974, m which
the Assembly defined an act of aggression, inter alia, as "the invasion or attack
armed forces of a State of the territory of another State, any military
occupation, however temporary, resulting from such invasion or attack, or any
annexation by the use of force of the of another State or part thereof"
and thtt "no consideration whatever nature, whether economic,
military or otherwise, may serve as a justification for aggression",
Recalling Security Council resolution 497 (1981) of 17 December 198I and
General Assembly resolutions 36/226 B of 17 December I98I, ES-p/l of 5 February 19f)>2
and 37/123 A of 16 December 1982,
Reaffirming once more the applicability of the Geneva Convention relative •<
the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949 to the occu '
Palestinian and other Arab territories, including the occupied Syrian Golan Heig
Gravely alarmed the inhuman treatment imposed by the occupying Israeli
authorities on the Syrian population of the Golan Heights and noting that "The
continued protests [by the Syrian population] led to a vave of arrests, dismissals
and a rupture in communications and., on 25 February 1982, a blockade was imposed
on the villages .., the population was even prevented from obtaining medical aid
outside the area", 13/
1. Resolutely condemns Israel for its failure to comply with Security Council
resolution 497 (I98IJ and General Assembly resolutions 36/226 B, ES-9/l and
37/123 A;
2. Declares once more that Israel's decision of 14 December I98I to impose
its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the occupied Syrian Golan Heights
constitutes an act of aggression under the provisions of Article 39 of the Charter
of the United Nations General Assembly resolution 3314 (XKJX);
3. Declares once more that Israel's decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction
and administration on the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is null and void and has no
legal validity and/or effect;
12/ A/3 I/A 85.
13/ Ibid., par 43.
- 11? •
cu1lite r vat, se loco 1,
.re of ire tepwt o tb Sil (¢ditto to vets IL/a)
Pr%tL..""Tl d the ua it-t oft the Population of tb Oootd
Terr»tor1», ±h
wslalry oral' bhavoe in ettioally goon s relevant
re6Lau 6FE ea&urity Couse1, the Gerl A.by, t Coton on so
Right and otbr orb f the Ii td Jationn oarmg th Arab tori.
ocuAd by errs.l and it piesitet violation of htan rhts in tho
trtor1,
effirst that th qi1to f t«tori by force niaihle odn
e are! t 0oitd tattome, the prop of tart.tu law ad rt«vat
Uhri toed ation olt1on,
Eeell doors.t Aocby rs.out.on 3314 (0XL) of 4 cover 1974, a vht.ah
tho Ably de/nod a t of sgg8to, inter els, a "the invasion or attaol
by the art fore of a tat of he tr1 ~hr Stat, or y milter
o0patio, bowear toany, retie fro ooh invasion or atook, or gr
anneor ton by th ro of foroe of tbe territory of soother Stets or part thereof"
d provided th t "e nine8ion of whatever attar«, wht political, 0nose,
all1toy or othawle, y serve ts wtifcto for g~r%ton",
Reos4ling Seerity on1 resolat4on 497 019081) of 7 posher 1981 nd
de dbl rattan 36/2e6 «f 17 Dueber 1901, -9/l r' fury 19
at 37/1$ A of 16 lcbn I90.2,
efirstooge tr the applicability of tho Gov Covanion rltve'
he r6LG St 1RN,Thu Prone An of War of Ast 1949 t¢ th 00o
Plott.an ad other Arab tr1tori, Lung tho be¢pd tnrLan Golan He
rvlealsrsd by th nhn tretort tapod by the copy Ira±
ea1Ela d Sven population of the @ola lletghta sod noting tt r
contunod prott [by the yis poplston] led ts ave of rrout, dish,
.od a rapture in coolaatos and, o 2' February 1982, a bloclad va pod
on th villa4 , he population w wen prevented from 0bing al ad
outetde th area, 1/
• [eluted codes Ira for it failure to copy st Seuritr oool
re9l%"7377TTL7Kerl A@eby role1om 36/26 , Ee-9/ at
1/12 A
P, Dool. one«or tbat [awl'« dciion of 14 Dcbr I9l to in
te law, JaLaaLELa taimtrton on tho scoped Syrian Goen Heights
coatituts an hgt of s@gr4i0 ur th provision of Art0l9of th tbart.r
the btd Mt.ions and err1 Ably rel0ton 514 (841)%
Dl«one«sees that ral'a dee$oton to fagoae its , 3r1014o
wot dab,ILG TL% 60spied Syrian Gola Me.gtt A mu an vof and hw no
gel aid1tr sod/or effect
&/ 01/483
/ fa,, pr. 4
4. Reaffirms its deteimination all provisions of the Hague Convention
of and the~Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons m
Time Jar of 12. August I949 14/ continue to apply to the Syrian territory occupied
•by I-rael since I967, ana calls upon parties thereto to respect their obligations
under these instruments in all circumstances,
5 Determines once more that continued occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights
since 1967 and its effective annexation "by Israel on 14 December I98I, as well as
the inhuman treatment of the Syrian population, constitute a grave violation of the
Universal Declaration of Human Eights, the Geneva Convention and the relevant
United Nations resolutions,
6 Strongly deplores the negative vote of a permanent member of the Security
Council which prevented the Council from adopting against Israel, under chapter VII
of the Charter of the United Nations, the 'appropriate measures" referred to m
resolution 497 (198I), adopted unanimously by the Security Council
7 Calls upon Israel, the occupying Power, to rescind forthwith its decision
of 14 December I98I to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the
oyrian Golan Heights, and firmly emphasizes the overriding necessity of the total
and unconditional withdrawal "by Israel from all Palestinian and Syrian territories
occupied since 1967? including Jerusalem, which is an essential prerequisite for
the establishment of a comprehensive and just peace m the Middle East,
8 Decides to place on the provisional agenda of its fortieth session as a
matter of high priority the item entitled "Question of the violation of human
rights m the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine",
I983/5 The right of peoples to self-determination ard its
application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation 15/
The Commission on Human Eights,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 181 (il) of 29 November 1947, 1% (ill)
of 11 December I948, 1514 (XV) of 14 December i960, 3236 (XXIX) of 22 November I974,
3375 (XXX) and 3376 (XXX) of 10 November 1975, 32/14 of 7 November 1977,
32/20 of 25 November 1977, 32/40 of 2 December 1^77, 32/42 7 December 1977,
33/28 of 7 December 1978, 34/65 29 November I979, ES-7/2 29 I98O,
35/169 of 15 December I98O, 36/120 10 December 1981, 36/226 of 17 December I9.8I,
FS-//of 2A September 1982 and 86" of 20 December Recalling further Economic and Social Council resolutions I865 (LVl) and
1866 TjLVI) of 17 fey 1°74,
Reaffirming its resolution 1982/3 of 11 February 1982,
14/ United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, p 287
15/ Adopted at the 22nd meeting, on 15 February 1983, by a roll-call vote
of 26to 7, with 10 abstentions See ohap VII
• esffnrmss ts deter oh that l groom of the le. Loera
of 1907 a. ie Geneva Coca£on elatve to the rot@ton of Cran Per0on% A
Time of her o' Angst 1949 14/ contra to apply to the nria ter1toy 0couped
by Dr.el nee 2967, a ale apon parte thereto to respect tier alga to
abler the struenta n all c1roast4e,
s eteraaone sore tht coted oaega.ton g ta nu GoLa le.ght
1967u rig fbse anmsoston by Israel o 14 leer 19%01, vells
th titan tea.tact of the sin popaatop, oetauted@sva nrolatrot of the
veal.l DoeLaton of floe. ghte, the era overt.oh a.I t.be el«vat
ht Katona roaoluto.is
6 pro delis the negatve vote of s permanent sober of the eonnty
Corn vhh preve EE tourel fro adopts mganat Israel, moder oboptar YI
of the thaster sf the luted Moton, the ppr0prated.era" referred t
rerolton 497 (191], atoped uamouly by the eotrtyr ucol
Calls upon arael, the coopyg Fower, to read fortisth t darson
of l446a&1aaq.r ta oe te laws, tisdetorn ad a.rust.rot.on om the
0yr1. Gau le1ght, ad feely eapbases tbe overridg necessty of the total
and uncottotal withdrawal by lensed rot a Paa fan dcnl Sy1%. tarr1t012$
coped ernde 96}, clad Jeruse.lee, woh e an eetLsl prer«gt for
t eta.bl1shunt of s coitggrehen.give sand at peace t th MMe East,
8 Doe1des to place on the pron$oral agenda of ts fotth @es.so a a
eta £ EEu ity the to entitled "Questaon of t olato of hrs
tight. a the oped Arab tertore, 1edge Falee",
1983/ fhe rgt of eopleeto al£determpgtrpnardta
gafon topaoples tsr go'oalo gr
I%Et7 % rG.Gia.ecipa~, 7
heels General Asel reoltona 18 (I) of 29 weber 1947, 294 (III)
of I @er 1948, 114 (Iv) 0f 14 Po.her 1960 3a6 6II) of 22 Move er 1974,
375 000) and 3376 000X) 10 Mvsaber 1975, 32A4 r #veter 1977,
32/20 0£ 25 No@b 1977, 32/40 a 2 prober 1977, 38/42 of 7 Deceaber 197,
3/8 or T Dueber 1978, 34,/65 of 29 ovob»e«er 1979, S--7/2 of 29 July I900,
35/169 0£ 1 Deeb«enr 190, 36h20 of 10 eaber 1381, 36/226 a£ 7 Deeb er 1981,
FSt/9 r « Soptaler 1982 at 37/06 10/20 pc saber 1982,
open_frtbe boonosas sad Soa Comae1l rolton. 1865 (LI) a.rd la66 ZIT 6r TT 714,
ls!farts resolution 1982/ a 11 February 1982,
U4/ luted Matos, frosty Sere, vol, 75, 28
15/ Aoptad at the 22nd aeetan8, on 1 February 190, by a roll-cal vote
Gr 6t ,1oubstetrone See cbas TT
18COMMISSION
ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTIETH SESSION
(6 February-16 March 1984)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1984
SUPPLEMENT No. 4
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1984
E/1984/14
E/CN.4/1984/77
II. RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE
COMMISSION AT ITS FORTIETH SESSION
A. Resolutions
1984/1. Question of the violation of human rights in the
occupied Arab territories, including Palestine
A 1/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations
as well as the principles and provisions of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights,
Also guided by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights,
Bearing_in mind the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, 2l and of other
relevant conventions and regulations,
Taking into consideration that the General Assembly has adopted
resolution 33l4 (XXIX) of 14 December 1974, which defined as an act of
aggression "the invasion or attack by the armed forces of a State of the territory
of another State, or any military occupation, however temporary, resulting from
such invasion or attack, or any annexation by the use of force of the territory
of another State or part thereof",
Recalling General Assembly resolutions ES-7/2 of 29 July 1980, 37/88 A to G
of 10 December 1982, 37/123 A to F of 16 and 20 December 1982, 38/58 A to E
of 15 December 1983 and 38/79 A to H of 15 December 1983, and all other relevant
General Assembly resolutions on Israeli violations of the human rights of the
population of occupied Arab territories,
Recalling, in particular, Security Council resolutions 237 (1967) of
14 June i97, 465 (1980) of 1 March 1980, 468 (1980) o£ 8 May 1980, 469 (1980)
of 20 May 1980, 471 (1980) of 5 June 1980, 476 (1980) of 30 June 1980, 478 (1980)
of 20 August 1980 and 484 (1980) of 19 December 1980,
Taking_note of the reports and resolutions of the International Labour
Organisation, the World Health Organization and the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization as well as the report of the seminar on
violations of human rights in the Palestinian and other Arab territories
occupied by Israel, held at Geneva from 29 November to December 1982, 3/ the
Geneva Declaration adopted by the International Conference on the Question of'
Palestine held at Geneva from 29 August to 7 September 1983, 4/ and the reports
of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human
Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories,
1/ Adopted at the 19th meeting, on 20 February 1984, by 29 votes to l,
with il abstentions. See chap. IV.
2/ United Nations, Treaty_ Series, vol. 75, No. 973, p. 287.
/ ST/HR/SER.A/14.
4! Report of the International Conference on the Question pf Palestine,
Geneva, 29 _August-T September j58 (vited N~tions publication, Sales No. E.83.1.21),
part one, chap. I, sect. A.
- 18 Recalling
the International Committee of the Red Cross press release No. 1478
of l December 1983 on Israeli violations of the agreement for the exchange of
prisoners between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel which involved
the retaining of prisoners and detainees whose release was provided for in the
agreement,
Recalling its resolutions 1982/1 A and B of 1ll February 1982 and 1983/1 A and B
and 198T? of 15 February 1983 on the "Question of the violation of.human rights
in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine", and previous resolutions
of the Commission on Human Rights on this subject,
l. Reaffirms the fact that occupation itself constitutes a fundamental
violation of the human rights of the civilian population of the Palestinian and
other occupied Arab territories;
2. Denounces the continued refusal of Israel to allow the Special Committee
to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population
of the Occupied Territories access to the occupied territories;
• Reiterates the deep alarm expressed by the Special Committee in its
reports submitted to the General Assembly at its thirty-fourth, 5/ thirty-fifth, [/
thirty-sixth, 7/ thirty-seventh 8/ and thirty-eighth 9/ sessions that Israel's
policy in the occupied territories is based on the so-called "Homeland" doctrine
which envisages a monoreligious (Jewish) State that includes territories
occupied by Israel since June 1967, and the affirmation by the Special Committee
that this policy not only denies the right to self-determination of the
population of the occupied territories but also constitutes the source of the
continuing and systematic violation of human rights;
4. Confirms its declaration that Israel's continuous grave breaches of
the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time
of War of l2 August 1949 and of the Additional Protocols 10/ to the Geneva
Conventions are war crimes and an affront to humanity;
5. Firmly rejects and reiterates its condemnation of Israel's decision
to annex Jerusalem and to change the physical character, demographic composition,
institutional structure or status of the occupied territories, including the
Holy City, and considers all these measures and their consequences null and void;
6. Strongly_condemns Israel's attempts to subject the West Bank and
the Gaza Strip to Israeli laws;
7. Strongly_condemns Israeli policies and practices, administrative
and legislative measures to promote and expand the establishment of settler
colonies in the occupied territories as well as the following practices:
(a) The annexation of parts of the occupied territories, including Jerusalem;
(b) The continuing establishment of new Israeli settlements and expansion
of the existing settlements on private and public Arab lands, and the transfer
of an alien population thereto;
5/ A/34/631.
6/ A/35/425.
]! A/36/632 and Add.l and Add.l/Corr.l
8/ A/37/485.
9/ A/38/409.
10/ International Committee of the Red Cross, Protocols additional to the
Geneva conventions of 12 August 1949 (Geneva, 1977).
- 19 (
c) The arming of settlers in the occupied territories to commit acts
of violence against Arab civilians, and the perpetration of acts of violence
by these armed settlers against individuals, causing injury and death and
wide-scale damage to Arab property;
(d) The arming of settlers in the occupied territories to strike at Muslim
and Christian religious and holy places;
(e) The evacuation, deportation, expulsion, displacement and transfer of
Arab inhabitants of the occupied territories, and the denial of their right to
return;
(f) The confiscation and expropriation of Arab property in the occupied
territories and all other transactions for the acquisition of land involving
Israeli authorities, institutions or nationals on the one hand, and inhabitants
or institutions of the occupied territories on the other;
(g) The destruction and demolition of Arab houses;
(h) Mass arrests, collective punishments, administrative detention and
ill-treatment of the Arab population, the torture of persons under detention
and the inhuman conditions in prisons;
(1) The pillaging of archaeological and cultural property;
() The interference with religious freedoms and practices as well as
with family rights and customs;
(k) The systematic Israeli repression against cultural and educational
institutions, especially universities, in the occupied Palestinian territories,
closing them or restricting and impeding their academic activities by subjecting
selection of courses, textbooks and educational programmes, admission of
students and appointment of faculty members to the control and supervision of
the military occupation authorities and by the expulsion of numerous faculty
members of several universities for refusing to sign statements containing
political positions, in flagrant defiance and disregard of their right to
academic freedom;
(1) The illegal exploitation of the natural wealth, water and other
resources and the population of the occupied territories;
(m) The dismantling of municipal services of dismissing the elected mayors
as well as the municipal councils and forbidding Arab aid funds;
8. Calls upon Israel to take immediate steps for the return of the
displaced Arab inhabitants to their homes and property in Palestine and the
other Arab territories occupied since June 1967;
9. Calls upon the Israeli authorities to implement forthwith
Security Council resolution 484 (1980) of 19 December 1980 and previous
resolutions calling for the immediate return of the municipal chiefs to their
municipalities so that they can resume the functions for which they were elected;
10. Calls upon Israel to release all Arabs detained or imprisoned as a
result of their struggle for self-determination and for the liberation of their
territories, and, pending their release, to accord them the protection envisaged
in the relevant provisions of the international instruments concerning the
treatment of prisoners of war, and demands that Israel cease forthwith all acts
of torture and ill-treatment of Arab detainees and prisoners;
- 20 11.
Condemns Israel for its continued detention of Ziad Abu Ain, and
calls on Israel to implement fully the agreement on the exchange of prisoners
with the Palestine Liberation Organization concluded with the International
Committee of the Red Cross in November 1983; and further calls on Israel to
release Ziad Abu Ain and others whom it continues to detain and who were in
Ansar Camp, which must be closed under the provisions of the above-mentioned
agreement;
12. Reiterates its call to all States, in particular the States parties
to the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time
of War, in accordance with article l of that Convention, and to international
organizations and specialized agencies, not to recognize any changes carried
out by Israel in the occupied territories, including Jerusalem, and to avoid
taking any action or extending any aid which might be used by Israel in its
pursuit of the policies of annexation and colonization or any other policies
and practices referred to in the present resolution;
l5. Urges Israel to refrain from the policies and practices violating
human rights in the occupied territories, and to report, through the
Secretary-General, to the Commission at its forty-first session on the
implementation of this resolution;
14. Requests the General Assembly, through the Economic and Social Council,
to recommend to the Security Council the adoption against Israel of the measures
referred to in Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations for its
persistent violation of the human rights of the population of the Palestinian
and other occupied Arab territories;
15. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations and the
international humanitarian organizations and to give it the widest possible
publicity, and to report to the Commission on Human Rights at its
forty-first session;
16. Further requests the Secretary-General to bring to the attention
of the Commission all United Nations reports appearing between sessions of
the Commission that deal with the situation of the population of those occupied
territories;
17. Decides to place on the provisional agenda of the forty-first session
as a matter of high priority the item entitled "Question of the violation
of human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine".
8 11/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling its resolutions 1982/1 B of 1l February 1982 and .1982/1 B of
15 February 1983 and General Assembly resolutions 3092 A (XXVIII) of
7 December 1973, 32/91 A of 13 December 1977, 33/115 A of 18 December 1978,
34/90 B of 12 December 1979, 35/122 A of 1l December 1980, 36/147 A of
16 December 1981, 37/88 of 10 December 1982 and 38/79 B of 15 December 1983,
l1/ Adopted at the l9th meeting, on 20 February 1984, by 32 votes to l,
with S abstentions. See chap. IV.
- 21 -
Recalling Security Council resolutions 465 (1980) of 1 March 1980,
468 (1980) or 8 May 1980, 469 (1980) of 20 May 1980, 471 (1980) of 5 June 1980,
476 (1980) of 30 June 1980, 478 (1980) of 20 August 1980 and 484 (1980)
of 19 December 1980,
Recalling resolution III on the application of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of l2 August 1949
adopted by the Twenty-fourth International Conference of the Red Cross held
at Manila in November 198l,
Bearing in mind that the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of
12 August 1949 must be fully applied in all circumstances to all persons who
are protected by those instruments, without any adverse distinction based on the
nature or origin of the armed conflict or on the causes espoused by or attributed
to the conflict,
Recognizing that the persistent failure of Israel to apply the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War
creates a situation fraught with danger, and considering that it persists in
violating human rights,
Taking into account that States parties to the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War undertake, in accordance
with article l thereof, not only to respect but also to ensure respect for the
Convention in all circumstances,
l. Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War is applicable to all the Arab territories
occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
2. Expresses its deep concern at the consequence of Israel's systematic
refusal to apply that Convention in all its provisions to Palestinian and other
Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;
• Condemns the failure of Israel to acknowledge the applicability of
that Convention to the territories it has occupied since 1967, including
Jerusalem;
4. Calls upon Israel to abide by and respect the obligations arising
from the Charter of the United Nations and other instruments and rules of
international law, in particular the provisions of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, in Palestinian
and other Arab territories occupied since 196], including Jerusalem; requests
Israel to release all Arabs detained or imprisoned as a result of their struggle
for self-determination and the liberation of their territories and to accord
them, pending their release, the protection envisaged in the relevant provisions
of the international instruments concerning the treatment of prisoners of war;
and demands that Israel cease forthwith all acts of torture and ill-treatment
of Arab detainees and prisoners;
5. Urges once more all States parties to that Convention to make every
effort to ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions thereof in all
the Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the
international humanitarian organizations and non-governmental organizations,
and to submit a report on progress in its implementation to the Commission on
Human Rights at its forty-first session.
- 22 -
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTIETH SESSION
(6 February-16 March 1984)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1984
SUPPLEMENT No. 4
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1984
E/1984/14
E/CN.4/1984/77
1984/2. Question of the violation of human rights in the occupied
Arab territories, including Palestine 12/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Having examined the ever deteriorating situation in the occupied Arab
territories, including Palestine and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights,
Recalling its resolution 1983/2 of 15 February 1983.
Taking note of the report of the Special Committee of Experts appointed
to study the health conditions of the inhabitants of the occupied territories ll
and the relevant resolution of the World Health Assembly, 14/
Having considered the report of the Special Committee to Investigate
Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the
Occupied Territories, 15/
Gravely_ alarmed by Israeli's increasingly arrogant behaviour in systematically
ignoring and openly defying all relevant resolutions of the Security Council,
the General Assembly, the Commission on Human Rights, the World Health
Organization, and other organs and agencies of the United Nations concerning
the Arab territories occupied by Israel and its persistent violations of human
rights in those territories,
Reaffirming that the acquisition of territories by force is inadmissible
under the Charter of the United Nations, the principles of international law
and relevant United Nations resolutions,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 33l4 (XXIX) of 14 December 1974, in
which the Assembly defined an act of aggression, inter alia, as "the invasion
or attack by the armed forces of a State of the territory of another State, or
any military occupation, however temporary, resulting from such invasion or
attack, or any annexation by the use of force of the territory of another State
or part thereof" and provided that "no consideration of whatever nature, whether
political, economic, military or otherwise, may serve as a justification for
aggression",
Recalling Security Council resolution 497 (1981) of 17 December 198l and
General Assembly resolutions 36/226 B of 17 December 1981, ES-9/1 of
5 February 1982 and 37/12 A of 16 December 1982 in connection with the
Israeli occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights, and the imposition of its laws,
jurisdiction and administration on the Syrian occupied territory,
12/
or 350 Eo
13/
14/
15/
Adopted at the 19th meeting, on 20 February 1984, by a roll-call vote
l, with ll abstentions. See chap. IV.
World Health Organization, document A36/14, 28 April 1983.
World Health Organization, document WHA36.27, 16 May 198.
A/38/409.
- 23 Reiterating
its grave alarm at the inhuman treatment which the occupying
Israeli authorities continue to impose on the Syrian population of the occupied
Golan Heights, and the measures and actions designed to change the legal status,
geographic nature and demographic composition of these occupied territories,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 38/79 D and F of 15 December 1983
and 38[8~ and D of 19 December 1983 on the situation in the Middle East and
the report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting
the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories,
l. Resolutely_ condemns Israel for its failure to comply with
Security Council resolution 497 (1981) and General Assembly resolutions 36/226 B,
ES-9/1 and 37/123 A;
2. Declares once more that Israel's decision of l4 December 1981 to
impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the occupied Syrian
Golan Heights, whose outcome has been the effective annexation of this
territory, is null and void and has no legal validity and no effect, and that
Israeli practices and inhuman treatment of the Syrian Arab population constitute
a grave violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of
12 August 1949 16/ and the relevant United Nations resolutions as well as
a continuing threat to international peace and security;
• Strongly condemns Israel for its attempts and measures to impose
Israeli citizenship and identity cards on the Syrian citizens in the occupied
Golan Heights by force;
4. Strongly deplores the negative vote and pro-Israeli position of a
permanent member of the Security Council which prevented the Council from
adopting against Israel, under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations,
the "appropriate measures" referred to in resolution 497 (1981), adopted
unanimously by the Security Council;
5. Reaffirms its determination that all provisions of the The Hague
Convention of 1907 17/ and the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection
of Civilian Persons in Time of War continue to apply to the Syrian territory
occupied by Israel since 1967, strongly demands that Israel recognize the
provisions of these Conventions and apply them in the occupied Arab territories,
and calls upon parties to these Conventions to respect their obligations
thereunder in all circumstances;
6. Calls upon Israel, the occupying Power, to rescind forthwith its
decision of l4 December 1981 to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration
on the Syrian Golan Heights, emphasizes that Israel must allow the evacuees from
16/ United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, No. 973, p. 287.
17/ Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, The Hague Conventions and
Declarations of 1899 and 1907 (New York, Oxford University Press, ii5), p. i.
- 24 --
among the Golan population to return to their homes and torecover their former
property and residences occupied by Israel since 1967, and firmly emphasizes the
overriding necessity of the total and unconditional withdrawal by Israel from
all Palestinian and Syrian territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem,
which is an essential prerequisite for the establishment of a comprehensive and
just peace in the Middle East;
7. Decides to place on the provisional agenda of its forty-first session
as a matter of high priority the item entitled "Question of the violation of
human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine".
1984/3. Question of the violation of human rights and
fundamental freedoms - The situation in the
Arab territories occupied by_ Isra~i i8]
The Commission on Human Rights,
l. Condemns Israel for its continued occupation of the Palestinian
territories, including Jerusalem, and of other Arab territories in violation of
relevant United Nations resolutions and of the provisions of international law;
2. Condemns Israel for its persistence in developing the colonization of
these territories which aims at changing the demographic composition,
institutional structure and status of the occupied territories, including
Jerusalem;
3. Reaffirms that measures such as those described in the above paragraph
constitute grave violations of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection
of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949, 19/ and The Hague Convention
of 1907, 20/ and that they are null and void with regard to international law;
4. Calls upon Israel to withdraw immediately from the occupied
Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem, in order to restore to the
Palestinian people their inalienable national rights, and from all the other
occupied Arab territories
1984/4. Violations of human rights in southern Africa:
report of the Ad Hoc Working Group of Experts 21/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling its resolution 2 (XXIII) of 6 March 1967, by which it set up the
Ad Hoc Working Group of Experts, and its resolutions 21 (XXV) of 19 March 1969,
7 (XXVII) of 8 March 1971, 19 (XXIX) of 3 April 1973, 5 (XXXI) of 14 February 1975,
6 A to C (XXXIII) of 4 March 1977, 12 (xXxV) of 6 March 1979, 5 (XXXVII) of
23 February 198l and 1983/10 of 18 February 1983,
18/ Adopted at the l9th meeting, on 20 February 1984, by 50 votes to l, with
ll abstentions. See chap. IV.
19/ United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, No. 973, D. 287.
20/ Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, The Hague Conventions and
Declarations of 1899.and 1907 (New York, Oxford University Press, 1915), p. 100.
21/ Adopted at the lst meeting, on 28 February 1984, by 39 votes to none,
with T abstentions. See chap. VI.
- 25
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTIETH SESSION
(6 February-16 March 1984)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1984
SUPPLEMENT No. 4
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1984
E/1984/14
E/CN.4/1984/77
among the Golan population to return to their homes and torecover their former
property and residences occupied by Israel since 1967, and firmly emphasizes the
overriding necessity of the total and unconditional withdrawal by Israel from
all Palestinian and Syrian territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem,
which is an essential prerequisite for the establishment of a comprehensive and
just peace in the Middle East;
7. Decides to place on the provisional agenda of its forty-first session
as a matter of high priority the item entitled "Question of the violation of
human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine".
1984/3. Question of the violation of human rights and
fundamental freedoms - The situation in the
Arab territories occupied by_ Isra~i i8]
The Commission on Human Rights,
l. Condemns Israel for its continued occupation of the Palestinian
territories, including Jerusalem, and of other Arab territories in violation of
relevant United Nations resolutions and of the provisions of international law;
2. Condemns Israel for its persistence in developing the colonization of
these territories which aims at changing the demographic composition,
institutional structure and status of the occupied territories, including
Jerusalem;
3. Reaffirms that measures such as those described in the above paragraph
constitute grave violations of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection
of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949, 19/ and The Hague Convention
of 1907, 20/ and that they are null and void with regard to international law;
4. Calls upon Israel to withdraw immediately from the occupied
Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem, in order to restore to the
Palestinian people their inalienable national rights, and from all the other
occupied Arab territories
1984/4. Violations of human rights in southern Africa:
report of the Ad Hoc Working Group of Experts 21/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling its resolution 2 (XXIII) of 6 March 1967, by which it set up the
Ad Hoc Working Group of Experts, and its resolutions 21 (XXV) of 19 March 1969,
7 (XXVII) of 8 March 1971, 19 (XXIX) of 3 April 1973, 5 (XXXI) of 14 February 1975,
6 A to C (XXXIII) of 4 March 1977, 12 (xXxV) of 6 March 1979, 5 (XXXVII) of
23 February 198l and 1983/10 of 18 February 1983,
18/ Adopted at the l9th meeting, on 20 February 1984, by 50 votes to l, with
ll abstentions. See chap. IV.
19/ United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, No. 973, D. 287.
20/ Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, The Hague Conventions and
Declarations of 1899.and 1907 (New York, Oxford University Press, 1915), p. 100.
21/ Adopted at the lst meeting, on 28 February 1984, by 39 votes to none,
with T abstentions. See chap. VI.
- 25
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
UNITED NATIONS
Efl9SS/COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTY-FIRST SESSION
(4 February-15 March 1985)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1985
SUPPLEMENT No. 2
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1985
E/1985/22
E/CN.4/1985/66
I I . RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE
COMMISSION AT ITS FORTY-FIRST SESSION
A. Resolutions
1985/1. of the violation of human in the
occupied Arab Palestine
A 1 /
The Commission on Human Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations
as well as the principles and provisions of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights,
Guided also the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights,
in mind the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949» 2/ and of other
relevant conventions and regulations,
into consideration General Assembly resolution 3314 XXIX) of
1974> the by the armed forces of a State of the territory of another State, or any
General Assembly resolutions ES-7/2 of 29 July 1980, 37/88 A to G
of 10 December 1982, 37/123 A to F 16 and 20 December 1982, 38/58 A to E of '
of
and a l l other relevant
General Assembly resolutions on Israeli violations of the human rights of the
territories,
in particular, Security Council resolutions 237 (1967) of
14 1967, 465 (1980) of 1 March 198O, 468 (198O) of 8 May 198O, 469 (1980) of
20 May 1980, 471 (1980) of 5 1980, 476 (198O) 30 1980, 478 (1980)
of 20 August 1980 and 484 (1980) of 19 December 1980,
Taking note of the reports and resolutions the International Labour
Organisation, the World Health Organization and the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization as well as the report of the seminar on
1/ Adopted at the 21st meeting, on 19 February 1985, by a roll-call vote of
28 to 5> 8 abstentions. See chap. IV.
2/ United Nations, Series, vol. 75, No. 973, p. 287.
- 12 -
II. RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE
COMMISSION AT ITS FORTY-FIRST SESSION
A, Resolutions
1985/1. Question of the violation pf human rights in the
pcoupied lab territories, including Palestine
The Comission pn Human Rights,
Guided_by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations
as well as the principles and provisions of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights,
Guided_also by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights,
Bearing in mind the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, 2! and of other
relevant conventions and regulations,
Taking into consideration General Assembly resolution 3314 (XXI) of
14 December 1974, which defined as an act of aggression "the invasion or attack
by the armed fores of a State of the territory of another State, or any
military occupation, however temporary, resulting from such invasion or attack,
or any annexation by the use of force of the territory of another State or part
thereof",
Recalling General Assembly resolutions E-7/2 of 29 July 1980, 37/88 A to G
of 10 December 1982, 37/123 A to F of 16 and 20 December 1982, 38/58 A to E of
13 December 1983, 38/79 A to H of 15 December 1983, 39/49 A to D of
11 December 1984 and 39/95 A to H of 14 December 1984 and all other relevant
General Assembly resolutions on Israeli violations of the human rights of the
population of occupied Arab territories,
Recalling, in particular, Security Council resolutions 237 (1967) of
14 June i67, 465 (1980) of 1 March 1980, 468 (1980) of 8 May 1980, 469 (1980) of
20 May 1980, 471 (1980) of 5 June 1980, 476 (1980) of 30 June 1980, 478 (1980)
of 20 August 1980 and 484 (1980) of 19 December 1980,
Taking_note of the reports and resolutions of the International Labour
Organisation, the World Health Organization and the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization as well as the report of the seminar on
1/ Adopted at the 21st meeting, on 19 February 1985, by a roll-call vote of
28 t5, with 8 abstentions. See chap. IV.
2/ United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, No, 973, p. 287.
- 12 violations
of human rights in the Palestinian and other Arab territories
occupied by Israel, held at Geneva from 29 November to 3 December 1982, 3/
the Geneva Declaration adopted by the International Conference on the Question
of Palestine held at Geneva from 29 August to 7 September 1983, 4/ and the
reports of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the
Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories,
the International Committee of the Red Cross press release
No. 1478 of 13 December 1983 on Israeli violations of the agreement for the
Israel
was
Recalling i t s resolutions 1982/I A and B of 11 February 1982, 1983/I A
and B and 1983/2 of 15 February 1983 and 1984/I A and B and 1984/2 of
20 February 1984 on the "Question of the violation of human rights in the
occupied territories, including Palestine", and previous resolutions of
the Commission on Human Rights on this subject,
1. Reaffirms the fact that occupation i t s e l f constitutes a fundamental
violation of the human rights of the civilian population of the Palestinian and
other occupied territories;
2. Denounces the continued refusal of Israel to allow the Special
Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the
Population of the Occupied Territories access to the occupied territories;
3. Reiterates the deep alarm expressed by the Special Committee in i t s
reports submitted to the General Assembly at i t s thirty-fourth, 5/ thirty-fifth, 6/
thirty-sixth, ]_/ thirty-seventh, 8/ thirty-eighth 9/ and thirty -ninth JLO/ sessions
that Israel's policy in the occupied territories i s based on the so-called
"Homeland" doctrine which envisages a monoreligious (Jewish) State that includes
territories occupied by Israel since June 1967, and the affirmation by the
Special Committee that this policy not only denies the right to self-determination
of the population of the occupied territories but also constitutes the source
of the continuing and systematic violation of human rights;
3/ ST/HR/SER.A/14.
4/ Report of the International Conference on the Question of Geneva. August-7 September 1983 United pub11oatinn, Saips No,
83.21), 5/ A/34/631.
6/ A/35/425.
7/ A/36/632 and Add.l and Add.l/Corr.l.
8/ A/37/485.
9/ A/38/409.
10/ - 13 -
violations of human rights in the Palestinian and other Arab territories
occupied by Israel, held at Geneva from 29 November to 3 December 1982, /
the Geneva Declaration adopted by the International Conference on the Question
of Palestine held at Geneva from 29 August to 7 September 19835, 4! and the
reports of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the
Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories,
Recalling the International Committee of the Red Cross press release
No, 1j7 r 13 December 1983 on Israeli violations of the agreement for the
exchange of prisoners between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel
which involved the retaining of prisoners and detainees whose release was
provided for in the agreement,
Recaligg its resolutions 1982/1 A and_B or 11 February 1982, 1983/1 A
and B and 1983/2 of 15 February 1983 and 1984/1 A and B and 1984/2 or
20 February 1984 on the "Question of the violation of human rights in the
occupied Arab territories, including Palestine", and previous resolutions of
the Commission on Human Rights on this subject,
l. Reaffirms the fact that occupation itself constitutes a fundamental
violation of the human rights of the civilian population of the Palestinian and
other occupied Arab territories;
2. Denounces the continued refusal of Israel to allow the Special
Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the
Population of the Occupied Territories access to the occupied territories;
, Reiterates the deep alarm expressed by the Special Committee in its
reports submitted to the General Assembly at its thirty-fourth, / thirty-fifth, [l
thirty-sixth, 1/ thirty-seventh, ! thirty-eighth 9/ and thirty-ninth 0/ sessions
that Israel's policy in the occupied territories is based on the so-called
Homeland" doctrine which envisages a monoreligious (Jewish) State that includes
territories occupied by Israel since June 1967, and the affirmation by the
Special Committee that this policy not only denies the right to self-determination
of the population of the occupied territories but also constitutes the source
of the continuing and systematic violation of human rights;
3/ ST/HR/SER.A/14.
A! Report of the International Confgreneg pn the Question pf Palestine,
Geneva, 29 Aust-I Se (United Nations publication, Sales No.
E.835,I.21), part one, chap. I, sect. A.
5/ A/34/631.
6/ A/35/425.
1/ A/36/632 and Add.1 and Add./Corr.l,
2/ A/37/485.
2/ A/38/409.
10/ A/39/591.
- 13 4.
Confirms i t s declaration that Israeli's continuous grave breaches of
the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time
of War, of 12 August 1949, and of the Additional Protocols 11/ to the Geneva
Conventions are war crimes and an affront to humanity;
5. Firmly rejects and reiterates its condemnation of Israel's decision
to annex Jerusalem and to change the physical character, demographic
composition, institutional structure or status of the occupied territories,
including the Holy City, and considers all these measures and their consequences
null and void; .
6. condemns Israel's attempts to subject the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip to Israeli laws;
7. condemns all the terrorist actions perpetrated against the
Palestinian inhabitants of the occupied territories by Jewish gangs, led by
Rabbi Meir Kahane, member of the Knesset, and the racist Rabbi Moshe Levinger,
the leader of the Gush Emunim gang, and otherracist Zionists;
8. Strongly condemns Israeli policies and practices, administrative and
legislative measures to promote and expand the establishment of settler colonies
in the occupied territories as well as the following practices:
(a) The annexation of parts of the occupied territories, including
Jerusalem;
(b) The continuing establishment of new Israeli settlements and expansion
of the existing settlements on private and public Arab lands, and the transfer
of an alien population thereto;
(c) The arming of settlers in the occupied territories to commit acts of
violence against Arab civilians, and the perpetration of acts of violence by
these armed settlers against individuals, causing injury and death and
wide-scale damage to Arab property;
(d) The arming of settlers in the occupied territories to strike at
Muslim and Christian religious and holy places;
(e) The evacuation, deportation, explusion, displacement and transfer of
Arab inhabitants of the occupied territories, the denial of their right to
return to their homeland and the transfer and settlement of alien populations
brought from other parts of the world in the place of the original Palestinian
owners of land;
(f) The confiscation and expropriation of Arab property in the occupied
territories and all other transactions for the acquisition of land involving
Israeli authorities, institutions or nationals on the one hand, and inhabitants
or institutions of the occupied territories on the other;
11/ International Committee of the Red Cross, Protocols additional to the
Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 (Geneva, 1977).
-
4, Confirms 1ts declaration that Israeli's continuous grave breaches of
the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time
of War, of 12 August 1949, and of the Additional Protocols 11/ to the Geneva
Conventions are war crimes and an affront to humanity; 5.
Firmly eelects and reiterates 1ts condemnation of Israel's decision
to annex Jerusalem and to change the physical character, demographic
composition, institutional structure or status of the occupied territories,
including the Holy City, and considers all these measures and their consequences
null and void;
6. Strongly condemns Israel's attempts to subject the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip to Israeli laws;
7. Strongly condemns all the terrorist actions perpetrated against the
Palestinian inhabitants of the occupied territories by Jewish gangs, led by
Rabbi Meir Kahane, member of the Knesset, and the racist Rabbi Moshe Levinger,
the leader of the Gush Emunim gang, and otherracist Zionists;
8. Strongly condemns Israeli policies and practices, administrative and
legislative measures to promote and expand the establishment of settler colonies
in the occupied territories as well as the following practices;
(a) The annexation of parts of the occupied territories, including
Jerusalem;
(b) The continuing establishment of new Israeli settlements and expansion
of the existing settlements on private and public Arab lands, and the transfer
of an alien population thereto;
() The arming of settlers in the occupied territories to commit acts of
violence against Arab civilians, and the perpetration of acts of violence by
these armed settlers against individuals, causing injury and death and
wide-scale damage to Arab property;
(d) The arming of settlers in the occupied territories to strike at
Muslim and Christian religious and holy places;
(e) The evacuation, deportation, explusion, displacement and transfer of
Arab inhabitants of the occupied territories, the denial of their right to
return to their homeland and the transfer and settlement of alien populations
brought from other parts of the world in the place of the original Palestinian
owners of land;
(f) The confiscation and expropriation of Arab property in the occupied
territories and all other transactions for the acquisition of land involving
Israeli authorities, institutions or nationals on the one hand, and inhabitants
or institutions of the occupied territories on the other;
1/ International Committee of the Red Cross, Protocols additional to the
Geneva_conventions or 2 ±gust 19249 (Geneva, 1977).
- 14 -
(g) The destruction and demolition of Arab houses;
(h) Mass arrests, collective punishments, administrative detention and
ill-treatment of the Arab population, the torture of persons under detention
and the inhuman conditions in prisons;
(i) The pillaging of archaelogical and cultural property;
(j) The interference with religious freedoms and practices as well as with
family rights and customs;
(k) The systematic Israeli repression of cultural and educational
institutions, especially universities, schools and institutes, in the occupied
Palestinian territories, closing them or restricting and impeding their academic
activities by subjecting selection of courses, textbooks and educational
programmes, admission of students and appointment of faculty members to the
control and supervision of the military occupation authorities and by expelling
numerous faculty members of several universities for refusing to sign statements
containing political positions, in flagrant defiance and disregard of their
right to academic freedom;
(1) The illegal expropriation and exploitation of the natural wealth,
water and other resources which belong to the inhabitants of the occupied
territories;
(m) The dismantling of municipal services, dismissing the elected mayors
as well as the municipal councils and preventing the flow of Arab aid funds
to the population of the occupied territories;
9. Calls Israel to take immediate steps for the return of the
displaced Arab inhabitants to their homes and property in Palestine and the other
Arab territories occupied since June 1967;
10. Calls the Israeli authorities to implement forthwith
Security Council resolution 484 (1980) of 19 December 1980 and previous
resolutions calling for the immediate return of the municipal chiefs to their
municipalities so that they can resume the functions for which they were
elected;
11. Calls Israel to release all Arabs detained or imprisoned as a
result of their struggle for self-determination and for the liberation of their
territories, and, pending their release, to accord them the protection envisaged
in the relevant provisions of the international instruments concerning the
treatment of prisoners of war, and demands that Israel cease forthwith all acts
of torture and ill-treatment of Arab detainees and prisoners;
12. Condemns Israel for i t s continued detention of Ziad Abu Ain, and calls
on Israel to implement fully the agreement concluded with the International
Committee of the Red Cross in November 1983 for the exchange of prisoners
between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel; and further calls
on Israel to release Ziad Abu Ain and others •whom i t continues to detain and
who were in Ansar Camp, which must be closed under the provisions of the
above-mentioned agreement;
(g) The destruction and demolition of Arab houses;
(h) Mass arrests, collective punishments, administrative detention and
ill-treatment of the Arab population, the torture of persons under detention
and the inhuman conditions in prisons;
(i) The pillaging of archaelogical and cultural property;
() The interference with religious freedoms and practices as well as with
family rights and customs;
() The systematic Israeli repression of cultural and educational
institutions, especially universities, schools and institutes, in the occupied
Palestinian territories, closing them or restricting and impeding their academic
activities by subjecting selection of courses, textbooks and educational
programmes, admission of students and appointment of faculty members to the
control and supervision of the military occupation authorities and by expelling
numerous faculty members of several universities for refusing to sign statements
containing political positions, in flagrant defiance and disregard of their
right to academic freedom;
(1) The illegal expropriation and exploitation of the natural wealth,
water and other resources which belong to the inhabitants of the occupied
territories;
(m) The dismantling of municipal services, dismissing the elected mayors
as well as the municipal councils and preventing the flow of Arab aid funds
to the population of the occupied territories;
9. Calls upon Israel to take immediate steps for the return of the
displaced Arab inhabitants to their homes and property in Palestine and the other
Arab territories occupied since June 1967;
10. Calls upon the Israeli authorities to implement forthwith
Security Council resolution 484 (1980) of 19 December 1980 and previous
resolutions calling for the immediate return of the municipal chiefs to their
municipalities so that they can resume the functions for which they were
elected;
11. Calls upon Israel to release all Arabs detained or imprisoned as a
result of their struggle for self--determination and for the liberation of their
territories, and, pending their release, to accord them the protection envisaged
in the relevant provisions of the international instruments concerning the
treatment of prisoners of war, and demands that Israel cease forthwith all acts
of torture and ill-treatment of Arab detainees and prisoners;
12. Condemns Israel for its continued detention of Ziad Abu Ain, and calls
on Israel to implement fully the agreement concluded with the International
Committee of the Red Cross in November 1983 for the exchange of prisoners
between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel; and further calls
on Israel to release Ziad Abu Ain and others whom it continues to detain and
who were in Ansar Camp, which must be closed under the provisions of the
above--mentioned agreement ;
15 13
• Reiterates i t s call to a l l States, in particular the States parties
to the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time
of War, in accordance with article 1 of that Convention, and to international
organizations and specialized agencies, not to recognize any changes carried
out by Israel in the occupied territories, including Jerusalem, and to avoid
taking any action or extending any aid which might be used by Israel in i t s
pursuit of the policies of annexation and colonization or any other policies
and practices referred to in the present resolution;
14. Urges Israel to refrain from the policies and practices violating
human rights in the occupied territories, and to report, through the
Secretary-General, to the Commission at i t s forty-second session on the
implementation of this resolution;
15. Requests the General Assembly, through the Economic and Social Council,
to recommend to the Security Council the adoption against Israel of the
measures referred to in Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations for
i t s persistent violation of the human rights of the population of the
Palestinian and other occupied territories;
16. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of a l l Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations and the
international humanitarian organizations and to give i t the widest possible
publicity, and to report to the Commission on Human Rights at i t s
forty-second session;
17. Further requests the Secretary-General to bring to the attention of
the Commission all United Nations reports appearing between sessions of the
Commission that deal with the situation of the population of those occupied
territories;
18. Decides to place on the provisional agenda of the forty-second session
as a matter of high priority the item entitled "Question of the violation of
human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine".
B 12/
The Commission on Human Rights,
i t s resolutions 1982/I B of 11 February 1982, 1983/I B of
15 February 1983 and I984/I B of 20 February 1984 and General Assembly
resolutions 3092 A (XXVIII) of 7 December 1973, 32/91 A of 13 December 1977,
33/113 A of 18 December 1978, 34/90 B of 12 December 1979, 35/122 A of
11 December 198O, 36/147 A of 16 December 1981, 37/88 of 10 December 1982,
38/79 B of 15 December 1983 and 39/95 D of 14 December 1984,
Security Council resolutions 465 (198O) of 1 March 198O,
468 (1980) of 8 May 1980, 469 (1980) of 20 May 1980, 471 (I98O) of 5 June 198O,
476 (1980) of 30 June 198O, 478 (1980) of 20 August 198O and 484 (1980) of
19 December 1980,
12/ Adopted at the 21st meeting, on 19 February 1985, by a roll-call vote
of 33 to 1, with 7 abstentions. See chap, IV.
- 16 -
15. Reiterates its call to all States, in particular the States parties
to the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time
of War, in accordance with article l of that Convention, and to international
organizations and specialized agencies, not to recognize any changes carried
out by Israel in the occupied territories, including Jerusalem, and to avoid
taking any action or extending any aid which might be used by Israel in its
pursuit of the policies of annexation and colonization or any other policies
and practices referred to in the present resolution;
14. Urges Israel to refrain from the policies and practices violating
human rights in the occupied territories, and to report, through the
Secretary-General, to the Commission at its forty-second session on the
implementation of this resolution;
15. Requests the General Assembly, through the Economic and Social Council,
to recommend to the Security Council the adoption against Israel of the
measures referred to in Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations for
its persistent violation of the human rights of the population of the
Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories;
16, Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations and the
international humanitarian organizations and to give it the widest possible
publicity, and to report to the Commission on Human Rights at its
forty-second session;
17. Further requests the Secretary-General to bring to the attention of
the Commission all United Nations reports appearing between sessions of the
Commission that deal with the situation of the population of those occupied
territories;
18, Decides to place on the provisional agenda of the forty-second session
as a matter of high priority the item entitled "Question of the violation of
human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine",
B 12/
The Commission pn Human Rights,
Recalling its resolutions 1982/1 B of 1l February 1982, 1983/1 B o£
15 February 1983 and 1984/1 B of 20 February 1984 and General Assembly
resolutions 3092 A (XXVIII) o£ 7 December 1973, 32/91 A of 13 December 1977,
33/113 A or 18 December 1978, 34/90B of l2 December 1979, 35/122 A of
11 December 1980, 36/147 A of 16 December 1981, 37/88 of 10 December 1982,
38/79 B of 15 December 1983 and 39/95 D of 14 December 1984,
Recalling Security Council resolutions 465 (1980) of 1 March 1980,
468 (1980 r 8 May 1980, 469 (1980) of 20 May 1980, 471 (1980) of 5 June 1980,
476 (1980) or 30 June 1980, 478 (1980) or 20 August 1980 and 484 (1980) of
19 December 1980,
12/
or 33%%
Adopted at the 2st meeting, on 19 February 1985, by a roll-call vote
l, with 7 abstentions. See chap, IV.
- 16 resolution
III on the application of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949»
adopted by the Twenty-fourth International Conference of the Red Cross held at
Manila in November 1981,
Bearing in mind that the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of
12 August 1949 X$J must be fully applied in all circumstances to all persons
protected by those instruments, without any adverse distinction based on the
nature or origin of the armed conflict or on the causes espoused by or
attributed to the conflict,
that the persistent failure of Israel to apply the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War creates
a situation fraught with danger, and considering that i t persists in.violating
human rights, i
into account that States parties to the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War undertake, in accordance
with article 1 thereof, not only to respect but also to ensure respect for the
Convention in all circumstances,
1. Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War is applicable to all the Arab territories
occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
2. i t s deep concern at the consequences of Israel's systematic
refusal to apply that Convention in all i t s provisions to Palestinian and
other Arab territories occupied since 19^7, including Jerusalem;
3. Condemns the failure of Israel to acknowledge the applicability of
that Convention to the territories i t has occupied since 19^7, including
Jerusalem;
4. Calls Israel to abide by and respect the obligations arising from
the Charter of the United Nations and other instruments and rules of
international law, in particular the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, in Palestinian and other
Arab territories occupied since 19^7) including Jerusalem; requests Israel to
release Arabs detained or imprisoned as a result of their struggle for
self-determination and the liberation of their territories and to accord them,
pending their release, the protection envisaged in the relevant provisions of
the international instruments concerning the treatment of prisoners of war; and
demands that Israel cease forthwith all acts of torture and ill-treatment of Arab
detainees and prisoners;
5. once more all States parties to that Convention to make every
effort to ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions thereof in a l l
the Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem; -
6. the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the
international humanitarian organizations and non-governmental organizations, and
to submit a report on progress in i t s implementation to the Commission on
Human Rights at its forty-second session.
13/ United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, Nos. 970-973.
- 17 -
Recalling resolution III on the application of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949,
adopted by the Twenty-fourth International Conference of the Red Cross held at
Manila in November 1981,
Bearing_in_ mind that the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of
12 August 1949 1/ must be fully applied in all circumstances to all persons
protected by those instruments, without any adverse distinction based on the
nature or origin of the armed conflict or on the causes espoused by or
attributed to the conflict,
Recognizing that the persistent failure of Israel to apply the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in ime of War creates
a situation fraught with danger, and considering that it persists in violating
human rights,
Taking into account that States parties to the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War undertake, in accordance
with article l thereof, not only to respect but also to ensure respect for the
Convention in all circumstances,
l. Reaffirms that
CLVilian Persons in Time
occupied by Israel since
the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
of War is applicable to all the Arab territories
1967, including Jerusalem;
2. Expresses its deep_concern at the consequences of Israel's systematic
refusal to apply that Convention in all its provisions to Palestinian and
other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;
• Condemns the failure of Israel to acknowledge the applicability of
that Convention to the territories it has occupied since 1967, 1nluding
Jerusalem;
4. Calls upon Israel to abide by and respect the obligations arising from
the Charter of the United Nations and other instruments and rules of
international law, in particular the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, in Palestinian and other
Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem; requests Israel to
release all Arabs detained or imprisoned as a result of their struggle for
self-determination and the liberation of their territories and to accord them,
pending their release, the protection envisaged in the relevant provisions of
the international instruments concerning the treatment of prisoners of war; and
demands that Israel cease forthwith all acts of torture and ill-treatment of Arab
detainees and prisoners;
, Urges once more all States parties to that Convention to make every
effort to ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions thereof in all
the Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;6,
Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the
international humanitarian organizations and non-governmental organizations, and
to submit a report on progress in its implementation to the Commission on
Human Rights at its forty-second session.
l/ United Nations, [Treaty Series, vol. 75, Nos. 970-973.
- 17 1986)
1986
SUPPLEMENT 1986
Б/1986/22
E/CN.COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTY-SECOND SESSION
(3 February-14 March 1986)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1986
No. 2
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1986
E/186/22
EICN,4/1986/65
II. RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE
A. Resolutions
1986/1. of the violation of human in the
Arab Palestine
A 1/
The Commission on Human Guided the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations as well as the principles and provisions of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights,
Guided also by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights,
in mind the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, 2/ of The
Hague Convention of 1907, 3/ and of other relevant conventions and regulations,
into consideration General Assembly resolution 3314 (XXIX) of
14 December 1974, which defined as an act of aggression "the invasion or
attack the armed forces of a State of the territory of another State, or
any military occupation, however temporary, resulting from such invasion or
attack, or any annexation the use of force of the territory of another
State or part thereof",
General Assembly resolutions ES-7/2 of 29 July 1980,
37/88 A to G of 10 December 1982, 37/123 A to F of 16 and 20 December 1982,
38/58 A E of 13 December 1983, 38/79 A to H of 15 December 1983, 39/49 A D of 11 December 1984, 39/95 A to H of 14 December 1984 and 40/161 A to G of
16 December 1985 and all other relevant General Assembly resolutions on
territories.
1/ Adopted at the 25th meeting, on 20 February 1986, by a roll-call vote
of 29 to 7, with 6 abstentions. chap. IV, para. 42.
2/ United Nations, Series, vol. 75, No. 973, p. 287.
3/ Carnegie Endownment for International Peace, The Conventions
and Declarations of 1899 and 1907 (New York, Oxford University Press, 1915),
p. 100.
-14-
II. RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE
COMMISSION AT ITS FORTY-SECOND SESSION
A, Resolutions
1986/. Question of the violation of human rights in the
occupied Arab territories, including Palestine
The_ Commission on uman Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations as well as the principles and provisions of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights,
Guided_also D the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights,
Bearing in mind the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Tine of War, of 12 August 1949, 2/ of 'The
Hague Convention of 1907, 3/ and of other relevant conventions and regulations,
Taking into consideration General Assembly resolution 33l4 (XIX) of
14 December 1974, which defined as an act of aggression "the invasion or
attack by the armed forces of a State of the territory of another State, or
any military occupation, however temporary, resulting from such invasion or
attack, or any annexation by the use of force of the territory of another
State or part thereof,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions ES-7/2 of 29 July 1980,
37/88 A to G of 10 December 1982, 37/123 A to F of 16 and 20 December 1982,
38/58 A to E of 13 December 1983, 38/79 A to H of 15 December 1983, 39/49 A to
D of ll Dec~mber 1984, 39/95 A to H of 14 December 1984 and 40/161 A to G of
16 December 1985 and all other relevant General Assembly resolutions on
Israeli violations of the human rights of the population of occupied Arab
territories,
/ Adopted at the 25th meeting, on 20 February 1986, by a roll-call vote
of 29 to 7, with 6 abstentions. See chap. I, para. 42%
2/ United Nations, Treaty Series, vol, 75, N, 973, p. 287.
3/ Carnegie Endownment for International Peace, The Hague Conventions
and Declarations of 1899 and 1907 (New York, Oxford University Press, 1915),
p. 100.
-l4d
Recalling, in particular, Security Council resolutions 237 (1967) of
14 June 1967, 465 (1980) of 1 March 1980, 468 (1980) of 8 May 1980, 469 (1980)
of 20 May 1980, 471 (1980) of 5 June 1980, 476 (1980) of 30 June 1980,
478 (1980) of 20 August 1980 and 484 (1980) of 19 December 1980,
Taking note of the reports and resolutions of the International Labour
Organisation, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization and the World Health Organization as well as the report of the
seminar on violations of human rights in the Palestinian and other Arab
territories occupied by Israel, held at Geneva from 29 November to
4/ 5/ to 6/
Recalling its previous resolutions in this connection, particularly
resolutions 1982/1 A and В of 11 February 1982, 1983/1 A and В and 1983/2 of
15 February 1983, 1984/1 A and В and 1984/2 of 20 February 1984 and 1985/1 A
and В of 19 February 1985 on the "Question of the violation of human rights in
the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine",
1. Reaffirms the fact that occupation itself constitutes a fundamental
violation of the human rights of the civilian population of the occupied Arab
territories, including Palestine»
2. Denounces the continued refusal of Israel to allow the Special
Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the
Population of the Occupied Territories access to the occupied territories;
3. Reiterates the deep concern expressed the Special Committee in
its reports submitted to the General Assembly that Israel's policy in the
occupied territories is based on the so-called "Homeland" doctrine which
envisages a monoreligious (Jewish) State that includes territories occupied Israel since June 1967, and the affirmation the Special Committee that this
policy not only denies the right to self-determination of the population of
systematic violation of human rights;
4/ ST/HR/SER.A/14.
5/ Report of the International Conference on the Question of Palestine,
Geneva, 29 August-7 September 1983 (United Nations publication. Sales
No. E.83.I.21), part one, chap. I, sect. A.
6/ A/40/702.
-15-
Realing, in particular, Security Council resolutions 237 (1967) of
14 June 1967, 465 (1980) of 1 March 1980, 468 (1980) of 8 May 1980, 469 (1980)
o£ 20 May 1980, 471 (1980) of 5 June 1980, 476 (1980) of 30 June 1980,
478 (1980) of 20 August 1980 and 484 (1980) of 19 December 1980,
Taking note of the reports and resolutions of the International Labour
Organisation, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization and the World Health Organization as well as the report of the
seminar on violations of human rights in the Palestinian and other Arab
territories occupied by Israel, held at Geneva from 29 November to
3 December 1982, A/ the Geneva Declaration adopted by the International
Conference on the Question of Palestine, held at Geneva from 29 August to
7 September 1983, 5/ and the reports of the Special Committee to Investigate
Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied
Territories, particularly its report to the General Assembly at its fortieth
session, 6/
Recalling its previous resolutions in this connection, particularly
resolutions 1982/1 A and B of February 1982, 1983/1 A and B and 1983/2 of
15 February 1983, 1984/1 A and B and 1984/2 of 20 February 1984 and 1985/1 A
and B of 19 February 1985 on the Question of the violation of human rights in
the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine,
l. Reaffirms the fact that occupation itself constitutes a fundamental
violation of the human rights of the civilian population of the occupied Arab
territories, including Palestine
2, Denounces the continued refusal of Israel to allow the Special
Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the
Population of the Occupied Territories access to the occupied territories;
3, Reiterates the deep concern expressed by the Special Committee in
its reports submitted to the General Assembly that Israel's policy in the
occupied territories is based on the so-called "Homeland doctrine which
envisages a monoreligious (Jewish) State that includes territories occupied by
Israel since June 1967, and the affirmation by the Special Committee that this
policy not only denies the right to self-determination of the population of
the occupied territories but also constitutes the source of the continuing and
systematic violation of human rights
4/ ST/HR/SER.A/14.
5/ Report of the International Conference on the Question of Palestine,
Geneva,_29 August-7 September 1983 (United Nations publication, Sales
No. E,83.1.21), part one, chap. I, sect. A,
$/ /40/702.
-154.
Reaffirms the fact that Israel's continuous grave breaches of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War, of 12 August 1949, and of the Additional Protocols 7/ to the Geneva
Conventions of 1949 are war crimes and an affront to humanity»
5. Firmly rejects and reiterates its condemnation of Israel's decision
to annex Jecsusalera and to change the physical character, demographic
»
6. Strongly condemns Israel's attempts to subject the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip to Israeli laws»
7. Strongly condemns all the terrorist actions perpetrated against the
Palestinian inhabitants of the occupied territories by Jewish gangs, led by
Rabbi Meir Kahane, member of the Knesset, and the racist Rabbi Moshe Levinger,
the leader of the Gush Emunim gang, and other racist Zionists;
8. Strongly condemns Israeli policies and practices, administrative and
legislative measures to promote and expand the establishment of settler
colonies in the occupied territories, as well as the following practices;
(a) The annexation of parts of the occupied territories, including
Jerusalem;
(b) The continuing establishment of new Israeli settlements and
expansion of the existing settlements on private and public Arab lands, and
the transfer of an alien population thereto;
(c) The arming of settlers in the occupied territories to commit acts of
violence against Arab civilians, and the perpetration of acts of violence by
these armed settlers against individuals from Palestinian camps and
institutions, causing injury and death and wide-scale damage to Arab property;
(d) Striking at Muslim and Christian religious and holy places and
repeated attacks on Al Aasa Mosque aimed at seizing and destroying it;
(e) The evacuation, deportation, expulsion, displacement and transfer of
Arab inhabitants of the occupied territories, the denial of their right to
return to their homeland and the transfer and settlement of alien populations
brought from other parts of the world in the place of the original Palestinian
owners of land;
7/ International Committee of the Red Cross, Protocols additional to the
Geneva Conventions of 12 1949 (Geneva, 1977).
-16-
4, Reaffirms the fact that Israel's continuous grave breaches of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War, of 12 August 1949, and of the Additional Protocols 7/ to the Geneva
Conventions of 1949 are war arimes and an affront to humanity
5, Firmly_rejects and reiterates its condemnation of Israel's decision
to annex Jersusalem and to change the physical character, demographic
composition, institutional structure or status of the occupied territories,
including Jerusalem, and considers all these measures and their consequences
null and void
6, Strongly condemns Israel's attempts to subject the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip to Israeli laws
7. Strongly_condemns all the terrorist actions perpetrated against the
Palestinian inhabitants of the occupied territories by Jewish gangs, led by
Rabbi Meir Kahane+ member of the Knesset, and tbe racist Rabbi Moshe Levinger,
the leader of the Gush Emunim gang, and other racist Zionists;
8. Strongly_condemns Israeli policies and practices, administrative and
legislative measures to promote and expand the establishment of settler
colonies in the occupied territories, as well as the following practices
(a) The annexation of parts of the occupied territories, including
Jerusalem
(b) The continuing establishment of new Israeli settlements and
expansion of the existing settlements on private and public Arab lands, and
the transfer of an alien population thereto;
(c) 'The arming of settlers in the occupied territories to commit acts of
violence against Arab civilians, and the perpetration of acts of violence by
these armed settlers against individuals from Palestinian camps and
institutions, causing injury and death and wide-scale damage to Arab property;
(d) Striking at Muslim and Christian religious and holy places and
repeated attacks on Al Aasa Mosaue aimed at seizing and destroying it
(e) The evacuation, deportation, expulsion, displacement and transfer of
Arab inhabitants of the occupied territories, the denial of their right to
return to their homeland and the transfer and settlement of alien populations
brought from other parts of the world in the place of the original Palestinian
owners of land
1/ International Committee of the Red Cross, Protocols additional to the
Geneva Conventions of 12 August 2949 (Geneva, 1977).
16
f) The confiscation and expropriation of Arab property in the occupied
territories and all other transactions for the accruisition of land involving
Israeli authorities, institutions or nationals on the one hand, and
inhabitants or institutions of the occupied territories on the other;
(g) The destruction and demolition of Arab houses;
(h) Mass arrests, collective punishments, administrative detention and
ill-treatment of the Arab population, the torture of persons under detention
and the inhuman conditions in prisons;
i) The pillaging of archaeological and cultural property»
j) The interference with religious freedoms and practices as well as
with family rights and customs;
(k) The systematic Israeli repression of cultural and educational
institutions, especially universities, schools and institutes, in the occupied
Palestinian territories, closing them or restricting and impeding their
academic activities subjecting selection of courses, textbooks and
educational programmes, admission of students and appointment of faculty
members to the control and supervision of the military occupation authorities
(1) Expropriation and exploitation of the natural wealth, water and
other resources which belong to the inhabitants of the occupied territories;
(m) The dismantling of municipal services dismissal of the elected
mayors as well as the municipal councils and prevention of the flow of Arab
aid funds to the population of the occupied territories;
9. Calls upon Israel take immediate steps for the return of the
displaced Arab inhabitants to their homes and property in Palestine and other
Arab territories occupied since June 1967;
10. Calls upon the Israeli authorities to implement forthwith
Security Council resolution 484 (1980) of 19 December 1980 and previous
resolutions calling for the immediate return of the chiefs to their
elected;
11. Calls upon Israel to release all Arabs detained or as a
result of their struggle for self-determination and for the liberation of
their territories, and, pending their release, to accord them the protection
envisaged in the relevant provisions of the international instruments
-17-
(f) 'The confiscation and expropriation of Arab property in the occupied
territories and all other transactions for the acquisition of land involving
Israeli authorities, institutions or nationals on the one hand, and
inhabitants or institutions of the occupied territories on the other;
(g) 'The destruction and demolition of Arab houses;
(h) Mass arrests, collective punishments, administrative detention and
ill-treatment of the Arab population, the torture of persons under detention
and the inhuman conditions in prisons
(i) The pillaging of archaeological and cultural property
(j) The interference with religious freedoms and practices as well as
with family rights and customs;
(k) 'he systematic Israeli repression of cultural and educational
institutions, especially universities, schools and institutes, in the occupied
Palestinian territories, closing them or restricting and impeding their
academic activities by subjecting selection of courses, textbooks and
educational programmes, admission of students and appointment of faculty
members to the control and supervision of the military occupation authorities
and by expelling numerous faculty members of several universities for refusing
to sign statements containing political positions, in flagrant defiance and
disregard of their right to academic freedom;
(l) Expropriation and exploitation of the natural wealth, water and
other resources which belong to the inhabitants of the occupied territories
(m) The dismantling of municipal services by dismissal of the elected
mayors as well as the municipal councils and prevention of the flow of Arab
aid funds to the population of the occupied territories
9, Calls upon Israel to take immediate steps for the return of the
displaced Arab inhabitants to their homes and property in Palestine and other
Arab territories occupied since June 19675
10. Calls ppon the Israeli authorities to implement forthwith
Security Council resolution 484 (1980) of 19 December 1980 and previous
resolutions calling for the immediate return of the municipal chiefs to their
municipalities so that they can resume the functions for which they were
elected
ll. Calls upon Israel to release all Arabs detained or imprisoned as a
result of their struggle for self-determination and for the liberation of
their territories, and, pending their release, to accord them the protection
envisaged in the relevant provisions of the international instruments
-17prisoners;
12. War, 1 by be
by the resolution)
human in the territories, and to report, through the
resolution}
Council, territories)
international humanitarian and to it the widest session;
16. territories;
"Question Palestine".
-18-
concerning the treatment of prisoners of war, and demands that Israel cease
forthwith all acts of torture and ill-treatment of Arab detainees and
prisoners
I2, Reiterates its call to all States, in particular the States parties
to the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in
Time of war, in accordance with article l of that Convention, and to
international organizations and specialized agencies, not to recognize any
changes carried out Israel in the occupied territories, including
Jerusalem, and to avoid taking any action or extending any aid which might used Israel in its pursuit of tbe policies of annexation and colonization
or any other policies and practices referred to in the present resolution
13. Urges Israel to refrain from the policies and practices violating
human rights in the occupied territories, and to report, through the
Secretary-General, to the Commission at its forty-third session on the
implementation of the present resolution
14. Requests the General Assembly, through the Economic and Social
council, to recommend to the Security Council the adoption against Israel of
the measures referred to in Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations
for its persistent violation of the human rights of the population of the
Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories;
15. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations and the
international humanitarian organizations and to give it the widest possible
publicity, and to report to the Commission on Human Rights at its
forty-third session;
l6. Further requests the Secretary-General to provide the Commission
with all United Nations reports appearing between sessions of the Commission
and dealing with the situation of the population of those occupied territories
17. Decides to place on the provisional agenda of the forty-third
session, as a matter of high priority, the item entitled Question of the
violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including
Palestine,
-8В
8/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling its resolutions 1982/1 В of 11 February 1982, 1983/1 В of
15 February 1983, 1984/1 В of 20 February 1984 and 1985/1 В of
19 February 1985 and General Assembly resolutions 2674 (XXV) and 2675 (XXV) of
9 December 1970, 3092 A (XXVIII) of 7 December 1973, 32/91 A of
13 December 1977, 33/113 A of 18 December 1978, 34/90 В of 12 December 1979,
35/122 A of 11 December 1980, 36/147 A of 16 December 1981, 37/88 of
10 December 1982, 38/79 В of 15 December 1983, 39/95 D of 14 December 1984 and
40/161 A to G of 16 December 1985,
Recalling Security Council resolutions 465 (1980) of 1 March 1980,
468 (1980) of 8 May 1980, 469 (1980) of 20 May 1980, 471 (1980) of
5 June 1980, 476 (1980) of 30 June 1980, 478 (1980) of 20 August 1980 and
484 (1980) of 19 December 1980,
Recalling resolution III on the application of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of
12 August 1949, adopted by the Twenty-fourth International Conference of the
Red Cross held at Manila in November 1981,
Bearing in mind that the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of
12 August 1949 9/ must be fully applied in all circumstances to all persons
protected by those instruments, without any adverse distinction based on the
nature or origin of the armed conflict or on the causes espoused or
attributed to the conflict,
Deeply alarmed at the situation of Palestinians detained by Israel in
Israeli prisons,
Recognizing that the persistent refusal of Israel to apply the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War creates a situation fraught with danger, and considering that it persists
in violating human rights.
Taking into account that States parties to the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War undertake, in accordance
with article 1 thereof, not only to respect but also to ensure respect for the
Convention in all circumstances,
8/ Adopted at the 25th meeting, on 20 February 1986, by a
roll-call vote of 32 to 1, with 9 abstentions. See chap. IV, para. 48.
9/ United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, Nos. 970-973.
-19-
» 8/
The_ Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling its resolutions 1982/1 B of 1 February 1982, 1983/1 B of
15 February 1983, 1984/ B of 20 February 1984 and 1985/1 B of
19 February 1985 and General Assembly resolutions 2674 (XXV) and 2675 (XXV) of
9 December 1970, 3092 A (XXVIII) Of 7 December 1973, 32/9l A of
13 December 1977, 33/113 A of 18 December 1978, 34/90 B of 12 December 1979,
35/122 A of l December 1980, 36/147 A of 16 December 1981, 37/88 of
10 December 1982, 38/79 B of 15 December 1983, 39/95 D of 4 December 1984 and
40/16l A to G of 16 December 1985,
Recalling Security Council resolutions 465 (1980) of l March 1980,
468 (1980) of 8 May 1980, 469 (1980) of 20 May 1980, 471 (1980) of
5 June 1980, 476 (1980) of 30 June 1980, 478 (1980) of 20 August 1980 and
484 (1980) of 19 December 1980,
Recalling resolution III on the application of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of art, of
12 August 1949, adopted by the Twenty-fourth International Conference of the
Red Cross held at Manila in November 1981,
Bearing in mind that the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of
12 August 1949 9/ must be fully applied in all circumstances to all persons
protected by those instruments, without any adverse distinction based on the
nature or origin of the armed conflict or on the causes espoused by or
attributed to the conflict,
Deeply_alarmed at the situation of Palestinians detained by Israel in
Israeli prisons,
Recognizing that the persistent refusal of Israel to apply the
Geneva Convention relatie to the Protection of Civilian Persons in rime of
War creates a situation fraught with danger, and considering that it persists
in violating human rights,
Taking_into_ account that States parties to the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War undertake, in accordance
with article l thereof, not only to respect but also to ensure respect for the
Convention in all circumstances,
8/
roll-call
9/
Adopted at the 25th meeting, on 20 February 1986, by a
vote of 32 to 1, with 9 abstentions. See chap. IV, para, 48.
United Nations, Treaty_Series, vol, 75, No6. 970-973,
-191.
Reaffirms the fact that the fundamental human rights as established
international law and set forth in international instruments remain fully
applicable in cases of armed conflict»
2. Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to all
Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967,
including Jerusalem;
3. Expresses its deep concern at the consequences of Israel's
systematic refusal to apply that Convention in all its provisions to
Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including
Jerusalem»
4. Condemns the failure of Israel to acknowledge the applicability of
that Convention to the territories it has occupied since 1967, including
Jerusalem»
5. Strongly condemns Israel for its policies of ill-treatment torture of Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli prisons;
6. Urges Israel to grant prisoner-of-war status, in accordance with the
Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, of
12 August 1949, 10/ to all Palestinian fighters captured by Israel, and to
treat them accordingly»
7. Calls upon Israel to abide by and respect the obligations arising
from the Charter of the United Nations and other instruments and rules of
international law, in particular the provisions of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, in Palestinian
and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem; reauests
Israel to release all Arabs detained or imprisoned as a result of their
struggle for self-determination and the liberation of their territories and to
accord them, pending their release, the protection envisaged in the relevant
provisions of the international instruments concerning the treatment of
prisoners of war, in particular the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and The Hague Convention of
» »
8. Urges once more all States parties to the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to make every effort to
ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions of that Convention in
all the Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem»
10/ Ibid., No. 972, p. 135.
-20-
l. Reaffirms the fact
by international law and set
applicable in cases of armed
that the fundamental human rights as established
forth in international instruments remain fully
conflict;
2, Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to all
Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967,
including Jerusalem;
3, Expresses its deep_concern at the consequences of Israel's
systematic refusal to apply that Convention in all its provisions to
Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including
Jerusalem
4. Condemns the
that Convention to the
Jerusalem;
failure of Israel to acknowledge the applicability of
territories it has occupied since 1967, including
5.
torture
Strongly_condemns Israel for its policies of ill-treatment
of Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli prisons
and
6. Urges Israel to grant prisoner-of-war status, in accordance with the
Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, of
12 August 1949, l/ to all Palestinian fighters captured by Israel, and to
treat them accordingly
7. Calls upon Israel to abide by and respect the obligations arising
from the Charter of the United Nations and other instruments and rules of
international law, in particular the provisions of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, in Palestinian
and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem; requests
Israel to release all Arabs detained or imprisoned as a result of their
struggle for self-determination and the liberation of their territories and to
accord them, pending their release, the protection envisaged in the relevant
provisions of the international instruments concerning the treatment of
prisoners of war, in particular the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and The Hague Convention of
1907 and demands that Israel cease forthwith all acts of torture and
ill-treatment of Arab detainees and prisoners
8. Urges once more all States parties to the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to make every effort to
ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions of that Convention in
all the Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
0/ Ibid., No. 972, p. 135.
-209.
condemns Israel for its deportation of the liberated
Palestinian prisoners in contravention of the agreement for the exchange of
prisoners, and in violation of the principles of international law and
United Nations resolutions, and calls upon Israel, the occupying Power, to
strictly, Han
10. Urges Israel to co-operate with the International Committee of the
Cross and to allow it to visit all Palestinian detainees in Israeli
prisons;
11. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the
international humanitarian organizations and non-governmental organizations,
and to submit a report on progress in its implementation to the Commission on
Human Rights at its forty-third session;
12. Decides to consider this subject at its forty-third session as a
matter of high priority.
1986/2. Human in 11/
The Commission on Human Gravely concerned at the fact that Syrian Arab territories occupied Israel in 1967 are still suffering from the Israeli military occupation, which
is becoming increasingly severe and vicious,
once again the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations
and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and guided the provisions of
the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
the resolution adopted the 71st Inter-Parliamentary
Conference, held at Geneva from 2 to 7 April 1984, which condemned all Israeli
policies and practices relating to the annexation of occupied Arab territories
in Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan Heights,
11/ Adopted at the 25th meeting, on 20 February 1986, by a
roll-call vote of 31 to 1, with 10 abstentions. chap. IV, para. 56.
-21-
9. Strongly condemns Israel for its deportation of the liberated
Palestinian prisoners in contravention of the agreement for the exchange of
prisoners, and in violation of the principles of international law and
United Nations resolutions, and calls upon Israel, the occupying Power, to
refrain forthwith from the deportation of Palestinians, to rescind the
deportation decision in order to enable those who were deported to return to
their homeland and property, and to comply strictly with the provisions of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War
10, Urges Israel to co-operate with the International Committee of the
Red Cross and to allow it to visit all Palestinian detainees in Israeli
prisons
ll. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the
international humanitarian organizations and non-governmental organizations,
and to submit a report on progress in its implementation to the Commission on
Human Rights at its forty-third session;
12. Decides to consider this subject at its forty-third session as a
matter of high priority.
1986/2. Human rights in occupied Syrian territory l/
The_Commission on Human Rights,
Gravely_ concerned at the fact that Syrian Arab territories occupied by
Israel in 1967 are still suffering from the Israeli military occupation, which
is becoming increasingly severe and vicious,
Recalling once again the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations
and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and guided by the provisions of
the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
Recalling the resolution adopted by the 7lst Inter-Parliamentary
Conference, held at Geneva from 2 to 7 April 1984, which condemned all Israeli
policies and practices relating to the annexation of occupied Arab territories
in Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan Heights,
1/
toll-call
Adopted at
vote of 3l
the 25th meeting, on 20 February 1986,
to l, with 10 abstentions. See chap.
-21by
a
1v, para. 56.
Б/1987/18
4/FORTYTHIRD SESSION
5
New York, 1987
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTY-THIRD SESSION
(2 February-13 March 1987)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1987
SUPPLEMENT No. UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1987
E/1987/18
E/CN.4/1987/60
11. Decides to place on the provisional agenda of its
forty-fourth session, as a matter of high priority, the item entitled
"Question of the violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories,
including Palestine".
27th meeting
19 February 1987
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 28 to 1, with
13 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
1987/2. Question of the violation of human rights in the
occupied Arab territories, including Palestine
The Commission on Human Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations as well as the principles and provisions of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights,
Guided also by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant Civil Political Rights,
Bearing in mind the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, and of
The Hague Convention IV of 1907, as well as the principles of international
humanitarian law,
Taking into consideration General Assembly resolution 3314 XXIX) of
14 December 1974, which defined as an act of aggression "the invasion or
attack by the armed forces of a State of the territory of another State, or
any military occupation, however temporary, resulting from such invasion or
attack, or any annexation by the use of force of the territory of another
State or part thereof",
Recalling General Assembly resolutions ES-7/2 of 29 July 1980, 37/88 to of 10 December 1982, 37/123 to of 16 and 20 December 1982, 38/58 to of 13 December 1983, 38/79 to of 15 December 1983, 39/49 A to D of
11 December 1984, 39/95 A to H of 14 December 1984, 40/161 A to G of
16 December 1985 and 41/63 to of 2 December 1986 and all other relevant
General Assembly resolutions on Israeli violations of the human rights of the
population of occupied Arab territories,
Recalling, in particular, Security Council resolutions 237 (1967) of
14 June 1967, 446 (1979) of 22 March 1979, 465 (1980) of 1 March 1980,
468 (1980) of 8 May 1980, 469 (1980) of 20 May 1980, 478 (1980) of
20 August 1980 and 484 (1980) 19 December 1980 and all other relevant
Security Council resolutions,
Taking note of the reports and resolutions of the International Labour
Organisation, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
-13-
ll, Decides to place on the provisional agenda of its
forty-fourth session, as a matter of high priority, the item entitled
Question of the violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories,
including Palestine,
27h meeting
19 February 1987
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 28 to 1, with
13 abstentions. See chap, IV.]
1987/2. Question of the violation of human rights in the
occupied Arab territories, including Palestine
A
The_ Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations as well as the principles and provisions of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights,
Guided also by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights,
Bearing_in mind the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of l2 August 1949, and of
The Hague Convention IV of 1907, as well as the principles of international
humanitarian law,
Taking_into consideration General Assembly resolution 3314 (XX1X) of
14 December 1974, which defined as an act of aggression "the invasion or
attack by the armed forces of a State of the territory of another State, or
any military occupation, however temporary, resulting from such invasion or
attack, or any annexation by the use of force of the territory of another
State or part thereof,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions ES-7/2 of 29 July 1980, 37/88 A
to G of 10 December 1982, 37/123 A to F of 16 and 20 December 1982, 38/58 A
to E of 13 December 1983, 38/79 A to H of 15 December 1983, 39/49 A to D of
ll December 1984, 39/95 A to H of 14 December 1984, 40/16l to G of
16 December 1985 and 41/63 A to G of 2 December 1986 and all other relevant
General Assembly resolutions on Israeli violations of the human rights of the
population of occupied Arab territories,
Recalling, in particular, Security Council resolutions 237 (1967) of
14 June 1967, 446 (1979) of 22 March 1979, 465 (1980) of l March 1980,
468 (l980) of 8 May 1980, 469 (1980) of 20 May 1980, 478 (1980) of
20 August 1980 and 484 (1980) of 19 December l980 and all other relevant
Security Council resolutions,
Taking_note of the reports and resolutions of the International Labour
Organisation, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
-13Organization
and the World Health Organization as well as the report of the
seminar on violations of human rights in the Palestinian and other Arab
territories occupied by Israel, held at Geneva from 29 November to
3 December 1982, and the reports of the Special Committee to Investigate
Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied
Territories,
Recalling its previous resolutions in this connection, particularly
resolutions 1982/1 A and В of 11 February 1982, 1983/1 A and В and 1983/2 of
15 February 1983, 1984/1 A and В and 1984/2 of 20 February 1984, 1985/1 A
and В of 19 February 1985 and 1986/1 A and В of 20 February 1986 on the
"Question of the violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories,
including Palestine",
Taking note with grave alarm of the content of the report of the
Special Committee regarding Israel's pursuance of the "iron fist" policy in
the occupied Palestinian territories,
1. Reaffirms the fact that occupation itself constitutes a fundamental
violation of the human rights of the civilian population of the occupied Arab
territories, including Palestine ?
2. Denounces the continued refusal of Israel to allow the
Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights
of the Population of the Occupied Territories access to the occupied
territories, and calls upon it to allow the Special Committee to visit the
occupied territories in implementation of the relevant General Assembly
resolutions;
3. Reiterates the deep concern expressed by the Special Committee in
its reports submitted to the General Assembly that Israel's policy in the
occupied territories is based on the so-called "Homeland" doctrine which
envisages a monoreligious (Jewish) State that includes territories occupied by
Israel since June 1967, and the affirmation by the Special Committee that this
policy not only denies the right to self-determination of the population of
the occupied territories but also constitutes the source of the continuing and
systematic violation of human rights;
4. Reaffirms the fact that Israel's continuous grave breaches of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War, of 12 August 1949, and of the Additional Protocols to the Geneva
Conventions of 1949 are war crimes and an affront to humanity;
5. Firmly rejects and reiterates its condemnation of Israel's decision
to annex Jerusalem and to change the physical character, demographic
composition, institutional structure or status of the occupied territories,
including Jerusalem, and considers all these measures and their consequences
null and void;
6. Strongly condemns the implementation of the "iron fist" policy
against the population of the occupied territories;
7. Strongly condemns Israel's attempts to subject the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip to Israeli laws;
-14-
Organization and the World Health Organization as well as the report of the
seminar on violations of human rights in the Palestinian and other Arab
territories occupied by Israel, held at Geneva from 29 Noember to
3 December 1982, and the reports of the Special Committee to Investigate
Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied
Territories,
Recalling its previous resolutions in this connection, particularly
resolutions 1982/l A and B of 1l February 1982, 1983/1 A and B and 1983/2 of
15 February 1983, 1984/ A and B and 1984/2 of 20 February 1984, 1985/1 A
and B of 19 February 1985 and 1986/1 A and B of 20 February 1986 on the
Question of the violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories,
including Palestine",
'Taking_note with grave alarm of the content of the report of the
Special Committee regarding Israel's pursuance of the iron fist" policy in
the occupied Palestinian territories,
I, Reaffirms the fact that occupation itself constitutes a fundamental
violation of the human rights of the civilian population of the occupied Arab
territories, including Palestine;
2. Denounces the continued refusal of Israel to allow the
Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights
of the Population of the Occupied Territories access to the occupied
territories, and calls upon it to allow the Special Committee to visit the
occupied territories in implementation of the relevant General Assembly
resolutions}
3. Reiterates the deep concern expressed by the Special Committee in
its reports submitted to the General Assembly that Israel's policy in the
occupied territories is based on the so-called "Homeland" doctrine which
envisages a monoreligious (Jewish) State that includes territories occupied by
Israel since June 1967, and the affirmation by the Special Committee that this
policy not only denies the right to self-determination of the population of
the occupied territories but also constitutes the source of the continuing and
systematic violation of human rights;
4, Reaffirms the fact that Israel's continuous grave breaches of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in 'Time of
War, of 12 August I949, and of the Additional Protocols to the Geneva
Conventions of 1949 are war crimes and an affront to humanity;
5, Firmly rejects and reiterates its condemnation of Israel's decision
to annex Jerusalem and to change the physical character, demographic
composition, institutional structure or status of the occupied territories,
including Jerusalem, and considers all these measures and their consequences
null and void;
6.
against
strongly condemns the implementation of the
the population of the occupied territories+
iron fist" policy
7, Strongly_condemns Israel's attempts to subject the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip to Israeli lawsf
I48.
Strongly condemns Israeli policies and practices, administrative and
legislative measures to promote and expand the establishment of settler
colonies in the occupied territories, as well as the following practices;
(a) Annexation of parts of the occupied territories, including Jerusalem;
(b) Continuing establishment of new Israeli settlements and expansion of
existing settlements on private and public Arab lands, and transfer of an
alien population thereto;
(c) Arming of settlers in the occupied territories to commit acts of
violence against Arab civilians, and perpetration of acts of violence by these
armed settlers against individuals from Palestinian camps and institutions,
causing injury and death and wide-scale damage to Arab property, and all
terrorist acts undertaken against the Palestinian inhabitants of the occupied
Zionist authorities;
(d) Striking at Muslim and Christian religious and holy places and
attacks on Al Aqsa Mosque aimed at seizing and destroying it, and
hindering religious freedom and practices;
(e) Evacuation, deportation, expulsion, displacement and transfer of
Arab inhabitants of the occupied territories, denial of their to return
from other of the world in the of the Palestinian owners
land;
f) Confiscation and expropriation of Arab property in the occupied
territories from Palestinian owners and demolition and destruction of Arab
houses ;
(g) Mass arrests, collective punishments, administrative detention,
torture of under detention, ill-treatment of the Arab population and
inhuman conditions in prisons as well as attacks and use of tear-gas against
(h) Pillaging of archaeological and cultural property and systematic
Israeli repression of cultural and educational institutions, especially
universities, schools and institutes, in the Palestinian territories,
(i) Attacks against Palestinian students in universities and institutes,
such as that which occurred in Bir Zeit University, where a number of them
or on 4 December 1986;
j) Expropriation and exploitation of the natural wealth, water and
other resources which belong to the inhabitants of the occupied territories;
-15-
8, Strongl¥condemns Israeli policies and practices, administrative and
legislative measures to promote and expand the establishment of settler
colonies in the occupied territories, as well as the following practices:
(a) Annexation of parts of the occupied territories, including Jerusalem;
(b) Continuing establishment of new Israeli settlements and expansion of
existing settlements on private and public Arab lands, and transfer of an
alien population thereto;
(c) Arming of settlers in the occupied territories to commit acts of
violence against Arab civilians, and perpetration of acts of violence by these
armed settlers against individuals from Palestinian camps and institutions,
causing injury and death and wide-scale damage to Arab property, and all
terrorist acts undertaken against the Palestinian inhabitants of the occupied
territories by zionist gangs under the supervision of the occupation
authorities;
(d) Striking at Muslim and Christian religious and holy places and
repeated attacks on Al Aqsa Mosque aimed at seizing and destroying it, and
hindering religious freedom and practices;
(e) Evacuation, deportation, expulsion, displacement and transfer of
Arab inhabitants of the occupied territories, denial of their right to return
to their homeland and transfer and settlement of alien populations brought
from other parts of the world in the place of the original Palestinian owners
of land»
(f) Confiscation and expropriation of Arab property in the occupied
territories from Palestinian owners and demolition and destruction of Arab
houses f
(g) Mass arrests, collective punishments, administrative detention,
torture of persons under detention, ill-treatment of the Arab population and
inhuman conditions in prisons as well as attacks and use of tear-gas against
prisoners in the prisons of Kfar Youna, Janeed, Narha, Hebron, Ashkelon and
Fara'a, in September and October 1986;
(h) Pillaging of archaeological and cultural property and systematic
Israeli repression of cultural and educational institutions, especially
universities, schools and institutes, in the occupied Palestinian territories,
their closure or the restriction and obstruction of their academic activities
through subjection of the selection of courses, textbooks and educational
programmes, admission of students and appointment of faculty members to the
control and supervision of the military occupation authorities;
(i) Attacks against Palestinian students in universities and institutes,
such as that which occurred in Bir Zeit University, where a number of them
were killed or wounded when they were fired upon inside the university campus
on 4 December 1986;
(j) Expropriation and exploitation of the natural wealth, water and
other resources which belong to the inhabitants of the occupied territories;
-15(
к) The dismantling of municipal services by dismissal the elected
mayors as well as the municipal councils and prevention of the flow of Arab
aid funds to the population of the occupied territories;
9. Calls Israel to take immediate steps for the return of the
displaced Arab inhabitants to their homes and property in Palestine and other
Arab territories occupied since June 1967;
10. Calls upon the Israeli authorities to implement forthwith
1980) 19 1980 resolutions calling for the immediate return of the elected mayors to their
11. Urges Israel to refrain from policies and practices which violate
human rights in the occupied territories;
12. Reiterates its call to all States, in particular the States parties
to the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in
Time of war, in accordance with article 1 of that Convention, and to
to might to resolution;
13. Requests the General Assembly, through the Economic and Social
Council, to recommend to the Security Council the adoption against Israel of
the measures referred to in Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations
for its persistent violation of the human rights of the population of the
14. the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations and the
international humanitarian organizations and to give it the widest possible
publicity, and to report to Commission on Human Rights at its
forty-fourth session;
15. Further the Secretary-General to provide the Commission
with all United Nations reports appearing between sessions of the Commission
and dealing with the situation of the population of those occupied territories;
16. Decides to place on the provisional agenda of the
forty-fourth session, as a matter of high priority, the item entitled
"Question of the violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories,
including Palestine".
27th 1987
Adopted roll-call vote of 28 to 8, with
б abstentions. See chap. IV.]
-16-
k) The dismantling of municipal services by dismissal of the elected
mayors as well as the municipal councils and prevention of the flow of Arab
aid funds to the population of the occupied territories+
9, Calls upon Israel to take immediate steps for the return of the
displaced Arab inhabitants to their homes and property in Palestine and other
Arab territories occupied since June 19675
10. Calls upon the Israeli authorities to implement forthwith
Security Council resolution 484 (1980) of l9 December 2980 and previous
resolutions calling for the immediate return of the elected mayors to their
municipalities so that they can resume the functions for which they were
elected;
ll, Urges Israel to refrain from policies and practices which violate
human rights in the occupied territoriesf
12. Reiterates its call to all States, in particular the States parties
to the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in
Time of War, in accordance with article l of that Convention, and to
international organizations and specialized agencies, not to recognize any
changes carried out by Israel in the occupied territories, including
Jerusalem, and to avoid taking any action or extending any aid which night be
used by Israel in its pursuit of the policies of annexation and colonization
or any other policies and practices referred to in the present resolution
13, Requests the General Assembly, through the Economic and Social
Council, to recommend to the Security Council the adoption against Israel of
the measures referred to in Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations
for its persistent violation of the human rights of the population of the
Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories;
14. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations and the
international humanitarian organizations and to give it the widest possible
publicity, and to report to the Commission on Human Rights at its
forty-fourth session;
l5, Further requests the Secretary-General to provide the Commission
with all United Nations reports appearing between sessions of the Commission
and dealing with the situation of the population of those occupied territories#
16, Decides to place on the provisional agenda of the
forty-fourth session, as a matter of high priority, the item entitled
"Question of the violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories,
including Palestine".
[Adopted by a
-16roll-
call vote
6 abstentions,
27th meeting
19 February 1987
of 28 to 8, with
See chap, IV.J
в
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling its resolutions 1982/1 В of 11 February 1982, 1983/1 В of
15 February 1983, 1984/1 В of 20 February 1984, 1985/1 В of 19 February 1985
and 1986/1 A and В of 20 February 1986,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 2674 (XXV) and 2675 (XXV) of
9 December 1970, 3092 A (XXVIII) of 7 December 1973, 32/91 A of
13 December 1977, 33/113 A of 18 December 1978, 34/90 В of 12 December 1979,
35/122 A of 11 December 1980, 36/147 A of 16 December 1981, 37/88 A of
10 December 1982, 38/79 В of 15 December 1983, 39/95 D of 14 December 1984,
40/161 A to G of 16 December 1985, 41/43 A to D of 2 December 1986 and 41/63 A
to G of 3 December 1986,
Recalling Security Council resolutions 465 (1980) of 1 March 1980,
468 (1980) of 8 May 1980, 469 (1980) of 20 May 1980, 471 (1980) of
5 June 1980, 476 (1980) of 30 June 1980, 478 (1980) of 20 August 1980 and
484 (1980) of 19 December 1980,
Recalling resolution III on the application of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of
12 August 1949, adopted by the Twenty-fourth International Conference of the
Red Cross held at Manila in November 1981, and reaffirmed by its Twenty-fifth
International Conference held in Geneva in October 1986,
Bearing in mind that the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of
12 August 1949 must be fully applied in all circumstances to all persons
protected by those instruments, without any adverse distinction based on the
nature or origin of the armed conflict or on the causes espoused by or
attributed to the conflict,
Recognizing that the persistent refusal of Israel to apply the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War
creates a situation fraught with danger, and considering that it persists in
violating human rights,
Taking into account that States parties to the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War undertake, in accordance
with article 1 thereof, not only to respect but also to ensure respect for the
Convention in all circumstances,
1. Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to all
Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967,
including Jerusalem?
2. Strongly condemns Israel's systematic refusal to apply that
Convention in all its provisions to the Palestinian and Arab territories
occupied since 1967 and their inhabitants, despite its adherence to that
Convention, and its refusal to recognize the applicability of that Convention
to those territories;
-17-
B
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling its resolutions 1982/1 B of ll February 1982, 1983/1 B of
15 February 1983, 1984/l B of 20 February 1984, 1985/1 B of 19 February 1985
and 1986/1 A and B Of 20 February 1986,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 2674 (xXV) and 2675 (XXV) of
9 December 1970, 3092 A (XXVIII) of 7 December 1973, 32/91 A of
13 December 1977, 33/113 A of 18 December 1978, 34/90 B of 12 December 1979,
35/122 A of ll December 1980, 36/147 A of 16 December 1981, 37/88 A of
10 December 1982, 38/79 B of 15 December 1983, 39/95 D of 14 December 1984,
40/161 A to G of 16 December 1985, 41/43 A to D Of 2 December 1986 and 41/63 A
to G of 3 December 1986,
Recalling Security Council resolutions 465 (1980) of 1 March 1980,
468 (1980) o£ 8 May 1980, 469 (1980) of 20 May 1980, 471 (1980) of
5 June 1980, 476 (1980) of 30 June 1980, 478 (1980) of 20 August 1980 and
484 (1980) of 19 December 1980,
Recalling resolution III on the application of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of
l2 August 1949, adopted by the Twenty-fourth International Conference of the
Red Cross held at Manila in November 1981, and reaffirmed by its Twenty-fifth
International Conference held in Geneva in October 1986,
Bearing_in mind that the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of
12 August 1949 must be fully applied in all circumstances to all persons
protected by those instruments, without any adverse distinction based on the
nature or origin of the armed conflict or on the causes espoused by or
attributed to the conflict,
Recognizing that the persistent refusal of Israel to apply the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War
creates a situation fraught with danger, and considering that it persists in
violating human rights,
Tak ing_into account that States parties to the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Ciilian Persons in Time of war undertake, in accordance
with article l thereof, not only to respect but also to ensure respect for the
Convention in all circumstances,
l. Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to all
Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967,
including Jerusalem;
2. Strongly condemns Israel's systematic refusal to apply that
Convention in all its provisions to the Palestinian and Arab territories
occupied since 1967 and their inhabitants, despite its adherence to that
Convention, and its refusal to recognize the applicability of that Convention
to those territories#
-173.
Strongly condemns Israel for its policies of ill-treatment and
torture of Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli prisons;
4. Urges Israel to grant prisoner-of-war status, in accordance with the
Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, of
12 August 1949, to all Palestinian fighters captured by Israel, and to treat
them according ly;
5- Calls upon Israel to abide by and respect the obligations arising
from the Charter of the United Nations and other principles of international
law, in Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including
Jerusalem; requests Israel to release all Arabs detained or imprisoned as a
result of their struggle for self-determination and the liberation of their
territories and to accord them, pending their release, the protection
envisaged in the relevant provisions of the international instruments
1907; 6. Urges once more all States parties to the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to make every effort to
ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions of that Convention in
all the Palestinian and Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967,
including Jerusalem;
7. Strongly condemns Israel for its policy of deporting Palestinian
citizens from their homeland, as occurred recently with regard to
Mr. Akram Haniyeh, editor of the Jerusalem newspaper Al Shaab, and calls upon
Israel, the occupying Power, to refrain forthwith from the deportation of
Palestinians and to rescind the deportation decisions to enable those who were
deported to return to their homeland and property;
8. Urges Israel to co-operate with the International Committee of the
Red Cross and to allow it to visit all Palestinian and Arab detainees in
Israeli prisons;
9. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the
international humanitarian organizations and non-governmental
organizations,and to submit a report on progress in its implementation to the
Commission on Human Rights at its forty-fourth session;
10. Dec ides to consider this subject at its forty-fourth session as a
matter of high priority.
27th meeting
19 1987
[Adopted a roll-call vote of 29 to 1, with
12 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
-18-
3.
torture
Strongly_condemns Israel for its policies of ill-treatment and
of Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli prisons;
4. Urges Israel to grant prisoner-of-war status, in accordance with the
Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, of
12 August 1949, to all Palestinian fighters captured by Israel, and to treat
them accordingly
5, Calls upon Israel to abide by and respect the obligations arising
from the Charter of the United Nations and other principles of international
law, in Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including
Jerusalem; requests Israel to release all Arabs detained or imprisoned as a
result of their struggle for self-determination and the liberation of their
territories and to accord them, pending their release, the protection
envisaged in the relevant provisions of the international instruments
concerning the treatment of prisoners of war, in particular the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War of 12 August 1949, and The Hague Convention IV of 1907¢ and demands that
Israel cease forthwith all acts of torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian
and Arab detainees and prisoners;
6, Urges once more all States parties to the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to make every effort to
ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions of that Convention in
all the Palestinian and Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967,
including Jerusalem;
7. Strongly condemns Israel for its policy of deporting Palestinian
citizens from their homeland, as occurred recently with regard to
Mr, Akram Haniyeh, editor of the Jerusalem newspaper Al Shaab, and calls upon
Israel, the occupying Power, to refrain forthwith from the deportation of
Palestinians and to rescind the deportation decisions to enable those who were
deported to return to their homeland and property;
8. Drges Israel to co-operate with the International Committee of the
Red Cross and to allow it to visit all Palestinian and Arab detainees in
Israeli prisons;
9. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the
international humanitarian organizations and non-governmental
organizations,and to submit a report on progress in its implementation to the
Commission on Human Rights at its forty-fourth session;
10, Decides to consider this subject at its forty-fourth session as a
matter of high priority.
27th meeting
19 February 1987
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 29 to l, with
12 abstentions, See chap, IV.J
-18E/
1988/12
E/CN.4/1988/88
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
ll New York, 1988
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTY-FOURTH SESSION
(1 February-11 March 1988)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1988
SUPPLEMENT No. 2
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1988
I I . SESSION
A. of occupied including Palestine
The on Rights,
p r i n c i p l e s p r i n c i p l e s Universal
a l s o Rights P o l i t i c a l Bearing in mind r e l a t i v e 12 1907, p r i n c i p l e s i n t e r n a t i o n al
Taking "the a t t a c k t e r r i t o r y m i l i t a r y a t t a c k , t e r r i t o r y S t a t e thereof",
Recalling a l l r e s o l u t i o n s I s r a e l i v i o l a t i o n s t e r r i t o r i e s,
Recalling, p a r t i c u l a r , r e s o l u t i o n s,
5 1988) 14 Taking note General fact-S/r e s o l u t i o n s S c i e n t i f i c Cultural
a l l Special Committee to Investigate I s r a e l i Practices Affecting the Human Rights
of the Population of the Occupied T e r r i t o r i e s,
-16-
II. RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE COMMISSION AT
ITS FORTY-FOURTH SESSION
Resolutions
1988/1. Question of the violation of_ human rights in the
Arab territories, including_Palestine
A
Commission pn Human Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations as well as the principles and provisions of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights,
Guided also by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights,
Bearing_ in_mind the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of l2 August 1949, and of
The Hague Convention IV of 907, as well as the principles of international
humanitarian law,
Taking_ into consideration General Assembly resolution 3314 (XXIX) of
14 December 1974, which defined as an act of aggression the invasion or
attack by the armed forces of a State of the territory of another State, or
any military occupation, however temporary, resulting from such invasion or
attack, or any annexation by the use of force of the territory of another
State or part thereof,
all other relevant General Assembly resolutions adopted at
regular and special sessions in respect of Israeli violations of the
human rights of the population of occupied Arab territories,
in particular, relevant Security Council resolutions,
including resolutions 605 (1987) of 22 December 1987, 607 (1988) of
January 1988 and 608 (1988) of l4 January 1988,
Taking_note of the report of the Secretary-General on the fact-finding
mission of his envoy, Mr. Marrack Goulding, to occupied Palestine (S/19443),
and of relevant reports and resolutions of the International Labour
Organisation, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization and the World Health Organization as well as all reports of the
Israeli Territories,
16
the press release issued the International Committee of the
Red Cross in Geneva on 13 January 1988 on the expulsion of Palestinian
citizens from their homeland,
its previous resolutions on Israeli violations of human rights
in occupied Palestine,
its grave alarm at Israel's continued pursuance of the "iron
fist" in the occupied Palestinian territories, and Israel's crimes of
murder, injury, arrest and deportation against Palestinians, its policy of
starvation of the camps and its acts involving the breaking of children's and
young people's arms,
1. Reaffirms the fact that occupation itself constitutes a fundamental
violation of the human rights of the civilian population of the occupied Arab
territories, including Palestine;
2. Reaffirms that Israel's continuous grave violations of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War, of 12 August 1949, and of the Additional Protocols of 1977 to the Geneva
1949 3. Strongly condemns Israel's policy of physical violence in occupied
Palestine, the bones of children, women and men and causing women to
miscarry as a result of severe beating;
4. Strongly condemns Israel's pursuance of the "iron fist" policy and
by 1 and 3 February 1988;
5. Firmly rejects and reiterates its condemnation of Israel's decision
to annex Jerusalem and change the architectural character, demographic
composition, institutional structure or status of the occupied territories,
including Jerusalem, and considers all these measures and their consequences
null and void, and further condemns the confiscation of land and property, the
demolition of houses and efforts Israel' to subject the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip to Israeli laws;
6. Condemns once the establishment of Israeli settlements and the
occupation authorities in occupied Palestine;
-17-
Recalling the press release issued by the International Committee of the
Red Cross in Geneva on l3 January 1988 on the expulsion of Palestinian
citizens from their homeland,
Recalling its previous resolutions on Israeli violations of human rights
in occupied Palestine,
Reaffirming its grave alarm at Israels continued pursuance of the iron
fist" policy in the occupied Palestinian territories, and Israel's crimes of
murder, injury, arrest and deportation against Palestinians, its policy of
starvation of the camps and its acts involving the breaking of children's and
young people's arms,
• Reaffirms the fact that occupation itself constitutes a fundamental
violation of the human rights of the civilian population of the occupied Arab
territories, including Palestine;
2. Reaffirms that Israel's continuous grave violations of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War, of l2 August 1949, and of the Additional Protocols of 1977 to the Geneva
Conventions of 949 are war crimes and an affront to humanity;
3. Strongly_condemns Israel's policy of physical violence in occupied
Palestine, breaking the bones of children, women and men and causing women to
miscarry as a result of severe beating
4. Strongly_condemns Israel's pursuance of tbe iron fist" policy and
its continued and systematic violation of the human rights of the Palestinian
people, including opening fire on children, women and civilian men as well as
killing, wounding, arresting and torturing thousands of Palestinians, and the
attempts to kidnap Palestinian children force and transfer them to unknown
places, as happened in Dheisheh camp and Khawlah school in Al Bireh on
l and 3 February 1988
5. Firmly_rejects and reiterates its condemnation of Israel's decision
to annex Jerusalem and to change the architectural character, demographic
composition, institutional structure or status of the occupied territories,
including Jerusalem, and considers all these measures and their consequences
null and void, and further condemns the confiscation of land and property, the
demolition of houses and efforts by Israel to subject the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip to Israeli laws;
6. Condemns once again the establishment of Israeli settlements and the
arming of settlers to kill Palestinians under the supervision of the
occupation authorities in occupied Palestine#
-17--
7. Condemns once aggression against Islamic and Christian
religious including the attacks on Al Aqsa Mosque with
the aim of seizing and destroying it, the obstruction of religious freedoms
and practices and the act of fire on worshippers, wounding dozens of
MosqUe, 15 8. Condemns once the evacuation, deportation, expulsion,
displacement and transfer of the Palestinian population and the denial of
their right to return to their homeland and the transfer and settlement of
alien populations brought from other parts of the world in the place of the
land;
9. Condemns once mass arrests, collective punishment,
administrative detention and the torture of detainees;
10. Condemns once the pillaging of archaeological and cultural
and Israeli of cultural and educational
of the natural wealth, water and other resources which belong to
11. Calls upon the Israeli authorities to implement forthwith
Security Council resolutions 484 (1980) of 19 December 1980 and 608 (1988) of
14 January 1988 as well as previous resolutions of the Council calling for the
immediate return of the elected mayors to their municipalities and the return
to their homeland of all citizens deported by the occupation authorities;
12. Israel to refrain from policies and practices which violate
human rights in the occupied territories;
13. the General Assembly, through the Economic and Social
Council, to recommend to the Council the adoption against Israel of
population territories;
14. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations and the
international humanitarian organizations and to give it the widest possible
to Commission
15. Further the to provide the Commission
with all United Nations reports appearing between sessions of the Commission
and dealing with the situation of the of those occupied territories;
-18-
7. Condemns once again aggression against Islamic and Christian
religious holy places, including the repeated attacks on Al Aqsa Mosque with
the aim of seizing and destroying it, the obstruction of religious freedoms
and practices and the act of opening fire on worshippers, wounding dozens of
them in Al Aqsa Mosque, for example, on lS January 1988;
8, Condemns one again the evacuation, deportation, expulsion,
displacement and transfer of the Palestinian population and the denial of
their right to return to their homeland and the transfer and settlement of
alien populations brought from other parts of the world in the place of the
original Palestinian owners of the land
9, Condemns_ once again mass arrests, collective punishment,
administrative detention and the torture of detainees
10. Condemns once again the pillaging of archaeological and cultural
property and systematic Israeli repression of cultural and educational
institutions, especially universities, schools and institutes, and the
expropriation of the natural wealth, water and other resources which belong to
the Palestinian citizens in the occupied territories;
l. Calls ppon the Israeli authorities to implement forthwith
Security Council resolutions 484 (1980) of 19 December 1980 and 608 (1988) of
14 January 1988 as well as previous resolutions of the Council calling for the
immediate return of the elected mayors to their municipalities and the return
to their homeland of all citizens deported by the occupation authorities
12. Urges Israel to refrain from policies and practices which violate
human rights in the occupied territories
13. Requests the General Assembly, through the Economic and Social
Council, to recommend to the Security Council the adoption against Israel of
the measures referred to in Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations
for its persistent violation of the human rights of the Population of the
Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories
I4. Bequests the Secretary -General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations or9ans, the
specialized agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations and the
international humanitarian organizations and to give it the widest possible
publicity, and to report on the extent of its implementation to the Ommission
on Human Rights at its forty-fifth session;
I5, Further requests the Secretary-General to provide the Commission
with all United Nations reports appearing between sessions of the Commission
and dealing with the situation of the population of those occupied territoriesf
-1816.
Decides to consider this subject at its forty-fifth session as a
matter of high priority.
19th 15 1988
[Adopted a roll-call vote of 31 to 8, with
4 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
B
The Commission on Human Reca11ing Council resolutions 446 (1979) of 22 March 1979,
1980) 1981) 1986) 8 December 1986 and 605 (1987) of 22 December 1987, as well all its
12 all relevant General Assembly resolutions,
in respect of the application of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949,
13 violation Israel of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
1949,
its previous resolutions on this question,
Bearing in Taking into to the Protection of civilian Persons in Time of War undertake, in accordance
with article 1 thereof, not only to respect but also to ensure respect for the
-19-
I6. Decides to consider this subject at its forty-fifth session as a
matter of high priority,
l9th meeting
15 February 1988
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 3l to 8, with
4 abstentions, See chap, IV. J
B
The_ Commission on Human_ Rights,
Recalling Security Council resolutions 446 (1979) of 22 March 1979,
465 (1980) of 1 March 1980, 497 (1981) of 17 December 1981, 592 (1986) of
8 December 1986 and 605 (1987) of 22 December 1987, as well as all its
previous resolutions on the application of the Geneva Conventions of
l2 August 1949 to the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied by
Israel and the refusal of Israel to abide by those Conventions,
Recalling all relevant General Assembly resolutions,
Recalling the decisions of the International Conference of the Red Cross
in respect of the application of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949,
Recalling the statement of the International Committee of the Red Cross
of l3 January 1988 in which it reiterated its protest against the continued
violation by Israel of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August l949,
Recalling its previous resolutions on this question,
Bearing_in mind that the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of
12 August 1949 must be fully applied in all circumstances to all persons
protected by those instruments, without any adverse distinction based on the
nature or origin of the armed conflict or on the causes espoused or attributed
to the conflict,
Recognizing that the persistent refusal of Israel to apply the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War
creates a situation fraught with danger, and considering that it persists in
violating human rights,
Taking_into account that States parties to the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War undertake, in accordance
with article l thereof, not only to respect but also to ensure respect for the
Convention in all circumstances,
-191.
Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to all
Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967,
including Jerusalem;
2. condemns once Israel's systematic refusal to apply
that Convention in all its provisions to the Palestinian and Arab territories
occupied since 1967 and their inhabitants, despite its adherence to that
Convention, and its refusal to recognize the applicability of that Convention
to those territories?
3. Once more strongly condemns Israel for its policies of ill-treatment
and torture of Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli prisons»
4. Once more Israel to grant prisoner-of-war status, in
accordance with the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners
of War, of 12 August 1949, to all Palestinian fighters captured by Israel, and
to treat them accordingly;
5. Calls Israel to abide by and respect the obligations arising
from the Charter of the United Nations and other principles of international
law, in Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including
Jerusalem; requests Israel to release all Arabs detained or imprisoned as a
result of their for self-determination and the liberation of their
territories and to accord them, pending their release, the protection
envisaged in the relevant of the international instruments
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War, of 12 August 1949, and The Hague Convention IV of 1907; and demands that
Israel cease forthwith all acts of torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian
and Arab detainees and prisoners;
6. Urges once more all States parties to the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to make every effort to
ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions of that Convention in
all the Palestinian and Arab territories occupied by Israel since including Jerusalem;
7. condemns Israel for the violations of article 49 of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War which it has by a policy of deportation and expulsion
of Palestinian citizens, as occurred recently in the case of citizens Jibril
Mahmoud Rajoub, Hussam Osman Mahmoud Khodr, Bashir Ahmed Khairy and Jamal
-20-
l. Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of l2 August 1949, is applicable to all
Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967,
including Jerusalem;
2. Strongly condemns once again Israel's systematic refusal to apply
that Convention in all its proisions to the Palestinian and Arab territories
occupied since 1967 and their inhabitants, despite its adherence to that
Convention, and its refusal to recognize the applicability of that Convention
to those territories;
3. Once more strongly_condemns Israel for its policies of ill-treatment
and torture of Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli prisons;
4. Once more urges Israel to grant prisoner-of-war status, in
accordance with the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners
of War, of 12 August 1949, to all Palestinian fighters captured by Israel, and
to treat them accordingly
5. Calls upon Israel to abide by and respect the obligations arising
from the Charter of the United Nations and other principles of international
law, in Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including
Jerusalem; requests Israel to release all Arabs detained or imprisoned as a
result of their struggle for self-determination and the liberation of their
territories and to accord them, pending their release, the protection
envisaged in the relevant provisions of the international instruments
concerning the treatment of prisoners of war and, in particular, the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War, of l2 August 1949, and The Hague Convention IV of 1907, and demands that
Israel cease forthwith all acts of torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian
and Arab detainees and prisoners;
6, Urges once more all States parties to the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to make every effort to
ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions of that Convention in
all the Palestinian and Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967,
including Jerusalem;
7. Strongly condemns Israel for the violations of article 49 of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War which it has perpetrated by pursuing a policy of deportation and expulsion
of Palestinian citizens, as occurred recently in the case of citizens Jibril
Mahmoud Rajoub, Hussam Osman Mahmoud Khodr, Bashir Ahmed Khairy and Jamal
Abdallah Jabbarah, and calls upon Israel, the occupying Power, to refrain
forthwith from the deportation of Palestinians and to rescind the deportation
decisions to enable those who were deported to return to their homeland and
property;
-20--
8. Israel to co-operate with the International Committee of the
Israeli prisons;
9. the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
specialized the regional intergovernmental the
non-governmental and to submit a on in implementation to the Commission on
10. Decides to consider this subject at its forty-fifth session as a
matter of high 19th 15 1988
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 31 to 1, with
11 chap. IV. 1
1988/2. Human in The Commission on Human Gravely concerned at the fact that and other Arab territories
Israel's violation of Article 25 of the Charter of the
1981) 17 Geneva Taking note with deep concern of the report of the Special Committee to
A/-21-
8. Urges Israel to cooperate with the International Committee of the
Red Cross and to allow it to visit all Palestinian and Arab detainees in
Israeli prisons;
9, Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the
international humanitarian organizations and nongovernmental organizations,
and to submit a report on progress in its implementation to the Commission on
Human Rights at its forty-fifth session;
10. Decides to consider this subject at its forty-fifth session as a
matter of high priority.
9th meeting
15 February 1988
(Adopted by a roll-call vote of 3l to l, with
ll abstentions. See I, J
1988/2. Human rights in occupied Syrian territory
The Comission pn Human_ Rights,
Guided by the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations and the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and by the provisions of the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
Gravely concerned at the fact that Syrian and other Arab territories
occupied by Israel in 1967 are still suffering from Israeli military
occupation, aggression and continued violation of human rights,
Recalling Israel's violation of Article 25 of the Charter of the
United Nations and its refusal to accept and carry out relevant resolutions of
the Security Council, in particular resolution 497 (1981) of l7 December 1981,
in which the Council, inter alia, decided that the Israeli decision to impose
its laws, jurisdiction and administration in the occupied Syrian Arab Golan
was null and void and without international legal effect, and demanded that
Israel should rescind forthwith its decision,
Recalling the resolution adopted by the Seventy-first Inter-Parliamentary
Conference, held at Genea from 2 to 7 April 1984, which condemned all Israeli
policies and practices relating to the annexation of occupied Arab territory
in Jerusalem and the Syrian Arab Golan,
Taking_note with deep concern of the report of the Special Committee to
Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of
the Occupied Territories (A/42/650),
-2186
SOCUL UNITED NATIONS
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTY-FIFTH SESSION
(30 January-10 March 1989)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1989
SUPPLEMENT No. 2
UNITED NATIONS
E/1989/20
E/CN.4/1989/86
of violations of human in occupied Palestine
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations as well as the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights,
Guided also by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of
12 August 1949, and The Hague Convention IV of 1907, as well as the principles
of international law affirmed by the General Assembly in resolutions 3 (I) of
13 February 1946, 95 (I) of 11 December 1946, 260 A III) of 9 December 1948
and 2391 XXIII) of 26 November 1968,
Recalling that military aggression by the forces of any State against the
territory of another State constitutes an offence against the peace and
security of mankind.
Recalling also the relevant Security Council resolutions, including
resolutions 605 (1987) of 22 December 1987, 607 (1988) of 5 January 1988 and
608 (1988) of 14 January 1988,
Recalling further General Assembly resolutions on Israeli violations of
human rights in occupied Palestine,
Taking note of the report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli
Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied
Territories (A/43/694),
Recalling all its previous resolutions on the subject,
1. Affirms that the Israeli occupation of Palestine constitutes a gross
violation of human rights and an offence against the peace and security of
mankind;
2. Affirms that the systematic and persistent practices of the Israeli
occupation authorities as reflected in the killing of Palestinians, including
children, the breaking of the bones of youths, causing them grievous and
permanent bodily harm, the subjection of towns, villages and camps to living
conditions intended to destroy them through the imposition of curfews and
military siege, the throwing of gas bombs into houses, mosques and hospitals
resulting in the death of many Palestinians by suffocation, and the savage
-19-
1989/2. Question .of violations of human. rights
in .occupied Palestine
A
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations as well as the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights,
Guided also by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of
12 August 1949, and The Hague Convention IV of 1907, as well as the principles
of international law affirmed by the General Assembly in resolutions 3 (I) of
13 February 1946, 95 (1) of 11 December 1946, 260 A (II) of 9 December 1948
and 2391 (XXIII) of 26 November 1968,
Recalling that military aggression by the forces of any State against the
territory of enother State constitutes an offence against the peace and
security of mankind,
Recalling.also the relevant Security Council resolutions, including
resolutions 605 (1987) of 22 December 1987, 607 (1988) of 5 January 1988 and
608 (1988) of 4 January 1988,
Recalling. further General Assembly resolutions on Israeli violations of
human rights in occupied Palestine,
Taking.note of the report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli
Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied
Territories (A/43/694),
Recalling all its previous resolutions on the subject,
1. Affirms that the Israeli occupation of Palestine constitutes a gross
violation of human rights and an offence against the peace and security of
mankind;
2. Affirms that the systematic and persistent practices of the Israeli
occupation authorities as reflected in the killing of Palestinians, including
children, the breaking of the bones of youths, causing them grievous and
permanent bodily harm, the subjection of towns, villages and camps to living
conditions intended to destroy them through the imposition of curfews and
military siege, the throwing of gas bombs into houses, mosques and hospitals
resulting in the death of many Palestinians by suffocation, and the savage
-19beatings
and maltreatment of pregnant women, causing them to abort, all
constitute serious violations of the principles of international law, human
rights and fundamental freedoms;
3. Affirms that Israeli violations of the Geneva Convention relative to
the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949,
applicable to the Palestinian population and territories under Israeli
occupation, including the physical and psychological torture of Palestinian
detainees and their subjection to improper and inhuman treatment, the
imposition of collective punishment on towns, villages and camps, and the
administrative detention of thousands of Palestinians, for example in the
"Ansar 3" concentration in the the and expulsion of
war crimes under international law;
4. Condemns Israel:
(a) For its gross violation of international conventions, the principles
of international law and the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, through the systematic and
persistent practices mentioned above, and calls upon Israel to desist
forthwith from such practices and, pursuant to the principles of international
law and the relevant United Nations resolutions, to withdraw from the
Palestinian territories occupied by force;
(b) For its expropriation of Palestinian land and the establishment of
Israeli settlements thereon;
(c) For annexing Jerusalem and altering its architectural character and
its demographic and structural composition as well as the institutional status
of the occupied Palestinian territories, and considers all such measures and
the consequences thereof null and void;
(d) For its attacks against holy places, such as mosques and churches,
and its attempt to occupy Al Aqsa Mosque and to destroy it, as well as for
obstructing the freedom of worship and religious practices;
(e) For its attacks on universities, schools and institutes and the
closure thereof in occupied Palestine, and its obstruction of the education of
thousands of students and pupils in such institutions;
5. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations bodies, the
and
-20-
beatings and maltreatment of pregnant women, causing them to abort, all
constitute serious violations of the principles of international law, human
rights and fundamental freedoms;
3. Affirms that Israeli violations of the Geneva Convention relative to
the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949,
applicable to the Palestinian population and territories under Israeli
occupation, including the physical and psychological torture of Palestinian
detainees and their subjection to improper and inhuman treatment, the
imposition of collective punishment on towns, villages and camps, and the
administrative detention of thousands of Palestinians, for example in the
"Ansar 3" concentration camp in the Negev, the deportation and expulsion of
Palestinian citizens by force, the confiscation of their property, raiding and
demolition of their houses, and the annexation of Jerusalem, all constitute
war crimes under international law;
4. Condemns Israel+
(a) For its gross violation of international conventions, the principles
of international law and the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, through the systematic and
persistent practices mentioned above, and calls upon Israel to desist
forthwith from such practices and, pursuant to the principles of international
law and the relevant United Nations resolutions, to withdraw from the
Palestinian territories occupied by force;
(b) For its expropriation of Palestinian land and the establishment of
Israeli settlements thereon;
(c) For annexing Jerusalem and altering its architectural character and
its demographic and structural composition as well as the institutional status
of the occupied Palestinian territories, and considers all such measures and
the consequences thereof null and void;
(d) For its attacks against holy places, such as mosques and churches,
and its attempt to occupy Al Asa Mosque and to destroy it, as well as for
obstructing the freedom of worship and religious practices;
(e) For its attacks on universities, schools and institutes and the
closure thereof in occupied Palestine, and its obstruction of the education of
thousands of students and pupils in such institutions;
5. Reguests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations bodies, the
specialized agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations and
international humanitarian organizations, to disseminate it on the widest
possible scale, and to report on its implementation to the Commission on Human
Rights at its forty-sixth session;
-206.
Further requests the Secretary-General to provide the Commission with
all United Nations reports issued between sessions of the Commission that deal
with the conditions in which the population of occupied Palestine are living;
7. Decides to consider this subject at its forty-sixth session as a
matter of high priority.
27th meeting
17 February 1989
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 32 to 8, with
2 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
B
The Commission on Human Rights»
Recalling Security Council resolutions 446 (1979) of 22 March 1979,
465 (1980) of 1 March 1980, 497 (1981) of 17 December 1981, 592 (1986) of
8 December 1986 and 605 (1987) of 22 December 1987, as well as all its
previous resolutions on the application of the Geneva Conventions of
12 August 1949 to the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied by
Israel and the refusal of Israel to abide by those Conventions,
Recalling all relevant General Assembly resolutions,
Recalling the decisions of the International Conference of the Red Cross
in respect of the application of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949,
Recalling its previous resolutions on this question.
Taking into account that States parties to the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War undertake, in accordance
with article 1 thereof, not only to respect but also to ensure respect for the
Convention in all circumstances,
1. Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to all
Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
2. Strongly condemns once again Israel's refusal to apply that
Convention to Palestine and Arab territories occupied since 1967 and their
inhabitants;
3. Once more strongly condemns Israel for its policies of ill-treatment
and torture of Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli prisons and
concentration camps and its disregard for the principles of international law,
the Charter of the United Nations and the provisions of the Geneva Conventions
of 1949,
-21-
•
6. Further_requests the Secretary-General to provide the Commission with
all United Nations reports issued between sessions of the Commission that deal
with the conditions in which the population of occupied Palestine are living;
7. Decides to consider this subject at its forty-sixth session as a
matter of high priority.
27th meeting
17February. 1989
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 32 to 8, with
2 abstentions, See chap. IV.]
•
The_ Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling Security Council resolutions 446 (1979) of 22 March 1979,
465 (1980) of 1 March 1980, 497 (1981) of 17 December 1981, 592 (1986) of
8 December 1986 and 605 (1987) of 22 December 1987, as well as all its
previous resolutions on the application of the Geneva Conventions of
12 August 1949 to the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied by
Israel and the refusal of Israel to abide by those Conventions,
Recalling all relevant General Assembly resolutions,
Recalling the decisions of the International Conference of the Red Cross
in respect of the application of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949,
Recalling its previous resolutions on this question,
Taking into..Account thast States parties to the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War undertake, in accordance
with article l thereof, not only to respect but also to ensure respect for the
Convention in all circumstances,
1. Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to all
Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
2. Strongly condemns .once again Israel's refusal to apply that
Convention to Palestine and Arab territories occupied since 1967 and their
inhabitants
3. Once.more strongly condemns Israel for its policies of ill-treatment
and torture of Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli prisons and
concentration camps and its disregard for the principles of international law,
the Charter of the United Nations and the provisions of the Geneva Conventions
of 1949,
-214.
Once more urges Israel to grant prisoner-of-war status, in
accordance with the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners
of War, of 12 August 1949, to all Palestinian fighters captured by Israel, and
to treat them accordingly;
5. Urges once more all States parties to the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to make every effort to
ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions of that Convention in
all the Palestinian and Arab territories occupied Israel since 1967,
including Jerusalem;
6. Strongly condemns Israel for the violations of article 49 of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War which it has perpetrated by pursuing a policy of deportation and expulsion
of Palestinian citizens, and calls Israel to with the resolutions
Rights which demand their return to their homeland and to desist forthwith
from this 7. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the
international humanitarian organizations and non-governmental organizations,
and to submit a report on progress in its implementation to the Commission at
its forty-sixth session;
8. Decides to consider this subject at its forty-sixth session as a
matter of high priority.
27th meeting
17 February 1999
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 32 to 1, with
9 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
of rights Namibia
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling its resolutions 1987/8 of 26 February 1987 and 1988/10 of
29 February 1988,
Recalling all relevant resolutions of the General Assembly, in
particular, resolutions 43/26 A to E of 17 November 1988, and
Declaration AHG/Decl.l (XXIV) Rev.l the of Heads of State
A/II),
-22-
4. Gnce more Iges Israel to grant prisoner-of-war status, in
accordance with the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners
of War, of 12 August 1949, to all Palestinian fighters captured by Israel, and
to treat them accordingly;
5. L9es.0nCe more all States parties to the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to make every effort to
ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions of that Convention in
all the Palestinian and Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967,
including Jerusalem;
6. Strongly.condemns Israel for the violations of article 49 of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War which it has perpetrated by pursuing a policy of deportation and expulsion
of Palestinian citizens, and calls upon Israel to comply with the resolutions
of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission on Human
Rights which demand their return to their homeland and to desist forthwith
from this policy;
7. RReqeSts the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the
international humanitarian organizations and non-governmental organizations,
and to submit a report on progress in its implementation to the Commission at
its forty-sixth session;
8. Decides to consider this subject at its forty-sixth session as a
matter of high priority.
27th.meeting
11 February 1989
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 32 to l, with
9 abstentions, See chap. IV.]
1989/3. Situation of human rights in Namibia
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling its resolutions 1987/8 of 26 February 1987 and 1988/10 of
29 February 1988,
Recalling all relevant resolutions of the General Assembly, in
particular, resolutions 43/26 A to E of 17 November 1988, and
Declaration AHG/Decl.1 (XXIV) Rev.l adopted by the Assembly of Heads of State
and Government of the Organization of African Unity at its twenty-fourth
ordinary session, held at Addis Ababa from 25 to 28 May 1988 (A/43/398,
annex II),
-22CN4/
5 ^ ? ^ ^
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1990
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTY-SIXTH SESSION
(29 January-9 March 1990)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1990
SUPPLEMENT No. 2
Su
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1990
E/1990/22
E/CN.4/1990/94
II. RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE
COMMISSION AT ITS FORTY-SIXTH SESSION
Resolutions
1990/1. Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab territories
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling that, in accordance with article 13, paragraph 2 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to leave any
country including his own and to return to his country.
Affirming that the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to all
Palestinian and Arab territories occupied by Israel since including
Jerusalem,
Seriously concerned at the recent suggestions that immigrants to Israel
may be settled in the occupied territories,
1. Affirms that the settling of Israeli civilians in the occupied
territories is illegal and contravenes the relevant provisions of the Fourth
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War,
2. Calls upon the Government of Israel to refrain from settling
immigrants in the occupied territories.
28th meeting
16 Februaty 1990
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 42 to none,
with 1 abstention. See chap. IV.]
1990/2. Question of violations of human rights in occupied Palestine
A
The Commission on Human Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations as well as the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights,
Guided also by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights,
-15-
I »
I
I
II. RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE
COMMISSION AT ITS FORTY-SIXTH SESSION
A. Resolutions
1990/1. Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab territories
The Commission on Hunan Rights,
Recalling that, in accordance with article 13, paragraph 2 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to leave any
country including his own and to return to his country,
Affirming that the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to all
Palestinian and Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including
Jerusalem,
Seriously concerned at the recent suggestions that immigrants to Israel
may be settled in the occupied territories,
I, Affirms that the settling of Israeli civilians in the occupied
territories is illegal and contravenes the relevant provisions of the Fourth
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War,
2. Calls.Don the Government of Israel to refrain from settling
immigrants in the occupied territories,
28th meeting
16 Februaxy1990
[Adopted by a roll-call vote
with l abstention,
of 42 to none,
See chap. IV.]
1990/2. Question of violations of human rights in occupied Palestine
The Commission on. Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations as well as the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights,
Guided also by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights,
-15Taking
into consideration the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of
12 August 1949, and the Hague Convention IV 1907, as well as the
principles of international law affirmed by the General Assembly in its
resolutions 3 (I) of 13 February 1946, 95 (I) of 11 December 1946, 260 A (III)
of 9 December 1948 and 2391 (XXIII) of 26 November 1968,
Recalling the relevant Security Council resolutions, including
resolutions 605 (1987) of 22 December 1987, 607 (1988) of January 1988 and
608 (1988) of 14 January 1988,
Recalling further General Assembly resolutions on Israeli violations of
human rights in occupied Palestine,
Taking note of the report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli
Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied
Territories (A/44/599),
Recalling all its previous resolutions on the subject,
1. Condemns the policies and practices of Israel, the occupying Power,
which violate the human rights of the Palestinian people in the occupied
Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and, in particular, such acts as
the opening of fire by the Israeli army and settlers that result in the
killing and wounding of defenceless Palestinian civilians, the imposition of
restrictive economic measures, the demolition of houses, the ransacking of
real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private
persons, collective punishment and detention, and the confiscation of the
property of the inhabitants, including their bank accounts, as happened
recently in the village of Beit Sahour;
2. Affirms the right of the Palestinian people to resist the Israeli
occupation by all means, in accordance with the relevant United Nations
resolutions, consistent with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations;
3. Calls once more upon Israel to desist from all forms of violations
of human rights in the Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories and to
respect the principles of international law;
4. Calls upon Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian and other
occupied Arab territories in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the
United Nations and the Commission on Human Rights;
5. Requests the to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations bodies, the
specialized agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations and
international humanitarian organizations, to disseminate it on the widest
possible scale, and to report on its implementation to the Commission on Human
Rights at its forty-seventh session;
-16-
Taking into_consideration the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of
12 August 1949, and the Hague Convention I of 1907, as well as the
principles of international law affirmed by the General Assembly in its
resolutions 3 (I) of 13 February 1946, 95 (I) of 11 December 1946, 260 A (I11)
of 9 December 1948 and 2391 (XXIII) of 26 November 1968, I
• I
Recalling_the relevant Security Council resolutions, includin
resolutions 605 (1987) 0f 22 December 1987, 607 1988 of 5 January ,,8 an a
608 (1988) of 14 January 1988,
Recalling further General Assembly resolutions on Israeli violations of
human rights in occupied Palestine,
Taking note of the report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli
Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied
Territories (A/44/599),
Recalling all its previous resolutions on the subject,
1. Condemns the policies and practices of Israel, the occupying Power,
which violate the human rights of the Palestinian people in the occupied
Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and, in particular, such acts as
the opening of fire by the Israeli army and settlers that result in the
killing and wounding of defenceless Palestinian civilians, the imposition of
restrictive economic measures, the demolition of houses, the ransacking of
real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private
persons, collective punishment and detention, and the confiscation of the
property of the inhabitants, including their bank accounts, as happened
recently in the village of Beit Sahour;
2. Affirms the right of the Palestinian people to resist the Israeli
occupation by all means, in accordance with the relevant United Nations
resolutions, consistent with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations;
3.
of human
respect
Calls once more upon Israel to desist from all forms of violations
rights in the Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories and to
the principles of international law;
4. Calls upon Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian and other
occupied Arab territories in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the
United Nations and the Commission on Human Rights;
5, Eequests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations bodies, the
specialized agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations and
international humanitarian organizations, to disseminate it on the widest
possible scale, and to report on its implementation to the Commission on Human
Rights at its forty-seventh session;
-166.
Further requests the Secretary-General to provide the Commission
with all United Nations reports issued between sessions of the Commission that
deal with the conditions in which the population of the Palestinian and other
occupied Arab territories is living;
Decides to consider the question at its forty-seventh session as a
matter of high priority.
28th meeting
16 February 1990
[Adopted by 38 votes to 1,
with 1 abstention. See chap. IV.]
The Commission on Human Rights.
Recalling Security Council resolutions 446 (1979) of 22 March 1979,
465 (1980) of 1 March 1980, 497 (1981) of 17 December 1981, 592 (1986) of
8 December 1986 and 605 (1987) of 22 December 1987, as well as all its
previous resolutions on the application of the Geneva Conventions of
12 August 1949 to the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied by
Israel and the refusal of Israel to abide by those Conventions,
Recalling all relevant General Assembly resolutions.
Recalling the decisions of the International Conference of the Red Cross
in respect of the application of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949,
Recalling its previous resolutions on this question.
Taking into account that States parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention
undertake, in accordance with article 1 thereof, to respect, and ensure
respect for, the Convention in all circumstances,
Recalling the wide international support to the accession of Palestine to
the Geneva Conventions of 1949, as expressed in resolution 1989/4 of
31 August 1989 adopted the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination
and Protection of Minorities at its forty-first session, as well as in the
resolution adopted by the ninth Conference of Heads of State or Government of
the Non-Aligned Countries, held at Belgrade from 4 to 7 1989 (see
Geneva Conventions of 1949,
1. Reaffirms that the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War is applicable to all Palestinian
and other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
-17-
6. Eurther requests the Secretary-General to provide the Commission
with all United Nations reports issued between sessions of the Commission that
deal with the conditions in which the population of the Palestinian and other
occupied Arab territories is living;
7.
matter of
Decides to consider
high priority.
the question at its forty-seventh session as a
28th meeting
16. February 1990
B
with 1
(Adopted by
abstention,
38 votes to l,
See chap. IV.]
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling Security Council resolutions 446 (1979) of 22 March 1979,
465 (1980) of 1 March 1980, 497 (1981) of 17 December 1981, 592 (1986) of
8 December 1986 and 605 (1987) of 22 December 1987, as well as all its
previous resolutions on the application of the Geneva Conventions of
12 August 1949 to the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied by
Israel and the refusal of Israel to abide by those Conventions,
RRecalling all relevant General Assembly resolutions,
Recalling the decisions of the International Conference of the Red Cross
in respect of the application of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949,
Recalling its previous resolutions on this question,
Taking into account that States parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention
undertake, in accordance with article l thereof, to respect, and ensure
respect for, the Convention in all circumstances,
Recalling the wide international support to the accession of Palestine to
the Geneva Conventions of 1949, as expressed in resolution 1989/4 of
31 August 1989 adopted by the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination
and Protection of Minorities at its forty-first session, as well as in the
resolution adopted by the ninth Conference of Heads of State or Government of
the Non-Aligned Countries, held at Belgrade from 4 to 7 September 1989 (see
A/44/551, annex), which both welcomed the accession of Palestine to the four
Geneva Conventions of 1949,
1. Reaffirms that the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War is applicable to all Palestinian
and other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
-172.
Welcomes with high appreciation the accession of Palestine to the
four Geneva Conventions of 1949;
3. Urges once more all States parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention
to make every effort to ensure respect for, and compliance with, the
territories occupied Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
4. Strongly condemns once more Israel's refusal to apply the Fourth
Geneva Convention to Palestine and the Arab territories occupied since 1967
and to their inhabitants, and Israel's policies of ill-treatment and torture
of Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli prisons and concentration
camps, and its disregard for the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention;
5. Strongly condemns Israel for its violations of article 49 of the
Fourth Geneva Convention by pursuing a policy of deportation and expulsion of
Palestinian citizens, and calls upon Israel to comply with the resolutions of
the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights
which provide for their return to their homeland, and to desist forthwith from
this policy;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the
international humanitarian organizations and non-governmental organizations,
and to submit a report on progress in its to the Commission on
Human Rights at its forty-seventh session;
7. Decides to consider the question at its forty-seventh session as a
matter of high priority.
28th meeting
16 February 1990
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 32 to 1,
with 10 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
1990/3. Human rights in the occupied Syrian Arab territory
The Commission on Human Deeply concerned by the suffering of the population of the Syrian and
other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967 and by continued Israeli
military occupation and that the human rights of the population continue to be
violated, I
Recalling Security Council resolution 497 (1981) of 17 December 1981, in
which the Council, inter alia, decided that the Israeli decision to impose its
-18-
2. Welcomes with high appreciation the accession of Palestine to the
four Geneva Conventions of 1949;
3, Lrges once more all States parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention
to make every effort to ensure respect for, and compliance with, the
provisions of that Convention in all the Palestinian and other Arab
territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem; •1
4. Strongly condemns once more Israel's refusal to apply the Fourth , Geneva Convention to Palestine and the Arab territories occupied since 1967
and to their inhabitants, and Israel's policies of ill-treatment and torture
of Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli prisons and concentration
camps, and its disregard for the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention;
5. Strongly condemns Israel for its violations of article 49 of the
Fourth Geneva Convention by pursuing a policy of deportation and expulsion of
Palestinian citizens, and calls upon Israel to comply with the resolutions of
the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights
which provide for their return to their homeland, and to desist forthwith from
this policy;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the
international humanitarian organizations and non-governmental organizations,
and to submit a report on progress in its implementation to the Commission on
Human Rights at its forty-seventh session;
7.
matter of
Decides to consider
high priority.
the question at its forty-seventh session as a
28th meeting
16February 1990
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 32 to l,
with 10 abstentions. See chap, IV,]
1990/3. Human rights in the occupied. Syrian Arab territory
The. Commission on Human Rights,
Dee.ply concerned by the suffering of the population of the Syrian and
other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967 and by continued Israeli
military occupation and that the human rights of the population continue to be
violated,
Recalling Security Council resolution 497 (1981) of 17 December 1981, in
which the Council, inter alia, decided that the Israeli decision to impose its
-18January-
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTY-SEVENTH SESSION
(28 January--8 March 1991)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1991
SUPPLEMENT No. 2
UNITED NATIONS
E/1991/22
E/CN.4/1991/91
II. RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE COMMISSION
ITS FORT*-SESSION
A. Resolutions
1991/1. Question of the violation of human in the
occupied Arab territories, including Palestine
The Commission on Rights.
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations
as well as the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
Guided also by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights,
Talcing into consideration the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of
12 August 1949, and the provisions of the First Protocol annexed to it, and
The Hague Convention IV of 1907, as well as the principles of international
law affirmed by the General Assembly in its resolutions 3 (I) of
13 February 1946, 95 I) of 11 December 1946, 260 A (III) of 9 December 1948
and 2391 (XXIII) of 26 November 1968,
Recalling the relevant Security Council resolutions, in particular
resolutions 252 (1968) of 25 May 1968, 267 (1969) of 3 July 1969, 298 (1971)
of 25 1971, 446 (1979) of 22 March 1979, 465 (1980) of 1 March 1980,
471 (1980) of 5 June 1980, 476 (1980) of 30 June 1980, 478 (1980) of
20 1980, 605 (1987) of 22 December 1987, 607 (1988) of 5 January 1988,
1988) 1990) Recalling the General Assembly resolutions on Israeli violations of human
rights in occupied Palestine, since 1967 and until now.
Taking note of the reports of the Special Committee to Investigate
Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and
Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories submitted to the General Assembly
since 1968, in particular the report of 1990 (A/45/576),
Expressing its concern at the contents of the report by the Special
Mr. S. Amos Wako (E/CN.4/1990/22 and Corr.l), regarding summary or
arbitrary executions and what is committed by Israel in this respect.
Recalling all its previous resolutions on the subject,
1. Condemns the policies and practices of Israel, which violate the
human rights of the Palestinian people in the Palestinian territory occupied
-15-
II, RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE COMMISSION
AT ITS FORTY-SEVENTH SESSION
• Resolutions
1991. Question of the violation.of. buman. rights in the
occupied Arab territories, including Palestine
A
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations
as well as the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
Guided also by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights,
Taking into. consideration the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of
12 August I949, and the provisions of the First Protocol annexed to it, and
The Hague Convention IV of 1907, as well as the principles of international
law affirmed by the General Assembly in its resolutions 3 (I) of
13 February 1946, 95 (1) of 1l December 1946, 260 A (III) of 9 December 1948
and 2391 (XIII) of 26 November 1968,
Recalling the relevant Security Council resolutions, in particular
resolutions 252 (1968) 0£ 25 May 1968, 267 (1969) of 3 July 1969, 298 (1971)
of 25 September 1971, 446 (1979) 0£ 22 March 1979, 465 (1980) of 1 March 1980,
471 (1980) of 5 June 1980, 476 (1980) of 30 Jne 1980, 478 (1980) of
20 August 1980, 605 (1987) of 22 December 1987, 607 (1988) of 5 January 1988,
608 (1988) of 14 January 1988, and 672 (1990) of 12 October 1990,
Recalling the General Assembly resolutions on Israeli violations of human
rights in occupied Palestine, since 1967 and until now,
Taking.note of the reports of the Special Committee to Investigate
Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and
Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories submitted to the General Assembly
since 1968, in particular the report of 1990 (A/45/576),
Epre8Sin its deep concern at the contents of the report by the Special
Rapporteur, Mr. S. Amos Walko (E/CN.4/1990/22 and Corr.1), regarding summary or
arbitrary executions and what is committed by Israel in this respect,
Recalling all its previous resolutions on the subject,
1. Condemns the policies and practices of Israel, which violate the
human rights of the Palestinian people in the Palestinian territory occupied
-15--
Israel with military force, including Jerusalem, and, in particular, such
acts as the opening of fire by the Israeli army and settlers on Palestinian
civilians that results in killing and wounding them, as has happened
continuously since the eruption of Palestinian people's intifada against
Israeli military occupation and as took place in the massacres of 20 May 1990
in Rishon Letzion and in Al-Aqsa Mosque on 8 October 1990; the of restrictive economic measures; the demolition of houses; the of
collective and administrative detention of
2. Affirms the right of the Palestinian people to resist the Israeli
occupation by all means, in accordance with the relevant United Nations
resolutions, consistent with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, as has been expressed the Palestinian people in their brave
intifada since December 1987;
3. Calls once more upon Israel to desist from all forms violations
of human rights in the Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories and to
respect the principles of international law, and its commitments to the
provisions of the Charter;
4. Calls upon Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory,
including Jerusalem, and other occupied Arab territories in accordance with
the resolutions of the United Nations and the Commission on Human Rights in
this regard;
5. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations and
international humanitarian organizations, to disseminate it on the widest
possible scale, and to report on its implementation to the Commission on Human
Rights at its forty-eighth session;
6. Further requests the Secretary-General to provide the Commission on
Human Rights with all United Nations reports issued between sessions of the
Commission that deal with the conditions in which the population of the
Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories is living;
7. Decides to consider the question at its forty-eighth session as a
matter of priority.
28th meeting
15 February 1991
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 28 to 1,
with 10 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
-16-
by Israel with military force, including Jerusalem, and, in particular, such
acts as the opening of fire by the Israeli army and settlers on Palestinian
civilians that results in killing and wounding them, as has happened
continuously since the eruption of the Palestinian people's intifada against
Israeli military occupation and as took place in the massacres of 20 May 1990
in Rishon Letzion and in the Al-Aqsa Mosque on 8 October 1990; the imposition
of restrictive economic measures; the demolition of houses; the ransacking of
real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private
persons; collective punishment; arbitrary and administrative detention of
thousands of Palestinians; the confiscation of the property of Palestinians,
including their bank accounts; the expropriation of land; the prevention of
travel; the closure of universities and schools; the perpetration of crimes of
torture in prisons and detention centres; and the establishment of Jewish
settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory;
2. Affirms the right of the Palestinian people to resist the Israeli
occupation by all means, in accordance with the relevant United Nations
resolutions, consistent with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, as has been expressed by the Palestinian people in their brave
intifada since December 1987;
3, Calls .once more upon Israel to desist from all forms of violations
of human rights in the Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories and to
respect the principles of international law, and its commitments to the
provisions of the Charter;
4. Calls upon Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory,
including Jerusalem, and other occupied Arab territories in accordance with
the resolutions of the United Nations and the Commission on Human Rights in
this regard;
5. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations and
international humanitarian organizations, to disseminate it on the widest
possible scale, and to report on its implementation to the Commission on Human
Rights at its forty-eighth session;
6, Eurther reguests the Secretary-General to provide the Commission on
Human RRights with all United Nations reports issued between sessions of the
Commission that deal with the conditions in which the population of the
Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories is living;
7. Decides to consider the question at its forty-eighth session as a
matter of priority.
28th meeting
15 February 1991
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 28 to 1,
with 10 abstentions. See chap. IV.J
-16The
Commission on Human Rights.
Recalling Security Council resolutions 446 (1979) of 22 March 1979,
465 (1980) 1 March 1980, 497 (1981) of 17 December 1981, 592 (1986) of
8 December 1986, and 605 (1987) of 22 December 1987, as well as all its
previous resolutions on the application of the Geneva Conventions of
12 August 1949 to the Palestinian and other Arab territories Israel and the refusal of Israel to abide by those Conventions,
Recalling all relevant General Assembly resolutions on the applicability
of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons
in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, to the occupied Palestinian territory, and
the necessity for Israel to abide by their provisions.
Recalling the decisions of the International Conference of the Red Cross
in respect of the application of the Fourth Geneva Convention,
Recalling its previous resolutions on this question.
Recalling the different appeals and statements of the International
Committee of the Red Cross which point to the continuing Israeli violations of
the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention and which call upon those
authorities to respect the provisions of the Convention and abide by them.
Taking into account that the States parties to the Fourth Geneva
Convention undertake, in accordance with article 1 thereof, to respect, and
ensure respect for, the Convention in all circumstances,
1. Reaffirms that the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is
applicable to Palestinian and all other Arab territories occupied by Israel
since 1967, including Jerusalem, and calls upon Israel to comply with its
international commitments, to respect the Fourth Geneva Convention and to
it in the Palestinian Jerusalem;
2. once more all States parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention
to make every effort to ensure the Israeli occupation authorities' respect
for, and compliance with, the provisions of that Convention in the Palestinian
and all other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including
Jerusalem, and to undertake the necessary practical measures to ensure the
provision of international protection for the Palestinian people under
occupation in accordance with the provisions of article 1 and other relevant
articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention;
3. Strongly condemns once more the refusal of Israel to apply the
Fourth Geneva Convention to Palestine and the Arab territories occupied since
1967 and to their inhabitants, and Israel's policies of ill-treatment and
-17-
B
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling Security Council resolutions 446 (1979) of 22 March 1979,
465 (1980) of 1 March 1980, 497 (1981) of 17 December 1981, 592 (1986) of
8 December 1986, and 605 (1987) of 22 December 1987, as well as all its
previous resolutions on the application of the Geneva Conventions of
12 August 1949 to the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied by
Israel and the refusal of Israel to abide by those Conventions,
Recalling all relevant General Assembly resolutions on the applicability
of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons
in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, to the occupied Palestinian territory, and
the necessity for Israel to abide by their provisions,
Recalling the decisions of the International Conference of the Red Cross
in respect of the application of the Fourth Geneva Convention,
Recalling its previous resolutions on this question,
Recalling the different appeals and statements of the International
Committee of the Red Cross which point to the continuing Israeli violations of
the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention and which call upon those
authorities to respect the provisions of the Convention and abide by them,
Taking into.account that the States parties to the Fourth Geneva
Convention undertake, in accordance with article l thereof, to respect, and
ensure respect for, the Convention in all circumstances,
1. Reaffirms that the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is
applicable to Palestinian and all other Arab territories occupied by Israel
since 1967, including Jerusalem, and calls upon Israel to comply with its
international commitments, to respect the Fourth Geneva Convention and to
apply it in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem;
2. Urges Once more all States parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention
to make every effort to ensure the Israeli occupation authorities' respect
for, and compliance with, the provisions of that Convention in the Palestinian
and all other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including
Jerusalem, and to undertake the necessary practical measures to ensure the
provision of international protection for the Palestinian people under
occupation in accordance with the provisions of article l and other relevant
articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention;
3. Strongly condemns_once. more the refusal of Israel to apply the
Fourth Geneva Convention to Palestine and the Arab territories occupied since
1967 and to their inhabitants, and Israel's policies of ill-treatment and
-17torture
of Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli prisons and
concentration camps, and its continued deliberate disregard for the provisions
of the Fourth Geneva Convention, in contravention of the resolutions of the
Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights;
4. Strongly condemns Israel for its grave violations of article 49 of
the Fourth Geneva Convention, for its continuation of a policy of deportation
of Palestinian citizens and their expulsion outside their homeland, as
recently happened to the Palestinian citizens Imad Khaled Al-Alami,
Fadel Khaled Zuheir Al-Zaamout, Mustafa Yusef Abdallah Al-Lidawi and
Mustafa Ahmed Jamil Al-Qanouh, and calls upon Israel to comply with the
resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission
on Human Rights which provide for their return to their homeland, and to
desist forthwith from this policy;
5. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations, international
humanitarian organizations and non-governmental organizations, and to submit a
report on progress in its implementation to the Commission on Human Rights at
its forty-eighth session;
6. Decides to consider the question at its forty-eighth session as a
matter of high priority.
28th meeting
15 February 1991
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 26 to 1,
with 11 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
1991/2. Human rights in the occupied Syrian Arab territory
The Commission on Human Rights,
Deeply concerned by the suffering of the population of the Syrian and
other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967 and by continued Israeli
military occupation and that the human rights of the population continue to be
violated.
Recalling Security Council resolution 497 (1981) of 17 December 1981, in
which the Council, inter alia, decided that the Israeli decision to impose its
laws, jurisdiction and administration in the occupied Syrian Arab Golan was
null and void and without international legal effect, and demanded that Israel
should rescind forthwith its decision.
-18-
torture of Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli prisons and
concentration camps, and its continued deliberate disregard for the provisions
of the Fourth Geneva Convention, in contravention of the resolutions of the
Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights;
4. Strongly. condemns Israel for its grave violations of article 49 of
the Fourth Geneva Convention, for its continuation of a policy of deportation
of Palestinian citizens and their expulsion outside their homeland, as
recently happened to the Palestinian citizens lmad Khaled AI-Alami,
Fadel Khaled Zuheir AI-Zaamout, Mustafa Yusef Abdallah AI-Lidawi and
Mustafa Ahmed Jamil Al-Qanouh, and calls upon Israel to comply with the
resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission
on Human Rights which provide for their return to their homeland, and to
desist forthwith from this policy;
5. Request the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations, international
humanitarian organizations and non-governmental organizations, and to submit a
report on progress in its implementation to the Commission on Human Rights at
its forty-eighth session;
6. Decides to consider the question at its forty-eighth session as a
matter of high priority.
28th meeting
15February 1991
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 26 to l
with 1l abstentions, See chap. IV.]
1991/2. Human .rights in the occupied Syrian Arab. territory
The. Commission on Muman. Rights,
Deeply. concerned by the suffering of the population of the Syrian and
other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967 and by continued Israeli
military occupation and that the human rights of the population continue to be
violated,
Recalling Security Council resolution 497 (1981) of 17 December 1981, in
which the Council, inter. aLia, decided that the Israeli decision to impose its
laws, jurisdiction and administration in the occupied Syrian Arab Golan was
null and void and without international legal effect, and demanded that Israel
should rescind forthwith its decision,
-18El1992/
22
EfCN.4/1992/84
ION REPORT ON THE FOKWEIGHTH (27 January-6 March 1992)
ta
>i
ECONOMlC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
,, ,” ,*,’ I, ’ n j
*>II
OFFllClAL RECORDS, 1992
No. 2
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1992
COMMISSION ON
HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTY-EIGHTH SESSION
(27 January-6 March 1992)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1992
SUPPLEMENT No. 2
8g 3
HS
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1992
«,
. ; ·-,.-·,.·.·,
E/1992/22
E/CN.4/1992/84
6. Recruests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution
to the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs,
the specialized agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations and
international humanitarian organizations and to give it the widest possible
publicity, and to report to the Commission on Human Rights at its forty-ninth
session;
7. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its forty-ninth
session, as a matter of high priority, the item entitled "Question of the
violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including
Palestine".
27th meeting
14 Februarv 1992
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 31 to 1,
with 17 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
1992/2. Question of the violation of human riahts in the
occupied Arab territories, includina Palestine
A
The Commission Human Riahts,
Guide4 by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
[Jnited Nations, as well as by the provisions of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights,
Guided also by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights,
Takins into consideration the provisions of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of
12 August 1949, and the provisions of Additional Protocol I thereto, and the
Hague Convention IV of 1907, as well as the principles of international law
affirmed by the General Assembly in its resolutions 3 (I) of 13 February 1946,
95 (I) of 11 December 1946, 260 A (III) of 9 December 1948 and 2391 (XXIII)
of 26 November 1968,
Recalling the relevant Security Council resolutions, in particular
resolutions 252 (1968) of 25 May 1968, 267 (1969) of 3 July 1969, 298 (1971)
of 25 September 1971, 446 (1979) of 22 March 1979, 465 (1980) of 1 March 1980,
471 (1980) of 5 June I980, 476 (1980) of 30 June 1980, 478 (1980) of
20 August 1980, GO5 (1987) of 22 December 1987, 607 (1988) of 5 January 1988,
GUH (1988) of 14 January 1988, 636 (1989) of 6 July 1989, 641 (1989) of
30 August 1989, 672 (1990) of 12 October 1990, 694 (1991) of 24 May 1991,
and 726 (1992) of 6 January 1992,
-21-
Requests General to the attention of all Governments, publicity, ninth
7. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its forty-ninth
session, as a matter of high priority, the entitled "Question of the
violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including
Palestine".
27th meeting
14 February vote of to See chap. IV. ]
1992/2. Question of the violation of human rights in the
occupied Arab territories, including Palestine
A
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, as well as by the provisions of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights,
Guided also by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of
12 August 1949, and the provisions of Additional Protocol I thereto, and the
Hague Convention IV of 1907, as well as the principles of international law
affirmed by the General Assembly in its resolutions 3 (I) of 13 February 1946,
95 (I) of 11 December 1946, 260 A (III) of 9 December 1948 and 2391 (XXII1)
of 26 November 1968,
Recalling the relevant Security Council resolutions, in particular
resolutions 252 (1968) o£ 25 May 1968, 267 (1969) of 3 July 1969, 298 (1971)
o£ 25 September 1971, 446 (1979) 0£ 22 March 1979, 465 (1980) of 1 March 1900,
471 (1980) of 5 June 1980, 476 (1980) of 30 June 1980, 478 (1980) of
20 August 1980, 605 (1987) of 22 December 1987, 607 (1988) of 5 January 1988,
608 (1988) of 14 January 1988, 636 (1989) of 6 July 1989, 641 (1989) of
30 August 1989, 672 (1990) of 12 October 1990, 694 (1991) of 24 May 1991,
and 726 (1992) of 6 January 1992,
-21[
Adopted by a roll-call
with abstentions.
wlino the General Assembly resolutions On ISraeli violations of
Taking note of the reports the Special Investigate
in particular its report of 18 October 1991 (A/46/522),
Exoressino its concern at the contents of the report (E/CN.4/1991/36)
by Special regarding summary or arbitrary
executions and the acts committed by Israel in this respect referred to in the
report, in particular in paragraphs 290 to 296,
Recalling all its previous resolutions on the subject,
1. Condemns the policies and practices of Israel, which violate the
human rights of the Palestinian people in the Palestinian territory occupied
by Israel with military force, including Jerusalem, and, in particular, such
acts as the opening of fire by the Israeli army and settlers on Palestinian
civilians that results in killing and wounding them, as has happened
continuously since the eruption of the Palestinian people's intifada against
Israeli military occupation; the imposition of restrictive economic measures;
the demolition of houses; the expropriation of houses as happened recently
in Silwan village; the ransacking of property belonging individually or
collectively to private persons; collective punishment; arbitrary and
administrative detention of thousands of Palestinians; the confiscation of the
property of Palestinians, including their bank accounts: the expropriation of
1 am1 ; the prevention of travel; the closure of universities and schools; the
perpetration of crimes of torture in Israeli prisons and detention centres:
and the establishment of Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian
territory;
2. Affirms the right of the Palestinian people to resist the Israeli
occupation by all means, in accordance with the relevant United Nations
resolutions, consistent with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, as has been expressed by the Palestinian people in their brave
intifada since December 1987, in legitimate resistance against the Israeli
military occupation;
3. Calls once more uvon Israel, the occupying Power, to desist from all
forms of violation of human rights in the Palestinian and other occupied Arab
territories and to respect the bases of international law, the principles of
international humanitarian law, and its commitments to the provisions of the
Charter and resolutions of the United Nations;
4. Calls unon Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory, I
including Jerusalem, and other occupied Arab territories in accordance with
the resolutions of the United Nations and the Commission on Human Rights in
this regard:
-22-
Recalling also on Israeli human rights in occupied Palestine, since 1967 and until now,
of Committee to Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and
Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories submitted to the General Assembly
since 1968, 46/522),
Expressing deep CN.4/1991/36)
the Rapporteur, Mr. S. Amos Wako, regarding summary or arbitrary
Recalling all its previous resolutions on the subject,
1. Condemns the policies and practices of Israel, which violate the
human rights of the Palestinian people in the Palestinian territory occupied
by Israel with military force, including Jerusalem, and, in particular, such
acts as the opening of fire by the Israeli army and settlers on Palestinian
civilians that results in killing and wounding them, as has happened
continuously since the eruption of the Palestinian people's intifada against
Israeli military occupation; the imposition of restrictive economic measures;
the demolition of houses; the expropriation of houses as happened recently
in Silwan village; the ransacking of property belonging individually or
collectively to private persons; collective punishment; arbitrary and
administrative detention of thousands of Palestinians; the confiscation of the
property of Palestinians, including their bank accounts; the expropriation of
land; the prevention of travel; the closure of universities and schools; the
perpetration of crimes of torture in Israeli prisons and detention centres;
and the establishment of Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian
territory;
2. Affirms the right of the Palestinian people to resist the Israeli
occupation by all means, in accordance with the relevant United Nations
resolutions, consistent with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, as has been expressed by the Palestinian people in their brave
intifada since December 1987, in legitimate resistance against the Israeli
military occupation;
3. Calls once more upon Israel, the occupying Power, to desist from all
forms of violation of human rights in the Palestinian and other occupied Arab
territories and to respect the bases of international law, the principles of
international humanitarian law, and its commitments to the provisions of the
Charter and resolutions of the United Nations;
4. Calls upon Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory,
including Jerusalem, and other occupied Arab territories in accordance with
the resolutions of the United Nations and the Commission on Human Rights in
this regard;
-225.
Reauests General t0
Governments, competent organizations implementation by at its forty-ninth session;
recruests General Rights reports that deal with the conditions in which the citizens of the
occupation;
7. &cides to consider the guestion at its forty-ninth session as a
of priority.
meetinq
14 Februarv 1992
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 30 to 16,
with 3 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
B
The Human Rights,
Recallinq Security Council resolutions related to the applicability of
the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 to the Palestinian and other occupied Arab
territories and the condemnation by the Security Council of Israel for its
refusal to abide by these Conventions, particularly resolutions 446 (1979) of
22 March 1979, 465 (1980) of 1 March 1980, 497 (1981) of 17 December 1981,
592 (1986) of 8 December 198G, 605 (1987) of 22 December 1987, 607 (1988) of
5 January 1908, GO0 (1908) 'of 14 January 1988, 636 (1989) of 6 July 1989,
641 (1989) of 30 August 1989, 672 (1990) of 12 October 1990, 694 (1991) of
24 May 1991 and 726 (1992) of 6 January 1992,
Recalling all relevant General Assembly resolutions on the applicability
to the occupied Palestinian territory of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, which
urge Israel's commitment to and respect for their provisions,
Recallina also the decisions of the International Conference of the
Red Cross in respect of the application of the Fourth Geneva Convention in all
circumstances,
Recallina further its previous resolutions on this question,
-23-
5. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of the Government of Israel and all other Governments, the
United Nations organs, the specialized agencies, regional
intergovernmental and international humanitarian organizations,
to disseminate it on the widest possible scale, and to report on its
the Government of Israel to the Commission on Human Rights
ninth 6. Also requests the Secretary-General to provide the Commission on
Human with all United Nations issued between sessions of the
Commission Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories are living under the Israeli
7. Decides question ninth matter 27th meeting
February call 3 B
The_ Commission on Riahts,
Recalling Security Council resolutions related to the applicability of
the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 to the Palestinian and other occupied Arab
refusal to abide by these Conventions, 22 March 1979, l 592 (1986) 0f 8 December 1986, 5 January 1988, 608 1988) January July 641 (1989) of 30 August 1989, 24 1991 and 726 (1992) of 6 January 1992,
Recalling all relevant General Assembly resolutions on the applicability
to the occupied Palestinian territory of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, which
urge Israel's commitment to and respect for their provisions,
Recalling also the decisions of the International Conference of the
Red Cross in respect of the application of the Fourth Geneva Convention in all
circumstances,
Recalling further its previous resolutions on this question,
-23Recallinq
the different appeals and statements of the International
the
Particularly Takina into account that the States parties to the Fourth Geneva
Convention undertake, in accordance with article 1 thereof, to respect, and
ensure respect for, the Convention in all circumstances,
1. Reaffirms that the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is
applicable to Palestinian and all other Arab territories occupied Israel
since 1967, including Jerusalem, and that Israel's longstanding refusal to
apply the Convention to those territories has led to the perpetration by the
Israeli authorities of grave violations of human rights against Palestinian
citizens, and calls upon Israel to comply with its international commitments,
to respect the Fourth Geneva Convention and to apply it in the occupied
Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem;
2. UJes once more all States parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention
to make every effort to ensure the Israeli occupation authorities' respect
for, and compliance with, the provisions of that Convention in the Palestinian
and all other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including
Jerusalem, and to undertake the necessary practical measures to ensure the
provision of international protection for the Palestinian people under
occupation, in accordance with the provisions of article 1 and other relevant
articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention as well as article 89 of Additional
Protocol I to the four Geneva Conventions: also urges the States parties to
the Fourth Geneva Convention to act in accordance with article 90 of
Additional Protocol I by requesting the fact-finding commission referred to
therein to investigate the grave violations of international humanitarian law
in the occupied Palestinian territory mentioned in the present resolution;
3. StrOnUlv condemns once more the refusal of Israel to apply the
Fourth Geneva Convention to Palestine and the Arab territories occupied since
1967 and to their inhabitants, Israel's policies of perpetrating crimes of
torture against Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli prisons and
concentration camps and its continued deliberate disregard for the provisions
of the Fourth Geneva Convention, in contravention of resolutions of the
Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights;
4. Strongly condemm Israel for its grave violations of article 49
of the Fourth Geneva Convention, for continuing its policy of deporting
Palestinian citizens and of expelling them from their homeland, as recently
happened to the Palestinian citizens Ihab Mohammad Ali Al-Ashkar, Sami Attiya
Zayed Abu Semhadana, Ahmad Hassan Abdullah Youssef, Marwan Hassan
Mohammad Afana, Ra'fat Osman Ali El-Najjar, El-Sheikh Ahmad Mohammad Ali
El-Nimer Hamdan, Khader Attiya Khader Mohrez, Iyad Elhemi Abdelraouf Gouda,
-24-
Recalling Committee of the Red Cross which point to the continuing violations by the
Israeli occupation authorities of the provisions of the Fourth Geneva
Convention, particularly article 49 thereof, and which call upon those
authorities to respect the provisions of the Convention and abide by them,
Taking into Reaffirms that the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the
by and that Israel's longstanding refusal to
Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem;
2. Urges once more all States parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention
to make every effort to ensure the Israeli occupation authorities' respect
for, and compliance with, the provisions of that Convention in the Palestinian
and all other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including
Jerusalem, and to undertake the necessary practical measures to ensure the
provision of international protection for the Palestinian people under
occupation, in accordance with the provisions of article 1 and other relevant
articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention as well as article 89 of Additional
Protocol I to the four Geneva Conventions; also urges the States parties to
the Fourth Geneva Convention to act in accordance with article 90 of
Additional Protocol I by requesting the fact-finding commission referred to
therein to investigate the grave violations of international humanitarian law
in the occupied Palestinian territory mentioned in the present resolution;
3. Strongly once more the refusal of Israel to apply the
Fourth Geneva Convention to Palestine and the Arab territories occupied since
1967 and to their inhabitants, Israel's policies of perpetrating crimes of
torture against Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli prisons and
concentration camps and its continued deliberate disregard for the provisions
of the Fourth Geneva Convention, in contravention of resolutions of the
Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights;
4. Strongly condemns Israel for its grave violations of article 49
of the Fourth Geneva Convention, for continuing its policy of deporting
Palestinian citizens and of expelling them from their homeland, as recently
happened to the Palestinian citizens Ihab Mohammad Ali Al-Ashkar, Sami Attiya
Zayed Abu Samhadana, Ahmad Hassan Abdullah Youssef, Marwan Hassan
Mohammad Afana, Ra'fat Osman Ali El-Najjar, El-Sheikh Ahmad Mohammad Ali
El-Nimer Hamdan, Khader Attiya Khader Mohrez, Iyad Elhami Abdelraouf Gouda,
-24El-
Khatib Gmar t-.o 726 (1992) of Commission upon oc delay:
6. Recruests General organisations, international humanitarian organizations
governmental organisations, by ninth session:
ninth . meetwg
call 31 1,
17 IV.]
1992f3. Israeli settlements in the occuoisd Arab territories
The Commission on Human Riahts,
Recallinq that, in accordance with article 13, paragraph 2, of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to leave any
country including his own and to return to his country,
Reaffirminq that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to
Palestinian and all Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including
Recall&g its resolutions 199011 3 15 February 1991,
Gravely concerned the large-scale establishment by the Israeli
Government of settlers, including immigrants, in the occupied territories,
which may change the physical character and demographic composition of the
occupied territories,
-25-
Ghassan Mohammad Soleiman Jarrar, Hassan Abdullah Hassan Sha'ban, Ali Fares
Hassan El--Khatib and Omar Nimer Abdelrahman Safi, and calls upon Israel
to comply with the resolutions of the Security Council, particularly
resolution of 6 January 1992, the General Assembly and the
Commission on Human Rights on the question;
5. Calls upon Israel to refrain immediately from deporting Palestinian
citizens from their homeland, and to allow all those who have been deported
since 1967 to return to their homeland without any obstacle or delay;
Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of the Government of Israel and all other Governments, the
competent United Nations organs, the specialized agencies, regional
intergovernmental organizations, and non-governmental organizations, and to report on progress in its
implementation the Government of Israel to the Commission on Human Rights
at its forty-ninth session;
7. Decides to consider the question at its forty-ninth session as a
matter of high priority.
[Adopted by a roll-call
with abstentions.
27th meeting
14 February 1992
vote of to l,
See chap. 1992/3. occupied Rights,
Recalling leave Reaffirming Israel Jerusalem,
Recalling 1990/1 of 16 February 1990, and 1991/3 of
at scale by demographic composition 25ECONOMIC
AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1993
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1993
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTY-NINTH SESSION
(1 February-12 March 1993)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1993
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1993
E/1993/23
E/CN.4/1993/122
the specialized agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations and
international humanitarian organizations and to give it the widest possible
and to report to the Commission on Human at its
fiftieth session;
7. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its
fiftieth session, as a matter of high priority, the item entitled "Question
of the violation of human in the Arab territories, 29th 19 February 1993
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 29 to 1,
with 17 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
1993/2. Question of the violation of human rights in the
occupied Arab territories, including Palestine
The Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, as well as by the provisions of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights,
Guided also by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights,
into consideration the provisions of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of
12 August 1949, and the provisions of Additional Protocol I thereto, and
The Hague Convention IV of 1907, as well as the principles of international
law affirmed by the General Assembly in its resolutions 3 (I) of
13 February 1946, 95 I) of 11 December 1946, 260 A III) of 9 December 1948
and 2391 XXIII) of 26 November 1968,
Recalling the relevant Security Council resolutions, in particular
resolutions 252 1968) of 25 1968, 267 1969) of 3 1969, 298 1971)
1979) 1980) 1980) 1980) 1980) 1987) 1988) 1988) 1989) of 1989) 1990) 1991) 1992) 1992) Recalling also the General Assembly resolutions on Israeli violations
of human rights in occupied Palestine, since 1967 and until now,
- 42 -
the specialized agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations and
international humanitarian organizations and to give it the widest possible
publicity, and to report to the Commission on Human Rights at its
fiftieth session;
7. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its
fiftieth session, as a matter of high priority, the item entitled "Question
of the violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including
Palestine".
29th meeting
19February 1993
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 29 to 1,
with 17 abstentions. See chap. IV.J
1993/2. Question of the violation of human rights in the
occupied Arab territories, including Palestine
A
The. Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, as well as by the provisions of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights,
Guided also by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights,
Taking intg Consideration the provisions of the Geneva convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of
12 August 1949, and the provisions of Additional Protocol I thereto, and
The Hague convention IV of 1907, as well as the principles of international
law affirmed by the General Assembly in its resolutions 3 (I) of
13 February 1946, 95 (I) of 11 December 1946, 260 A (III) of 9 December 1948
and 2391 (XXIII) of 26 November 1968,
Recalling the relevant Security Council resolutions, in particular
resolutions 252 (1968) of 25 May 1968, 267 (1969) of 3 July 1969, 298 (1971)
of 25 September 1971, 446 (1979) of 22 March 1979, 465 (1980) of 1 March 1980,
471 (1980) of 5 June 1980, 476 (1980) of 30 June 1980, 478 (1980) of
20 August 1980, 605 (1987) of 22 December 1987, 607 (1988) of 5 January 1988,
608 (1988) of 14 January 1988, 636 (1989) 0f 6 July 1989, 641 (1989) of
30 August 1989, 672 (1990) of 12 October 1990, 694 (1991) of 24 May 1991,
726 (1992) of 6 January 1992 and 799 (1992) of 18 December 1992,
Recalling also the General Assembly resolutions on Israeli violations
of human rights in occupied Palestine, since 1967 and until now,
- 42 Taking
note of the reports of the Special Committee to Investigate
Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and
Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories submitted to the General Assembly
Noting with great concern the Israeli refusal to abide by the resolutions
of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission on Human
Rights,
Recalling all its previous resolutions on the subject,
1. Condemns the policies and of Israel, which violate the
human rights of the Palestinian people in the Palestinian territory occupied
Israel with military force, Jerusalem, and, in the
Palestinian territory;
2- Affirms the right of the Palestinian people to resist the Israeli
all means, in accordance with the relevant United Nations
resolutions, consistent with the and of the Charter of the
3. Calls once more upon Israel, the occupying Power, to desist from
all forms of violation of human rights in the Palestinian and other occupied
Arab territories and to respect the bases of international law, the principles
of international humanitarian law, and its commitments to the provisions of
the Charter and resolutions of the United Nations;
4. Decides to appoint a special rapporteur with the following mandate:
(a) To investigate Israel's violations of the principles and bases of
international law, international humanitarian law and the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of
12 August 1949, in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967;
(b) To receive communications, to hear witnesses, and to use such
modalities of procedure as he may deem necessary for his mandate;
- 43 -
Taking note of the reports of the Special Committee to Investigate
Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and
Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories submitted to the General Assembly
since 1968,
Noting with qreat concern the Israeli refusal to abide by the resolutions
of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission on Human
Rights,
Recalling all its previous resolutions on the subject,
1. Condemns the policies and practices of Israel, which violate the
human rights of the Palestinian people in the Palestinian territory occupied
by Israel with military force, including Jerusalem, and, in particular, the
opening of fire by the Israeli army and settlers on Palestinian civilians that
results in killing and wounding them, as has happened continuously since the
eruption of the Palestinian people's intifada against the Israeli military
occupation; the imposition of restrictive economic measures; the demolition of
houses; the expropriation of houses; the ransacking of property belonging
individually or collectively to private persons; collective punishment;
arbitrary and administrative detention of thousands of Palestinians; the
confiscation of property of Palestinians, including their bank accounts; the
expropriation of land; the prevention of travel; the closure of universities
and schools; the perpetration of crimes of torture in Israeli prisons and
detention centres; and the establishment of Jewish settlements in the occupied
2. Affirms the right of the Palestinian people to resist the Israeli
occupation by all means, in accordance with the relevant United Nations
resolutions, consistent with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, as has been expressed by the Palestinian people in their brave
intifada since December 1987, in legitimate resistance against the Israeli
military occupation;
3. Calls once more upon Israel, the occupying Power, to desist from
all forms of violation of human rights in the Palestinian and other occupied
Arab territories and to respect the bases of international law, the principles
of international humanitarian law, and its commitments to the provisions of
the Charter and resolutions of the United Nations;
4. Decides to appoint a special rapporteur with the following mandate:
(a) To investigate Israel's violations of the principles and bases of
international law, international humanitarian law and the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of war, of
12 August 1949, in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967;
(b) To receive communications, to hear witnesses, and to use such
modalities of procedure as he may deem necessary for his mandate;
43 (
c) To report, with his conclusions and recommendations, to the
Commission on Human Rights at its future sessions, until the end of the
Israeli occupation of those territories;
Calls upon Israel to cooperate with the Special Rapporteur and
facilitate his task;
6. Also calls upon Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory,
including Jerusalem, and other occupied Arab territories in accordance with
the resolutions of the United Nations, including those of the Commission, in
this regard;
7. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution
to the attention of the Government of Israel and all other Governments,
the competent United Nations organs, the specialized agencies, regional
and international humanitarian 8. Also requests the Secretary-General to provide the Commission on
Human Rights with all United Nations reports issued between sessions of the
Commission that deal with the conditions in which the citizens of the
Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories are living under the Israeli
occupation;
9. Decides to consider the question at its fiftieth session as a
matter of priority.
29th meeting
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 26 to 16,
with 5 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling Security Council resolutions related to the applicability
of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in
Time of War, of 12 August 1949, to the Palestinian and other occupied Arab
territories and the condemnation by the Security Council of Israel for its
1979) 1980) 1981) of 1986) 1987) 1988) 1988) 1989) 1989) 1990) 1990) 1991) of 1992) 799 (1992) 18 1992,
- 44 -
(c) To report, with his conclusions and recommendations, to the
Commission on Human Rights at its future sessions, until the end of the
Israeli occupation of those territories;
5. Calls upon Israel to cooperate with the Special Rapporteur and
facilitate his task;
6. Also calls upon Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory,
including Jerusalem, and other occupied Arab territories in accordance with
the resolutions of the United Nations, including those of the Commission, in
this regard;
7. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution
to the attention of the Government of Israel and all other Governments,
the competent United Nations organs, the specialized agencies, regional
intergovernmental organizations and international humanitarian organizations,
to disseminate it on the widest possible scale, and to report on its
implementation by the Government of Israel to the Commission on Human Rights
at its fiftieth session;
8. Also requests the Secretary-General to provide the Commission on
Human Rights with all United Nations reports issued between sessions of the
Commission that deal with the conditions in which the citizens of the
Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories are living under the Israeli
occupation;
9. Decides to consider the question at its fiftieth session as a
matter of priority.
29th meeting
19 February 1993
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 26 to 16,
with 5 abstentions. See chap. IV.J
B
The.Commission .gn Human Riahts,
Recalling security council resolutions related to the applicability
of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in
Time of War, of 12 August 1949, to the Palestinian and other occupied Arab
territories and the condemnation by the Security Council of Israel for its
refusal to abide by the Convention, particularly resolutions 446 (1979) of
22 March 1979, 465 (1980) of 1 March 1980, 497 (1981) o£ 17 December 1981,
592 (1986) of 8 December 1986, 605 (1987) of 22 December 1987, 607 (1988) of
5 January 1988, 608 (1988) of 14 January 1988, 636 (1989) of 6 July 1989,
641 (1989) of 30 August 1989, 672 (1990) of 12 October 1990, 681 (1990) of
20 December 1990, 694 (1991) 0£ 24 May 1991, 726 (1992) of 6 January 1992
and 1992) of December - 44 -
Recalling all relevant General Assembly resolutions on the applicability
to the occupied Palestinian territory of the Convention which urge Israel's
commitment to and respect for their provisions,
Recalling also the decisions of the International Conference of the
Red Cross in respect of the application of the Convention in all circumstances
and the statements of the International Committee of the Red Cross which
condemn the continuous grave violations by Israel of the provisions of
the Convention and its refusal to apply those provisions in the occupied
territories,
Taking into account that the States parties to the Convention undertake,
in accordance with article 1 thereof, to respect, and ensure respect for,
the Convention in all circumstances,
Noting with great concern the report of the Secretary-General (S/25149)
submitted to the Security Council, which affirmed the refusal of Israel to
comply with the resolutions of the Security Council and recommended that the
Security Council take the necessary measures to force Israel to adhere to
resolution 799 (1992) and to implement it,
Recalling all its previous resolutions on the subject,
1. Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to the
Palestinian and all other Arab territories by Israel since 1967,
Jerusalem, and that Israel's long-standing refusal to apply the
authorities of violations of human rights Palestinian citizens,
2. Urges once more all States parties to the Convention to make
every effort to ensure the Israeli occupation authorities' respect for and
compliance with the of the Convention in the Palestinian and all
other Arab territories by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem,
and to undertake the measures to ensure the provision
of international protection for the Palestinian people under occupation,
in accordance with the provisions of article 1 and other relevant articles
of the Convention as well as article 89 of Additional Protocol I to the
four Geneva Conventions; also urges the States to the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to
act in accordance with article 90 of Additional Protocol I the
commission referred to therein to the 3. Strongly condemns once more the refusal of Israel to apply the
Convention to Palestine and the Arab territories occupied since 1967 and to
their inhabitants, Israel's of crimes of torture Palestinian detainees and in Israeli and concentration - 45 -
Recalling all relevant General Assembly resolutions on the applicability
to the occupied Palestinian territory of the Convention which urge Israel's
commitment to and respect for their provisions,
Recalling also the decisions of the International Conference of the
Red Cross in respect of the application of the Convention in all circumstances
and the statements of the International Committee of the Red Cross which
condemn the continuous grave violations by Israel of the provisions of
the Convention and its refusal to apply those provisions in the occupied
territories,
Taking into account that the States parties to the Convention undertake,
in accordance with article l thereof, to respect, and ensure respect for,
the Convention in all circumstances,
Noting with great concern the report of the Secretary-General ($/25149)
submitted to the Security Council, which affirmed the refusal of Israel to
comply with the resolutions of the security Council and recommended that the
Security Council take the necessary measures to force Israel to adhere to
resolution 799 (1992) and to implement it,
Recalling all its previous resolutions on the subject,
1. Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to the
Palestinian and all other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967,
including Jerusalem, and that Israel's long-standing refusal to apply the
Convention to those territories has led to the perpetration by the Israeli
authorities of grave violations of human rights against Palestinian citizens,
and calls upon Israel to comply with its international commitments, to respect
the Convention and to apply it in the occupied Palestinian territory,
including Jerusalem;
2. Urges once more all States parties to the Convention to make
every effort to ensure the Israeli occupation authorities' respect for and
compliance with the provisions of the Convention in the Palestinian and all
other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem,
and to undertake the necessary practical measures to ensure the provision
of international protection for the Palestinian people under occupation,
in accordance with the provisions of article l and other relevant articles
of the Convention as well as article 89 of Additional Protocol I to the
four Geneva Conventions; also urges the States parties to the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to
act in accordance with article 90 of Additional Protocol I by requesting the
fact-finding commission referred to therein to investigate the grave
violations of international humanitarian law in the occupied Palestinian
territory mentioned in the present resolution;
3. Strongly condemns pnce more the refusal of Israel to apply the
Convention to Palestine and the Arab territories occupied since 1967 and to
their inhabitants, Israel's policies of perpetrating crimes of torture against
Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli prisons and concentration camps
- 45 and
its continued deliberate disregard for the provisions of the Convention,
in contravention of resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly
and the Commission on Human Rights;
4. Strongly condemns Israel for its grave violations of article 49
of the Convention and for continuing its policy of deporting Palestinian
citizens and of expelling them from their homeland, as happened to more than
four hundred Palestinian citizens on 17 December 1992, and calls upon Israel
to comply with the resolutions of the Council, resolutions 607 (1988) of 5 January 1988, 608 (1988) of 14 January 1988,
636 (1989) of 6 July 1989, 641 (1989) of 30 August 1989, 672 (1990) of
12 October 1990, 681 (1990) of 20 December 1990, 694 (1991) of 24 May 1991,
726 (1992) of 6 January 1992 and 799 (1992) of 18 December 1992, as well as
with the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly and the Commission on
Human Rights, and to refrain from such a which violates the of international law;
5. Calls upon Israel to allow all those who have been deported
since 1967 to return to their homeland without delay in implementation of the
resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission
on Human Rights;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution
to the attention of the Government of Israel and all other Governments,
the competent United Nations organs, the specialized agencies, regional
intergovernmental organizations, international humanitarian organizations
and non-governmental organizations, and to report on progress in its
implementation by the Government of Israel to the Commission on Human at its fiftieth session;
7. Decides to consider the question at its fiftieth session as a
matter of high priority.
29th meeting
19 February 1993
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 27 to 1,
with 19 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
1993/3. Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab territories
The Commission on Human Rights.
Recalling that, in accordance with article 13, 2, of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to leave any
country, including his own, and to return to his country,
Reaffirming that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to
Palestinian and all Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including
Jerusalem,
46 -
and its continued deliberate disregard for the provisions of the Convention,
in contravention of resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly
and the Commission on Human Rights;
4. Strongly condemns Israel for its grave violations of article 49
of the convention and for continuing its policy of deporting Palestinian
citizens and of expelling them from their homeland, as happened to more than
four hundred Palestinian citizens on 17 December 1992, and calls upon Israel
to comply with the resolutions of the Security council, particularly
resolutions 607 (1988) of 5 January 1988, 608 (1988) of 14 January 1988,
636 (1989) of 6 July 1989, 641 (1989) 0f 30 August 1989, 672 (1990) of
12 October 1990, 681 (1990) of 20 December 1990, 694 (1991) of 24 May 1991,
726 (1992) of 6 January 1992 and 799 (1992) of 18 December 1992, as well as
with the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly and the Commission on
Human Rights, and to refrain from such a policy which violates the principles
of international law;
5. Calls upon Israel to allow all those who have been deported
since 1967 to return to their homeland without delay in implementation of the
resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission
on Human Rights;
6. Requggtg the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution
to the attention of the Government of Israel and all other Governments,
the competent United Nations organs, the specialized agencies, regional
intergovernmental organizations, international humanitarian organizations
and non-governmental organizations, and to report on progress in its
implementation by the Government of Israel to the Commission on Human Rights
at its fiftieth session;
7. Decides to consider the question at its fiftieth session as a
matter of high priority.
29th meeting
1g February 1993
(Adopted by a roll-call vote of 27 to l,
with 19 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
1993/3. Israeli,settlements in the occupied Arab territories
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling that, in accordance with article 13, paragraph 2, of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to leave any
country, including his own, and to return to his country,
Reaffirming that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to
Palestinian and all Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including
Jerusalem,
- 4A6
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTIETH SESSION
(31 January - 11 March 1994)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS. 1994
SUPPLEMENT No. 4
UNITED NATIONS
New York and Geneva, 1994
E/1994/24
E/CN 4/1994/132
6. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations and
international humanitarian organizations and to give it the widest possible
publicity, and to report to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-first
session;
7. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-first
session, as a matter of high priority, the item entitled "Question of the
violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including
Palestine".
30th meeting
18 February 1994
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 25 votes to 1,
with 25 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
1994/3. Question of the violation of human rights in the
occupied Arab territories, including Palestine
A
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, as well as by the provisions of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights,
Guided also by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of
12 August 1949, and the provisions of Additional Protocol I thereto, and The
Hague Convention IV of 1907, as well as the principles of international law
affirmed by the General Assembly in its resolutions 3 (I) of 13 February 1946,
95 (I) of 11 December 1946, 260 A (III) of 9 December 1948 and 2391 (XXIII) of
26 November 1968,
Recalling the relevant Security Council resolutions,
Recalling also the General Assembly resolutions on Israeli violations of
human rights in occupied Palestine, since 1967 and until now,
Recalling further the provisions of the Vienna Declaration and Programme
of Action (A/CONF.157/23) adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights,
Taking note with appreciation of the report (E/CN.4/1994/14) of the
Special Rapporteur, Mr. René Felber, regarding his mission undertaken in
accordance with Commission resolution 1993/2 A of 19 February 1993,
- 39 -
Taking note also of the reports of the Special Committee to Investigate
Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and
Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories submitted to the General Assembly
since 1968,
Noting with great concern the continued Israeli refusal to abide by the
resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission
on Human Rights,
Welcoming the signing of the Declaration of Principles on Interim
Self-Government Arrangements by the Government of Israel and the Palestine
Liberation Organization on 13 September 1993, whereby violations of human
rights will end through the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the
occupied Palestinian territory,
Recalling all its previous resolutions on the subject,
1. Deeply regrets the continued violations of human rights in the
occupied Palestinian territory since the signing of the Declaration of
Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements by the Government of Israel
and the Palestine Liberation Organization on 13 September 1993;
2. Condemns the continued violations of the human rights of the
Palestinian people in the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel with
military force, including Jerusalem, and, in particular, the opening of fire
by the Israeli army and settlers on Palestinian civilians that results in
killing and wounding them; the imposition of restrictive economic measures;
the demolition of houses; the expropriation of houses; collective punishment;
arbitrary and administrative detention of thousands of Palestinians without
trial; the confiscation of property of Palestinians; the expropriation of
land; the prevention of travel; the closure of universities and schools; the
perpetration of crimes of torture in Israeli prisons and detention centres;
and the establishment of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian
territory;
3. Calls once more upon Israel, the occupying Power, to desist from
all forms of violation of human rights An the Palestinian and other occupied
Arab territories and to respect the bases of international law, the principles
of international humanitarian law, and its commitments to the provisions of
the Charter and resolutions of the United Nations;
4. Also calls upon Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory,
including Jerusalem, and the other occupied Arab territories in accordance
with the relevant resolutions of the United Nations and the Commission on
Human Rights;
5. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of the Government of Israel and all other Governments, the
competent United Nations organs, the specialized agencies, regional
intergovernmental organizations and international humanitarian organizations,
to disseminate it on the widest possible scale, and to report on its
implementation by the Government of Israel to the Commission on Human Rights
at its fifty-first session;
- 40 -
6. Also requests the Secretary-General to provide the Commission on
Human Rights with all United Nations reports issued between sessions of the
Commission that deal with the conditions in which the citizens of the
Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories are living under the Israeli
occupation;
7. Decides to consider the question at its fifty-first session as a
matter of priority.
30th meeting
18 February 1994
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 26 to 3,
with 23 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
B
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling Security Council resolutions related to the applicability of
the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time
of War, of 12 August 1949, to the Palestinian and other occupied Arab
territories, which call for Israel's commitment to them,
Recalling all relevant General Assembly resolutions on the applicability
to the occupied Palestinian territory of the Convention which urge Israel's
commitment to and respect for their provisions,
Recalling also the decisions of the International Conference of the Red
Cross and the International Conference for the Protection of War Victims
(Geneva, 30 August - 1 September 1993) in respect of the application of the
Convention in all circumstances and the statements of the International
Committee of the Red Cross which condemn the continuous serious violations by
Israel of the provisions of the Convention and its refusal to apply those
provisions in the occupied territories,
Recalling further the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action
(A/CONF.157/23) adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights,
Taking into account that States parties to the Convention undertake, in
accordance with article 1 thereof, to respect, and ensure respect for, the
Convention in all circumstances,
Recalling all its previous resolutions on the subject,
1. Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to the
Palestinian and all other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967,
including Jerusalem, and that Israel's long-standing refusal to apply the
Convention to those territories has led to the perpetration by the Israeli
authorities of grave violations of human rights against Palestinian citizens,
- 41 -
and calls upon Israel to comply with its international commitments, to respect
the Convention and to apply it in the occupied Palestinian territory,
including Jerusalem;
2. Urges once more all States parties to the Convention to make every
effort to ensure the Israeli occupation authorities' respect for and
compliance with the provisions of the Convention in the Palestinian and all
other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem, and
to undertake the necessary practical measures to ensure the provision of
international protection for the Palestinian people under occupation, in
accordance with the provisions of article 1 and other relevant articles of the
Convention;
3. Strongly condemns once more the refusal of Israel to apply the
Convention to Palestine and the Arab territories occupied since 1967 and to
their inhabitants, Israel's policies of perpetrating crimes of torture against
Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention camps and
its continued deliberate disregard for the provisions of the Convention, in
contravention of resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and
the Commission on Human Rights;
4. Calls upon Israel to allow those who have been deported since 1967
to return to their homeland without delay in implementation of the resolutions
of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission on Human
Rights;
5. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of the Government of Israel and all other Governments, the
competent United Nations organs, the specialized agencies, regional
intergovernmental organizations, international humanitarian organizations and
non-governmental organizations, and to report on progress in its
implementation by the Government of Israel to the Commission on Human Rights
at its fifty-first session;
6. Decides to consider the question at its fifty-first session as a
matter of high priority.
30th meeting
18 February 1994
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 26 to 1,
with 25 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
1994/4. Middle East peace process
The Commission of Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 48/58 on the Middle East peace
process, adopted on 14 December 1993,
Recalling also the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action
(A/CONF.157/23) adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights,
- 42 -
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTY-FIRST SESSION
(30 January - 10 March 1995)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1995
SUPPLEMENT No. 4
UNITED NATIONS
New York and Geneva, 1995
E/1995/23
E/CN.4/1995/176
II. RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE COMMISSION
AT ITS FIFTY-FIRST SESSION
A. Resolutions
1995/1. Question of the violation of human rights in the
occupied Arab territories, including Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, as well as by the provisions of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights,
Guided also by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of
12 August 1949, and the provisions of Additional Protocol I thereto, and the
Hague Convention IV of 1907, as well as the principles of international law
affirmed by the General Assembly in its resolutions 3 (I) of 13 February 1946,
95 (I) of 11 December 1946, 260 A (III) of 9 December 1948 and 2391 (XXIII) of
26 November 1968,
Recalling the resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly
and the Commission on Human Rights related to the applicability of the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of
12 August 1949, to the Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories,
including Jerusalem,
Recalling also the General Assembly resolutions on Israeli violations of
human rights in occupied Palestine, since 1967 and until now,
Recalling further the provisions of the Vienna Declaration and Programme
of Action (A/CONF.157/23) adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights,
Taking note of the report (E/CN.4/1995/19) of the Special Rapporteur,
Mr. René Felber, regarding his mission undertaken in accordance with
Commission resolution 1993/2 A of 19 February 1993,
Taking note also of the reports of the Special Committee to Investigate
Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and
Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories submitted to the General Assembly
since 1968, including the latest (A/49/511),
Noting with great concern the continued Israeli refusal to abide by the
resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission
on Human Rights calling on Israel to put an end to the violations of human
rights and affirming the applicability of the Geneva Convention relative to
-41-
the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, to the
Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967,
including Jerusalem,
Welcoming the signing of the Declaration of Principles on Interim
Self-Government Arrangements by the Government of Israel and the Palestine
Liberation Organization on 13 September 1993 and of the following agreement,
whereby violations of human rights will end through the full withdrawal of
Israeli forces from the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem,
Recalling all its previous resolutions on the subject, including the
latest, resolution 1994/3 of 18 February 1994,
1. Deeply regrets the continued violations of human rights in the
occupied Palestinian territory since the signing of the Declaration of
Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements by the Government of Israel
and the Palestine Liberation Organization on 13 September 1993, in particular
the continuation of acts of killing and the detention of thousands of
Palestinians without trial, the continuation of the extension and the
establishment of Israeli settlements, the confiscation of property of
Palestinians and the expropriation of their land;
2. Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to the
Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967,
including Jerusalem;
3. Calls once more upon Israel, the occupying Power, to desist from
all forms of violation of human rights in the Palestinian and other occupied
Arab territories and to respect the bases of international law, the principles
of international humanitarian law, and its commitments to the provisions of
the Charter and resolutions of the United Nations;
4. Also calls upon Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory,
including Jerusalem, and the other occupied Arab territories in accordance
with the relevant resolutions of the United Nations and the Commission on
Human Rights;
5. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of the Government of Israel and all other Governments, the
competent United Nations organs, the specialized agencies, regional
intergovernmental organizations and international humanitarian organizations,
to disseminate it on the widest possible scale, and to report on its
implementation by the Government of Israel to the Commission on Human Rights
at its fifty-second session;
6. Also requests the Secretary-General to provide the Commission on
Human Rights with all United Nations reports issued between sessions of the
Commission that deal with the conditions in which the citizens of the
Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories are living under the Israeli
occupation;
-42-
7. Decides to consider the question at its fifty-second session as a
matter of high priority.
29th meeting
17 February 1995
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 26 to 2,
with 21 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
1995/2. Human rights in the occupied Syrian Golan
The Commission on Human Rights,
Deeply concerned at the suffering of the population of the occupied
Syrian Golan due to the violation of their human rights since the Israeli
military occupation of 1967,
Recalling Security Council resolution 497 (1981) of 17 December 1981,
Recalling also all relevant General Assembly resolutions, including the
latest, resolution 49/36 D of 9 December 1994, in which the Assembly,
inter alia, called upon Israel to put an end to its occupation of the Arab
territories,
Reaffirming once more the illegality of Israel’s decision of
14 December 1981 to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the
occupied Syrian Golan, which has resulted in the effective annexation of that
territory,
Reaffirming that the acquisition of territory by force is inadmissible
under the principles of international law and under the Charter of the
United Nations,
Taking note with deep concern of the report of the Special Committee to
Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian
People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories (A/49/511) and, in this
connection, regretting Israel’s constant refusal to cooperate with and to
receive the Special Committee,
Guided by the relevant provisions of the Charter of the United Nations
and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and with particular reference to
the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time
of War, of 12 August 1949, and the relevant provisions of the Hague
Conventions of 1899 and 1907,
Noting with satisfaction the convening in Madrid of the International
Peace Conference on the Middle East on the basis of Security Council
resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967 and 338 (1973) of 22 October 1973,
with the hope that substantial and concrete progress will be achieved on the
Syrian and Lebanese tracks for the realization of a just, comprehensive and
lasting peace in the region,
-43-
E/1996/23
E/CN.4/1996/177
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTY-SECOND SESSION
(18 March-26 April 1996)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1996
SUPPLEMENT NO. 3
UNITED NATIONS
2. Also calls upon Israel to desist from changing the physical
character, demographic composition, institutional structure and legal status
of the occupied Syrian Golan, and emphasizes that the displaced persons of the
population of the occupied Syrian Golan must be allowed to return to their
homes and to recover their properties;
3. Further calls upon Israel to desist from imposing Israeli
citizenship and Israeli identity cards on the Syrian citizens in the occupied
Syrian Golan and to desist from its repressive measures against them, and from
all other practices mentioned in the report of the Special Committee to
Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian
People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories;
4. Determines that all legislative and administrative measures and
actions taken or to be taken by Israel, the occupying Power, that purport to
alter the character and legal status of the occupied Syrian Golan are null and
void, constitute a flagrant violation of international law and of the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of
12 August 1949, and have no legal effect;
5. Calls once again upon Member States not to recognize any of the
legislative or administrative measures and actions referred to in the present
resolution;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations and
international humanitarian organizations and to give it the widest possible
publicity, and to report to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-third
session;
7. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-third
session, as a matter of high priority, the item entitled "Question of the
violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including
Palestine".
34th meeting
11 April 1996
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 22 votes to 1,
with 29 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
1996/3. Question of the violation of human rights in the
occupied Arab territories, including Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, as well as by the provisions of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights,
- 40 -
Guided also by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War, of 12 August 1949, and the provisions of Additional Protocol I
thereto, and the Hague Convention IV of 1907, as well as the principles
of international law affirmed by the General Assembly in its resolutions 3 (I)
of 13 February 1946, 95 (I) of 11 December 1946, 260 A (III) of
9 December 1948 and 2391 (XXIII) of 26 November 1968,
Recalling the resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly
and the Commission on Human Rights related to the applicability of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time
of War, of 12 August 1949, to the Palestinian and other occupied Arab
territories, including Jerusalem,
Recalling also the General Assembly resolutions on Israeli violations of
human rights in occupied Palestine, since 1967 and until now,
Recalling further the provisions of the Vienna Declaration and Programme
of Action (A/CONF.157/23), adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights in
June 1993,
Taking note of the report (E/CN.4/1996/18) of the Special Rapporteur,
Mr. Hannu Halinen, regarding his mission undertaken in accordance with
Commission resolution 1993/2 A of 19 February 1993,
Taking note also of the reports of the Special Committee to Investigate
Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and
Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories submitted to the General Assembly
since 1968, including the latest (A/50/463),
Noting with great concern the continued Israeli refusal to abide by the
resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission
on Human Rights calling on Israel to put an end to the violations of human
rights and affirming the applicability of the Geneva Convention relative to
the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, to the
Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967,
including Jerusalem,
Welcoming anew the signing of the Declaration of Principles on Interim
Self-Government Arrangements by the Government of Israel and the Palestine
Liberation Organization on 13 September 1993 and of the following agreement,
whereby violations of human rights will end through the full withdrawal
of Israeli forces from the occupied Palestinian territory, including
Jerusalem,
- 41 -
Recalling all its previous resolutions on the subject, including the
latest, resolution 1995/1 of 17 February 1995,
1. Deeply regrets the continued violations of human rights in the
occupied Palestinian territory since the signing of the Declaration of
Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements by the Government of Israel
and the Palestine Liberation Organization on 13 September 1993, in particular
the continuation of acts of killing and the detention of thousands of
Palestinians without trial, the continuation of the extension and the
establishment of Israeli settlements, the confiscation of property of
Palestinians and expropriation of their land, and calls upon Israel to cease
these acts immediately;
2. Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to the
Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967,
including Jerusalem, and considers any change in the geographic and
demographic status of the city of Jerusalem from its situation prior to the
June 1967 war to be illegal and void;
3. Calls upon Israel to cease immediately its policy of enforcing
collective punishments, such as demolition of houses and closure of the
Palestinian territory, a measure which threatens thousands of Palestinians
with hunger and endangers their lives;
4. Calls once more upon Israel, the occupying Power, to desist from
all forms of violation of human rights in the Palestinian and other occupied
Arab territories and to respect the bases of international law, the principles
of international humanitarian law and its commitments to the provisions of the
Charter and resolutions of the United Nations;
5. Also calls upon Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory,
including Jerusalem, and the other occupied Arab territories in accordance
with the relevant resolutions of the United Nations and the Commission on
Human Rights;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of the Government of Israel and all other Governments, the
competent United Nations organs, the specialized agencies, regional
intergovernmental organizations and international humanitarian organizations,
to disseminate it on the widest possible scale, and to report on its
implementation by the Government of Israel to the Commission on Human Rights
at its fifty-third session;
7. Also requests the Secretary-General to provide the Commission on
Human Rights with all United Nations reports issued between sessions of the
Commission that deal with the conditions in which the citizens of the
Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories are living under the Israeli
occupation;
- 42 -
8. Decides to consider the question at its fifty-third session, as a
matter of high priority.
34th meeting
11 April 1996
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 27 votes to 2,
with 23 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
1996/4. Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab territories
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling that, in accordance with article 13, paragraph 2, of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to leave any
country, including his own, and to return to his country,
Reaffirming that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to
Palestinian and all Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including
Jerusalem,
Recalling its resolutions 1990/1 of 16 February 1990, 1991/3 of
15 February 1991, 1992/3 of 14 February 1992, 1993/3 of 19 February 1993,
1994/1 of 18 February 1994 and 1995/3 of 17 February 1995 in which,
inter alia, it reaffirmed the illegality of the Israeli settlements in the
occupied territories, and noting that Israel has not fully complied with the
provisions of those resolutions,
Welcoming the positive development that originated with the International
Peace Conference on the Middle East convened in Madrid on 30 October 1991,
including in particular the Declaration of Principles on Interim
Self-Government Arrangements signed in Washington by the Government of Israel
and the Palestine Liberation Organization on 13 September 1993 as well
as the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip signed in
Washington by the same parties on 28 September 1995, followed by the partial
redeployment of the Israeli army from the main Palestinian towns and the
democratic election of the Palestinian Council and President of the
Palestinian Authority,
Condemning in the strongest terms all acts of terrorism, and calling on
the Parties not to allow them to affect the ongoing peace process negatively,
Noting with appreciation the report (E/CN.4/1996/18) submitted by
the Special Rapporteur pursuant to resolution 1993/2 A of 19 February 1993,
in which he recommends, inter alia, that the confiscation of Palestinian-owned
land and the construction or expansion of settlements should be halted
immediately,
Noting that the question of the Israeli settlements in the occupied
territories will be addressed during the negotiations on the final status of
the territories, which will start not later than May 1996, and convinced in
this regard that a complete cessation by Israel of its policy of expanding the
- 43 -
E/1997/23
E/CN.4/1997/150
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTYTHIRD
SESSION
(10 March18
April 1997)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1997
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
45
II.
RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE COMMISSION
AT ITS FIFTYTHIRD
SESSION
A. Resolutions
1997/1. Question of the violation of human rights in the
occupied Arab territories, including Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, as well as by the provisions of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights,
Guided also by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of
12 August 1949, and the provisions of Additional Protocol I thereto, and the
Hague Convention IV of 1907,
Recalling the resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly
and the Commission on Human Rights related to the applicability of the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to
the Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem, and other occupied Arab
territories,
Recalling also the General Assembly resolutions on Israeli violations of
human rights in the Palestinian occupied territories, since 1967 and until
now,
Recalling further the provisions of the Vienna Declaration and Programme
of Action adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights in June 1993
(A/CONF.157/23),
Taking note of the report (E/CN.4/1997/16) of the Special Rapporteur,
Mr. Hannu Halinen, regarding his mission undertaken in accordance with
Commission resolution 1993/2 A of 19 February 1993,
Taking note also of the reports of the Special Committee to Investigate
Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and
Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories submitted to the General Assembly
since 1968, including the latest (A/51/99/Add.2),
Noting with great concern the continued Israeli refusal to abide by the
resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission
on Human Rights calling upon Israel to put an end to the violations of human
rights and affirming the applicability of the Geneva Convention relative to
the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to the Palestinian and other
Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem,
46
Welcoming
anew the signing of the Declaration of Principles on Interim
SelfGovernment
Arrangements by the Government of Israel and the Palestine
Liberation Organization on 13 September 1993 and of the following agreements,
whereby violations of human rights will end through the implementation of
these agreements and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the occupied
Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem,
Recalling all its previous resolutions on the subject, including the
latest, resolution 1996/3 of 11 April 1996,
1. Condemns the continued violations of human rights in the occupied
Palestinian territories since the signing of the Declaration of Principles on
Interim SelfGovernment
Arrangements by the Government of Israel and the
Palestine Liberation Organization on 13 September 1993, in particular the
continuation of acts of killing, the detention of thousands of Palestinians
without trial, the continuation of the confiscation of lands, the extension
and the establishment of Israeli settlements, the confiscation of property of
Palestinians and expropriation of their land, and calls upon Israel to cease
these acts immediately;
2. Also condemns the opening of a tunnel under the Al Aqsa mosque,
the establishment of an Israeli settlement on Jabal Abu Ghenaim in occupied
Arab Jerusalem, the revocation of identity cards of the citizens of the
Palestinian city of Jerusalem and forcing them to live outside their home with
the aim of the Judaization of Jerusalem, and calls upon the Government of
Israel to close the tunnel and to put an end immediately to these practices;
3. Further condemns the use of torture against Palestinians during
interrogation, which the Israeli High Court of Justice has legitimized, and
calls upon the Government of Israel to refrain immediately from the current
interrogation practices and to work on abolishing the abovementioned
legitimization;
4. Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to the
Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967,
including Jerusalem, and considers any change in the geographical and
demographic status of the city of Jerusalem from its situation prior to the
June 1967 war to be illegal and void;
5. Calls upon Israel to cease immediately its policy of enforcing
collective punishments, such as demolition of houses and closure of the
Palestinian territory, a measure which threatens thousands of Palestinians
with hunger and endangers their lives;
6. Calls once more upon Israel, the occupying Power, to desist from
all forms of violation of human rights in the Palestinian and other occupied
Arab territories and to respect the bases of international law, the principles
of international humanitarian law and its commitments to the provisions of the
Charter and resolutions of the United Nations;
47
7.
Also calls upon Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian
territories, including Jerusalem, and the other occupied Arab territories in
accordance with the relevant resolutions of the United Nations and the
Commission on Human Rights;
8. Requests the SecretaryGeneral
to bring the present resolution to
the attention of the Government of Israel and all other Governments, the
competent United Nations organs, the specialized agencies, regional
intergovernmental organizations and international humanitarian organizations,
to disseminate it on the widest possible scale, and to report on its
implementation by the Government of Israel to the Commission on Human Rights
at its fiftyfourth
session;
9. Also requests the SecretaryGeneral
to provide the Commission on
Human Rights with all United Nations reports issued between sessions of the
Commission that deal with the conditions in which the citizens of the
Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories are living under the Israeli
occupation;
10. Decides to consider the question at its fiftyfourth
session, as a
matter of high priority.
26th meeting
26 March 1997
[Adopted by a rollcall
vote of 25 votes to 1,
with 23 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
1997/2. Human rights in the occupied Syrian Golan
The Commission on Human Rights,
Deeply concerned at the suffering of the Syrian citizens in the occupied
Syrian Golan due to the violation of their fundamental and human rights since
the Israeli military occupation of 1967,
Recalling Security Council resolution 497 (1981) of 17 December 1981,
Recalling also all relevant General Assembly resolutions, including
the latest, resolution 51/135 of 13 December 1996, in which the
Assembly, inter alia, called upon Israel to comply with Security Council
resolution 497 (1981), to put an end to its practices violating the rights of
the Syrian citizens in the occupied Syrian Golan and to put an end to its
occupation of the occupied Syrian Golan,
Reaffirming once more the illegality of Israel's decision of
14 December 1981 to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the
occupied Syrian Golan, which has resulted in the effective annexation of that
territory,
Reaffirming the principle of nonacquisition
of territory by force in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the principles of
international law,
E/1998/23
E/CN.4/1998/177
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTYFOURTH
SESSION
(16 March24
April 1998)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1998
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
38
II.
RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE COMMISSION
AT ITS FIFTYFOURTH
SESSION*
A. Resolutions
1998/1. Question of the violation of human rights in the
occupied Arab territories, including Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, as well as by the provisions of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights,
Guided also by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of
12 August 1949, and the provisions of Additional Protocol I thereto, and the
Hague Convention IV of 1907,
Recalling the resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly
and the Commission on Human Rights related to the applicability of the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to
the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem, and other occupied
Arab territories,
Recalling also the General Assembly resolutions on Israeli violations of
human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem,
occupied since 1967, and noting Assembly resolution ES10/
4 of
13 November 1997, in which the Assembly reiterated its recommendation that the
High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection
of Civilian Persons in Time of War convene a conference on measures to enforce
the Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem, and
to ensure its respect in accordance with common article 1 of the four Geneva
Conventions,
Recalling further the provisions of the Vienna Declaration and Programme
of Action adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights in June 1993
(A/CONF.157/23),
Taking note of the report (E/CN.4/1998/17) of the Special Rapporteur,
Mr. Hannu Halinen, regarding his mission undertaken in accordance with
Commission resolution 1993/2 A of 19 February 1993,
* Titles of agenda items appearing in resolutions and decisions below
are those of the agenda of the fiftyfourth
session of the Commission on
Human Rights.
39
Taking
note also of the reports of the Special Committee to Investigate
Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and
Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories submitted to the General Assembly
since 1968, including the latest (A/52/131 and Add.1 and 2),
Noting with great concern the continued Israeli refusal to abide by the
resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission
on Human Rights calling upon Israel to put an end to the violations of human
rights and affirming the applicability of the Geneva Convention relative to
the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to the Occupied Palestinian
Territory, including Jerusalem, and other Arab territories occupied by Israel
since 1967,
Gravely concerned at the stagnation of the peace process because of the
contempt of the Government of Israel for the principles on which that process
was based, and its refusal to carry out its commitments in line with the
agreements it signed with the Palestine Liberation Organization,
Recalling all its previous resolutions on the subject, including the
latest, resolution 1997/1 of 26 March 1997,
1. Condemns the continued violations of human rights in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, in particular the
continuation of acts of wounding and killing such as that which took place on
10 March 1998 when Israeli occupation soldiers shot dead three Palestinian
workers and wounded nine others, one of them seriously, and the subsequent
opening of fire on Palestinian civilians after the incidents of the following
days, in addition to the detention of thousands of Palestinians without trial,
the continuation of the confiscation of Palestinian lands, the extension and
the establishment of Israeli settlements thereon, the confiscation of
Palestinians' property and expropriation of their land, the demolition of
Palestinian homes and the uprooting of fruit trees, and calls upon Israel to
cease these acts immediately since these practices constitute a major obstacle
in the way of peace;
2. Also condemns the opening of a tunnel under the Al Aqsa mosque,
the continuation of the building of an Israeli settlement on Jabal Abu Ghenaim
in Occupied East Jerusalem in addition to other settlements in the West Bank,
the expropriation of Palestinian homes in AlAmoud
district in Jerusalem, the
revocation of identity cards of the citizens of the Palestinian city of
Jerusalem and forcing them to live outside their home with the aim of the
Judaization of Jerusalem, and calls upon the Government of Israel to close the
tunnel and to put an end immediately to these practices;
3. Further condemns the use of torture against Palestinians during
interrogation, which the Israeli High Court of Justice has legitimized, and
calls upon the Government of Israel to refrain immediately from the current
interrogation practices and to work on abolishing the abovementioned
legitimization;
4. Reaffirms that all the Israeli settlements in the Palestinian
territories occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, are illegal and
should be dismantled in order to achieve a just, permanent and comprehensive
peace in the region of the Middle East;
40
5.
Also reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War is applicable to the Palestinian
and other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including
East Jerusalem, and considers any change in the geographical and demographic
status of the city of East Jerusalem from its situation prior to the June 1967
war to be illegal and void;
6. Further reaffirms the great importance of the convening of a
conference by the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, in accordance with
General Assembly resolution ES10/
4;
7. Calls upon Israel to cease immediately its policy of enforcing
collective punishments, such as demolition of houses and closure of the
Palestinian territory, measures which constitute flagrant violations of
international law and international humanitarian law, endanger the lives of
the Palestinians and also constitute a major obstacle in the way of peace;
8. Calls once more upon Israel, the occupying Power, to desist from
all forms of violation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,
including East Jerusalem, and other occupied Arab territories, and to respect
the bases of international law, the principles of international humanitarian
law, its international commitments and the agreements it signed with the
Palestine Liberation Organization;
9. Also calls upon Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian
territories, including East Jerusalem, and the other Arab territories occupied
since 1967, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the United Nations
and the Commission on Human Rights;
10. Requests the SecretaryGeneral
to bring the present resolution to
the attention of the Government of Israel and all other Governments, the
competent United Nations organs, the specialized agencies, regional
intergovernmental organizations and international humanitarian organizations,
to disseminate it on the widest possible scale, and to report on its
implementation by the Government of Israel to the Commission on Human Rights
at its fiftyfifth
session;
11. Also requests the SecretaryGeneral
to provide the Commission on
Human Rights with all United Nations reports issued between sessions of the
Commission that deal with the conditions in which the citizens of the
Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories are living under the Israeli
occupation;
12. Decides to consider this question at its fiftyfifth
session under
the same agenda item, as a matter of high priority.
20th meeting
27 March 1998
[Adopted by a rollcall
vote of 31 votes to 1,
with 20 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
E/1999/23
E/CN.4/1999/167
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTY-FIFTH SESSION
(22 March 30
April 1999)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1999
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
¢
/ /
... '
7<e39
10.
Also notes that the General Assembly has invited the
SecretaryGeneral
to submit to it, at its fiftyfourth
session a report on the
implementation of the present resolution.
50th meeting
23 April 1999
[Adopted without a vote. See chap. V.]
1999/5. Question of the violation of human rights in the
occupied Arab territories, including Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, as well as by the provisions of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights,
Guided also by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of
12 August 1949, and the provisions of Additional Protocol I thereto, and
the Hague Convention IV of 1907,
Recalling the resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly
and the Commission on Human Rights related to the applicability of the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to
the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and other
occupied Arab territories,
Recalling also the General Assembly resolutions on Israeli violations of
human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem,
occupied since 1967,
Recalling further General Assembly resolutions ES10/
3, ES10/
4,
ES10/
5 and ES10/
6, in which the Assembly reiterated its recommendation that
the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War convene a conference on measures
to enforce the Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including
East Jerusalem, and to ensure its respect in accordance with the provisions of
common article 1 of the four Geneva Conventions,
Recalling the provisions of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of
Action adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights in June 1993
(A/CONF.157/23),
Taking note of the report (E/CN.4/1999/24) of the Special Rapporteur,
Mr. Hannu Halinen, regarding his mission undertaken in accordance with
Commission resolution 1993/2 A of 19 February 1993,
40
Taking
note also of the reports of the Special Committee to Investigate
Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and
Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories submitted to the General Assembly
since 1968, including the latest (A/53/136 and Add.1),
Noting with great concern the continued Israeli refusal to abide by the
resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission
on Human Rights calling upon Israel to put an end to the violations of human
rights and affirming the applicability of the Geneva Convention relative to
the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to the Occupied Palestinian
Territory, including East Jerusalem, and other Arab territories occupied by
Israel since 1967,
Gravely concerned at the stagnation of the peace process because of the
contempt of the Government of Israel for the principles on which that process
was based, and its refusal to carry out its commitments in line with the
agreements it signed with the Palestine Liberation Organization in Washington,
Cairo, Hebron and Wye River,
Recalling all its previous resolutions on the subject, including the
latest, resolution 1998/1 of 27 March 1998,
1. Condemns the continued violations of human rights in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, in particular the
continuation of acts of wounding and killing perpetrated by Israeli soldiers
and settlers against Palestinians, in addition to the detention of thousands
of Palestinians without trial, the continuation of the confiscation of
Palestinian lands, the extension and the establishment of Israeli settlements
thereon, the confiscation of Palestinian property and expropriation of their
land, the demolition of Palestinian homes and the uprooting of fruit trees,
and calls upon Israel to cease these acts immediately since they constitute
grave violations of human rights and of the principles of international law
and they also constitute a major obstacle in the way of the peace process;
2. Also condemns the expropriation of Palestinian homes in AlAmoud
district in Jerusalem, the revocation of identity cards of the citizens of the
Palestinian city of Jerusalem and forcing them to live outside their homes
with the aim of the Judaization of Jerusalem, and calls upon the Government of
Israel to put an end immediately to these practices;
3. Further condemns the use of torture against Palestinians during
interrogation, which the Israeli High Court of Justice had legitimized, and
calls upon the Government of Israel to refrain immediately from the current
interrogation practices and to work on abolishing the abovementioned
legitimization;
4. Reaffirms that all the Israeli settlements in the Palestinian
territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, are illegal,
constitute a flagrant violation of the provisions of the fourth Geneva
Convention of 1949 and of the principles of international law, and should be
dismantled in order to achieve a just, permanent and comprehensive peace in
the region of the Middle East;
41
5.
Also reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War is applicable to the Palestinian
territory and other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including
East Jerusalem, and considers any change in the geographical and demographic
status of the city of East Jerusalem from its situation prior to the June 1967
war to be illegal and void;
6. Further reaffirms the great importance of the convening of a
conference by the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, in accordance with
General Assembly resolutions ES10/
3, ES10/
4, ES10/
5 and ES10/
6;
7. Calls upon Israel to cease immediately its policy of enforcing
collective punishments, such as demolition of houses and closure of the
Palestinian territory, measures which constitute flagrant violations of
international law and international humanitarian law, endanger the lives of
Palestinians and also constitute a major obstacle in the way of peace;
8. Calls once more upon Israel, the occupying Power, to desist from
all forms of violation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,
including East Jerusalem, and other occupied Arab territories, and to respect
the bases of international law, the principles of international humanitarian
law, its international commitments and the agreements it signed with the
Palestine Liberation Organization;
9. Also calls upon Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory,
including East Jerusalem, and the other Arab territories occupied since 1967,
in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the United Nations and the
Commission on Human Rights;
10. Requests the SecretaryGeneral
to bring the present resolution to
the attention of the Government of Israel and all other Governments, the
competent United Nations organs, the specialized agencies, regional
intergovernmental organizations and international humanitarian organizations,
to disseminate it on the widest possible scale and to report on its
implementation by the Government of Israel to the Commission on Human Rights
at its fiftysixth
session;
11. Also requests the SecretaryGeneral
to provide the Commission on
Human Rights with all United Nations reports issued between sessions of the
Commission that deal with the conditions in which the citizens of the
Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories are living under the Israeli
occupation;
12. Decides to consider this question at its fiftysixth
session under
the same agenda item, as a matter of high priority.
50th meeting
23 April 1999
[Adopted by a rollcall
vote of 31 votes to 1,
with 21 abstentions. See chap. VIII.]
E/2000/23
E/CN.4/2000/167
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTY-SIXTH SESSION
(20 March 28 April 2000)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 2000
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
- 64 -
2000/6. Question of the violation of human rights in the occupied
Arab territories, including Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, as well as by
the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
Guided also by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, and the provisions of
Additional Protocol I thereto, and the Hague Convention IV of 1907,
Recalling the resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the
Commission on Human Rights related to the applicability of the Geneva Convention relative to
the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to the Occupied Palestinian Territory,
including East Jerusalem, and other occupied Arab territories,
Recalling also the General Assembly resolutions on Israeli violations of human rights in
the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, occupied since 1967,
Recalling further the provisions of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action,
adopted in June 1993 by the World Conference on Human Rights (A/CONF.157/23),
Taking note of the report (E/CN.4/2000/25) of the Special Rapporteur,
Mr. Giorgio Giacomelli, regarding his mission undertaken in accordance with Commission
resolution 1993/2 A of 19 February 1993,
Taking note also of the reports of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices
Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied
Territories submitted to the General Assembly since 1968, including the latest (A/54/325 and
A/54/73 and Add.1),
Noting with great concern the continued Israeli refusal to abide by the resolutions of the
Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights calling upon
Israel to put an end to the violations of human rights, and affirming the applicability of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to the
Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and other Arab territories occupied by
Israel since 1967,
Gravely concerned at the stagnation of the peace process because of the contempt of the
Government of Israel for the principles on which that process was based, and its refusal to carry
out its commitments in line with the agreements it signed with the Palestine Liberation
Organization, on the basis of land for peace, in Washington, Cairo, Hebron, Wye River and
Sharm el Sheikh,
- 65 -
Recalling all its previous resolutions on the subject, including the latest,
resolution 1999/5 of 23 April 1999,
1. Condemns the continued violations of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian
Territory, including East Jerusalem, in particular the continuation of acts of wounding and killing
perpetrated by Israeli soldiers and settlers against Palestinians, in addition to the detention of
thousands of Palestinians without trial, the continuation of the confiscation of Palestinian lands,
the extension and the establishment of Israeli settlements thereon, the confiscation of Palestinian
property and expropriation of their land, the demolition of Palestinian homes and the uprooting
of fruit trees, and calls upon Israel to cease immediately these acts, which constitute grave
violations of human rights and of the principles of international law and also constitute a major
obstacle in the way of the peace process;
2. Also condemns the expropriation of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem, the
revocation of identity cards of the citizens of the Palestinian city of Jerusalem, the imposition of
fabricated and exorbitant taxes with the aim of forcing the Palestinian citizens of Jerusalem, who
cannot afford to pay these high taxes, out of their homes and out of their city, preparing in this
way the path for the Judaization of Jerusalem, and calls upon the Government of Israel to put an
end immediately to these practices;
3. Further condemns the use of torture against Palestinians during interrogation, as it
constitutes a grave breach of the principles of international humanitarian law and the Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and calls
upon the Government of Israel to put an end immediately to the use of such practices;
4. Reaffirms that all the Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied
since 1967, including East Jerusalem, are illegal, constitute a flagrant violation of the provisions
of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and of
the principles of international law, and should be dismantled in order to achieve a just,
permanent and comprehensive peace in the region of the Middle East;
5. Also reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War is applicable to the Palestinian territory and other Arab territories
occupied by Israel since 1967, including East Jerusalem, and considers any change in the
geographical and demographic status of the city of East Jerusalem from its situation prior to the
June 1967 war to be illegal and void;
6. Calls upon Israel to cease immediately its policy of enforcing collective
punishments, such as demolition of houses and closure of the Palestinian territory, measures
which constitute flagrant violations of international law and international humanitarian law,
endanger the lives of Palestinians and also constitute a major obstacle in the way of peace;
7. Calls once more upon Israel, the occupying Power, to desist from all forms of
violation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and
other occupied Arab territories, and to respect the bases of international law, the principles of
international humanitarian law, its international commitments and the agreements it signed with
the Palestine Liberation Organization in relation to the peace process;
- 66 -
8. Also calls upon Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory, including
East Jerusalem, and the other Arab territories occupied since 1967, in accordance with the
relevant resolutions of the United Nations and the Commission on Human Rights, as a basic
condition for achieving a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East;
9. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the attention of
the Government of Israel and all other Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations and international humanitarian
organizations, to disseminate it on the widest possible scale and to report on its implementation
by the Government of Israel to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-seventh session;
10. Also requests the Secretary-General to provide the Commission on Human Rights
with all United Nations reports issued between sessions of the Commission that deal with the
conditions in which the citizens of the Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories are living
under the Israeli occupation;
11. Decides to consider this question at its fifty-seventh session under the same
agenda item, as a matter of high priority.
52nd meeting
17 April 2000
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 31 votes to 1,
with 19 abstentions. See chap. VIII.]
2000/7. Human rights in the occupied Syrian Golan
The Commission on Human Rights,
Deeply concerned at the suffering of the Syrian citizens in the occupied Syrian Golan due
to the violation of their fundamental and human rights since the Israeli military occupation
of 1967,
Recalling Security Council resolution 497 (1981) of 17 December 1981,
Recalling also all relevant General Assembly resolutions, including the latest,
resolution 54/80 of 6 December 1999, in which the Assembly, inter alia, called upon Israel to
comply with Security Council resolution 497 (1981), to put an end to its practices violating the
rights of the Syrian citizens in the occupied Syrian Golan and to put an end to its occupation of
the occupied Syrian Golan,
Reaffirming once more the illegality of Israel’s decision of 14 December 1981 to impose
its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the occupied Syrian Golan, which has resulted in the
effective annexation of that territory,
Reaffirming the principle of non-acquisition of territory by force in accordance with the
Charter of the United Nations and the principles of international law,
E/2000/112
E/CN.4/S-5/5
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTH SPECIAL SESSION
(17–19 October 2000)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 2000
SUPPLEMENT No. 22
UNITED NATIONS
- 4 -
I. Draft decision recommended for adoption by
the Economic and Social Council
Grave and massive violations of the human rights
of the Palestinian people by Israel
The Economic and Social Council, taking note of Commission on Human Rights
resolution S-5/1 of 19 October 2000, endorses the Commission’s decisions:
(a) To establish, on an urgent basis, a human rights inquiry commission, whose
membership should be based on the principles of independence and objectivity, to gather and
compile information on violations of human rights and acts which constitute grave breaches of
international humanitarian law by the Israeli occupying Power in the occupied Palestinian
territories and to provide the Commission with its conclusions and recommendations, with the
aim of preventing the repetition of the recent human rights violations;
(b) To request the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to
undertake an urgent visit to the occupied Palestinian territories to take stock of the violations of
the human rights of the Palestinian people by the Israeli occupying Power, to facilitate the
activities of the mechanisms of the Commission in implementation of the present resolution, to
keep the Commission informed of developments and to report to the Commission at its
fifty-seventh session and, on an interim basis, to the General Assembly at its fifty-fifth session;
(c) To request the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary
executions, the Representative of the Secretary-General on internally displaced persons, the
Special Rapporteur on the question of torture, the Special Rapporteur on violence against
women, its causes and consequences, the Special Rapporteur on religious intolerance, the Special
Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related
intolerance, the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing and the Working Group on Enforced or
Involuntary Disappearances to carry out immediate missions to the occupied Palestinian
territories and to report the findings to the Commission at its fifty-seventh session and, on an
interim basis, to the General Assembly at its fifty-fifth session.
II. Resolution adopted by the Commission at its fifth special session
S-5/1. Grave and massive violations of the human rights
of the Palestinian people by Israel
The Commission on Human Rights,
Meeting in special session,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the
various provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on
Human Rights, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,
- 5 -
Recalling Security Council resolutions 476 (1980) of 30 June 1980, 478 (1980) of
20 August 1980, 672 (1990) of 12 October 1990 and 1073 (1996) of 28 September 1996, and
taking note of Council resolution 1322 (2000) of 7 October 2000,
Recalling also its previous resolutions on the situation of human rights in the occupied
Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem, the most recent of which was resolution 2000/6
of 17 April 2000,
Taking note of the report of the Special Rapporteur, Mr. Giorgio Giacomelli
(E/CN.4/S-5/3), submitted on 17 October 2000, regarding his mission undertaken in accordance
with Commission resolution 1993/2 A of 19 February 1993,
Condemning the provocative visit to Al-Haram al-Sharif on 28 September 2000 by
Ariel Sharon, the Likud party leader, which triggered the tragic events that followed in occupied
East Jerusalem and the other occupied Palestinian territories, resulting in a high number of
deaths and injuries among Palestinian civilians,
Gravely concerned at the widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights
perpetrated by the Israeli occupying Power, in particular mass killings and collective
punishments, such as demolition of houses and closure of the Palestinian territories, measures
which constitute war crimes, flagrant violations of international humanitarian law and crimes
against humanity,
Taking into account the principles of international law and international humanitarian
law, particularly the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War, of 12 August 1949 and Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1977, and the
Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials of 1990, which
prescribe that such officials should, inter alia, “minimize damage and injury, and respect and
preserve human life” and “ensure that firearms are used only in appropriate circumstances in a
manner likely to decrease the risk of unnecessary harm”,
Bearing in mind the outcome of the Sharm el Sheikh summit of 17 October 2000,
1. Strongly condemns the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force in
violation of international humanitarian law by the Israeli occupying Power against innocent and
unarmed Palestinian civilians, causing the death of 120 civilians, including many children, in the
occupied territories, which constitutes a flagrant and grave violation of the right to life and also
constitutes a war crime and a crime against humanity;
2. Calls upon Israel, the occupying Power, to put an immediate end to any use of
force against unarmed civilians and to abide scrupulously by its legal obligations and
responsibilities under the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in
Time of War;
3. Calls upon the international community to take immediate effective measures to
secure the cessation of violence by the Israeli occupying Power and to put an end to the ongoing
violations of human rights of the Palestinian people in the occupied territories;
- 6 -
4. Affirms that the Israeli military occupation in itself constitutes a grave violation of
the human rights of the Palestinian people;
5. Also affirms that the deliberate and systematic killing of civilians and children by
the Israeli occupying authorities constitutes a flagrant and grave violation of the right to life and
also constitutes a crime against humanity;
6. Decides:
(a) To establish, on an urgent basis, a human rights inquiry commission, whose
membership should be based on the principles of independence and objectivity, to gather and
compile information on violations of human rights and acts which constitute grave breaches of
international humanitarian law by the Israeli occupying Power in the occupied Palestinian
territories and to provide the Commission with its conclusions and recommendations, with the
aim of preventing the repetition of the recent human rights violations;
(b) To request the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to
undertake an urgent visit to the occupied Palestinian territories to take stock of the violations of
the human rights of the Palestinian people by the Israeli occupying Power, to facilitate the
activities of the mechanisms of the Commission in implementation of the present resolution, to
keep it informed of developments and to report to the Commission at its fifty-seventh session
and, on an interim basis, to the General Assembly at its fifty-fifth session;
(c) To request the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary
executions, the Representative of the Secretary-General on internally displaced persons, the
Special Rapporteur on the question of torture, the Special Rapporteur on violence against
women, its causes and consequences, the Special Rapporteur on religious intolerance, the Special
Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related
intolerance, the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing and the Working Group on Enforced or
Involuntary Disappearances to carry out immediate missions to the occupied Palestinian
territories and to report the findings to the Commission at its fifty-seventh session and, on an
interim basis, to the General Assembly at its fifty-fifth session;
(d) To request the High Commissioner to bring the present resolution to the attention
of the Government of Israel and all other Governments, the competent United Nations organs,
the specialized agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations and international
humanitarian organizations, to ensure the widest possible dissemination of the text of the
resolution and to report on its implementation by the Government of Israel to the Commission at
its next session;
7. Decides to consider this question at its fifty-seventh session under item 8 of its
provisional agenda, as a matter of high priority;
- 7 -
8. Requests the Economic and Social Council to meet on an urgent basis in order to
act on the proposals contained in the present resolution.
6th meeting
19 October 2000
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 19 votes to 16,
with 17 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
III. Organization of the work of the session
1. The Economic and Social Council, in its resolution 1990/48 of 25 May 1990, authorized
the Commission on Human Rights to meet exceptionally between its regular sessions, provided
that a majority of the members of the Commission so agreed.
2. The Economic and Social Council, by its decision 1993/286 of 28 July 1993, adopted at
its substantive session the “Procedure for special sessions of the Commission on Human Rights”.
3. By a letter dated 3 October 2000, addressed to the United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights, the Permanent Representative of Algeria to the United Nations Office at
Geneva, on behalf of the Council of Arab Permanent Representatives, Members of the League of
Arab States, requested that a special session of the Commission be convened “to discuss the
grave and massive violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people by the Israeli
occupying Power”.
4. Pursuant to Economic and Social Council decision 1993/286, the States members of the
Commission were requested, by a note verbale dated 4 October 2000, to indicate their wishes in
regard to the request of the Government of Algeria, with a view to ascertaining whether the
majority of the members agreed to the holding of a special session. By the deadline
on 10 October 2000, the following States members of the Commission had indicated their
agreement: Argentina, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brazil, Burundi, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba,
Czech Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Germany, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Italy,
Japan, Latvia, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria,
Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of the
Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Tunisia, United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Venezuela, Zambia.
5. As the majority of the States members were in agreement, the High Commissioner
convened the fifth special session of the Commission from 17 to 19 October 2000.
A. Opening and duration of the session
6. The Commission held its fifth special session at the United Nations Office at Geneva
from 17 to 19 October 2000. It held six meetings (E/CN.4/S-5/SR.1-6)1 during the session.
1 Summary records of each of the meetings are subject to correction. They are considered final
with the issuance of a consolidated corrigendum (E/CN.4/S-5/SR.1-6/Corrigendum).
E/2001/23
E/CN.4/2001/167
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTY-SEVENTH SESSION
(19 March - 27 April 2001)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 2001
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
- 62 -
7. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-eighth session, as a matter
of high priority, the item entitled “Question of the violation of human rights in the occupied
Arab territories, including Palestine”.
61st meeting
18 April 2001
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 29 votes to 2,
with 21 abstentions. See chap. VIII.]
2001/7. Question of the violation of human rights in the occupied
Arab territories, including Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations as well as by
the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
Guided also by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949, the provisions of
Additional Protocol I thereto, and the Hague Convention IV of 1907,
Recalling the resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the
Commission on Human Rights relating to the applicability of the Geneva Convention relative to
the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to the occupied Palestinian territory, including
East Jerusalem,
Reaffirming the applicability of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War to the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem,
Recalling the General Assembly resolutions on Israeli violations of human rights in the
occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, occupied since 1967,
Recalling also the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action adopted in June 1993 by
the World Conference on Human Rights (A/CONF.157/23),
Welcoming the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
(E/CN.4/2001/114),
Welcoming also the report of the Special Rapporteur, Mr. Giorgio Giacomelli
(E/CN.4/2001/30), and his report (E/CN.4/S-5/3) submitted to its fifth special session, held
from 17 to 19 October 2000,
- 63 -
Welcoming further the report of the Human Rights Inquiry Commission established
pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolution S-5/1 of 19 October 2000
(E/CN.4/2001/121),
Expressing its deep concern at the failure of the Government of Israel to cooperate with
the Human Rights Inquiry Commission and its failure to cooperate with other relevant
rapporteurs,
Gravely concerned at the deterioration of the situation in the occupied Palestinian
territories and by the gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, in
particular extrajudicial killings, closures, collective punishments, settlements and arbitrary
detentions,
Expressing its grave concern at the continuing violence and the resulting deaths and
injuries, mostly among Palestinians,
Taking note of the reports of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices
Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied
Territories submitted to the General Assembly since 1968,
Expressing its grave concern at the continued Israeli refusal to abide by the resolutions of
the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights calling upon
Israel to put an end to the violations of human rights and affirming the applicability of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to the occupied
Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel since 1967,
Convinced that the progress made on all major issues during the last negotiations should
form the basis for future talks on permanent status, and that the basis of negotiations, and of a
just and lasting peace, must be Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967
and 338 (1973) of 22 October 1973 and other relevant United Nations resolutions and include the
inadmissibility of acquisition of territory by war, the need for every State in the area to be able to
live in security and the principle of land for peace,
Recalling all its previous resolutions on the subject, including the latest,
resolutions 2000/6 of 17 April 2000 and S-5/1 of 19 October 2000 adopted at its
fifth special session,
1. Expresses its grave concern at the deterioration of the human rights and
humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territories;
2. Condemns the disproportionate and indiscriminate recourse to force, which
cannot but aggravate the situation and increase an already high death toll, and urges the
Government of Israel to make every effort to ensure that its security forces observe international
standards regarding the use of force;
- 64 -
3. Strongly deplores the practice of so-called “eliminations”, or extrajudicial
killings, of certain Palestinians carried out by the Israeli security forces, which are not only a
violation of human rights norms and contrary to the rule of law, but are also damaging for the
relationship between the parties and therefore obstacles to peace, and urges the Government of
Israel to respect international law and cease this practice;
4. Expresses its grave concern at the closures of and within the Palestinian
territories, which contribute together with other factors to the unrest and violence that have been
prevailing in the zone for several months, calls upon the Government of Israel immediately to
put an end to the practice of closures and reiterates that collective punishment is prohibited under
international law;
5. Expresses its concern at the large number of persons, including children, who
have been detained during recent months and at the continued detention of some detainees
without any criminal charges having been brought against them;
6. Expresses its grave concern at the Israeli settlement activities in the occupied
territories, including Jerusalem, such as the construction of new settlements and the expansion of
existing ones, the expropriation of land, the biased administration of water resources, the
construction of roads and house demolitions, all of which violate human rights and international
humanitarian law, besides being major obstacles to peace, urges the Government of Israel to
implement the relevant United Nations resolutions as well as the recommendation of the
Commission regarding the Israeli settlements, and calls on the Israeli security forces to ensure
the protection of the population in the occupied territories, including preventing, investigating
and prosecuting acts of violence committed by Israeli settlers;
7. Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War is applicable to the Palestinian territory and other Arab territories
occupied by Israel since 1967, including East Jerusalem, and considers any change in the
geographical and demographic status of the city of East Jerusalem from its situation prior to the
June 1967 war to be illegal and void;
8. Condemns the expropriation of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem, the revocation of
identity cards of the citizens of the Palestinian city of Jerusalem, the imposition of fabricated and
exorbitant taxes with the aim of forcing the Palestinian citizens of Jerusalem, who cannot afford
to pay these high taxes, out of their homes and out of their city, preparing in this way the path for
the Judaization of Jerusalem, and calls upon the Government of Israel to put an end immediately
to these practices;
9. Also condemns the use of torture against Palestinians during interrogation, as it
constitutes a grave breach of the principles of international humanitarian law and the
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,
and calls upon the Government of Israel to put an end immediately to such practices;
- 65 -
10. Welcomes the efforts of the Government of Switzerland, in its capacity as
depositary of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War, to consult the High Contracting Parties to the Convention on the reconvening of the
adjourned Conference of the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, and
looks forward to their early conclusion on the basis of agreement by a large majority of the
Parties and in accordance with the statement adopted on 15 July 1999 by the Conference upon
adjournment, with a view to fulfilling the joint obligation of the High Contracting Parties to
ensure respect for the Convention and to improve the deteriorating humanitarian situation on the
ground;
11. Calls upon Israel, the occupying Power, to desist from all forms of violation of
human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and other occupied
Arab territories, and to respect the bases of international law, the principles of international
humanitarian law, its international commitments and the agreements it signed with the
Palestine Liberation Organization;
12. Also calls upon Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory, including
East Jerusalem, occupied since 1967, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the
United Nations and the Commission on Human Rights, as a basic condition for achieving a just,
lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East;
13. Calls upon the relevant United Nations organs urgently to consider the best ways
to provide the necessary international protection for the Palestinian people until the cessation of
the Israeli occupation of its territories;
14. Welcomes the recommendations contained in the report of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights and those contained in the report of the Human Rights
Inquiry Commission, urges the Government of Israel to implement them and requests the Special
Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel
since 1967, acting as a monitoring mechanism, to follow up on the implementation of those
recommendations and to submit reports thereon to the General Assembly at its fifty-sixth session
and the Commission at its fifty-eighth session;
15. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the attention of
the Government of Israel and all other Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations and international humanitarian
organizations, to disseminate it on the widest possible scale and to report on its implementation
by the Government of Israel to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-eighth session;
16. Also requests the Secretary-General to provide the Commission on Human Rights
with all United Nations reports issued between the sessions of the Commission that deal with the
conditions in which the citizens of the Palestinian and other occupied Arab Territories are living
under the Israeli occupation;
- 66 -
17. Decides to consider this question at its fifty-eighth session under the same agenda
item, as a matter of high priority.
61st meeting
18 April 2001
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 28 votes to 2,
with 22 abstentions. See chap. VIII.]
2001/8. Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab territories
The Commission on Human Rights,
Reaffirming that all Member States have an obligation to promote and protect human
rights and fundamental freedoms as stated in the Charter of the United Nations and as elaborated
in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on Human Rights
and other applicable instruments,
Mindful that Israel is a party to the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, which is applicable to Palestinian and all
Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including East Jerusalem,
Recalling its previous resolutions, most recently resolution 2000/8 of 17 April 2000, in
which, inter alia, it reaffirmed the illegality of the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories,
Expressing its concern regarding the security risks related to the presence of the
settlements in the occupied territories,
1. Welcomes:
(a) The reports of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the
Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967 (E/CN.4/S-5/3 and E/CN.4/2001/30) and
calls upon the Government of Israel to cooperate with the Special Rapporteur to allow him fully
to discharge his mandate;
(b) The report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on
her visit to the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel, Egypt and Jordan from 8 to
16 November 2000 (E/CN.4/2001/114);
(c) The report of the Human Rights Inquiry Commission established pursuant to
Commission on Human Rights resolution S-5/1 of 19 October 2000 (E/CN.4/2001/121);
2. Expresses its grave concern:
(a) At the continuing Israeli settlement activities, including the expansion of the
settlements, the installation of settlers in the occupied territories, the expropriation of land, the
E/2002/23
E/CN.4/2002/200
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTY-EIGHTH SESSION
(18 March-26 April 2002)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 2002
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
- 37 -
II. Resolutions and decisions adopted by the Commission
at its fifty-eighth session
A. Resolutions
2002/1. Situation of human rights in the occupied
Palestinian territory
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967, 338 (1973)
of 22 October 1973, and taking note of Council resolutions 1397 (2002) of 12 March 2002,
1402 (2002) of 30 March 2002 and 1403 (2002) of 4 April 2002 that called upon both parties to
move immediately to a meaningful ceasefire, as well as for withdrawal of Israeli troops and for
an immediate cessation of all acts of violence, including all acts of terror, provocation,
incitement and destruction,
Welcoming the statement of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory on 2 April 2002 at
its 22nd meeting of the fifty-eighth session,
Gravely concerned at reports of gross, widespread and flagrant violations of human
rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, in particular regarding the violation of the right to
life, the arrest and detention of civilians, the restrictions on freedom of movement, the disruption
of the delivery of humanitarian and medical assistance, the destruction of infrastructure, the
restriction on the freedom of the media, the detention of human rights defenders, as well as the
disproportionate and indiscriminate use of Israeli military force against the people of
Palestine and its leadership,
Noting the specific proposals of the High Commissioner for a visiting mission to
be dispatched immediately to the area and for the establishment of an international
monitoring presence to deter violations of human rights in the occupied Palestinian
territory,
1. Condemns the frightening increase in the loss of life, the invasion of Palestinian
cities and villages, the arrest and detention of Palestinians, the restrictions on the movement of
residents as well as personnel of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the
Palestinian Red Crescent Society, medical personnel, human rights defenders and journalists,
the refusal of humanitarian access to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine
Refugees in the Near East, and the serious and systematic destruction of homes, installations
and infrastructure in the territory as reported by the High Commissioner;
2. Endorses the proposals made by the High Commissioner in her statement;
- 38 -
3. Requests the High Commissioner to head a visiting mission that would travel
immediately to the area and return expeditiously to submit its findings and recommendations to
the current session of the Commission;
4. Decides to remain seized of this matter as a matter of high priority.
28th meeting
5 April 2002
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 44 votes to 2,
with 7 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
2002/2. Strengthening of the Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling all relevant resolutions of the General Assembly and the Commission, in
particular Assembly resolutions 48/141 of 20 December 1993 and 55/234 of 23 December 2000,
and Commission resolutions 1998/83 of 24 April 1998, 1999/54 of 27 April 1999 and 2000/1
of 7 April 2000,
Reaffirming that all human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and
interrelated and that the international community must treat human rights globally in a fair and
equal manner, on the same footing and with the same emphasis,
Reaffirming also the importance of ensuring universality, objectivity and non-selectivity
in the consideration of human rights issues and, in this context, underlining the need for
continuing to ensure the implementation of these principles by the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights in the fulfilment of her mandate and the activities of
her Office,
Recalling that the mandate of the High Commissioner includes promotion and protection
of the effective enjoyment by all of all civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights,
Recalling also that the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action adopted in
June 1993 at the World Conference on Human Rights (A/CONF.157/23) recognized the
necessity for an adaptation and strengthening of United Nations human rights machinery in
accordance with current and future needs in the promotion and protection of human rights,
Encouraging the High Commissioner, within her mandate as set out in General Assembly
resolution 48/141, to continue to play an active role in promoting and protecting all
human rights,
E/2002/23
E/CN.4/2002/200
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTY-EIGHTH SESSION
(18 March-26 April 2002)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 2002
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
- 51 -
recommendations with the aim of resuming negotiations on a political settlement based on
Council resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967, 338 (1973) of 22 October 1973,
1397 (2002) , 1402 (2002), 1403 (2002) of 4 April 2002 and other relevant United Nations
resolutions, the principles of the Peace Conference on the Middle East, held in Madrid
on 30 October 1991, the Oslo Accords and subsequent agreements, including the inadmissibility
of acquisition of territory by war, the end to the occupation of 1967 and the principle of land for
peace, which will allow two States, Israel and Palestine, to live in peace and security and play
their full part in the region;
5. Decides to continue its consideration of this question at its fifty-ninth session.
38th meeting
12 April 2002
[Adopted by a recorded vote of 52 votes to 1.
See chap. VIII.]
2002/8. Question of the violation of human rights in the
occupied Arab territories, including Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations as well as by
the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
Recalling Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967 and 338 (1973)
of 22 October 1973, and taking note of Council resolutions 1397 (2002) of 12 March 2002,
1402 (2002) of 30 March 2002 and 1403 (2002) of 4 April 2002 that called upon both parties to
move immediately to a meaningful ceasefire, as well as for withdrawal of Israeli troops and for
an immediate cessation of all acts of violence, including all acts of terror, provocation,
incitement and destruction,
Guided by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, the provisions of Additional
Protocol I thereto of 1977 and the Hague Convention IV of 1907,
Recalling the resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the
Commission on Human Rights relating to the applicability of the Geneva Convention relative to
the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to the occupied Palestinian territory, including
East Jerusalem,
- 52 -
Reaffirming the applicability of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War to the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions on Israeli violations of human rights in the
occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, occupied since 1967,
Recalling particularly General Assembly resolution 37/43 of 3 December 1982
reaffirming the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples against foreign occupation,
Recalling the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action adopted in June 1993 by the
World Conference on Human Rights (A/CONF.157/23),
Recalling also the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to
the Commission at its fifty-seventh session on her visit to the occupied Palestinian territories,
Israel, Egypt and Jordan (E/CN.4/2001/114),
Welcoming the report of the Special Rapporteur, Mr. John Dugard (E/CN.4/2002/32),
Expressing its deep concern at the failure of the Government of Israel to cooperate with
the Human Rights Inquiry Commission established pursuant to Commission resolution S-5/1
of 19 October 2000 and its failure to cooperate with other relevant rapporteurs, particularly
Mr. John Dugard, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian
territories occupied since 1967,
Gravely concerned at the continued deterioration of the situation in the occupied
Palestinian territory and at the gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian
law, in particular, acts of extrajudicial killing, closures, collective punishments, the persistence in
establishing settlements, arbitrary detentions, the besieging of Palestinian towns and villages, the
shelling of Palestinian residential districts from warplanes, tanks and Israeli battleships, the
conducting of incursions into towns and camps and the killing of men, women and children there
as was the case lately in the camps of Jenin, Balata, Khan Younis, Rafah, Ramallah, Gaza,
Nablus, Al-Birah, Al-Amari, Jabalia, Bethlehem and Dheisheh,
Expressing its grave concern at the continued violence and the resulting deaths and
injuries, mostly among Palestinians, the toll of casualties having so far increased to
over 1,200 killed and over 25,000 wounded since 28 September 2000,
Taking note of the reports of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices
Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied
Territories submitted to the General Assembly since 1968,
Expressing its grave concern at the continued Israeli refusal to abide by the resolutions of
the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights calling upon
Israel to put an end to the violations of human rights and affirming the applicability of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to the occupied
Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel since 1967,
- 53 -
Convinced that the basis of negotiations and of achieving a just and lasting peace should
be Security Council resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973) and other relevant United Nations
resolutions, and include the inadmissibility of acquisition of territory by war, the need for every
State in the area to be able to live in security and the principle of land for peace,
Recalling all its previous resolutions on the subject,
1. Affirms the legitimate right of the Palestinian people to resist the Israeli
occupation in order to free its land and be able to exercise its right of self-determination and that,
by so doing, the Palestinian people is fulfilling its mission, one of the goals and purposes of the
United Nations;
2. Strongly condemns the violations by the Israeli occupation authorities of human
rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem;
3. Also strongly condemns the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory as it
constitutes an aggression and an offence against humanity and a flagrant violation of human
rights;
4. Further strongly condemns the war launched by the Israeli army against
Palestinian towns and camps, which has resulted so far in the death of hundreds of Palestinian
civilians, including women and children;
5. Strongly condemns the practice of “liquidation” or “extrajudicial executions”
carried out by the Israeli army against Palestinians, a practice which not only constitutes a
violation of human rights norms, a flagrant violation of article 3 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights and of the rule of law, but which is also damaging for the relationship between
the parties and therefore constitutes an obstacle to peace, and urges the Government of Israel to
respect international law and to cease this practice immediately;
6. Also strongly condemns the establishment of Israeli settlements and other related
activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, such as the construction
of new settlements and the expansion of already existing ones, the expropriation of lands, the
biased administration of water resources and the construction of bypass roads, all of which are
not only violations of human rights and of international humanitarian law, especially article 49 of
the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (the
Fourth Geneva Convention) and Protocol I Additional to the Geneva Conventions which
categorized such violations as war crimes, but are also major obstacles to peace, urges the
Government of Israel to implement the relevant United Nations resolutions as well as the
resolutions of the Commission on Human Rights relative to the Israeli settlements, and affirms
that the dismantling of the Israeli settlements constitutes an essential factor for achieving a just,
comprehensive and lasting peace in the region;
- 54 -
7. Condemns the expropriation of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem, the revocation of
identity cards of the citizens of East Jerusalem, the imposition of fabricated and exorbitant taxes
with the aim of forcing the Palestinian citizens of Jerusalem, who cannot afford to pay these high
taxes, out of their homes and out of their city, preparing in this way the path for the Judaization
of Jerusalem, and calls upon the Government of Israel to put an end immediately to these
practices;
8. Also condemns the use of torture against Palestinians during interrogation, as it
constitutes a grave violation of the principles of international humanitarian law, and of the
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,
and is also a violation of article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and calls upon
the Government of Israel to put an end immediately to such practices and to bring the
perpetrators of these violations to trial;
9. Strongly condemns the setting on fire of the Church of the Nativity and the
Omar Ibn Al-Khattab mosque in Bethlehem and the shelling with artillery fire of the Al-Baik and
Al-Kabir mosques in Nablus;
10. Also strongly condemns the offensives of the Israeli army of occupation against
hospitals and sick persons and the use of Palestinian citizens as human shields during Israeli
incursions into Palestinian areas;
11. Further strongly condemns opening of fire by the Israeli army of occupation on
ambulances and paramedical personnel and its preventing ambulances and cars of the
International Committee of the Red Cross from reaching the wounded and the dead in order to
transport them to hospital, thus leaving the wounded bleeding to death in the streets;
12. Strongly condemns the refusal by the Israeli army of occupation to allow the
burial of dead Palestinians, thus obliging their families to bury the bodies of their loved ones in
the available space around their homes and in hospitals;
13. Expresses its grave concern at the deterioration of the human rights and
humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, and particularly at acts of mass
killing perpetrated by the Israeli occupying authorities against the Palestinian people;
14. Expresses its deep concern at the military siege imposed on the Palestinian
territory and the isolation of Palestinian towns and villages from each other through the
establishment of military roadblocks that are used as a trap to kill Palestinians, which contribute,
together with other factors, to the acts of violence that have been prevailing in the region for over
a year and a half, calls upon the Government of Israel to immediately put an end to this practice
and immediately lift its military siege of Palestinian towns and villages, and reaffirms that these
collective punishments are prohibited under international law and constitute a grave violation of
the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention and Protocol I Additional to the Geneva
Conventions;
- 55 -
15. Expresses its grave concern at the restriction of movement imposed on
Chairman Yasser Arafat by the Israeli occupying authorities, in violation of articles 9 and 13 of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
16. Expresses its deep concern at the massive arrests conducted by the Israeli
occupying authorities against a large number of Palestinians and also at the continued detention
of thousands of Palestinians without any criminal charges having been brought against them, in
violation of article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the provisions of the
Fourth Geneva Convention in this respect;
17. Affirms anew that the demolition by the Israeli occupying forces of
over 1,200 houses owned by Palestinian families is a grave violation of articles 33 and 53 of
the Fourth Geneva Convention and that levelling farmlands, uprooting trees and destroying the
infrastructure of Palestinian society constitute grave violations of the provisions of international
humanitarian law and a form of collective punishment against the Palestinian people;
18. Reaffirms that the Fourth Geneva Convention is applicable to the Palestinian
territory occupied by Israel since 1967, including East Jerusalem, and considers any change in
the geographical, demographic and institutional status of the city of East Jerusalem from its
status prior to the June 1967 war to be illegal and void;
19. Welcomes the declaration adopted by the Conference of the High Contracting
Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, which was held in Geneva on 5 December 2001, and
calls upon the High Contracting Parties to follow up on the implementation of the declaration;
20. Calls upon Israel, the occupying Power, to desist from all forms of violation of
human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and other occupied
Arab territories, and to respect the principles of international law and international humanitarian
law, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, its international commitments and the
agreements it signed with the Palestine Liberation Organization;
21. Also calls upon Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory, including
East Jerusalem, occupied since 1967, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the
United Nations and the Commission on Human Rights, as a basic condition for achieving a just,
lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East;
22. Calls upon the relevant United Nations organs urgently to consider the best ways
to provide the necessary international protection for the Palestinian people until the cessation of
the Israeli occupation of its territory;
23. Welcomes anew the recommendations contained in the report of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and those contained in the report of the
Human Rights Inquiry Commission (E/CN.4/2001/121), urges the Government of Israel to
implement them and requests the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the
- 56 -
Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, acting as a monitoring mechanism, to follow up on
the implementation of these recommendations and to submit reports thereon to the
General Assembly at its fifty-seventh session and to the Commission on human rights at its
fifty-ninth session;
24. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the attention of
the Government of Israel and all other Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations and international humanitarian
organizations, to disseminate it on the widest possible scale and to report on its implementation
by the Government of Israel to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-ninth session;
25. Also requests the Secretary-General to provide the Commission with all
United Nations reports issued between the sessions of the Commission that deal with the
conditions in which the citizens of the Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories are living
under the Israeli occupation;
26. Decides to consider this question at its fifty-ninth session under the same agenda
item, as a matter of high priority.
39th meeting
15 April 2002
[Adopted by a recorded vote of 40 votes to 5,
with 7 abstentions. See chap. VIII.]
2002/9. Combating defamation of religions
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling that all States have pledged themselves, under the Charter of the
United Nations, to promote and encourage universal respect for and observance of human rights
and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion,
Recalling also its resolutions 1999/82 of 30 April 1999, 2000/84 of 26 April 2000
and 2001/4 of 18 April 2001,
Reaffirming that discrimination against human beings on grounds of religion or belief
constitutes an affront to human dignity and a disavowal of the principles of the Charter of the
United Nations,
Welcoming the designation by the General Assembly of the year 2001 as the
United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations,
Recalling the United Nations Millennium Declaration adopted by the General Assembly
on 8 September 2000, welcoming the resolve expressed in the Declaration to take measures to
eliminate the increasing acts of racism and xenophobia in many societies and to promote greater
E/2003/23
E/CN.4/2003/135
(17 March-24 April 2003)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 2003
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
- 39 -
7. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its sixtieth session, as a matter of
high priority, the item entitled “Question of the violation of human rights in the occupied Arab
territories, including Palestine”.
48th meeting
15 April 2003
[Adopted by a recorded vote of 31 to 1,
with 21 abstentions. See chap. VIII.]
2003/6. Question of the violation of human rights in the
occupied Arab territories, including Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations as well as by
the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
Recalling Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967, 338 (1973)
of 22 October 1973, 1397 (2002) of 12 March 2002, 1402 (2002) of 30 March 2002
and 1403 (2002) of 4 April 2002 that called upon both parties to move immediately to a
meaningful ceasefire, as well as for withdrawal of Israeli troops and for an immediate cessation
of all acts of violence, including all acts of terror, provocation, incitement and destruction,
Guided by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949 (Fourth Geneva Convention),
the provisions of Additional Protocol I thereto and the Hague Convention IV of 1907,
Recalling the resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the
Commission on Human Rights relating to the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention
to the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem,
Reaffirming the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention to the occupied
Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions on Israeli violations of human rights in the
occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, occupied since 1967,
Recalling particularly General Assembly resolution 37/43 of 3 December 1982
reaffirming the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples against foreign occupation and for
self-determination,
Recalling the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted in June 1993 by the
World Conference on Human Rights (A/CONF.157/23),
- 40 -
Welcoming the report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the
Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Mr. John Dugard (E/CN.4/2003/30 and Add.1), the
report of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of an adequate standard of
living, Mr. Miloon Kothari (E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1), and the report of the Special Rapporteur on
the right to food, Mr. Jean Ziegler (E/CN.4/2003/54),
Expressing its deep concern at the failure of the Government of Israel to cooperate with
the Human Rights Inquiry Commission established pursuant to Commission resolution S-5/1
of 19 October 2000 and its failure to cooperate with other relevant special rapporteurs,
particularly Mr. John Dugard,
Gravely concerned at the continued deterioration of the situation in the occupied
Palestinian territory and at the gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian
law, in particular, acts of extrajudicial killing, closures, collective punishments, the persistence in
establishing settlements, arbitrary detentions, the besieging of Palestinian towns and villages, the
shelling of Palestinian residential districts from warplanes, tanks and Israeli battleships, the
conducting of incursions into towns and camps and the killing of men, women and children there
as was the case lately in the camps of Jenin, Balata, Khan Younis, Rafah, Ramallah, Gaza,
Nablus, Al-Birah, Al-Amari, Jabalia, Bethlehem and Dheisheh, and in the Al-Daraj and
Al-Zaitoun neighbourhoods in the city of Gaza,
Expressing its grave concern at the continued violence and the resulting deaths and
injuries, mostly among Palestinians, the toll of casualties having so far increased to over
2,200 killed and over 25,000 wounded since 28 September 2000,
Taking note of the reports of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices
Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied
Territories submitted to the General Assembly since 1968,
Expressing its grave concern at the continued Israeli refusal to abide by the resolutions of
the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights calling upon
Israel to put an end to the violations of human rights and affirming the applicability of the
Fourth Geneva Convention to the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem,
occupied by Israel since 1967,
Convinced that the basis of negotiations and of achieving a just and lasting peace should
be Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973) and other relevant United Nations
resolutions, including the principle of the inadmissibility of acquisition of territory by war, the
need for every State in the area to be able to live in security and the principle of land for peace,
Recalling all its previous resolutions on the subject, the latest of which is
resolution 2002/8 of 15 April 2002,
1. Reaffirms the legitimate right of the Palestinian people to resist the Israeli
occupation in order to free its land and be able to exercise its right of self-determination, thus
fulfilling its mission, which is one of the goals and purposes of the United Nations, in
accordance with the Charter;
- 41 -
2. Strongly condemns once more the violations by the Israeli occupation authorities
of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem;
3. Also strongly condemns the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory as it
constitutes an aggression and an offence against humanity and a flagrant violation of human
rights;
4. Further strongly condemns the war launched by the Israeli army against
Palestinian towns and camps, which has resulted so far in the death of hundreds of Palestinian
civilians, including women and children;
5. Strongly condemns anew the practice of “liquidation” or “extrajudicial
executions” carried out by the Israeli army against Palestinians, a practice which not only
constitutes a violation of human rights norms and a flagrant violation of article 3 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and of the rule of law, but which is also damaging for the
relationship between the parties and therefore constitutes an obstacle to peace, and urges the
Government of Israel to respect international law and to cease this practice immediately;
6. Also strongly condemns once again the establishment of Israeli settlements and
other related activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, such as the
construction of new settlements and the expansion of the already existing ones, the expropriation
of lands, the biased administration of water resources and the construction of bypass roads, all of
which are not only violations of human rights and of international humanitarian law, especially
article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and Protocol I Additional to the Geneva
Conventions of 12 August 1949 for the protection of victims of war, according to which such
violations constitute war crimes, but are also major obstacles to peace, urges the Government of
Israel to implement the relevant United Nations resolutions as well as the resolutions of the
Commission on Human Rights relative to the Israeli settlements, and affirms that the dismantling
of the Israeli settlements constitutes an essential factor for achieving a just, comprehensive and
lasting peace in the region;
7. Condemns once again the expropriation of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem and
Hebron, the revocation of identity cards of the citizens of East Jerusalem, the imposition of
fabricated and exorbitant taxes with the aim of forcing the Palestinian citizens of Jerusalem, who
cannot afford to pay these high taxes, out of their homes and out of their city, preparing in this
way the path for the Judaization of Jerusalem, and calls upon the Government of Israel to put an
end immediately to these practices;
8. Also condemns once again the use of torture against Palestinians during
interrogation, as it constitutes a grave violation of the principles of international humanitarian
law, and of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment and is also a violation of article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and
calls upon the Government of Israel to put an end immediately to such practices and to bring the
perpetrators of these violations to trial;
9. Strongly condemns once more the offensives of the Israeli army of occupation
against hospitals and sick persons and the use of Palestinian citizens as human shields during
Israeli incursions into Palestinian areas;
- 42 -
10. Also strongly condemns once more the opening of fire by the Israeli army of
occupation on ambulances and paramedical personnel and the practice of preventing ambulances
and vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross from reaching the wounded and the
dead in order to transport them to hospital, thus leaving the wounded bleeding to death in the
streets;
11. Expresses its grave concern once more at the deterioration of the human rights
and humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, and particularly at acts of mass
killing perpetrated by the Israeli occupying authorities against the Palestinian people;
12. Expresses its deep concern again at the military siege imposed on the Palestinian
territory and the isolation of Palestinian towns and villages from each other through the
establishment of military roadblocks that are used as a trap to kill Palestinians, which contribute,
together with other factors, to the acts of violence that have been prevailing in the region for two
and a half years, calls upon the Government of Israel to immediately put an end to this practice
and immediately lift its military siege of Palestinian towns and villages, and reaffirms that these
collective punishments are prohibited under international law and constitute a grave violation of
the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention and Protocol I Additional to the Geneva
Conventions;
13. Expresses its grave concern once again at the restriction of movement imposed
on Chairman Yasser Arafat by the Israeli occupying authorities, in violation of articles 9 and 13
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
14. Also expresses its deep concern once again at the massive arrests conducted by
the Israeli occupying authorities against about 1,500 Palestinians, without trial and without any
criminal charges having been brought against them, in violation of article 9 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention in this
respect;
15. Affirms anew that the demolition by the Israeli occupying forces of at least
30,000 Palestinian houses, facilities and property is a grave violation of articles 33 and 53 of the
Fourth Geneva Convention and that levelling farmlands, uprooting trees and destroying the
infrastructure of Palestinian society constitute grave violations of the provisions of international
humanitarian law and a form of collective punishment against the Palestinian people;
16. Reaffirms that the Fourth Geneva Convention is applicable to the Palestinian
territory occupied by Israel since 1967, including East Jerusalem, and considers any change in
the geographical, demographic and institutional status of the city of East Jerusalem from its
status prior to the June 1967 war to be illegal and void;
17. Calls once again upon Israel, the occupying Power, to desist from all forms of
violation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and
other occupied Arab territories and to respect the principles of international law and international
humanitarian law, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, its international commitments
and the agreements it signed with the Palestine Liberation Organization;
- 43 -
18. Also calls once again upon Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory,
including East Jerusalem, occupied since 1967, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the
United Nations and the Commission on Human Rights, as a basic condition for achieving a just,
lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East;
19. Calls upon the relevant United Nations organs urgently to consider the best ways
to provide the necessary international protection for the Palestinian people until the cessation of
the Israeli occupation of its territory;
20. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the attention of
the Government of Israel and all other Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations and international humanitarian
organizations, to disseminate it on the widest possible scale and to report on its implementation
by the Government of Israel to the Commission on Human Rights at its sixtieth session;
21. Also requests the Secretary-General to provide the Commission with all
United Nations reports issued between the sessions of the Commission that deal with the
conditions in which the citizens of the Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories are living
under the Israeli occupation;
22. Decides to consider this question at its sixtieth session under the same agenda
item, as a matter of high priority.
48th meeting
15 April 2003
[Adopted by a recorded vote of 33 votes to 5,
with 15 abstentions. See chap. VIII.]
2003/7. Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab territories
The Commission on Human Rights,
Reaffirming that all States have an obligation to promote and protect human rights and
fundamental freedoms, as stated in the Charter of the United Nations and as elaborated in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on Human Rights and other
applicable instruments,
Mindful that Israel is a party to the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, which is applicable de jure to Palestinian
and all Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including East Jerusalem, and recalling
the declaration adopted by the Conference of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva
Convention, held in Geneva on 5 December 2001,
Recalling its previous resolutions, most recently resolution 2002/7 of 12 April 2002, and
taking note of General Assembly resolution 57/126 of 11 December 2002, in which, inter alia,
the illegality of the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories was reaffirmed,
E/2004/23
E/CN.4/2004/127
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE SIXTIETH SESSION
(15 March-23 April 2004)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 2004
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
18
II. Resolutions and decisions adopted by the Commission
at its sixtieth session
A. Resolutions
2004/1. Grave situation in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, as well as by
the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, and the provisions of
the 1977 Additional Protocol I thereto, and the Hague Convention IV of 18 October 1907 and
Annexed Regulations respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land,
Recalling its previous relevant resolutions, in particular resolution 2003/6
of 15 April 2003, in which it strongly condemned the practice of “liquidation” and “extrajudicial
executions” carried out by the Israeli army against Palestinians,
1. Strongly condemns the continuing grave violations of human rights in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory, in particular the tragic assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin
on 22 March 2004, in contravention of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War;
2. Notes with grave concern the implications of such targeted assassinations,
liquidation and murder of political leadership by the Israeli occupation forces on the overall
situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in particular the possibility of a fresh wave of
violence;
3. Calls upon Israel to respect to the fullest the principles of international
humanitarian law and to desist from all forms of violation of human rights in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory;
4. Decides to remain actively seized of the matter.
18th meeting
24 March 2004
[Adopted by a recorded vote of 31 votes to 2,
with 18 abstentions. See chap. III.]
E/2004/23
E/CN.4/2004/127
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE SIXTIETH SESSION
(15 March-23 April 2004)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 2004
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
38
(d) To implement the recommendations regarding the settlements made by the
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in her report to the Commission at its
fifty-seventh session on her visit to the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel, Egypt and Jordan
(E/CN.4/2001/114);
(e) To take and implement serious measures, including confiscation of arms and
enforcement of criminal sanctions, with the aim of preventing illegal acts of violence by Israeli
settlers, and other measures to guarantee the safety and protection of the Palestinian civilians in
the occupied territories;
4. Demands that Israel stop and reverse the construction of the so-called security
fence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, which is a
departure from the Armistice Line of 1949 and is in contradiction to relevant provisions of
international law;
5. Urges the parties to implement immediately and fully, without modifications, the
road map endorsed by the Security Council, with the aim of resuming negotiations on a political
settlement which is in accordance with the resolutions of the Council and other relevant
United Nations resolutions, the principles of the Peace Conference on the Middle East, held in
Madrid on 30 October 1991, the Oslo Accords and subsequent agreements, which will
allow two States, Israel and Palestine, to live in peace and security and play their full part in the
region;
6. Decides to continue its consideration of this question at its sixty-first session.
49th meeting
15 April 2004
[Adopted by a recorded vote of 27 votes to 2,
with 24 abstentions. See chap. VIII.]
2004/10. Question of the violation of human rights in the
occupied Arab territories, including Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and by the
provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
Recalling Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967, 338 (1973)
of 22 October 1973, 1397 (2002) of 12 March 2002, 1402 (2002) of 30 March 2002
and 1403 (2002) of 4 April 2002 that called upon both parties to move immediately to a
meaningful ceasefire, for withdrawal of Israeli troops and for an immediate cessation of all acts
of violence, including all acts of terror, provocation, incitement and destruction,
Guided by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
39
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949 (Fourth Geneva Convention),
the provisions of Additional Protocol I thereto of 1977 and the Hague Convention IV,
of 18 October 1907, and Annexed Regulations respecting the Laws and Customs of War on
Land,
Recalling resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission
on Human Rights relating to the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention to the Occupied
Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, since the 5 June 1967 war,
Reaffirming the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention to the Palestinian
territories occupied since the June 1967 war, including East Jerusalem,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions on Israeli violations of human rights in the
Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem,
Recalling in particular General Assembly resolution 37/43 of 3 December 1982
reaffirming the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence from foreign domination
and foreign occupation and for self-determination, in conformity with international law,
Recalling the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted in June 1993 by the
World Conference on Human Rights (A/CONF.157/23),
Welcoming the report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the
Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Mr. John Dugard (E/CN.4/2004/6 and Add.1), and
the addendum to the report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Mr. Jean Ziegler
(E/CN.4/2004/10/Add.2),
Expressing its deep concern at the failure of the Government of Israel to cooperate with
the Human Rights Inquiry Commission established pursuant to Commission resolution S-5/1
of 19 October 2000 and its failure to cooperate with other relevant special rapporteurs, in
particular Mr. Dugard,
Gravely concerned at the continued deterioration of the situation in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory and at the gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian
law, in particular acts of extrajudicial killing, closures, collective punishments, the persistence in
establishing settlements, arbitrary detentions, siege of Palestinian towns and villages, the shelling
of Palestinian residential neighbourhoods by warplanes, tanks and Israeli battleships, and
incursions into towns, villages and camps to kill innocent men, women and children, as was the
case in Jenin, Balata, Khan Younis, Rafah, Ramallah, Gaza, Nablus, Al-Birah, Al-Amari,
Jabalia, Bethlehem and Dheisheh and in the Al-Daraj and Al-Zaitoun neighbourhoods in the city
of Gaza, and also during recent months in Rafah and in Al-Shajai’ia neighbourhood in Gaza, as
well as during the last Israeli massacres in the Al-Nusseirat and Al-Burreij refugee camps in the
centre of the Gaza Strip on 7 March 2004,
Expressing its grave concern at the continued Israeli aggression and the resulting
deaths and injuries, mostly among Palestinians, the toll of casualties having increased to
over 2,800 martyrs and over 25,000 wounded since 28 September 2000,
40
Taking note of the reports of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices
Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the
Occupied Territories submitted to the General Assembly since 1968, the last of which
was A/58/311,
Expressing its grave concern at the continued Israeli refusal to abide by the resolutions of
the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights calling upon
Israel to put an end to the violations of human rights and affirming the applicability of the Fourth
Geneva Convention to the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including
East Jerusalem,
Convinced that the basis of negotiations and of achieving a just and lasting peace should
be Security Council resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973) and other relevant United Nations
resolutions, including the principle of the inadmissibility of acquisition of territory by war, the
need for every State in the area to be able to live in security and the principle of land for peace,
Recalling all its previous resolutions in this respect, the latest of which is
resolution 2003/6 of 15 April 2003,
Recalling also the inadmissibility of the acquisition of others’ land by force, which
constitutes a jus cogens in international law,
Gravely concerned at the construction of the Israeli wall inside the Occupied Palestinian
Territory, aimed at expropriating further Palestinian lands by force, with all the drastic
consequences that this wall will have on the Palestinian community, namely on its social,
economic, educational, health and psychological aspects, and which is destroying any possibility
of achieving a genuine peace based on the two-State solution, with an independent Palestinian
State and an Israeli State,
Affirming that the construction of this wall on the Palestinian territories constitutes a
violation of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and hinders the exercise by
the Palestinian people of this right,
Taking note in this respect of General Assembly resolution ES-10/13 of 21 October 2003,
Taking note of the report of the Secretary-General (A/ES-10/248), which concluded that
Israel is not in compliance with the General Assembly’s demand that it stop and reverse the
construction of the wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,
1. Reaffirms the legitimate right of the Palestinian people to resist the Israeli
occupation in order to free its land and be able to exercise its right to self-determination, in
conformity with the goals and purposes stipulated by the Charter of the United Nations;
2. Strongly condemns once more the human rights violations of the Israeli
occupation authorities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem,
since 1967;
41
3. Also strongly condemns the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories as
being an aggression and an offence against humanity and a flagrant violation of human rights;
4. Further strongly condemns the war launched by the Israeli army, particularly
since October 2000, against Palestinian towns and camps, which has resulted so far in the death
of hundreds of Palestinian civilians, including women and children;
5. Strongly condemns anew the practice of “liquidation” or “extrajudicial
executions” carried out by the Israeli army against Palestinians, a practice which not only
constitutes a violation of human rights norms, a flagrant violation of article 3 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and of the rule of law, but which is also damaging for the
relationship between the parties and therefore constitutes an obstacle to peace, and urges the
Government of Israel to respect international law and immediately to put an end to such
practices;
6. Strongly condemns once again the establishment of Israeli settlements and other
related activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, such as the
construction of new settlements and the expansion of the existing ones, land confiscation, biased
administration of water resources and the construction of bypass roads, which not only constitute
grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, especially article 49 of the
Fourth Geneva Convention and Additional Protocol I thereto, according to which such violations
are categorized as war crimes, but are also major obstacles to peace, urges the Government of
Israel to implement the relevant United Nations resolutions as well as the resolutions of the
Commission on Human Rights relative to the Israeli settlements, and affirms that the dismantling
of Israeli settlements constitutes an essential factor for achieving a just, comprehensive and
lasting peace in the region;
7. Condemns once again the expropriation of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem,
Hebron and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the revocation of the identity cards of
the residents of East Jerusalem and the policy of imposing fabricated and exorbitant taxes with
the aim of forcing Palestinians living in Jerusalem, who cannot afford to pay these high taxes,
out of their homes and out of their city, with the aim of Judaizing Jerusalem, and calls upon the
Government of Israel to put an end immediately to these practices;
8. Also condemns once again the use of torture against Palestinians during
interrogation, as it constitutes a grave violation of the principles of international humanitarian
law, of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment and also of article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and calls upon
the Government of Israel to put an end immediately to such practices and to bring the
perpetrators of these violations to justice;
9. Strongly condemns once more the offensives of the Israeli army of occupation
against hospitals and sick persons and the use of Palestinian citizens as human shields during
Israeli incursions into Palestinian areas;
10. Also strongly condemns once more the Israeli army of occupation’s practices of
opening fire on ambulances and paramedical personnel and preventing ambulances and vehicles
of the International Committee of the Red Cross from reaching the wounded and the dead in
order to transport them to hospital, thus leaving the wounded bleeding to death in the streets;
42
11. Strongly condemns acts of mass killing of Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli
occupation authorities, including the killing of children, such as recently took place in Nablus,
Gaza, Rafah, Al-Nusseirat and Al-Burreij and which persist to this day;
12. Also strongly condemns acts that consist of imposing collective punishments,
military siege of Palestinian territories, isolating Palestinian towns and villages from each other
by military roadblocks used as a trap to kill Palestinians, demolishing houses and levelling
agricultural lands, as these practices contribute, together with other factors, to the acts of
violence that have prevailed in the region for over three and a half years, and calls upon the
Government of Israel immediately to put an end to these practices and to lift its military siege of
Palestinian towns and villages and its military roadblocks, and affirms anew that such collective
punishments are prohibited under international law, as they constitute grave violations of the
provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention and Additional Protocol I thereto, and are also war
crimes;
13. Expresses its grave concern once again at the restriction of the freedom of
movement imposed by the Israeli occupation authorities on Yasser Arafat, the democratically
elected Palestinian President, in violation of articles 9 and 13 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights;
14. Strongly condemns campaigns of massive arrests conducted by the Israeli
occupation authorities to detain thousands of Palestinians without trial and without any criminal
charges having been brought against them, in violation of article 9 of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights and of the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention in this respect;
15. Affirms anew that the demolitions carried out by the Israeli occupying forces of at
least 30,000 Palestinian houses, facilities and property constitute grave violations of articles 33
and 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and that acts of levelling farmlands, uprooting trees and
destroying what is left of the Palestinian infrastructure constitute a form of collective punishment
to which Palestinians are subjected, grave violations of the provisions of international
humanitarian law and war crimes according to international law;
16. Affirms anew that the Fourth Geneva Convention is applicable to the Palestinian
territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including East Jerusalem, and considers any change in
the geographical, demographic and institutional status of the city of East Jerusalem from its
status prior to the June 1967 war to be illegal and void;
17. Calls once again upon Israel, the occupying Power, to desist from all forms of
human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and
other occupied Arab territories, and to respect the principles of international law, international
humanitarian law, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, its international commitments
and its signed agreements with the Palestine Liberation Organization;
18. Also calls once again upon Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territories
occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the
United Nations and the Commission on Human Rights, as a basic condition for achieving a just,
lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East;
43
19. Strongly condemns the construction of the Israeli wall inside the Occupied
Palestinian Territory, in the West Bank, as it constitutes a new Israeli pretext for the forcible
confiscation of further Palestinian lands, it endangers the social, economic, cultural, educational,
health and psychological aspects of the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians as well as
their familial unity, it prevents Palestinians from having access to their natural resources and it
constitutes a major obstacle to achieving a just and lasting peace on the basis of the two-State
solution, with an independent Palestinian State and Israeli State, the only solution which
guarantees peace and stability in the region, and it also prevents Palestinians from exercising
their right to self-determination; and calls on Israel immediately to stop the construction of the
said wall and to raze what it has already built of this wall inside the Palestinian territories
occupied since 1967;
20. Requests the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the
Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 to investigate Israel’s violations of the principles and
bases of international law, international humanitarian law and the Geneva Convention relative to
the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, and, in his capacity as a monitoring
mechanism, to follow up on the implementation of these recommendations and to report thereon
to the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session and to the Commission at its sixty-first session,
until the end of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur, as established in Commission
resolution 1993/2 A of 19 February 1993;
21. Calls upon the relevant United Nations organs urgently to consider the best ways
to provide the necessary international protection for the Palestinian people until the end of the
Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories;
22. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the attention of
the Government of Israel and all other Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations and international humanitarian
organizations, to disseminate it on the widest possible scale and to report on its implementation
by the Government of Israel to the Commission on Human Rights at its sixty-first session;
23. Also requests the Secretary-General to provide the Commission with all
United Nations reports issued between the sessions of the Commission that deal with the
conditions in which the populations of the Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories are
living under the Israeli occupation;
24. Decides to consider this question at its sixty-first session under the same agenda
item, as a matter of high priority.
49th meeting
15 April 2004
[Adopted by a recorded vote of 31 votes to 7,
with 15 abstentions. See chap. VIII.]
E/2005/23
E/CN.4/2005/135
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE SIXTY-FIRST SESSION
(14 March-22 April 2005)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 2005
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
32
5. Demands that Israel implement the recommendations regarding the settlements
made by the then United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in her report to the
Commission at its fifty-seventh session on her visit to the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel,
Egypt and Jordan (E/CN.4/2001/114);
6. Calls upon Israel to take and implement serious measures, including confiscation
of arms and enforcement of criminal sanctions, with the aim of preventing acts of violence
by Israeli settlers, and other measures to guarantee the safety and protection of the Palestinian
civilians and Palestinian properties in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including
East Jerusalem;
7. Demands that Israel, the occupying Power, comply fully with its legal obligations,
as mentioned in the advisory opinion rendered on 9 July 2004 by the International Court of
Justice;
8. Urges the parties to seize the opportunity offered by the current political context
to give renewed impetus to the peace process and to implement fully the road map endorsed by
the Security Council in resolution 1515 (2003), with the aim of reaching a comprehensive
political settlement in accordance with the resolutions of the Council, including
resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967 and 338 (1973) of 22 October 1973, and other
relevant United Nations resolutions, the principles of the Peace Conference on the Middle East,
held in Madrid on 30 October 1991, the Oslo Accords and subsequent agreements, which will
allow two States, Israel and Palestine, to live in peace and security;
9. Decides to continue its consideration of this question at its sixty-second session.
49th meeting
14 April 2005
[Resolution adopted by a recorded vote of 39 votes to 2, with 12 abstentions, as follows:
In favour: Argentina, Armenia, Bhutan, Brazil, Burkina Faso, China, Congo, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt,
Eritrea, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gabon, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mauritania,
Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia,
South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Ukraine, Zimbabwe.
Against: Australia, United States of America.
Abstaining: Canada, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Italy,
Netherlands, Romania, Togo, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
See chap. VIII, paras. 125 to 130.]
2005/7. Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people
in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling the applicability of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civil
Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including
East Jerusalem, and the relevant resolutions of the Security Council and the Commission on
Human Rights,
33
Taking note of the recent reports of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on the
situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967 (A/59/256
and E/CN.4/2005/29 and Add.1),
Expressing grave concern about the extrajudicial executions and the use of force by
Israel against the Palestinian civil population, inflicting heavy casualties, and the continued
targeting of schoolchildren, which led to loss of lives and fatal injuries,
Condemning the denial by Israel of access to hospitals for Palestinian pregnant women,
which forces them to give birth at checkpoints under hostile, inhumane and humiliating
conditions,
Asserting that the punitive measures imposed by Israel, the occupying Power, on the
Palestinian civil population, including collective punishment, border closures and severe
restrictions on the movement of people and goods, arbitrary arrests and detentions, destruction
of homes and vital infrastructure, including religious, educational, cultural and historical sites,
led to a steep deterioration in the socio-economic conditions, perpetuating a dire humanitarian
crisis throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and affirming
that these punitive measures violate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and
the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
Noting the advisory opinion rendered on 9 July 2004 by the International Court of Justice
(see A/ES-10/273 and Corr.1) and General Assembly resolution ES-10/15 of 20 July 2004, and
reaffirming the principle of the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force,
Noting in particular the Court’s reply, especially that the construction of the wall being
built by Israel, the occupying Power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and
around East Jerusalem, and its associated regime, are contrary to international law,
Welcoming the decision of the Secretary-General to establish a register of damage caused
by the construction of the wall and its associated regime in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,
including East Jerusalem,
Condemning the continued systematic violations of the human rights of the Palestinian
people by Israel, the occupying Power, arising from the settlements, the construction of the wall
inside the Occupied Palestinian Territory in departure from the Armistice Line of 1949, the
destruction of property and all other actions designed to change the legal status, geographical
nature and demographic composition of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including
East Jerusalem,
Welcoming the recent free and democratic Palestinian presidential election in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem,
Affirming that the obstructive measures taken by Israel, the occupying Power, in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, during the Palestinian presidential
campaign and election, including arbitrary arrest, detention of candidates and denying access to
polling stations, constitute a breach of the principles and provisions of international covenants
and instruments related to the right to self-determination (see Articles 1 and 55 of the Charter of
the United Nations; art. 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and art. 1 of
34
the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Political Rights; General Assembly
resolutions 181 A and B (II) of 29 November 1947 and 194 (III) of 11 December 1948;
Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967, 338 (1973) of 22 October 1973,
1397 (2002) of 12 March 2002 and 1402 (2002) of 30 March 2002; Commission
resolution 2003/3 of 14 April 2003 and paras. 2 and 3 of Part I of the Vienna Declaration and
Programme of Action, adopted in June 1993 by the World Conference on Human Rights
(A/CONF.157/23),
Expressing deep concern that thousands of Palestinians, including children, continue to
be held in Israeli prisons and detention centres under harsh conditions impairing their well-being,
and also expressing deep concern about their ill-treatment, harassment and reports of torture,
Aware of the responsibility of the international community to promote human rights and
ensure respect for international law,
Stressing the need for full compliance with the Israeli-Palestinian agreements reached
within the context of the Middle East peace process and the implementation of the Quartet road
map to a permanent two-State solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
Also stressing the necessity for the full implementation of all relevant United Nations
resolutions,
1. Reiterates that all actions and punitive measures taken by Israel, the occupying
Power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, in violation of the
relevant provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons
in Time of War, and contrary to the relevant resolutions of the Security Council, are illegal and
have no validity, and thereby demands that Israel, the occupying Power, comply fully with its
provisions and cease immediately all measures and actions taken in violation and in breach of the
Convention, including extrajudicial executions;
2. Condemns the use of force by the Israeli occupying forces against Palestinian
civilians, resulting in extensive loss of life, vast numbers of injuries and massive destruction of
homes, properties, agricultural lands and vital infrastructure;
3. Urges all Member States signatories to the Fourth Geneva Convention to express
the inadmissibility of the ongoing violation of the rights of Palestinian civilians, especially
women and children, stipulated in these instruments, and to demand their effective observance
by Israel, the occupying Power;
4. Requests the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to address the
issue of Palestinian pregnant women giving birth at Israeli checkpoints owing to denial of access
by Israel to hospitals, with a view to ending this inhumane Israeli practice, and to report thereon
to the General Assembly at its sixtieth session and the Commission at its sixty-second session;
5. Calls upon Member States to take the necessary measures that fulfil their
obligations under the instruments of international human rights law and international
humanitarian law to ensure that Israel ceases killing, targeting, arresting and harassing
Palestinians, particularly women and children;
35
6. Requests the High Commissioner to demand, in accordance with her mandate, the
immediate release of the Palestinian detainees, including women, children and the sick, and the
investigation of reported cases of torture, harassment or ill-treatment and the bringing to justice
of Israeli officers involved in the abuse of detainees;
7. Requests Israel, the occupying Power, to facilitate the forthcoming Palestinian
legislative elections in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and
demands that it refrain from all acts that interfere in, obstruct or impede these elections;
8. Demands that Israel, the occupying Power, comply with its legal obligations
under international law, as mentioned in the advisory opinion rendered on 9 July 2004 by the
International Court of Justice and as demanded in General Assembly resolutions ES-10/15 and
ES-10/13 of 21 October 2003, and that it cease the construction of the wall in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, dismantle forthwith the structure
situated therein, repeal or render ineffective all legislative and regulatory acts relating thereto,
and make reparation for all damage caused by the construction of the wall;
9. Calls for the boycott of firms involved in the construction of the wall in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem;
10. Stresses the need to preserve the territorial integrity of all the Occupied
Palestinian Territory and to guarantee the freedom of movement of persons and goods within
the Palestinian territory, including the removal of restrictions on movement into and from
East Jerusalem, and the freedom of movement to and from the outside world as a sine qua non
for resolving the humanitarian crisis throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, restoring the
livelihoods of the Palestinian people and rebuilding their ravaged institutions and economy;
11. Requests the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in
the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 to report to the General Assembly at its
sixtieth session and to the Commission at its sixty-second session, in compliance with his
mandate;
12. Decides to continue its consideration of this question at its sixty-second session.
49th meeting
14 April 2005
[Resolution adopted by a recorded vote of 29 votes to 10, with 14 abstentions, as follows:
In favour: Armenia, Bhutan, Brazil, Burkina Faso, China, Congo, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Gabon,
Guinea, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Mauritania, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Republic of Korea,
Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Togo, Zimbabwe.
Against: Australia, Canada, Germany, Honduras, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Romania, United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America.
Abstaining: Argentina, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Guatemala, Ireland,
Japan, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Russian Federation, Ukraine.
See chap. VIII, paras. 131 to 135.]
REPORT ON THE THIRTY-FOURTH SESSION
(6 UNITED NATIONS
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE THIRTY-FOURTH SESSION
February-10 March 1978)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1978
SUPPLEMENT No. 4
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1978
E/1978/34
E/CN.4/1292
Taking into account that States parties to the Geneva Conventions of
12 August 1949 undertake, in accordance with article 1 thereof, not only to respect
but also to ensure respect for the Conventions in all circumstances,
1. Expresses its deep concern at the consequences of Israel's refusal to
apply fully and effectively the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War in all its provisions to all the Arab territories
occupied since 1967, including Jérusalem;
2. Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War is applicable to all the Arab territories occupied
by Israel since 19Ê7» including Jerusalem;
3. Strongly deplores the failure of Israel to acknowledge the applicability
of that Convention to the territories it has occupied since 1967» including
Jerusalem;
4» Calls upon Israel to abide by and respect the obligation arising from
the Charter of the United Nations and other instruments and rules of international
law, in particular the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, in all the Arab territories
occupied since 1967» including Jerusalem;
5» Urges once more all States parties to that Convention to exert all
efforts in order to ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions thereof
in all the Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967» including Jerusalem;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized
agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the international
humanitarian organizations and non-governmental organizations.
2 (XXXIV). The right of peoples to self-determination and
its application to peoples under colonial or
alien domination or occupation 28/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 1514 (XV), 3236 (XXIX), 32/l4, 32/20,
32/40 and 32/42,
Recognizing that the Palestinian people are entitled to self-determination
in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other relevant
United Nations resolutions,
Recalling further Economic and Social Council resolutions I865 (LVl) and
1866 (LVI),
28/ Adopted at the 1440th meeting, on 14 February 1978» by a roll-call vote
of 25 in favour, 3 against and 4 abstentions. See chap. VII.
-10UTaking
into account that States parties to the Geneva Conventions of
12 August 1949 undertake, in accordance with article l thereof, not only to respect
but also to ensure respect for the Conventions in all circumstances,
l. Expresses its deep concern at the consequences of Israel's refusal to
apply fully and effectively the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War in all its provisions to all the Arab territories
occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;
2. Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War is applicable to all the Arab territories occupied
by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
3. Strongly deplores the failure of Israel to acknowledge the applicability
of that Convention to the territories it has occupied since l967, including
Jerusalem;
4. Calls upon Israel to abide by and respect the obligation arising from
the Charter of the United Nations and other instruments and rules of international
law, in particular the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, in all the Arab territories
occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;
5, Urges once tore all States parties to that Convention to exert all
efforts in order to ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions thereof
in all the Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized
agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the international
humanitarian organizations and non--governmental organizations.
2 (XXX1). The right of peoples to self--determination and
its aplication to eoles under colonial or
alien domination pr foreign occupation 28
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 1514 (XV), 3236 (XX1X), 32/14, 32/20,
32/40 an 32/@2,
Recognizing that the Palestinian people are entitled to self--determination
in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other relevant
United Nations resolutions,
Recalling further Economic and Social Council resolutions 1865 (IVI) and
1866 NI),
28/ Adopted at the l440th meeting, on l4 February 1978, by a roll--call vote
of 25 in favour, against and 4 abstentions. See chap. VII.
-10lReaffirming
its resolutions 3 (XXXl) and 6 (XXXl),
Bearing in mind the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable
Eights of the Palestinian People (A/32/35),
Expressing its grave concern that the Palestinian people have been prevented
by force from enjoying their inalienable rights, in particular their right to
self-determination,
1. Affirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to selfdetermination
without external interference and the establishment of a fully
independent and sovereign State in Palestine;
2. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their
homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted, and calls for
their return in the exercise of their right to self-determination;
3. Recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to regain their rights
by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations;
4- Urges all States and international organizations to extend their support
to the Palestinian people through their representative, the Palestine Liberation
Organization, in its struggle to restore its rights in accordance with the Charter;
5. Requests the Secretary-General to make available to the Commission on
Human Rights and to the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and
Protection of Minorities the reports, studies and publications prepared by the
Special Unit on Palestinian Rights, which was established by General Assembly
resolution 32/40 B.
3 (XXXIV). The right of peoples to self-determination and
its application to peoples under colonial or
alien domination or foreign occupation 29/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 1514 (X\0 of 14 December I960, concerning
the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples,
and the importance of its implementation,
Recalling also its resolutions 3 (XXXl) of 11 February 1975 an& 9 (XXXIl) of
5 March I976,
Mindful of the different resolutions adopted by the General Assembly on the
recruitment and employment of mercenaries against national liberation movements
and sovereign States, particularly resolutions 2465 (XXIIl) of 20 December 1968,
2708 (XXV) of 14 December 197° and 3314 (XXIX) of 14 December 1974,
29/ 144°"fcb 14 r o l l - c a l l 3 105-
Reaffirming its resolutions 3 (XXX1) and 6 (XXXD),
Bearing in mind the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable
Rights of the Palestinian People (A/32/35),
Expressing its grave concern that the Palestinian people have been prevented
by force from enjoying their inalienable rights, in particular their right to
self-determination,
l. Affirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination
without external interference and the establishment of a fully
independent and sovereign State in Palestine;
2. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their
homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted, and calls for
their return in the exercise of their right to self--determination;
• Recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to regain their rights
by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations;
4. Urges all States and international organizations to extend their support
to the Palestinian people through their representative, the Palestine Liberation
Organization, in its struggle to restore its rights in accordance with the Charter;
5. Requests the Secretary--General to make available to the Commission on
Human Rights and to the Sub--Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and
Protection of Minorities the reports, studies and publications prepared by the
Special Unit on Palestinian Rights, which was established by General Assembly
resolution 32/40 B.
3 (XXXIV). he right of peoples to self-determination and
its a» lication to eo les under colonial or
alien domination pr foreign occupation 29
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960, concerning
the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples,
and the importance of its implementation,
Recalling also its resolutions 3 (XXXI) of 1l February 1975 and 9 (XXXII) of
5 March 1976,
Mindful of the different resolutions adopted by the General Assembly on the
recruitment and employment of mercenaries against national liberation movements
and sovereign States, particularly resolutions 2465 (XXIII) of 20 December 1968,
2708 (XX7) of 14 December 1970 and 33l4 (XX1X) of 14 December 1974,
29/ Adopted at the l440th meeting, on l4 February 1978, by a roll-call vote
of 24 in favour, against and 5 abstentions. See chap. VII.
-105REPORT
ON THE THIRTY-FOURTH SESSION
(6 UNITED NATIONS
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE THIRTY-FOURTH SESSION
February-10 March 1978)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1978
SUPPLEMENT No. 4
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1978
E/1978/34
E/CN.4/1292
Reaffirming its resolutions 3 (XXXl) and 6 (XXXl),
Bearing in mind the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable
Eights of the Palestinian People (A/32/35),
Expressing its grave concern that the Palestinian people have been prevented
by force from enjoying their inalienable rights, in particular their right to
self-determination,
1. Affirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to selfdetermination
without external interference and the establishment of a fully
independent and sovereign State in Palestine;
2. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their
homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted, and calls for
their return in the exercise of their right to self-determination;
3. Recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to regain their rights
by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations;
4- Urges all States and international organizations to extend their support
to the Palestinian people through their representative, the Palestine Liberation
Organization, in its struggle to restore its rights in accordance with the Charter;
5. Requests the Secretary-General to make available to the Commission on
Human Rights and to the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and
Protection of Minorities the reports, studies and publications prepared by the
Special Unit on Palestinian Rights, which was established by General Assembly
resolution 32/40 B.
3 (XXXIV). The right of peoples to self-determination and
its application to peoples under colonial or
alien domination or foreign occupation 29/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 1514 (X\0 of 14 December I960, concerning
the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples,
and the importance of its implementation,
Recalling also its resolutions 3 (XXXl) of 11 February 1975 an& 9 (XXXIl) of
5 March I976,
Mindful of the different resolutions adopted by the General Assembly on the
recruitment and employment of mercenaries against national liberation movements
and sovereign States, particularly resolutions 2465 (XXIIl) of 20 December 1968,
2708 (XXV) of 14 December 197° and 3314 (XXIX) of 14 December 1974,
29/ 144°"fcb 14 r o l l - c a l l 3 105-
Reaffirming its resolutions 3 (XXX1) and 6 (XXXD),
Bearing in mind the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable
Rights of the Palestinian People (A/32/35),
Expressing its grave concern that the Palestinian people have been prevented
by force from enjoying their inalienable rights, in particular their right to
self-determination,
l. Affirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination
without external interference and the establishment of a fully
independent and sovereign State in Palestine;
2. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their
homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted, and calls for
their return in the exercise of their right to self--determination;
• Recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to regain their rights
by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations;
4. Urges all States and international organizations to extend their support
to the Palestinian people through their representative, the Palestine Liberation
Organization, in its struggle to restore its rights in accordance with the Charter;
5. Requests the Secretary--General to make available to the Commission on
Human Rights and to the Sub--Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and
Protection of Minorities the reports, studies and publications prepared by the
Special Unit on Palestinian Rights, which was established by General Assembly
resolution 32/40 B.
3 (XXXIV). he right of peoples to self-determination and
its a» lication to eo les under colonial or
alien domination pr foreign occupation 29
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960, concerning
the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples,
and the importance of its implementation,
Recalling also its resolutions 3 (XXXI) of 1l February 1975 and 9 (XXXII) of
5 March 1976,
Mindful of the different resolutions adopted by the General Assembly on the
recruitment and employment of mercenaries against national liberation movements
and sovereign States, particularly resolutions 2465 (XXIII) of 20 December 1968,
2708 (XX7) of 14 December 1970 and 33l4 (XX1X) of 14 December 1974,
29/ Adopted at the l440th meeting, on l4 February 1978, by a roll-call vote
of 24 in favour, against and 5 abstentions. See chap. VII.
-105Taking
into account General Assembly resolution 32A4 of 7 November 1977,
Noting with interest the Declaration and Programme of Action adopted the
International Conference in Support of the Peoples of Zimbabwe and held
at Maputo in 1977» and the declaration adopted by the World Conference for Action
against Apartheid, held at Lagos in August 1977,
Welcoming the declaration adopted by the First Afro-Arab Summit Conference,
held at Cairo in March 1977> on this question,
Stressing the importance of the effective realization of the right of peoples
to self-determination, national sovereignty and territorial integrity and of the
speedy granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples as for the enjoyment of human rights,
Expressing its profound indignation at the continued and serious violations
of the human rights of the peoples still under colonial or alien domination or
foreign occupation, the continuation of the illegal occupation of Namibia and
South Africa's attempts to dismember its territory, the perpetuation of the racist
minority régimes in Zimbabwe and South Africa and the denial to the Palestinian
people of their inalienable rights,
1. Calls upon all States to implement the resolutions of the United Nations
regarding the right to self-determination of peoples under colonial domination or
foreign occupation;
2. Reaffirms the legitimacy of the peoples' struggle for independence,
territorial integrity and liberation from colonial or alien domination or foreign
occupation by all available means, including armed struggle;
J. Reaffirms also the inalienable right of the peoples of Namibia,
South Africa and Zimbabwe, of the Palestinian people and of all peoples under
colonial or alien domination or foreign occupation to self-determination, national
independence, territorial integrity, national unity and sovereignty without
external interference;
4. Condemns the practice of using mercenaries against national liberation
movements and sovereign States as a criminal act and the mercenaries themselves
as criminals, and calls upon the Governments of all countries to enact
legislation declaring the recruitment, financing and training of mercenaries in
5. Condemns in particular the policy of those countries which, in disregard
of the wishes of the major part of the international community as expressed in
numerous United Nations resolutions, maintain political, economic, military or
sporting relations with the racist régimes in southern Africa and elsewhere,
thereby encouraging them to persist in their suppression of the aspirations of
peoples to self-determination and independence;
6. Censures all government policies which do not recognize in practice the
right to self-determination and independence of all peoples still under colonial
or alien domination or foreign occupation, notably the peoples of southern Africa
-106-
Tsking into account General Assembly resolution 32/14 of 7 November 1977,
Noting with interest the Declaration and Programme of Action adopted by the
International Conference in Support of the Peoples of Zimbabwe and Namibia, held
at Maputo in 1977, and the declaration adopted by the World Conference for Action
against Apartheid, held at Lagos in August 1977,
Welcoming the declaration adopted by the First Afro--Arab Summit Conference,
held at Cairo in March 1977, on this question,
Stressing the importance of the effective realization of the right of peoples
to self--determination, national sovereignty and territorial integrity and of the
speedy granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples as imperatives
for the enjoyment of human rights,
Expressing its profound indignation at the continued and serious violations
of the human rights of the peoples still under colonial or alien domination or
foreign occupation, the continuation of the illegal occupation of Namibia and
South Africa's attempts to dismember its territory, the perpetuation of the racist
minority r~gimes in Zimbabwe and South Africa and the denial to the Palestinian
people of their inalienable rights,
l. Calls upon all States to implement the resolutions of the United Nations
regarding the right to self-determination of peoples under colonial domination or
foreign occupation;
2, Reaffirms the legitimacy of the peoples' struggle for independence,
territorial integrity and liberation from colonial or alien domination or foreign
occupation by all available means, including armed struggle;
• Reaffirms also the inalienable right of the peoples of Namibia,
South Africa and Zimbabwe, of the Palestinian people and of all peoples under
colonial or alien domination or foreign occupation to self--determination, national
independence, territorial integrity, national unity and sovereignty without
external interference;
4. Condemns the practice of using mercenaries against national liberation
movements and sovereign States as a criminal act and the mercenaries themselves
as criminals, and calls upon the Governments of all countries to enact
legislation declaring the recruitment, financing and training of mercenaries in
their territory and their transit through it to be punishable offences and
prohibiting their nationals from serving as mercenaries, and to inform the
Commission of the legislation enacted to that effect;
5. Condemns in particular the policy of those countries which, in disregard
of the wishes of the major part of the international community as expressed in
numerous United Nations resolutions, maintain political, economic, military or
sporting relations with the racist r~gimes in southern Africa and elsewhere,
thereby encouraging them to persist in their suppression of the aspirations of
peoples to self--determination and independence;
6. Censures all government policies which do not recognize in practice the
right to self--determination and independence of all peoples still under colonial
or alien domination or foreign occupation, notably the peoples of southern Africa
--106--
and the Palestinian people, and draws attention to the grave responsibility
incurred by the authors and promoters of those policies in the eyes of the
community of nations and world public opinion;
7. Expresses its appreciation for the material and other forms of assistance
which the peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign occupation
continue to receive from Governments, United Nations agencies and intergovernmental
and non-governmental organizations, and requests the maximization of this
assistance;
8. Decides to continue giving the question "The right of peoples to
self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation" priority consideration at its thirty-fifth
session.
4 (XXXIV). International Anti-Apartheid Year 50/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 32/105 B by which the Assembly
proclaimed the year beginning on 21 March 1978 as International Anti-Apartheid
Year,
Bearing in mind the purposes and objectives of the Anti-Apartheid Year,
Aware that gross violations of human rights continue unabated in South Africa,
as evidenced in the report of the Ad Hoc Working Group of Experts on
southern Africa (E/CN.4/1270),
1. Decides to participate actively in the launching of the International
Anti-Apartheid Year;
2. Requests the Secretary-General to organize a formal meeting at the
United Nations Office at Geneva on 21 March 1978, the day when the Anti-Apartheid
Year will be launched at United Nations Headquarters in New York;
3. Decides that the Commission should be represented at the meeting in
Geneva by the Chairman of its thirty-fourth session, who should be invited to
address the meeting;
4. Requests the Secretary-General to invite the heads of specialized
agencies in Geneva to participate in the meeting.
50/ Adopted unanimously at the 1451st meeting, on 22 February 1978.
See chap. IV.
-107-
and the Palestinian people, and draws attention to the grave responsibility
incurred by the authors and promoters of those policies in the eyes of the
community of nations and world public opinion;
7. Expresses its appreciation for the material and other forms of assistance
which the peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign occupation
continue to receive from Governments, United Nations agencies and intergovernmental
and non-governmental organizations, and requests the maximization of this
assistance;
8. Decides to continue giving the question "The right of peoples to
self--determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation" priority consideration at its thirty--fifth
session.
4 (XXXIV). International Anti-Apartheid Year 5/
The Commission pn Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 32/105 B by which the Assembly
proclaimed the year beginning on 2l March 1978 as International Anti-Apartheid
Year,
Bearing in mind the purposes and objectives of the Anti-Apartheid Year,
Aware that gross violations of human rights continue unabated in South Africa,
as evidenced in the report of the A Hog Working Group of Experts on
southern Africa (E/CN.4/1270),
l. Decides to participate actively in the launching of the International
Anti-Apartheid Year;
2. Requests the Secretary--General to organize a formal meeting at the
United Nations Office at Geneva on 21 March 1978, the day when the Anti-Apartheid
Year will be launched at United Nations Headquarters in New York;
• Decides that the Commission should be represented at the meeting in
Geneva by the Chairman of its thirty--fourth session, who should be invited to
address the meeting;
4. Requests the Secretary--General to invite the heads of specialized
agencies in Geneva to participate in the meeting.
O/ Adopted unanimously at the l45lst meeting, on 22 February 1978.
See chap. IV.
-107--
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE THIRTY-FIFTH SESSION
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
No. UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1979
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE THIRTY-FIFTH SESSION
(12 February-16 March 1979)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1979
SUPPLEMENT No. 6
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1979
E/1979/36
E/CN.4/1347
Taking into account that States parties of the Geneva Conventions of
12 August 1949 undertake, in accordance with article 1 thereof, not only to
respect hut also to ensure respect for the Conventions in all circumstances,
1. Expresses its deep concern at the consequences of Israel's refusal
to apply fully and effectively the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection
of Civilian Persons in Time of War in all its provisions to all the Arab
territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;
2* Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War is applicable to all the Arab territories
occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
3. Strongly deplores the failure of Israel to acknowledge the applicability
of that Convention to the territories it has occupied since 1967» including
Jerusalem;
4. Calls upon Israel to abide by and respect the obligations arising from
the Charter of the United Nations and other instruments and rules of international
law, in particular the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, in all the Arab territories
occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;
5. Urges once more all States parties of that Convention to exert all
efforts in order to ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions thereof
in all the Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967» including Jerusalem;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the
international humanitarian organizations and non-governmental organizations.
2 (XXXV). The right of peoples to self-determination and
its application to peoples under colonial or
"alien domination or foreign occupation 40/
The Commission on Human Rights.
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 1514 (XV) of 14 December I960,
3236 (XXIX) of 22 November 1974, 3375 (XXX) and 3376 (XXX) of 10 November 1975,
32/14 of 7 November 1977, 32/20 of 25 November 1977, 32/40 of 2 December 1977,
32/42 of 7 December 1977 and 33/28 of 7 December 1978
Recalling further Economic and Social Council resolutions I865 (EVT) and
1866 (LVI) of 17 May 1974,
40/ Adopted at the 1489th meeting, on 21 February 1979, by a roll-call vote
of 23 votes to 3, with 5 abstentions. See chap. VII.
-IO3-
Taking into account that States parties of the Geneva Conventions of
12 August 1949 undertake, in accordance with article l thereof, not only to
respect but also to ensure respect for the Conventions in all circumstances,
2. Expresses its deep goner at the consequences of Israel's refusal
to apply fully and effectively the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection
of Civilian Persons in Time of War in all its provisions to all the Arab
territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;
2. Reaffirms that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War is applicable to all the Arab territories
occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
3. Strongly.deplores the failure of Israel to acknowledge the applicability
of that Convention to the territories it has occupied since 196], including
Jerusalem;
4. Calls upon Israel to abide by and respect the obligations arising from
the Charter of the United Nations and other instruments and rules of international
law, in particular the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, in all the Arab territories
occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;
5. Urges once more all States parties of that Convention to exert all
efforts in order to ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions thereof
in all the Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the
international humanitarian organizations and non-governmental organizations.
2 (XXXv). [he right of peoples to self-determination and
its a] lication to eoles under colonial or
alien domination or foreign occupation .Q
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960,
3236 (XX) 6? 22 November 1974, 3375 (XX) and 3376 (XXX) o£ 10 November 1975,
32/14 of 7 November 1977, 32/20 of 25 November 1977, 32/40 o£ 2 December 1977,
32/42 of 7 December 1977 and 33/28 o£ 7 December 1978
Recalling further Economic and Social Council resolutions 1865 (IVI) and
1866 KIVI) or i7 Hay i974,
40/ Adopted at the 1489th meeting, on 21 February 1979, by a roll-call vote
of 23 votes to 5, with 5 abstentions. See chap. VII.
-103--
Reaffirming its resolutions 3 (XXXl), 6 (XXXl), 2 (XXXIV), and 3 (XXXIV),
Bearing in mind the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the
Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, 41/
Bearing in mind further General Assembly resolution 32/40 B of
2 December 1977 on the International of Solidarity with the Palestinian
People,
Recognizing that the Palestinian people are entitled to self-determination
in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other relevant
United Hâtions resolutions,
Expressing its grave concern that the Palestinian people, have been
prevented by force from enjoying their inalienable rights, in particular their
right to self-determination,
1. Affirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination without external interference and the establishment of a
fully independent and sovereign in Palestine;
2. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to
their homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted,
and calls for their return in the exercise of their right to self-determination;
3. Recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to regain their rights
by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter
of the United Nations;
4. Urges all States, United Nations organs, specialized agencies and
other international organizations to extend their support to the Palestinian
people through its representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, in
its struggle to restore its rights in accordance with the Charter;
5. Requests the Secretary-General to make available to the Commission
on Human Rights and to its Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and
Protection of Minorities the reports, studies and publications prepared by the
Special Unit on Palestinian Rights, which was established by General Assembly
resolution 32/40 B of 2 December 1977.
3 (XXXV). The right of -peoples to self-determination and its
application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation 42/
The Commission on Efaman Rights.
Recalling General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December I960
concerning the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries
and Peoples, and the importance of its implementation,
41/ A/32/35
42/ Adopted at the 1489th meeting, on 21 February 1979 ^y a roll-call vote of
23 votes to 4» with 4 abstentions. See chap. VII.
-IO4-
Rea£firing its resolutions 3 (X0X12), 6 (0XX1), 2 (XX0XIV), and 3 (30001v),
Bearing in mind the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the
Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, 44l/
Bearing in mind further General Assembly resolution 32/40 B of
2 December 1977 on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian
People,
Recognizing that the Palestinian people are entitled to self-determination
in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other relevant
United Nations resolutions,
BRpressing its grave concern that the Palestinian people, have been
prevented by force from enjoying their inalienable rights, in particular their
right to self-determination,
l. Affirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination without external interference and the establishment of a
fully independent and sovereign State in Palestine;
2. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to
their homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted,
and calls for their return in the exercise of their right to self-determination;
3. Recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to regain their rights
by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter
of the United Nations;
4. Urges all States, United Nations organs, specialized agencies and
other international organizations to extend their support to the Palestinian
people through its representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, in
its struggle to restore its rights in accordance with the Charter;
5. Requests the Secretary-General to make available to the Commission
on Human Rights and to its Sub--Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and
Protection of Minorities the reports, studies and publications prepared by the
Special Unit on Palestinian Rights, which was established by General Assembly
resolution 32/40B of 2 December 1977.
3 (XXXv). [The right of peoples to self-determination and its
a1 lication to eoles under colonial or alien
@domination or foreign occupation [2
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 1514 (Xv) of 14 December 1960
concerning the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries
and Peoples, and the importance of its implementation,
4/ 4/32/35
42/ Adopted at the 1489th meeting, on 21 February 1979 by a roll-call vote of
23 votes to 4, with 4 abstentions. See chap. VII.
--l04--
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE THIRTY-FIFTH SESSION
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
No. UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1979
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE THIRTY-FIFTH SESSION
(12 February-16 March 1979)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1979
SUPPLEMENT No. 6
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1979
E/1979/36
E/CN.4/1347
Reaffirming its resolutions 3 (XXXl), 6 (XXXl), 2 (XXXIV), and 3 (XXXIV),
Bearing in mind the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the
Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, 41/
Bearing in mind further General Assembly resolution 32/40 B of
2 December 1977 on the International of Solidarity with the Palestinian
People,
Recognizing that the Palestinian people are entitled to self-determination
in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other relevant
United Hâtions resolutions,
Expressing its grave concern that the Palestinian people, have been
prevented by force from enjoying their inalienable rights, in particular their
right to self-determination,
1. Affirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination without external interference and the establishment of a
fully independent and sovereign in Palestine;
2. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to
their homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted,
and calls for their return in the exercise of their right to self-determination;
3. Recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to regain their rights
by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter
of the United Nations;
4. Urges all States, United Nations organs, specialized agencies and
other international organizations to extend their support to the Palestinian
people through its representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, in
its struggle to restore its rights in accordance with the Charter;
5. Requests the Secretary-General to make available to the Commission
on Human Rights and to its Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and
Protection of Minorities the reports, studies and publications prepared by the
Special Unit on Palestinian Rights, which was established by General Assembly
resolution 32/40 B of 2 December 1977.
3 (XXXV). The right of -peoples to self-determination and its
application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation 42/
The Commission on Efaman Rights.
Recalling General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December I960
concerning the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries
and Peoples, and the importance of its implementation,
41/ A/32/35
42/ Adopted at the 1489th meeting, on 21 February 1979 ^y a roll-call vote of
23 votes to 4» with 4 abstentions. See chap. VII.
-IO4-
Rea£firing its resolutions 3 (X0X12), 6 (0XX1), 2 (XX0XIV), and 3 (30001v),
Bearing in mind the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the
Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, 44l/
Bearing in mind further General Assembly resolution 32/40 B of
2 December 1977 on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian
People,
Recognizing that the Palestinian people are entitled to self-determination
in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other relevant
United Nations resolutions,
BRpressing its grave concern that the Palestinian people, have been
prevented by force from enjoying their inalienable rights, in particular their
right to self-determination,
l. Affirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination without external interference and the establishment of a
fully independent and sovereign State in Palestine;
2. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to
their homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted,
and calls for their return in the exercise of their right to self-determination;
3. Recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to regain their rights
by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter
of the United Nations;
4. Urges all States, United Nations organs, specialized agencies and
other international organizations to extend their support to the Palestinian
people through its representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, in
its struggle to restore its rights in accordance with the Charter;
5. Requests the Secretary-General to make available to the Commission
on Human Rights and to its Sub--Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and
Protection of Minorities the reports, studies and publications prepared by the
Special Unit on Palestinian Rights, which was established by General Assembly
resolution 32/40B of 2 December 1977.
3 (XXXv). [The right of peoples to self-determination and its
a1 lication to eoles under colonial or alien
@domination or foreign occupation [2
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 1514 (Xv) of 14 December 1960
concerning the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries
and Peoples, and the importance of its implementation,
4/ 4/32/35
42/ Adopted at the 1489th meeting, on 21 February 1979 by a roll-call vote of
23 votes to 4, with 4 abstentions. See chap. VII.
--l04--
Recalling also its resolutions 3 (XXXl) of 11 February 1975, 9 (XXXll) of
5 March 1976 and 3 (XXXIV) of 14 February 1978, and General Assembly
resolution 33/24 of.29 November 1978,
Recalling the Declaration made by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the
Non-Aligned Countries in Belgrade, 1978,
Stressing the importance of the effective realization of the right of peoples
to'self-determination, national sovereignty and territorial integrity and of the
speedy granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples as imperatives
for the enjoyment of human rights,
Reiterating its profound indignation at the continued and serious violations
of human rights of the peoples still under colonial or alien domination or foreign
occupation, the continuation of the illegal occupation of Namibia, and
South Africans attempts to disregard "tine ISnitea ïSations resolutions on "this
problem and its solution, the perpetuation of the racist minority regimes in
Zimbabwe and South Africa, and the denial to the people of Palestine of their
inalienable rights,
1. Calls upon all States to implement fully and faithfully the resolutions
of the United Nations regarding the exercise of the right to self-determination by
peoples under colonial and alien domination;
2. Reaffirms the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence,
territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign
domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed
struggle ;
3. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the peoples of Namibia, Zimbabwe,
South Africa and the people of Palestine and of all peoples under alien and
colonial domination, to self-determination, national independence, territorial
integrity, national unity and sovereignty without external interference;
4. ..Condemns the practice of using mercenaries against national liberation
movements and sovereign States as a criminal act and the mercenaries themselves
as criminals, and calls upon the Governments of all countries to enact legislation
declaring the recruitment, financing and training of mercenaries in their
territory and their transit through it to be punishable offences and prohibiting
their nationals from serving as mercenaries, and to inform the Commission of the
legislation enacted to that effect;
5. Condemns in particular the policy of those States which, in disregard
of the United Nations resolutions, continue to maintain political, economic,
military and other relations with the racist régimes in southern Africa and
elsewhere thus supporting, protecting and encouraging them to persist in their
suppression of the aspirations of peoples for self-determination and independence;
6. Strongly condemns the ever-increasing massacres of innocent and
defenceless people, including women and children, by the racist minority régimes
of southern Africa in their desperate attempt to thwart the legitimate demands of
the people;
-105-
Recalling also its resolutions 3 (0XX1) of 1l February 1975, 9 (XXXII) of
5 March 1976 and 3 (XXXIV) of 14 February 1978, and General Assembly
resolution 33/24 of.29 November 1978, ' •
Recalling the Declaration made by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the
Non-Aligned Countries in Belgrade, 1978,
Stressing the importance of the effective realization of the right of peoples
to self-determination, national sovereignty and territorial integrity and of the
speedy granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples as imperatives
for the enjoyment of human rights,
Reiterating its profound indignation at the continued and serious violations
of human rights of the peoples still under colonial or alien domination or foreign
occupation, the continuation of the illegal occupation of Namibia, and
South Africa's attempts to disregard the United Nations resolutions on this
problem and its solution, the perpetuation of the racist minority r~gimes in
Zimbabwe and South Africa, and the denial to the people of Palestine of their
inalienable rights,
l. Calls upon all States to implement fully and faithfully the resolutions
of the United Nations regarding the exercise of the right to self-determination by
peoples under colonial and alien domination;
2. Reaffirms the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence,
territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign
domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed
struggle;
3. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the peoples of Namibia, Zimbabwe,
South Africa and the people of Palestine and of all peoples under alien and
colonial domination, to self-determination, national independence, territorial
integrity, national unity and sovereignty without external interference;
4. Condemns the practice of using mercenaries against national liberation
movements and sovereign States as a criminal act and the mercenaries themselves
as criminals, and calls upon the Governments of all countries to enact legislation
declaring the recruitment, financing and training of mercenaries in their
territory and their transit through it to be punishable offences and prohibiting
their nationals from serving as mercenaries, and to inform the Commission of the
legislation enacted to that effect;
5. Condemns in particular the policy of those States which, in disregard
of the United Nations resolutions, continue to maintain political, economic,
military and other relations with the racist r~gimes in southern Africa and
elsewhere thus supporting, protecting and encouraging them to persist in their
suppression of the aspirations of peoples for self-determination and independence;
6. Strongly condemns the ever--increasing massacres of innocent and
defenceless people, including women and children, by the racist minority r~gimes
of southern Africa in their desperate attempt to thwart the legitimate demands of
the people;
--105--
7« Demands the immediate release of all persons detained or imprisoned
as a result of their struggle for self-determination and independence, full
respect for their fundamental individual rights and the observance of article 5
of the Universal Declaration of Human lights,: under which no one shall toe,-i:.
subjected to torture or td <Kruel, inhuman or degrading treatment;
8. Condemns also the policies of those Governments which.do not recognize
the right- to self-determination and independence of all peoples still under
colonial and foreign domination and alien subjugation, notably the peoples of
southern Africa and the people of Palestine, and draws attention to the grave
responsibility incurred by the makers and promoters of such policies in the
eyes of the community of nations and world public opinion;
9. Rejects completely and emphatically the so-called "internal settlement"
in Zimbabwe;
10. Expresses its appreciation for the material and other forms of
assistance which the peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign
occupation receive from friendly Governments in their struggle to achieve their
right to self-determination and independence;
11. Decides to continue to give the question "The right of peoples to
self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation" priority consideration at its thirty-sixth
session.
4 (XXXV). Question of the realization in all countries of the economic, social
and cultural rights contained in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and in the International Covenant on Economic. Social and
Cultural Rights, and study of special problems which the developing
countries face in their efforts to achieve these human rights
42/
The Commission on Human Rights.
Guided by the Charter of the United Nations and particularly Articles 1,
55 56,
Recalling its resolution 2 (XXXl) in which it decided to keep on its agenda
as a standing item with high priority the "Question of the realization of the
economic, social and cultural rights contained in the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights and in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights", and study of special problems relating to human rights in
developing countries,
Recalling also its resolution 4 (XXXIIl) in which it recommended that the
Economic and Social Council invite the Secretary-General, in co-operation with
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and other
competent specialized agencies, to undertake a study on the international
dimensions of the right to development as a human right in relation with other
human rights based on international co-operation, including the right to taking into account the requirements of the New International Economic Order and
by
Rights 45/ Adopted at the 1504th meeting on 2 March 1979 without a vote. See
chap. VI.
-106-
7. Demands the immediate release of all persons detained or imprisoned
as a result of their struggle for self-determination and independence, full
respect for their fundamental individual rights and the observance of article 5
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, under which no one shall be.
subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment;
8. Condemns also the policies of those Governments which do not recognize
the right to self--determination and independence of all peoples still under
colonial and foreign domination and alien subjugation, notably the peoples of
southern Africa and the people of Palestine, and draws attention to the grave
responsibility incurred by the makers and promoters of such policies in the
eyes of the community of nations and world public opinion;
9. Rejects completely and emphatically the so-called "internal settlement"
in Zimbabwe;
10. Expresses its appreciation for the material and other forms of
assistance which the peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign
occupation receive from friendly Governments in their struggle to achieve their
right to self-determination and independence;
l1. Decides to continue to give the question "The right of peoples to
self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation" priority consideration at its thirty--sixth
session,
4 (XXXv). Question of the realization in all countries of the economic, social
and cultural rights contained in the Universal Declaration of Human
ights and in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Ri,hts and stud of secial roblems which the develo
countries face in their efforts to achieve these human rights
The Commission on Human ights,
guided by the Charter of the United Nations and particularly Articles l,
55 and 56,
Recalling its resolution 2 (XXXI) in which it decided to keep on its agenda
as a standing item with high priority the "Question of the realization of the
economic, social and cultural rights contained in the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights and in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights", and study of special problems relating to human rights in
developing countries,
Recalling also its resolution 4 (XXXIII) in which it recommended that the
Economic and Social Council invite the Secretary--General, in co--operation with
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and other
competent specialized agencies, to undertake a study on the international
dimensions of the right to development as a human right in relation with other
human rights based on international co--operation, including the right to peace,
taking into account the requirements of the New International Economic Order and
the fundamental human needs, and make this study available for consideration the Commission on Human ights at its thirty-fifth session,
4/ Adopted at the 1504th meeting on 2 March 1979 without a vote. See
chap. VI.
-106--
(4 February-14 March 1980)
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1980
3
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE THIRTY-SIXTH SESSION
( 4 February-14 March 1980)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1980
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
/1980/13
E/CN.4/1408
2 (XXXVI). The right of peoples to self-determination and its
application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation 4/
The Commission on Human Rights ,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 15l4 (XV) of l 4 December i960,
3236 (XXIX) of 22 November 1974, 3375 (XXX) and 3376 (XXX) of 10 November 1975,
32/14 of 7 November 1977, 32/20 of 25 November 1977, 32/40 of 2 December 1977,
42 of December 28 of December and 34/65 B of November 1979,
Recalling further Economic and Social Council resolutions 1865 (LVI) and
(LVI) of 17 May 1974,
Reaffirming its resolutions 3 (XXXl) of 1 1 February 1975, 6 (XXXl) of
21 February 1975, 2 (XXXIV) and 3 (XXXIV) of l 4 February 1978 and 2 (XXXV) of
21 February 1979,
Bearing in mind the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable
Rights of the Palestinian People, 5/
Bearing in mind further General Assembly resolution 32/40 B, of
2 December 1977, on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian
People,
Reaffirming that the Palestinian people are entitled to self-determination
in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other relevant United
Nations resolutions,
Expressing its grave concern that the Palestinian people have been prevented
by force from enjoying their inalienable rights, in particular their right to
self-determination,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 34/65 B, of 29 November 1979» which
reaffirms the declaration contained in paragraph 4 of its resolution 33/28 A of
7 December 1978, that the validity of agreements purporting to solve the problem
of Palestine requires that "they be within the framework of the United Nations and
its Charter and its resolutions on the basis of the full attainment and exercise
of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right of return
and the right to national independence and sovereignty in Palestine, and with the
participation of the Palestine Liberation Organization,
Taking note of paragraphs 52 to 55 of the report of the Committee on the
Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People,
Affirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to selfdetermination
without external interference and the establishment of a fully
independent and sovereign State in Palestine;
4/ Adopted at the 154oth meeting, on 14 February 1980, by a roll-call vote
of 23 to 8 with 10 abstentions. See chap. VII.
Official records of the General Assembly, Thirty-fourth Session,
Supplement No. 35, A/34/35.
-155-
2 (XXXVI). The right of peoples to self-determination and its
application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation /
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 151l (Xv) of 1l December 1960,
3236 (XX) of 22 November 197l, 3375 (XXx) and 3376 (XXx) o£ 10 November 1975,
32/1l of 7 November 1977, 32/20 of 25 November 1977, 32/l0 of 2 December 1977,
32/2 of 7 December 1977, 33/28 of 7 December 1978 and 3l/65 B of 29 November 1979,
Recalling further Economic and Social Council resolutions 1865 (LVI) and
1866 KV of IT May i97l,
Reaffirming its resolutions 3 (XXX1) or 1l February 1975, 6 (XXXI) of
21 February 1975, 2 (XXXIv) and 3 (XXXIv) of 1l February 1978 and 2 (XXxv) or
21 February 1979,
Bearing in mind the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable
Rights of the Palestinian People, 5/
Bearing in mind further General Assembly resolution 32/l0 B, of
2 December 1977, on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian
People,
Reaffirming that the Palestinian people are entitled to self-determination
in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other relevant United
Nations resolutions,
Expressing its grave concern that the Palestinian people have been prevented
by force from enjoying their inalienable rights, in particular their right to
self-determination,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 3l/65 B, of 29 November 1979, which
reaffirms the declaration contained in paragraph l of its resolution 33/28 A of
7 December 1978, that the validity of agreements purporting to solve the problem
of Palestine requires that they be within the framework of the United Iations and
its Charter and its resolutions on the basis of the full attainment and exercise
of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right of return
and the right to national independence and sovereignty in Palestine, and with the
participation of the Palestine Liberation Organization,
Taking note of paragraphs 52 to 55 of the report of the Committee on the
Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People,
l. Affirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to selfdetermination
without external interference and the establishment of a fully
independent and sovereign State in Palestine;
l/ Adopted at the 15l0th meeting, on 1l February 1980, by a roll-call vote
of 23to 8 with 10 abstentions. See chap. VII.
5/ Official records of the General Assembly, Thirty-fourth Session,
Supplement Tio. 35, ~73I[35.
-1552.
Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their
for their return in the exercise of their right to self-determination;
3. Recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to regain their rights
United Nations;
h. Notes with concern that the Camp David accords have been concluded
5- Rejects those provisions of the accords which ignore, infringe upon,
violate or deny the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the
right of return, the right to self-determination and the right to national
independence and sovereignty in Palestine, in accordance with the Charter of the
United Nations, and which envisage and condone continued Israeli occupation of
the Palestinian territories and other Arab territories occupied by Israel since
1967;
Strongly condemns all partial agreements and separate treaties which
7. 1967;
8. 9. Protection 32AO 2 1977.
1 5 6 -
2. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their
homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted, and calls
for their return in the exercise of their right to self-determination;
3. Recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to regain their rights
by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations;
4. Notes with concern that the Camp David accords have been concluded
outside the framework of the United Nations and without the participation of the
Palestine Liberation Organization, the representative of the Palestinian people;
5. Rejects those provisions of the accords which ignore, infringe upon,
violate or deny the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the
right of return, the right to self-determination and the right to national
independence and sovereignty in Palestine, in accordance with the Charter of the
United Nations, and which envisage and condone continued illsraeli occupation of
the Palestinian territories and other Arab territories occupied by Israel since
1967;
6. Strongly condemns all partial agreements and separate treaties which
constitute a flagrant violation of the rights of the Palestinian people, the
principles of the Charter and the resolutions adopted in the various international
forums on the Palestinian issue;
7. Declares that the Camp David accords and other agreements have no
validity in so far as they purport to determine the future of the Palestinian
people and of the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967;
8. Urges all States, United Nations organs, specialized agencies and other
international organizations to extend their support to the Palestinian people
through its representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, in its
struggle to restore its rights in accordance with the Charter;
9. Requests the Secretary-General to make available to the Commission on
Human Rights and to the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and
Prot~ction of Minorities the reports, studies and publications prepared by the
Special Unit on Palestinian Rights, which was established by General Assembly
resolution 32/l0 B of 2 December 1977.
- 156--
(4 February-14 March 1980)
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1980
3
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE THIRTY-SIXTH SESSION
( 4 February-14 March 1980)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1980
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
/1980/13
E/CN.4/1408
independence, the sole means of putting an end to the violation of the fundamental
rights of the Sarrawi people resulting from the foreign occupation of its
territory and of restoring the dignity of that people;
Decides to follow closely the developments in this situation in the
light of the recommendations of the Organization of African Unity and the General
Assembly of the United Nations and to consider the question of Sahara
within the framework of the item entitled "The right of peoples to selfdetermination
and its application to peoples under colonial or alien domination
or foreign occupation" at its thirty-seventh session, as a matter of high priority.
(XXXVI). The right of peoples to self-determination and
its application to peoples under colonial or
alien domination or foreign occupation 10/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 15l4 (XV) of 14 December i960
containing the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries
and Peoples,
Recalling further General Assembly resolutions 2649 (XXV) of 30 November 1970,
(XXVII) of December (XXVIIl) of November (XXIX)
of November 1974, 3246 (XXIX) of November 1974, (XXX) of
November 24 of November Recalling also its resolutions (XXXl) of 1 1 February (XXXIl) of
5 March (XXIV) of l4 February and (XXXV) and (XXXV) of
February Reaffirming the importance of the effective realization of the right of
peoples to self-determination, national sovereignty and territorial integrity and
of the speedy granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples as
imperative for the enjoyment of human rights,
Reiterating its profound indignation at the continued and flagrant violations
of human rights of the peoples still under colonial and foreign domination and
alien subjugation or foreign occupation, the perpetuation of the racist minority
régime in South Africa, its illegal occupation of Namibia and persistent attempts
to dismember the territory of Namibia, and the denial of the inalienable national
rignts of the Palestinian people,
Calls upon all States to implement fully and faithfully the resolutions
of the United Nations concerning the exercise of the right to self-determination
by peoples under colonial or alien domination and foreign occupation;
Reaffirms the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence,
territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign
domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed
struggle;
Adopted at the 1543rd meeting, on 15 February by a roll-call vote
of 29 to 8, with 4 abstentions. See chap. VII.
160-
independence, the sole means of putting an end to the violation of the fundamental
rights of the Sarrawi people resulting from the foreign occupation of its
territory and of restoring the dignity of that people;
2. Decides to follow closely the developments in this situation in the
light of the recommendations of the Organization of African Unity and the General
Assembly of the United Nations and to consider the question of Western Sahara
within the framework of the item entitled "The right of peoples to self-determination
and its application to peoples under colonial or alien domination
or foreign occupation" at its thirty-seventh session, as a matter of high priority.
5 (XXXVI). The right of peoples to self--determination and
its application to peoples under colonial or
alien domination or foreign occupation l0/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 151l (Xv) or 1l December 1960
containing the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries
and Peoples,
Recalling further General Assembly resolutions 26l9 (XXV) of 30 November 1970,
2955 (XXVII) of 12 December 1972, 3070 (XVIII) of 30 November 1973, 3236 (XXIX)
of 22 November 197, 32l6 (XXIX) of 29 November 197\, 3382 (XXX) of
10 November 1975, 33/2l of 29 November 1978,
Recalling also its resolutions 3 (XXXI) of 1l February 1975, 9 (XXXII) of
5 March 1976, 3 (Xx1IV) or 1l February 1978 and 2 (XXXv) and 3 (XX0XV) or
21 February 1979,
Reaffirming the importance of the effective realization of the right of
peoples to self-determination, national sovereignty and territorial integrity and
of the speedy granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples as
imperative for the enjoyment of human rights,
Reiterating its profound indignation at the continued and flagrant violations
of human rights of the peoples still under colonial and foreign domination and
alien subjugation or foreign occupation, the perpetuation of the racist minority
r~gime in South Africa, its illegal occupation of Namibia and persistent attempts
to dismember the territory of Namibia, and the denial of the inalienable national
rights of the Palestinian people,
1. Calls upon all States to implement fully and faithfully the resolutions
of the United Nations concerning the exercise of the right to self-determination
by peoples under colonial or alien dcmination and foreign occupation;
2. Reaffirms the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence,
territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign
domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed
struggle;
10/ Adopted at the 15l3rd meeting, on l5 February 1980 by a roll-call vote
or 29To 8, with l abstentions. See chap. VII.
-1603.
Reaffirms the inalienable right of the peoples of Namibia, Zimbabwe,
South Africa and the Palestinian people and of all peoples under alien and colonial
domination, to self-determination, national independence, territorial integrity,
national unity and sovereignty without external interference;
k. Emphasises once again that the practice of using mercenaries against
national liberation movements and sovereign States constitutes a criminal act and
that the mercenaries themselves are criminals, and calls upon Governments to
enact legislation declaring the recruitment, financing and training of mercenaries
in their territory, and their transit through it, to be punishable offences and
prohibiting their nationals from serving as mercenaries, and to report on such
legislation to the Secretary-General;
5. Condemns in particular the policy of those States which, in disregard of
United Nations resolutions, continue to maintain political, economic, military and
other relations with the racist régimes in southern Africa and elsewhere, thus
supporting, protecting and encouraging them to persist in their suppression of the
aspirations of peoples for self-determination and independence;
6. Strongly condemns the ever-increasing massacres of innocent and
defenceless people, including women and children, by the racist minority régimes of
southern Africa in their desperate attempts to suppress the legitimate demands of
the people;
7. Reiterates its demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all
people detained or imprisoned as a result of their struggle for self-determination
and independence, full respect for their fundamental rights and the observance of
article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, under which no one shall be
subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment;
8. Requests the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland to take without any delay all necessary measures to guarantee free
and fair elections in Southern Rhodesia, which would bring this territory to
genuine independence acceptable to the people of Zimbabwe in accordance with the
purposes of General Assembly resolution 15l4 (XV) of lh December i960, as required
the Security Council in its resolution 463 of February 9 . Reiterates its appreciation for the material and other forms of
assistance and support which the peoples under colonial domination and foreign
occupation receive from friendly Governments in their struggle to achieve their
right to self-determination and independence;
Decides to continue to give the question "The right of peoples to
self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation" priority consideration at its thirty-seventh
session.
1 6 1 -
3. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the peoples of Namibia, Zimbabwe,
South Africa and the Palestinian people and of all peoples under alien and colonial
domination, to self-determination, national independence, territorial integrity,
national unity and sovereignty without external interference;
• Emphasises once again that the practice of using mercenaries against
national liberation movements and sovereign States constitutes a criminal act and
that the mercenaries themselves are criminals, and calls upon Governments to
enact legislation declaring the recruitment, financing and training of mercenaries
in their territory, and their transit through it, to be punishable offences and
prohibiting their nationals from serving as mercenaries, and to report on such
legislation to the Secretary--General;
5. Condemns in particular the policy of those States which, in disregard of
United Nations resolutions, continue to maintain political, economic, military and
other relations with the racist r~gimes in southern Africa and elsewhere, thus
supporting, protecting and encouraging them to persist in their suppression of the
aspirations of peoples for self-determination and independence;
6. Strongly condemns the ever-increasing massacres of innocent and
defenceless people, including women and children, by the racist minority r~gimes of
southern Africa in their desperate attempts to suppress the legitimate demands of
the people;
7. Reiterates its demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all
people detained or imprisoned as a result of their struggle for self-determination
and independence, full respect for their fundamental rights and the observance of
article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Hurren Rights, under which no one shall be
subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment;
8. Requests the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland to take without any delay all necessary measures to guarantee free
and fair elections in Southern Rhodesia, which would bring this territory to
genuine independence acceptable to the people of Zimbabwe in accordance with the
purposes of General Assembly resolution )51l (XV) of 1l December 1960, as required
by the Security Council in its resolution 463 (1980) of 2 February 1980;
9. Reiterates its appreciation for the material and other forms of
assistance and support which the peoples under colonial domination and foreign
occupation receive from friendly Governments in their struggle to achieve their
right to self-determination and independence;
10. Decides to continue to give the question "The right of peoples to
self--determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation" priority consideration at its thirty-seventh
session.
- 161iyCN.
4/1475
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE THIRTY-SEVENTH SESSION
COUNCIL
ill
A
(2 February-13 March 1981)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1981
SUPPLEMENT No. 5
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1981
E/1981/25
E/CN.A/1475
5. Urges once more all States parties to that Convention to exert all efforts
in order to ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions thereof in all the
Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967> including Jerusalem;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized
agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the international
humanitarian organizations and non-governmental organizations.
2 (XXXVTl). The right of peoples to self-determination and
its application to peoples under colonial or
alien domination or foreign occupation 5/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December i960,
3236 (XXIX) of 22 November 1974, 3375 (XXX) and 3376 (XXX) of 10 November 1975,
32/14 of 7 November 1977, 32/20 of 25 November 1977, 32/40 of 2 December 1977,
32/42 of 7 December 1977, 33/28 of 7 December 1978, 34/65 B of 29 November 1979,
ES-7/2 of 29 July 35/169 of 15 December 198O,
Recalling further Economic and Social Council resolutions I865 (LVl) and
1866 (LVI) of 17 May 1974,
Reaffirming its resolutions 3 (XXXl) of 11 February 1975, 6 (XXXl) of
21 February 1975, 2 (XXXIV) and 3 (XXXIV) of 14 February and 2 (XXXV) of
21 February 1979 and 2 (XXXVl) of February 1930,
Bearing in mind the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable
Rights of the Palestinian People, 6/
Reaffirming that the Palestinian people are entitled to self-determination in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other relevant United Nations
resolutions,
Expressing its grave concern that the Palestinian people have been prevented by
force from enjoying their inalienable rights, in particular their right to
self-determination,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 35/l69 A of 15 December 198O which
expresses its grave concern that no just solution to the problem of Palestine has
been achieved and that this problem therefore continues to aggravate the Middle East
conflict, of which it is the core, and to endanger international peace and
security, and that Security Council resolution 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967 does
_5_/ Adopted at the 1595th meeting, on 11 February 1981, by a roll-call vote of
25 to 9, with 8 abstentions. See Chap. VII.
6/ Official Records of the General Assembly, Thirty-fifth Session,
Supplement No. 35, A/35/35.
-
d
5. Urges once more all States parties to that Convention to exert all efforts
in order to ensure respect for and compliance with the provisions thereof in all the
Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized
agencies, the regional intergovernmental organizations, the international
humanitarian organizations and non-governmental organizations.
2 (CCXVII). [The right of peoples to self-determination and
its a lication to eo les under colonial or
alien domination pr foreign occupation 5
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolution l514 (XV) of l4 December 1960,
3236 (GT?) or 22 November 1974, (X0) and (XX) or 10 November 1975,
32/14 of 7 November 1977, 32/20 of 25 November 1977, 32/40 of 2 December 1977,
32/42 of 7 December 1977, 33/28 o£ 7 December 1978, 34/65 B o£ 29 November 1979,
ES--7/2 of 29 July 1980, 35/169 of 15 December 1900,
Recalling further Economic and Social Council resolutions 1865 (LVI) and
KV) 6F 17Hay i974,
Reaffirming its resolutions 3 (XXI) of 11 February 1975, 6 (XXX1) of
21 February 1975, 2 (XXXIv) and 3 (CXXIV) o£ 14 February 1978 and 2 (Xv) of
21 February 1979 and 2 (XVI) o£ 14 February 1900,
Bearing in mind the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable
Rights of the Palestinian People, 6/
Reaffirming that the Palestinian people are entitled to self--determination in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other relevant United Nations
resolutions,
Expressing its grave concern that the Palestinian people have been prevented by
force from enjoying their inalienable rights, in particular their right to
self--determination,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 35/169 A of 15 December 1980 which
expresses its grave concern that no just solution to the problem of Palestine has
been achieved and that this problem therefore continues to aggravate the Middle East
conflict, of which it is the core, and to endanger international peace and
security, and that Security Council resolution 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967 does
/ Adopted at the 1595th meeting, on 1l February 1981, by a roll-call vote of
25 to 9, with 8 abstentions. See Chap. VII.
6/ pfficial Records of the General Assembly, Thirty-fifth Session,
Supplemen if6. 35, I/5[35.
- 193 not
provide for the future and for the inalienable rights of the Palestinian
people, the attainment of which is a conditio sine qua non for a just solution of
the question of Palestine,
Talcing note of paragraphs 59 and 72 of the report of the Committee on the
Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People,
1. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to selfdetermination
without external interference and the establishment of a fully
independent and sovereign State in Palestine;
2. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their
homes and property, from which they have been displaced and uprooted, and calls for
their return in the exercise of their right to self-determination;
3. Recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to regain their rights by
all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations;
4. Reaffirms its concern that the Camp David accords were concluded outside
the framework of the United Nations and without the participation of the Palestine
Liberation Organization, the representative of the Palestinian people;
5« Rejects those provisions of the accords which ignore, infringe upon,
violate or deny the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the
right of return, the right to self-determination and the right to national
independence and sovereignty in Palestine, in accordance with the Charter of the
United Nations, and which envisage and condone continued Israeli occupation of
the Palestinian territories and other Arab territories occupied by Israel
since 19675
6. Strongly condemns all partial agreements and separate treaties which
constitute a flagrant violation of the rights of the Palestinian people, the
principles of the Charter and the resolutions adopted in the various international
forums on the Palestinian issue;
7. Declares that the Camp David accords and other agreements have no
validity in so far as they purport to determine the future of the Palestinian
people and of the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since I9675
8. Urges all States, United Nations organs, specialized agencies and other
international organizations to extend their support to the Palestinian people
through its representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, in its struggle
to restore its rights in accordance with the Charter;
9. Requests the Secretary-General to make available to the Commission on
Human Rights and to the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and
Protection of Minorities the reports, studies and publications prepared by the
Special Unit on Palestinian Rights, which was established by General Assembly
resolution 32/40 B of 2 December 1977.
- 194 -
•
not provide for the future and for the inalienable rights of the Palestinian
people, the attainment of which is a condjtio sine qua non for a just solution of
the question of Palestine,
Taking note of paragraphs 59 and 72 of the report of the Committee on the
Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People,
l. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to selfdetermination
without external interference and the establishment of a fully
independent and sovereign State in Palestine;
2. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their
homes and property, from which they have been displaced and uprooted, and calls for
their return in the exercise of their right to self--determination;
3. Recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to regain their rights by
all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations;
4. Reaffirms its concern that the Camp David accords were concluded outside
the framework of the United Nations and without the participation of the Palestine
Liberation Organization, the representative of the Palestinian people;
5. Rejects those provisions of the accords which ignore, jnfringe upon,
violate or deny the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the
right of return, the right to self--determination and the right to national
independence and sovereignty in Palestine, in accordance with the Charter of the
United Nations, and which envisage and condone continued Israeli occupation of
the Palestinian territories and other Arab territories occupied by Israel
since 1967;
6. Strongly_ condemns all partial agreements and separate treaties which
constitute a flagrant violation of the rights of the Palestinian people, the
principles of the Charter and the resolutions adopted in the various international
forums on the Palestinian issue;
7. Declares that the Camp David accords and other agreements have no
validity in so far as they purport to determine the future of the Palestinian
people and of the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since l967;
8. Urges all States, United Nations organs, specialized agencies and other
international organizations to extend their support to the Palestinian people
through its representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, in its struggle
to restore its rights in accordance with the Charter;
9. Requests the Secretary-General to make available to the Commission on
Human Rights and to the Sub--Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and
Protection of Minorities the reports, studies and publications prepared by the
Special Unit on Palestinian Rights, which was established by General Assembly
resolution 32/40 B of 2 December 1977.
- 194 --
iyCN.4/1475
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE THIRTY-SEVENTH SESSION
COUNCIL
ill
A
(2 February-13 March 1981)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1981
SUPPLEMENT No. 5
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1981
E/1981/25
E/CN.A/1475
6. Further urges all concerned to co-operate with the Secretary-General and
his Special Representative in their efforts to resolve the situation in
Afghanistan;
7. Appeals to all States and national and international organizations to
extend humanitarian relief assistance, with a view to alleviating the hardship of
Afghan refugees, in co-ordination with the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees;
8. Decides to consider this matter at its thirty-eighth session with high
priority under the item entitled "Right of peoples to self-determination and its
application to peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign occupation".
14 (XXXVTl). The right of peoples to self-determination and
its application to peoples under colonial or
alien domination or foreign occupation 57/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Bearing in mind the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other relevant international instruments
relating to human rights.
Recalling General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December i960 containing
the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples,
and resolution 35/119 of 11 December 1980,
Recalling further General Assembly resolutions 2649 (XXV) of 30 November 1970,
2955 (XXVII) of 12 December 1972, 3070 (XXVIIl) of 30 November 1973, 3236 (XXIX)
of 22 November 1974, 3246 (XXIX) of 29 November 1974, 3382 (XXX) of 10 November 1975,
33/24 of 29 November 1978 and 35/35 of 14 November 1980,
Recalling also its resolutions 3 (XXXl) of 11 February 1975, 9 (XXXIl) of
5 March 1976, 3 (XXXIV) of 14 February 1978 and 2 (XXXV) and 3 (XXXV) of
21 February 1979, and 5 (XXXVl) of 15 February 1980s
Reaffirming once again the importance of the effective realization of the
right of peoples to self-determination, national sovereignty and territorial
integrity and of the speedy granting of independence to colonial countries and
peoples as imperative for the enjoyment of human rights,
Reiterating its profound indignation at the continued and flagrant violations
of human rights of the peoples still under colonial and foreign domination and
alien subjugation or foreign occupation, the perpetuation of the racist
minority regime in South Africa, its illegal occupation of Namibia and persistent
attempts to dismember the territory of Namibia, and the denial of the
inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people,
1. Calls upon all States to implement fully and faithfully the
resolutions of the United Nations concerning the exercise of the right to
self-determination by peoples under colonial or alien domination and foreign
occupation;
57/ Adopted at the 1630th meeting, on 6 March 1981, by a roll-call vote
of 31 to 8, with 3 abstentions. See chap. VII.
- 215 -
6. Further urges all concerned to co-operate with the Secretary--General and
his Special Representative in their efforts to resolve the situation in
Afghanistan;
7. Appeals to all States and national and international organizations to
extend humanitarian relief assistance, with a view to alleviating the hardship of
Afghan refugees, in co-ordination with the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees;
8. Decides to consider this matter at its thirty-eighth session with high
priority under the item entitled "Right of peoples to self--determination and its
application to peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign occupation".
14 (XXXVII). [he right of peoples to self--determination and
its a lication to eo les under colonial or
alien domination or foreign occupation 37
The Commission on Human Rights,
Bearing in mind the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other relevant international instruments
relating to human rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of l4 December 1960 containing
the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples,
and resolution 55/ll9 of 1l December 1980,
Recalling further General Assembly resolutions 2649 (XXV) of 30 November 1970,
2955 (vff) F i2 December 1972, 3070 (XVIII) of 30 November 1973, 3236 (XXIX)
of 22 November 1974, 3246 (XXIX) of 29 November 1974, 3382 (XXX) of 10 November 1975,
33/24 of 29 November 1978 and 35/35 of 14 November 1980,
Recalling also its resolutions 3 (XXX1I) of 11 February 1975, 9 (XXXI1) of
5 Mar~ 1976, K~xv) of 14 February 1978 and 2 (Xv) and 3 (Xv) of
21 February 1979, and 5 (XXXVI) of 15 February 1980,
Reaffirming once again the importance of the effective realization of the
right of peoples to self--determination, national sovereignty and territorial
integrity and of the speedy granting of independence to colonial countries and
peoples as imperative for the enjoyment of human rights,
Reiterating its profound indignation at the continued and flagrant violations
of human rights of the peoples still under colonial and foreign domination and
alien subjugation or foreign occupation, the perpetuation of the racist
minority r~gime in South Africa, its illegal occupation of Namibia and persistent
attempts to dismember the territory of Namibia, and the denial of the
inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people,
l. Calls upon all States to implement fully and faithfully the
resolutions of the United Nations concerning the exercise of the right to
self--determination by peoples under colonial or alien domination and foreign
occupation;
]/ Adopted at the 1630th meeting, on 6 March 1981, by a roll-call vote
of 3l to 8, with 5 abstentions. See chap. VII.
- 215 2.
Reaffirms once more the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for
independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial
and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including
armed struggle;
3. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the peoples of Namibia, South Africa
and the Palestinian people and of all peoples under alien and colonial domination,
to self-determination, national independence, territorial integrity, national uni"fcy
and sovereignty -without external interference;
4. Strongly condemns the ever-increasing massacres of innocent and
defenceless people, including women and children, by the racist minority regime.of
southern Africa in its desperate attempts to suppress the legitimate demands of
the people;
5. Condemns South Africa's wanton acts of criminal aggression and flagrant
violations of the territorial integrity of the frontline States through military
attacks by land and air with the sole aim of destabilizing and weakening these
States in their resolve and determination to give their support to the liberation
struggle in southern Africa, and requests that some help should be given to the
frontline States to buttress their determination;
6. Condemns also the expansionist policy of Israel, and its practices in the
region as -well as the continuous aggression against the civilian Arab population,
in particular the Palestinians, and the destruction of their villages and camps,
which constitute serious obstacles to the achievement of self-determination and
independence by the Palestinian people;
7. Reaffirms once again that the practice of using mercenaries against
national liberation movements and sovereign States constitutes a criminal act and
that the mercenaries themselves are criminals, and calls upon Governments to enact
legislation declaring the recruitment, financing and training of mercenaries in
their territory, and their transit through it, to be punishable offences and
prohibiting their nationals from serving as mercenaries, and to report on such
legislation to the Secretary-General;
8 . Welcomes with satisfaction the convening of the first session of the
Ad Hoc Committee on the Drafting of an International Convention against the
Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries;
9- Condemns in particular the policy of those States which, in disregard
of United Nations resolutions, continue to maintain political, economic, and other relations with the racist regime in southern Africa, thus protecting and encouraging them to persist in their suppression of the aspirations
of peoples for self-determination and independence;
10. Demands once more the immediate and unconditional release of all people
detained or imprisoned as a result of their struggle for'self-determination and
independence, full respect for their fundamental rights and the observance of
article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, under which no one shall
be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment;
- 216 -
2, Reaffirms once more the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for
independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial
and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including
armed struggle;
• Reaffirms the inalienable right of the peoples of Namibia, South Africa
and the Palestinian people and of all peoples under alien and colonial domination,
to self--determination, national idependence, territorial integrity, national unity
and sovereignty without external interference;
4. Strongly condemns the ever--increasing massacres of innocent and
defenceless people, including women and children, by the racist minority r~gime of
southern Africa in its desperate attempts to suppress the legitimate demands of
the people;
5. Condemns South Africa's wanton acts of criminal aggression and flagrant
violations of the territorial integrity of the frontline States through military
attacks by land and air with the sole aim of destabilizing and weakening these
States in their resolve and determination to give their support to the liberation
struggle in southern Africa, and requests that some help should be given to the
frontline States to buttress their determination;
6. Condemns also the expansionist policy of Israel, and its practices in the
region as well as the continuous aggression against the civilian Arab population,
in particular the Palestinians, and the destruction of their villages and camps,
which constitute serious obstacles to the achievement of self--determination and
independence by the Palestinian people;
7. Reaffirms once again that the practice of using mercenaries against
national liberation movements and sovereign States constitutes a criminal act and
that the mercenaries themselves are criminals, and calls upon Goverments to enact
legislation declaring the recruitment, financing and training of mercenaries in
their territory, and their transit through it, to be punishable offences and
prohibiting their nationals from serving as mercenaries, and to report on such
legislation to the Secretary--General;
8. Welcomes with satisfaction the convening of the first session of the
Ad Hog Committee on the Drafting of an International Convention against the
Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries;
9. Condemns in particular the policy of those States which, in disregard
of United Nations resolutions, continue to maintain political, economic, military
and other relations with the racist r~gime in southern Africa, thus supporting,
protecting and encouraging them to persist in their suppression of the aspirations
of peoples for self--determination and independence;
10. Demands pnoe more the immediate and unconditional release of all people
detained or imprisoned as a result of their struggle for self-determination and
independence, full respect for their fundamental rights and the observance of
article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, under which no one shall
be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment;
- 216 11.
Condemns the sentencing to death, by the South African courtss of
freedom fighters of the African National Congress and the South West Africa People's
Organization and calls on the South African Government to reprieve the sentences
in the name of humanitarian considerations;
1 2 . Decides to continue to give the question "The right of peoples to
self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien domination
or foreign occupation" priority consideration at its thirty-eighth session.
(XXXVH). Questi on of the violation of human rights
and fundamental freedoms in any part of the
world, with particular reference to colonial
and other dependent countries and territories
Assistance to the Central African Republic 3 8/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolution of December on assistance
for the reconstruction, rehabilitation and development of the Central African
Republic,
Considering the development measures to be studied by the United Nations
agencies concerned in order to give effect to General Assembly resolution 87,
and the need to take due account of human rights in the adoption and application
of those measures,
Noting with satisfaction that human rights and fundamental freedoms have been
restored in the Central African Republic in spite of that country's economic and
financial diffi culties,
Noting with satisfaction the interest displayed by the Government of the
Central African Republic in co-operation by the United Nations to ensure the
effective exercise of fundamental rights by citizens,
Welcoming with satisfaction the efforts exerted by the Government and people
of the Central African Republic for reconstruction, rehabilitation and development,
1 . Requests the Secretary-General to provide advisory services and other
forms of appropriate assistance to help the Government of the Central African
Republic to continue to guarantee the exercise of human rights and fundamental
freedoms in that country;
2. Invites all States, specialized agencies and other United Nations organs,
and also humanitarian and non-governmental organizations, to provide co-operation
and assistance to the Central African Republic in the human rights field as *rell
as in other fields;
3. Recommends the following draft decision for adoption by the
Economic and Social Council:
fFor the text see chap. I, sect. B, draft decision 5]
3 8 / Adopted at the 1631 st meeting on 9 March 1981, without a vote. See
chap. XI.
-
l1. Condemns the sentencing to death, by the South African courts, of
freedom fighters of the African National Congress and the South West Africa People's
Organization and calls on the South African Government to reprieve the sentences
in the name of humanitarian considerations;
12, Decides to continue to give the question "The right of peoples to
self--determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien domination
or foreign occupation" priority consideration at its thirty-eighth session,
15 (XXXVII). Qestion of the violation of human rights
and fundamental freedoms in any part pf the
world., with particular reference to colonial
and pther @dependent countries and territories
Assistance to the Central African Republic 5@/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 35/87 of 5 December 1980 on assistance
for the reconstruction, rehabilitation and development of the Central African
Republic,
Considering the development measures to be studied by the United Nations
agencies concerned in order to give effect to General Assembly resolution 35/87,
and the need to take due account of human rights in the adoption and application
of those measures,
Noting with satisfaction that human rights and fundamental freedoms have been
restored in the Central African Republic in spite of that country's economic and
financial difficulties,
Noting yith satisfaction the interest displayed by the Government of the
Central African Republic in co--operation by the United Nations to ensure the
effective exercise of fundamental rights by citizens,
Welcoming yith satisfaction the efforts exerted by the Government and people
of the Central African Republic for reconstruction, rehabilitation end development,
t
1.
forms of
Republic
freedoms
Requests the Secretary-General to provide advisory services and other
appropriate assistance to help the Government of the Central African
to continue to guarantee the exercise of human rights and fundamental
in that country;
2, Invites all States, specialized agencies and other United Nations organs,
and also humanitarian and non-governmental organizations, to provide co-operation
and assistance to the Central African Republic in the human rights field es well
as in other fields;
5. Recommends the following draft decision for adoption by the
Economic and Social Council:
[For the text see chap. I, sect.B. raft decision5]
38/ Adopted at the 163lst meeting on 9 March 198l, without a vote. See
chap. XI.
- 217 COMMISSION
ON HUMAN RIGHTS
SESSION
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
UNITED NATIONS
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE THIRTY-EIGHTH SESSION
(1 February- 12 March 1982)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1982
SUPPLEMENT No. 2
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1982
E/1982/12
E/CN.4/1982/30
2. Declares that the Israeli decision is null and void and without any
international legal effect and demands that Israel, the occupying Power, rescind
its illegal and pernicious act 5
3. Determines that the persistent defiance by Israel of the resolutions
and authority of the United Nations and the systematic violations of human rights
in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine, constitute a continuing
threat to international peace and security;
4. Calls upon all Member States to apply against Israel the measures
referred to in paragraphs 11, 12, 13 and 15 of General Assembly resolution ES-9/l
of 5 February 1982.
1982/3. The right of peoples to self-determination and its
application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation 13/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 1514 (XV) of 14 December i960,
(XXIX) of (XXX) (XXX) of of 1981
and 36/226 of 17 December 1981,
further Economic and Social Council resolutions I865 (LVl) :
and 1866 (LVI) of 17 May 1974,
Reaffirming its resolutions 2 (XXXVIl) of 11 February 1981 and 14 (XXXVIl)
of 6 March 1981,
Bearing in mind the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable
Rights of the Palestinian People, 14/ and especially paragraphs 49 to 72 of that
report,
Reaffirming that the Palestinian people are entitled to self-determination in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other relevant United Nations
resolutions, and expressing its grave concern that the Palestinian people have been
prevented by force from enjoying their inalienable rights, in particular their
right to self-determination,
Expressing its grave concern that no just solution to the problem of Palestine
has been achieved and that this problem therefore continues to aggravate the
Middle East conflict, of which it is the core, and to endanger international peace
and security,
13/ Adopted at the 17th meeting on 11 February 1982, by a roll-call vote
of 24 to 8, with 10 abstentions. See chap. VII.
14/ Official Records of the General Assembly, Thirty-sixth Session.
Supplement No. 35 (A/36/35).
2. Declares that the Israeli decision is null and void and without any
international legal effect and demands that Israel, the occupying Power, rescind
its illegal and pernicious act;
, Determines that the persistent defiance by Israel of the resolutions
and authority of the United Nations and the systematic violations of human rights
in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine, constitute a continuing
threat to international peace and security;
4. Calls upon all Member States to apply against Israel the measures
referred to in paragraphs ll, 12, l5 and l5 of General Assembly resolution ES-9/l
of 5 February 1982.
1982/3. The right of peoples to self--determination and its
a lication to eo les under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation l
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions l514 (XV) of l4 December 1960,
3236 (XT) F 22 November 1974, 3375 (0Xx) and 3376 (XX.) or 10 November 1975,
32/14 o£ 7 November 1977, 32/20 of 25 November 1977, 32/40 of 2 December 1977,
32/42 of 7 December 1977, 33/28 of 7 December 1978, 34/65 of 29 November 1979,
ES.7/2 of 29 July 1980, 35/169 of 15 December 1980, 36/120 of 10 December 198l
and 36/226 of 17 December 1981,
Recalling further Economic and Social Council resolutions 1865 (LVI)
and 16G KV oF TT Kay 1974,
Reaffiring its resolutions 2 (XXXVII) of 11 February 198l and l4 (XXXVII)
of 6 Maroh 1981,
Bearing in mind the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable
Rights of the Palestinian People, l4/ and especially paragraphs 49 to 72 of that
report,
Reaffirming that the Palestinian people are entitled to self-determination in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other relevant United Nations
resolutions, and expressing its grave concern that the Palestinian people have been
prevented by force from enjoying their inalienable rights, in particular their
right to self--determination,
Expressing its grave poncern that no just solution to the problem of Palestine
has been achieved and that this problem therefore continues to aggravate the
Middle East conflict, of which it is the core, and to endanger international peace
and security,
l/ Adopted at the l7th meeting on ll February 1982, by a roll-call vote
of 24 to 8, with l0 abstentions. See chap. VII.
l4/ official Records of the General Assembly, Thirty-sixth Session,
Supplement [o. 35 36735).
- 108 -
1. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination without external interference and the establishment of a
fully independent and sovereign State of Palestine|
2. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their
homes and from which they have been displaced and uprooted by Israel,
and calls for their return in the exercise of their right to self-determination;
5. Recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to regain their rights
by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations 5
4. Reaffirms the basic principle that the future of the Palestinian people
can only be decided with its full participation in all efforts, through its
representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization5
5. Expresses its strong opposition to all partial agreements and separate
treaties which constitute a flagrant violation of the rights of the Palestinian
people, the principles of the Charter and the resolutions adopted in the various
international forums on the Palestinian issue, as well as the principles of
international law, and declares that all agreements and separate treaties have
no validity in so far as they purport to determine the future of the Palestinian
people and of the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 19^7 > including
Jerusalem5
6. Strongly rejects the continuation of the negotiations on the question
of "autonomy", within the framework of the "Camp David accords" and declares that
these accords have no validity in so far as they purport to determine the future
of the Palestinian people and of the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel
since I9675
7. Urges all States, United Nations organs, specialized agencies and other
international organizations to extend their support to the Palestinian people
through its representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, in its struggle
to restore its rights in accordance with the Charter and the relevant resolutions
of the United Nations?
8. Requests the Secretary-General to make available to the Commission on
Human Rights and to the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and
Protection of Minorities the reports, studies and publications prepared by the
Special Unit on Palestinian Rights, which was established by General Assembly
resolution 32/4O B of 2 December 1977»
1982/4. Human rights and scientific and technological
developments 15/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Noting that scientific and technological progress is one of the decisive
factors in the development of society,
15/ Adopted at the 29th meeting on 19 February 1982 by 31 to with
12 abstentions. See chap. XIII.
- -
l, Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
self--determination without external interference and the establishment of a
fully independent and sovereign State of Palestine;
2, Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their
homes and property, from which they have been displaced and uprooted by Israel,
and calls for their return in the exercise of their right to self--determination;
3. Recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to regain their rights
by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations;
4. Reaffirms the basic principle that the future of the Palestinian people
can only be decided with its full participation in all efforts, through its
representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization;
5. Expresses its strong opposition to all partial agreements and separate
treaties which constitute a flagrant violation of the rights of the Palestinian
people, the principles of the Charter and the resolutions adopted in the various
international forums on the Palestinian issue, as well as the principles of
international law, and declares that all agreements and separate treaties have
no validity in so far as they purport to determine the future of the Palestinian
people and of the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including
Jerusalem;
6. Strongly rejects the continuation of the negotiations on the question
of "autonomy", within the framework of the "Camp David accords" and declares that
these accords have no validity in so far as they purport to determine the future
of the Palestinian people and of the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel
sine 1967;
7. Urges all States, United Nations organs, specialized agencies and other
international organizations to extend their support to the Palestinian people
through its representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, in its struggle
to restore its rights in accordance with the Charter and the relevant resolutions
of the United Nations;
8. Requests the Secretary-General to make available to the Commission on
Human Rights and to the Sub--Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and
Protection of Minorities the reports, studies and publications prepared by the
Special Unit on Palestinian Rights, which was established by General Assembly
resolution 32/40 B of 2 December 1977.
1982/4. Human rights and scientific and technological
developments 15
The Commission on Human nights,
Noting that scientific and technological progress is one of the decisive
factors in the development of society,
l5/ Adopted at the 29th meeting on 19 February 1982 by 3l to none, with
l2 abstentions. See chap. XIII.
-- 109 E/
1983/13
E/CN.4/1983/60
REPORT ON THE THIRTY-NINTH SESSION
(31 11 Match 1983)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1983
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
1983
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE THIRTY -NINTH SESSION
G1 January - 1f Marth 18.3)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1983
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
te b
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 198.
4. Reaffirms its deteimination all provisions of the Hague Convention
of and the~Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons m
Time Jar of 12. August I949 14/ continue to apply to the Syrian territory occupied
•by I-rael since I967, ana calls upon parties thereto to respect their obligations
under these instruments in all circumstances,
5 Determines once more that continued occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights
since 1967 and its effective annexation "by Israel on 14 December I98I, as well as
the inhuman treatment of the Syrian population, constitute a grave violation of the
Universal Declaration of Human Eights, the Geneva Convention and the relevant
United Nations resolutions,
6 Strongly deplores the negative vote of a permanent member of the Security
Council which prevented the Council from adopting against Israel, under chapter VII
of the Charter of the United Nations, the 'appropriate measures" referred to m
resolution 497 (198I), adopted unanimously by the Security Council
7 Calls upon Israel, the occupying Power, to rescind forthwith its decision
of 14 December I98I to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the
oyrian Golan Heights, and firmly emphasizes the overriding necessity of the total
and unconditional withdrawal "by Israel from all Palestinian and Syrian territories
occupied since 1967? including Jerusalem, which is an essential prerequisite for
the establishment of a comprehensive and just peace m the Middle East,
8 Decides to place on the provisional agenda of its fortieth session as a
matter of high priority the item entitled "Question of the violation of human
rights m the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine",
I983/5 The right of peoples to self-determination ard its
application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation 15/
The Commission on Human Eights,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 181 (il) of 29 November 1947, 1% (ill)
of 11 December I948, 1514 (XV) of 14 December i960, 3236 (XXIX) of 22 November I974,
3375 (XXX) and 3376 (XXX) of 10 November 1975, 32/14 of 7 November 1977,
32/20 of 25 November 1977, 32/40 of 2 December 1^77, 32/42 7 December 1977,
33/28 of 7 December 1978, 34/65 29 November I979, ES-7/2 29 I98O,
35/169 of 15 December I98O, 36/120 10 December 1981, 36/226 of 17 December I9.8I,
FS-//of 2A September 1982 and 86" of 20 December Recalling further Economic and Social Council resolutions I865 (LVl) and
1866 TjLVI) of 17 fey 1°74,
Reaffirming its resolution 1982/3 of 11 February 1982,
14/ United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, p 287
15/ Adopted at the 22nd meeting, on 15 February 1983, by a roll-call vote
of 26to 7, with 10 abstentions See ohap VII
• esffnrmss ts deter oh that l groom of the le. Loera
of 1907 a. ie Geneva Coca£on elatve to the rot@ton of Cran Per0on% A
Time of her o' Angst 1949 14/ contra to apply to the nria ter1toy 0couped
by Dr.el nee 2967, a ale apon parte thereto to respect tier alga to
abler the struenta n all c1roast4e,
s eteraaone sore tht coted oaega.ton g ta nu GoLa le.ght
1967u rig fbse anmsoston by Israel o 14 leer 19%01, vells
th titan tea.tact of the sin popaatop, oetauted@sva nrolatrot of the
veal.l DoeLaton of floe. ghte, the era overt.oh a.I t.be el«vat
ht Katona roaoluto.is
6 pro delis the negatve vote of s permanent sober of the eonnty
Corn vhh preve EE tourel fro adopts mganat Israel, moder oboptar YI
of the thaster sf the luted Moton, the ppr0prated.era" referred t
rerolton 497 (191], atoped uamouly by the eotrtyr ucol
Calls upon arael, the coopyg Fower, to read fortisth t darson
of l446a&1aaq.r ta oe te laws, tisdetorn ad a.rust.rot.on om the
0yr1. Gau le1ght, ad feely eapbases tbe overridg necessty of the total
and uncottotal withdrawal by lensed rot a Paa fan dcnl Sy1%. tarr1t012$
coped ernde 96}, clad Jeruse.lee, woh e an eetLsl prer«gt for
t eta.bl1shunt of s coitggrehen.give sand at peace t th MMe East,
8 Doe1des to place on the pron$oral agenda of ts fotth @es.so a a
eta £ EEu ity the to entitled "Questaon of t olato of hrs
tight. a the oped Arab tertore, 1edge Falee",
1983/ fhe rgt of eopleeto al£determpgtrpnardta
gafon topaoples tsr go'oalo gr
I%Et7 % rG.Gia.ecipa~, 7
heels General Asel reoltona 18 (I) of 29 weber 1947, 294 (III)
of I @er 1948, 114 (Iv) 0f 14 Po.her 1960 3a6 6II) of 22 Move er 1974,
375 000) and 3376 000X) 10 Mvsaber 1975, 32A4 r #veter 1977,
32/20 0£ 25 No@b 1977, 32/40 a 2 prober 1977, 38/42 of 7 Deceaber 197,
3/8 or T Dueber 1978, 34,/65 of 29 ovob»e«er 1979, S--7/2 of 29 July I900,
35/169 0£ 1 Deeb«enr 190, 36h20 of 10 eaber 1381, 36/226 a£ 7 Deeb er 1981,
FSt/9 r « Soptaler 1982 at 37/06 10/20 pc saber 1982,
open_frtbe boonosas sad Soa Comae1l rolton. 1865 (LI) a.rd la66 ZIT 6r TT 714,
ls!farts resolution 1982/ a 11 February 1982,
U4/ luted Matos, frosty Sere, vol, 75, 28
15/ Aoptad at the 22nd aeetan8, on 1 February 190, by a roll-cal vote
Gr 6t ,1oubstetrone See cbas TT
18Bearing
in mind the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable
Rights "of the Palestinian People, 16/ and. especially paragraphs 49 to (? of that
report,
sizing once more that the Palestinian people axe entitled to
self-determination m accordance with tho Charter of the United lations and other
relevant United Nations resolutions, and expressing its grave concern that Israel
has prevented the Palestinian people by force from enjoying their inalienable
rights, in particular their right to self-determination, m defiance of the
principles international lav,
Expressing its grave concern that no just solution to the problem of Pa]e& bine
has been achieved and that this problem therefore continues to aggravate the
Middle Last conflict, of which it is the core, and to endanger international pectoe
and security, as has "been tragically illustrated by the Israeli invasion of Lebanon,
Welaominp the Arab peace plan adopted at the Twelfth Arab Summit Conference,
held at Vezf Morocco, on 25 November I98I and 9 September 1982?
1. Condemns Israel's continued occupation of the Palestinian and other Arab
territories, including Jerusalem, in violation of the Charter of the United Hationb,
the principles of international law and the relevant resolutions of the
United. Nations, and demands the immediate, unconditional and total withdrawal of
Israel from all these occupied, territories,
2< Condemns Israel's aggression and practices against the Palestinian people
m the occupied Palestinian territories and outside these territories, particularly
Palestinians in Le"banon? as a result of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon which
claimed the lives of thousands of Lebanese and Palestinian civilians,
3. Condemns in the strongest terms the large-scale massacre of Palestinian
civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps for which the responsibility of
the Israeli Government has been established,
4. Decides that the massacre was an act of genocide,
5- Bequests the General Assembly to declare 17 September a day to commemorate
the memory of the victims of Sabra and Shatila,
6, Expresses its grave concern that, until a just and equitable solution to
the problem of Palestine has been implemented, the Palestinian people will be
exposed to grave dangers such as the appalling massacre perpetrated m the babra
and ohatila refugee camps,
^' Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination without external interference and the establishment of a fully
independent and sovereign State of Palestine,
8- Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their
homes and. property, from which they have been displaced and uprooted by Israel,
and. calls for their return m the exercise of their right to self-determination
16/ Official Records of the General,. Assembly ^ Thirty-sixth Sessio
Supplement No. 35 W3&/35T.
- 119 -
_fflh&•;.,ng oi:ico -• U..1 tl>4 r&10,,u,an pOO})h or• ont>•l.., to
erelf eradnaon an sodacpe at the hoar tor of th 'Meted Mato ad other
relevant itod ton 2rs0Jt0, a.t «npr@g t¢ gave t&spar that lure.el
ha prevented t eta people by fore fros en0pg tbor 2n%lo8bl«
@ht, t parteuar tber fight t lfdlr#atom, n d0f4 of th
proplee of tratonal la,
heeset/gts gs conoor that no tut ioloo to the pbo of hale me
has be sch@Na T Ea Ee pwolea hofor oontnoe to s@ovate tbe
MA et onflt, of which t is the 0ore, al t orange pterrtotl gee
n sect,8 ha been trios1ly allotted y the Ir%eh %Lon of La.,
Maloon the #rs.b peca plan adopted et th fvefh Arab alt Loft nee,
h 4,L, co, en 25 Movob er 190l at 9 et«tor 19e2,
• Conlee Lore's outed upato of tt ales1ms. an tber Ar. tores, chdg Jorsalons, h alat.on of the Cbartr f the mted Mote,
t prop ot tern tonal lee a th relevant roAuto of th
tlte4tot, %nd dead t.be %hate, 0Lt.0ala0d total wt.hrs.7 of
era«el fro all the ooopd triton1,
2. Slee Joi' aeon and protes wost the Pat«tan op]
th 0op ilstran ento d otnde thee tenet0, port±early
Petras La boon, « r%It of the lard 10/.0in 0f Laba » oh
clod th lv«er gt thou.l of bes a.n4 ultra 0v1l1,
...tL.. Se.A 'AS LEE EE:7 the rel vrot hes beon tabehod,
4, Dads +bat the taso« was an st of good,
• egusts the Orea Al to declare 17 Speers ar to 0omooat
the moorBT u to of Sb l Shat1l,
6. Beage t.Rs.eoee tat, oat1 a_»t nt mutable oton to
the prob ? .re1La • hoc Las«acted, the etnn people on1
peed t gave anger oh th applng a¢ perpetrated n tho babar
and abate rf 0p.,
, Reaffra th nae0al rht of th Palest.an pple to
al-dtriEL thont «tr.al terforeoe en he art.bl.hint of fut1y
ndrpd.et and age tat of Peet4n«,
, le»ff the As«rabl ght of th s eta to tarn to hr
hoe son prop«rt, Aron woh thy bas bm oplard cod proot by Isl,
and oala for th«r return n th «rare of thr ht to set@oration
9 Hecopaizefi tie nglil ol the u l e J i m a n people to regain their rights "by
all means m accordajr & with the puiposes and principles of the Charter of the
United. Nations,
10. Reaffirms the basic principle that the future of the Palestinian people
can only be decided with its full participation in all efforts, through its
representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization
11 Rejects all partial agreements and separate treaties m so far as they
violate the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and contradict the
principles of just and comprehensive solutions to the Middle Fast problem to ensure
the establishment of a just peace in the area, m accordance with the principles of
the Charter United Nations and with relevant United Nations resolutions
12 Strongly rejects the plan of "autonomy" within the framework of the
"Camp David accords" and declares "that these accords have no validity m so far as
they purport to determine the future of the Palestinian people and of the
Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 19^7,
13. Urges all States, United Nations organs, specialized agencies and other
international organizations to extend their support to the Palestinian people
through its representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, in its struggle
to restore its rights m accordance with the Charter and the relevant resolutions
of the United Rations,
14 Requests the Secretary-General to make available to the Commission on
Human Rights and to the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and
"Protection of Minonties the reports, studies and publications prepared by the
Division for Palestinian Rights
1983/4. The light of peoples to self-determination
and its application to peoples under colonial
or alien domination or foreign occupation 17/
Jhe Commission^on Human Bights,
Bearing m mmd the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other relevant international instruments
relating to human rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960,
containing the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries
and Peoples, 2621 (XXV) of 12 October 1970, containing the programme of action for
the full implementation of the Declaration, and 35/118 of 11 December 1980,
containing the Plan of Action for the Pull Implementation of the Declaration,
Recalling further General Assembly resolutions 2649 (XXV) of 30 November 1970,
2955 (XXVIi; of 12 December I972, 30?0 (XXVIIl) of 30 November 1973, 3?36 (XXIX) of
22 November 1974, 3246 (XXIX) of 29 lovember 1974, 3382 (XXX) of 10 November 1975,
33/24 of 29 November 1978, 35/35 of 14 November 1980, 36/68 of 1 December I98I,
36/76 of A December I98I and 37/35 of 23 November 1982,
17/ Adopted at the 22nd meeting, on 15 February 1983, by a roll-call vote
of 31 to 7, with 4 abstentions. See chap. VII
9 leaps pated st 1a1 poop/ tr8Ae their right b
al a.,-ea±la vtn th ayo end pup) of th the er t.
hr tad let1on,
I0, loaf£rs th b prople that th future of th altar pop
en r LL74a4 sh t fall prtepatom n a «tfats, through 1t%
restate, th let Lb«to Orr1.. i10
l Beste all prta 4gror nddperst trot d id far a hag
volt Leruble r1ht of th Bal et.n people a.d cut.de th
roople of jut sod ogrehw olut.oar to the hMt« fast probl to«ur«
the tab\hnt of st pee An her8, n corset t pri0pl.« .f
le (a ten of the bated Altona sand wth rel@vet (lit«d l on rolose
3gyp"H cu. DA a.Lu tl eolmr«pe anth aott "tvrn ostc"r rdt htarv e toe rvLotyse e t sf er •
they purport to deters th ftatr« of th Pal64.an pogo4n of
oatnA tar torr cpd by Isl nee I967,
.2ti all state, teat ton re, pnaled woe and o teer
talon orgtatoe to ducted th lgpt t th 4let p0pl¢
through ts repretat1we, tb Pelt1 bra to 00001% e et0qa«
te paste its right cord %ath th art. an4 th ralew%tr«0lo
of tbe [hated tit1o,
4 leqrte the Secretary-lat«al to «el salable to the Co«on oi
hon let%4 th% uCoo on Arv«mtvo of win.at.in .0l
Potaoton of Moater the reporr to, tods art pabloto prtprod by th
av.m foe Pl«tan I«ht
'Eee mu.sen, on tAeetsn ,
ea[td the pronons or to carter_ot the tauted ton, th
haw%era Sacca of an bght sad other pleat tartoioa truant
relate to hen et.,
f«ea1le General Ar.ably rel0oar 114 r) a l4 be«bar 196,
0taUauN plant ton oe th (trent¢ of lndpdo to colons Court.r
and (ecrpl4, 2621 (0) of 1? 0tor 1970, cont«rg th pror. of .o fee
h ult 1pl«int ton of th Dec.rain, 35/1¢ of Li babe 1980,
con tame the Plan of Aton f'or the LI laplotto of the Dec.rate,
heel]M,E Hg_energy route_a6 (0,v) at_yo vve_1yre,
29% (TY1 Seee 19, o76 (vir) or so ieve»be 1915, a6 () or
2 Novo»br 1974, 246 (0TX) 8± 29 Mover 19414, 3382 0000) of 10 brr 197,
3/24 of 29 llvhr 1978, 35/3 a' 14 Movbr 1000, 36/6 of l bbr 19,
36/7% of 4 Deeter I98l an4 7/5 0 25 Mvoar 4982,
1/ opted t th 22nl tug, e 1 rucry 1943, by 6 roll¢a.I vwt
or g%7, vith 4 bteon, S bup, VII
20
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTIETH SESSION
(6 February-16 March 1984)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1984
SUPPLEMENT No. 4
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1984
E/1984/14
E/CN.4/1984/77
2. Calls for the immediate withdrawal of the foreign troops from Afghanistan;
• Further calls for a political settlement of the situation in Afghanistan
on the basis of the withdrawal of foreign troops and full respect for the independence,
sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-aligned status of Afghanistan and strict
observance of the principle of non-intervention and non-interference;
4. Affirms the right of the Afghan refugees to return to their homes in
safety and honour;
5. Urges all concerned to work towards a settlement which would ensure that
the Afghan people determine their destiny free from outside interference and which
would enable the Afghan refugees to return to their homes;
6. Expresses its appreciation and support for the efforts and constructive
steps taken by the Secretary-General, especially the diplomatic process initiated
by him, in the search for a solution to the problem;
7. Requests the Secretary-General to continue these efforts with a view to
promoting a political solution, in accordance with the provisions of the relevant
General Assembly resolutions;
8. Urges all concerned to continue to co-operate with the Secretary-General
in his efforts to promote a political solution in respect of the situation in
Afghanistan;
9. Appeals to all States and national and international organizations to
extend humanitarian relief assistance, with a view to alleviating the hardship of
Afghan refugees, in co-ordination with the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees;
10. Decides to consider this matter at its forty-first session with high
priority under the agenda item entitled "The right of peoples to self-determination
and its application to peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign
occupation."
1984/11. The right of peoples to self-determination and its
application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation 4l/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 18l A and B (II) of 29 November 1947,
194 (III) of l1 December 1948, 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960, 3236 (XXIX) of
22 November 1974, 3375 (XXX) and 3376 (XXX) of 10 November 1975, 32/14 of
7 November 1977, 32/20 of 25 November 1977, 32/40 A and B of 2 December 1977,
32/42 of 7 December 1977, 33/28 A to C of 7 December 1978, 34/65 A to D of
29 November and 12 December 1979, ES-7/2 of 29 July 1980, 35/169 A to E of
15 December 1980, 36/120 A to F of 10 December 1981, 36/226 A and B of
17 December 1981, ES-7/9 of 24 September 1982, 37/86 A to E of 10 and
20 December 1982 and 38/58 A to E of 13 December 1983,
41/ Adopted at the 4th meeting, on 29 February 1984, by a roll-call vote
of 28o 7, with 8 abstentions. See chap. IX.
- 36 Recalling
further Economic and Social Council resolutions 1865 (LVI) and
1866 (LVI or 17 May 1974,
Reaffirming its resolutions 1982/3 of 1l February 1982 and 1983/3 of
15 February 1983,
Bearing in mind the reports and recommendations of the Committee on the
Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People,
Emphasizing once more that the Palestinian people are entitled to selfdetermination
in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the
relevant United Nations resolutions, and expressing its grave concern that Israel
has prevented the Palestinian people by force from enjoying their inalienable
rights, in particular their right to self-determination, in defiance of the
principles of international law and in disregard of the will of the international
community,
Expressing its grave concern that no just solution to the problem of Palestine
has been achieved and that this problem therefore continues to aggravate the
Middle East conflict, of which it is the core, and to endanger international peace
and security, as has been tragically illustrated by Israel's invasion and continued
occupation of Lebanon,
Welcoming the Arab peace plan adopted by the Twelfth Arab Summit Conference,
held at Fez, Morocco, on 9 September 1982,
Noting with satisfaction the outcome of the proceedings of the International
Conference on the Question of Palestine held at Geneva from 29 August to
7 September 1983,
Gravely concerned at the agreements on strategic co-operation between the
United States of America and Israel signed on 30 November 1981, as well as the
agreements recently concluded in this respect, which would encourage and support
Israeli policies of aggression and expansion,
l. Condemns Israel's continued occupation of the Palestinian and other Arab
territories, including Jerusalem, in violation of the Carter of the United Nations,
the principles of international law and the relevant resolutions of the
United Nations, and demands the immediate, unconditional and total withdrawal of
Israel from all these occupied territories;
2. Condemns Israel's aggression and practices against the Palestinian people
in the occupied Palestinian territories and outside those territories, particularly
against Palestinians in Lebanon, as a result of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon
which claimed the lives of thousands of Lebanese and Palestinian civilians;
. Strongly condemns anew Israel's responsibility for the large-scale massacre
in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, which constituted an act of genocide, and
expresses its grave concern that, until a just and equitable solution to the problem
of Palestine has been implemented, the Palestinian people will be exposed to grave
dangers such as the appalling massacre perpetrated in the Sabra and Shatila refugee
camps;
4. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestine people to selfdetermination
without external interference and the establishment of a fully
independent and sovereign State of Palestine;
- 37 -
5. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their
homes and property, from which they have been uprooted by force, and calls for
their return and the exercise of their right to self-determination;
6. Recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to regain their rights by
all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Carter of the
United Nations;
7. Reaffirms the basic principle that the future of the Palestinian people
can only be decided with its full participation in all efforts, through its
legitimate and sole representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization;
8. Reaffirms its rejection of all partial agreements and separate treaties
in so far as they violate the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and
contradict the principles of just and comprehensive solutions to the Middle East
problem that ensure the establishment of a just peace in the area, in accordance
with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and with relevant
United Nations resolutions;
9. Strongly_rejects the plan of "autonomy" within the framework of the
"Camp David accords" and declares that these accords have no validity in determining
the future of the Palestinian people and of the Palestinian territories occupied by
Israel since 1967;
10. Denounces the agreements on strategic co-operation between the
United States of America and Israel signed on 30 November 198l, as well as the
agreements recently concluded in this respect, which encourage Israel to persist
in its policies and practices of aggression and expansion in the Palestinian and
other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, and which undermine
efforts aimed at establishing a comprehensive and just peace in the Middle East and
endanger peace in the region;
l1. Endorses the Geneva Declaration on Palestine adopted by the International
Conference on the Question of Palestine, 42/ and welcomes the call for convening an
international peace conference on the Middle Fast under the auspices of the
United Nations, in which all parties to the Arab-Israeli conflict, including the
Palestine Liberation Organization, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the
United States of America, as well as other concerned States, participate on an
equal footing and with equal rights;
12. Urges all States, United Nations organs, specialized agencies and other
internationoaf rganizations to extend their support to the Palestinian people
through its representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, in its struggle
to restore its rights in accordance with the Charter and the relevant resolutions
of the United Nations;
l5. Requests the Secretary-General to make available to the Commission on
Human Rights and to the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection
of Minorities the reports, studies and publications prepared by the Division for
Palestinian Rights.
42/ Report of the International Conference on the Question of Palestine,
Geneva,29August-7 September j983 (~ived Nations pubiiction, sales • F.8.I.21),
part one, chap. I, sect. A.
38 ECONOMIC
AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
UNITED NATIONS
Efl9SS/COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTY-FIRST SESSION
(4 February-15 March 1985)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1985
SUPPLEMENT No. 2
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1985
E/1985/22
E/CN.4/1985/66
4• The right of to self-determination and
i t s application to peoples under colonial or
alien domination or foreign 197
The Commission on Human Bights,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 181 A ( i l ) of 29 November 19475
(III) of 11 XV) i960, XXIX) of
XXX) XXX) 1975) B 1977, C of ES-1980, 169 ES-86 and 11 further Economic and Social Council resolutions I865 LVT) 1866 (LVI) of 17 May 1974,
i t s resolutions of 11 February of
15 February 1983 and H of 29 February Bearing in mind the reports and recommendations of the Committee on the
Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People,
once more that the Palestinian people are entitled to selfdetermination
in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the
relevant United Nations and expressing i t s grave concern that
Israel has prevented the Palestinian people force from enjoying their
inalienable rights, in particular their right to self-determination, in defiance
of the principles of international law and in of the will of the
community,
i t s concern that no just solution to the problem of
Palestine has been achieved and that this problem therefore continues to
aggravate the Middle East conflict, of which i t i s the to endanger
peace held at Fez, Morocco, on 9 September 1982,
with International
Conference on the Question of Palestine held at Geneva from 29 August to
Gravely concerned at the agreements on strategic co-operation between the
the
19/ Adopted at the 32nd meeting, on 26 February 1985, a roll-call vote
of 29 to 7, with 7 abstentions. See chap. IX.
- 22 -
1985/4. The right gt peoples to self-determination and
its ax lication to eoles under colonial or
glien dominationgz 'preig occupation l
The _omission on Han Rights,
goallin General Assembly resolutions 181 A and B (II) of 29 November 1947,
194 (if) r i December 1948, 1514 (X7) of 14 December 1960, 3236 (XX1X) or
22 November 1974, 3375 (XX0) and 3376 (0XX) of 10 November 2975, 32/14 of
7 November 1977, 32/20 of 25 November 1977, 32/40 A and of 2 December 1977,
32/42 of 7 December 2977, 33/28 A to G o£ 7 December 1978, 34/65 A to D of
29 November and 12 December 1979, E8-7/2 of 29 July 21900, 35/169 A to E of
15 December 1980, 36/120 A to F of 10 December 1981, 36/226 A and B of
17 December 1981, ES--7/9 of 24 September 1982, 37/86 A to E of 10 and
20 December 1982, 38/58 A to E of 13 December 1983 39/49 A to D of
1l December 1984,
Recalling further Eoonomio and Social Council resolutions 1865 (LVI) and
1866 CT7 6F 7 ay 174,
Reaffirming its resolutions 1982/3 of 11 February 1982, 1983/3 of
15 February 1983 and 1984/1l of 29 February 1984,
Bearins in mind the reports and recommendations of the Committee on the
Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People,
Emphasizing oroe more that the Palestinian people are entitled to selfdetermination
in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the
relevant United Nations resolutions, and expressing its grave concern that
Israel has prevented the Palestinian people by force from enjoying their
inalienable rights, in particular their right to self-determination, in defiance
of the principles of intemnational law and in disregard of the will of the
international community,
Expressing its grave concern that no just solution to the problem of
Palestine has been achieved and that this problem therefore continues to
aggravate the Middle East conflict, of which it is the core, and to endanger
international peace and security, as has been tragically illustrated by Israel's
invasion and continued occupation of Lebanon,
Welcoming the Arab peaoe plan adopted by the Twelfth Arab Summit Conference,
held at Fez, Morocco, on 9 September 1982,
Noting yith satisfaction the outcome of the proceedings of the International
Conference on the Question of Palestine held at Geneva from 29 August to
7 September 1983,
gravely_ poncerned at the agreements on strategic oo-operation between the
United States of America and Israel signed on 30 November 1981, as well as the
agreements recently concluded in that respect, which would encourage and
support Israeli policies of aggression and expansion,
1/ Adopted at the 32nd meeting, on 26 February 1985, by a roll-call vote
of 29 to 7, with 7 abstentions, See chap, IX.
- 22 1.
Condemns Israel's continued occupation of the Palestinian and other
Arab territories, including Jerusalem, in violation of the Charter of the
United Nations, the principles of international law and the relevant
resolutions of the United Nations, and demands the immediate, unconditional
and total withdrawal of Israel from all those occupied territories;
2. Condemns Israel's aggression and practices against the Palestinian
people in the occupied Palestinian territories and outside those territories,
particularly against Palestinians in Lebanon, as a result of the Israeli
invasion of Lebanon which claimed the lives of thousands of Lebanese and
Palestinian civilians;
3. condemns anew Israel's responsibility for the large-scale
massacre in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, which constituted an act of
genocide, and expresses its grave concern that, until a just equitable
solution to the problem of Palestine has been implemented, the Palestinian
will be exposed to grave dangers such as the appalling massacre
perpetrated in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps;
4. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to selfdetermination
without external interference and the establishment of a fully
independent and sovereign State of Palestine;
5. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to
their homes and property, from which they have been uprooted force, and
calls for their return and the exercise of their right to self-determination;
6. Recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to regain their rights
by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of
the United Nations;
7. Reaffirms the basic principle that the future of the Palestinian
people can only decided with i t s full participation in all efforts, through
its legitimate and sole representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization;
8. Reaffirms i t s rejection of all partial agreements and separate treaties
in so far as they violate the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and
contradict the principles of just and comprehensive solutions to the Middle East
problem that ensure the establishment of a just peace in the area, in accordance
with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and with relevant
United Nations resolutions;
9. Strongly rejects the plan for "autonomy" within the framework of the
"Camp David accords" and declares that these accords have no validity in
determining the future of the Palestinian people and of the Palestinian
territories occupied by Israel since
10. Reaffirms i t s support for the Geneva Declaration on Palestine adopted
by the International Conference on the Question of Palestine, 20/ and welcomes
the call to convene an international peace conference on the Middle East under
the auspices of the United Nations, in which all parties to the Arab-Israeli
conflict, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics and the United States of America, as well as other
concerned States, participate on an equal footing and with equal rights;
20/ Report of the International Conference on the Question of Palestine,
Geneva, 29 August-7 September 1983 (United Nations publication,
Sales No. E.83.I.21), part 1, chap. I, sect. A.
l, Condemns Israel's continued occupation of the Palestinian and other
Arab territories, including Jerusalem, in violation of the Charter of the
United Nations, the principles of international law and the relevant
resolutions of the United Nations, and demands the immediate, unconditional
and total withdrawal of Israel from all those occupied territories;
2, Condemns Israel's aggression and practices against the Palestinian
people in the occupied Palestinian territories and outside those territories,
particularly against Palestinians in Lebanon, as a result of the Israeli
invasion of Lebanon which claimed the lives of thousands of Lebanese and
Palestinian civilians;
3. Strongly condemns anew Israel's responsibility for the large-scale
massacre in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, which constituted an act of
genocide, and expresses its grave concern that, until a just and equitable
solution to the problem of Palestine has been implemented, the Palestinian
people will be exposed to grave dangers such as the appalling massacre
perpetrated in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps;
4. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to selfdetermination
without external interference and the establishment of a fully
independent and sovereign State of Palestine;
5, Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to
their homes and property, from which they have been uprooted by force, and
calls for their return and the exercise of their might to self-determination;
6, Recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to regain their rights
by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of
the United Nations;
7. Reaffirms the basic principle that the future of the Palestinian
people can only be decided with its full participation in all efforts, through
its legitimate and sole representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization;
8. Reaffirms its rejection of all partial agreements and separate treaties
in so far as they violate the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and
contradict the principles of just and comprehensive solutions to the Middle East
problem that ensure the establishment of a just peace in the area, in accordance
with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and with relevant
United Nations resolutions;
9. Strongly rejects the plan for "autonomy" within the framework of the
Camp Davi accords" an declares that these accords have no validity in
determining the future of the Palestinian people and of the Palestinian
territories occupied by Israel since 1967;
10, Reaffirms its support for the Geneva Declaration on Palestine adopted
by the InternalouaT 06Ference on the Question of Palestine, 29/ and welcomes
the call to convene an international peace conference on the Middle East under
the auspices of the United Nations, in which all parties to the Arab-Israeli
conflict, including the Palestine liberation Organization, the Inion of Soviet
Socialist Republics and the United States of America, as well as other
concerned States, participate on an equal footing and with equal rights;
2O/ Report of the International Conference on the estion_of Palestine, £l#£e2b_2eep2vteneter Taite atons publication,
Sales No. E.83.1.2l, part 1, chap. I, sect. A.
- 23
11. i t s at the negative reaction of the United States
of America Israel towards the above-mentioned international conference and
calls upon the United States and Israel to reconsider their attitude, so as to
f a c i l i t a t e the convening of the conference under the auspices of the
United Nations with the participation the Palestine Liberation
Organization on an equal footing with a l l parties concerned in the Arab-Israeli
12. Urges a l l States, United Nations organs, specialized agencies and '
other international organizations to extend their support to the Palestinian •••
people through i t s representative, the Palestine Liberation i t s to i t s accordance Nations;
13. the Secretary-General to make available to Commission on
Rights a l l information pertaining to the implementation of this resolution;
14. Decides to place on the provisional agenda of i t s forty-second session
as a matter of priority the item entitled "The right of peoples to s e l f -
determination and i t s application to peoples under colonial or alien domination
or foreign occupation".
1985/5. Question of Western Sahara 21/
The Commission on Human Rights,
considered in depth the question of Western Sahara,
the inalienable right of a l l peoples to self-determination and
independence in accordance with the principles set forth in the Charter of the
1514 (XV) of 14 December I960',
a l l resolutions of the United Nations on the of
Western Sahara, particularly General Assembly resolution of
5 December 1984,
Recalling resolution AHG/RES.IO4 (XIX) on Western Sahara, 22/ adopted
unanimously the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization
of African Unity at i t s nineteenth ordinary held at Addis Ababa from
1983,
Taking note of the report of the Implementation Committee on Western Sahara
adopted the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization, of
African Unity at i t s twentieth ordinary session, 23/
21/ Adopted at the 32nd meeting, on 26 February 1985, by a roll-call vote
of 30 to none, with 12 abstentions. See chap. IX.
22/ A/38/312, 23/ A/39/680, - 24 -
l. Expresses its deep regret et the negative reaction of the United States
of' America and Isreal towards the above-mentioned international conference and
calls upon the United States and Israel to reconsider their attitude, so as to
facilitate the convening of the conference under the euspioee of the
United Nations and with the participation of the Palestine Liberation
Organization on an equal footing with all parties concerned in the Arab-Israeli
conflict;
12, Logs all States, United Nations organs, specialized agencies and
other international organizations to extend their support to the Palestinian
people through its representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, in
its struggle to restore its rights in acoordanoe with the Charter and the
relevant resolutions of the United Netions;
15. Requests the Secretary-General to make available to the Commission on
Human Rights all information pertaining to the implementation of this resolution;
14. Decides to place on the provisional agenda of its forty-second session
as a matter of priority the item entitled "The right of peoples to selfdetermination
and its application to peoples under colonial or alien domination
or foreign occupation",
1985/5. Question or Wester Sahare 2/
The _omission on Human ghts,
Having considered in depth the question of Western Sahara,
Recalling the inalienable right of all peoples to self--detemination and
independence in accordance with the principles set forth in the Charter of the
United Nations and in General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960,
containing the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries
and Peoples,
Reaffirming all resolutions of the United Nations on the question of
Western Sahara, particularly General Assembly resolution 39/40 of
5 December 2984,
Recalling resolution AHG/RES.104 (XIX) on Western Sahara, 22/ adopted
unanimously by the Assembly of Heads of State and Govemment of the Organization
of African Unity at its nineteenth ordinary session, held at Addis Ababa from
6 to 12 June 2983,
aking note of the report of the implementation Committee on Western Sahara
adopted by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of
African Unity at its twentieth ordinary session, /
2/ Adopted at the 32nd meeting, on 26 February 1985, y a roll-call vote
of 30 to none, with 12 abstentions, See chap. IX.
22/ See A/38/312, annex.
25/ 1/39/680, annex.
- 2l 1986)
1986
SUPPLEMENT 1986
Б/1986/22
E/CN.COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTY-SECOND SESSION
(3 February-14 March 1986)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1986
No. 2
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1986
E/186/22
EICN,4/1986/65
necessary conditions for a peaceful and fair referendum for
self-determinationof the people of Western Sahara, a referendum without any
administrative or military constraints, under the auspices of the Organization
of African Unity and the United Nations»
4. Welcomes the efforts of the current Chairman of the Organization of
African Unity and the Secretary-General of the United Nations to achieve a
just and definitive solution to the question of Western Sahara;
5. Welcomes also the invitation by the General Assembly to the current
Chairman of the Organization of African Unity and the Secretary-General of the
United Nations to exert every effort to persuade the two parties to the
conflict, the Kingdom of Morocco and the Frente Popular para la Liberación de
Saguia el-Hamra y de Río de Oro, to negotiate, in the shortest possible time,
in conformity with Organization of African Unity resolution AHG/Res.104 (XIX)
and General Assembly resolution 40/50, the terms of a cease-fire and the
modalities for organizing the said referendum}
6. Expresses its satisfaction at the determination of the
United Nations to co-operate fully with the Organization of African Unity with
a view to implementing the relevant decisions of that organization, in
particular resolution AHG/Res.104 (XIX);
7> Decides to follow the development of the situation in Western Sahara
and to consider this question within the framework of the agenda item entitled
"The right of peoples to self-determination and its application to peoples
under colonial or alien domination or foreign occupation" at its
forty-third session, as a matter of high priority.
1986/22. Situation in occupied Palestine 72/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 181 A and В (II) of
29 November 1947, which called for the establishment of a Palestinian State in
Palestine, 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, 1514 (XV) of 14 December I960,
3236 (XXIX) of 22 November 1974, 3375 (XXX) and 3376 (XXX) of
10 November 1975, 32/14 of 7 November 1977, 32/20 of 25 November 1977, 32/40 A
and В of 2 December 1977, 32/42 of 7 December 1977, 33/28 A to С of
7 December 1978, 34/65 A to D of 29 November and 12 December 1979, ES-7/2 of
29 July 1980, 35/169 A to E of 15 December 1980, 36/120 A to F of
10 December 1981, 36/226 A and В of 17 December 1981, ES-7/9 of
72/ Adopted at the 50th meeting, on 10 March 1986, by a roll-call vote
of 28 to 8, with 7 abstentions. See chap. IX, para. 179.
-69-
necessary conditions for a peaceful and fair referendum for
self-determinationof the people of Western Sahara, a referendum without any
administrative or military constraints, under the auspices of the Organization
of African Unity and the United Nations;
4, Welcomes the efforts of the current Chairman of the Organization of
African Unity and the Secretary-General of the United Nations to achieve a
just and definitive solution to the question of Western Saharan
5, Welcomes also the invitation by the General Assembly to the current
Chairman of the Organization of African Unity and the Secretary-General of the
United Nations to exert every effort to persuade the two parties to the
conflict, the Kingdom of Morocco and the Frente Popular para la Liberacibn de
Saguia el-Hamra y de Rio de Oro, to negotiate, in the shortest possible time,
in conformity with Organization of African Unity resolution AHG/Res.104 (XIX)
and General Assembly resolution 40/50, the terms of a cease-fire and the
modalities for organizing the said referendum;
6. Expresses its satisfaction at the determination of the
United Nations to co-operate fully with the Organization of African Unity with
a view to implementing the relevant decisions of that organization, in
particular resolution AHG/Res.204 (XIX)¥
7, Decides to follow the development of the situation in Western Sahara
and to consider this question within the framework of the agenda item entitled
re right of peoples to self-determination and its application to peoples
under colonial or alien domination or foreign occupation at its
forty-third session, as a matter of high priority,
1986/22. Situation in occupied Palestine 7/
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 181 A and B (II) of
29 November 1947, which called for the establishment of a Palestinian State in
Palestine, 194 (III) of 1l December 1948, 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960,
3236 (XXIX) of 22 November 1974, 3375 (XX) and 3376 (XXX) of
10 November 1975, 32/14 of 7 November 1977, 32/20 of 25 November 1977, 32/40 A
and B of 2 December 1977, 32/42 of 7 December 1977, 33/28 A to C of
7 December 1978, 34/65 A to D of 29 November and 12 December 1979, ES-7/2 of
29 July 1980, 35/169 A to E of 15 December 1980, 36/120 A to F of
10 December 1981, 36/226 A and B of 17 December 1981, ES-7/9 of
T/ Adopted at the 50th meeting, on 10 March 1986, by a roll-call vote
of 28 to 8, with 7 abstentions, See chap. IX, para. 179.
69
24 September 1982, 37/86 A to В of 10 and 20 December 1982, 38/58 A to E of
13 December 1983, 39/49 A to D of 11 December 1984 and 40/96 A to D of
12 December 1985,
Recalling further Economic and Social Council resolutions 1865 (LVI) and
1866 (LVI) of 17 May 1974,
Reaffirming its resolutions 1982/3 of 11 February 1982, 1983/3 of
15 February 1983, 1984/11 of 29 February 1984 and 1985/4 of 26 February 1985,
Recalling Security Council resolution 573 (1985) of 4 October 1985,
Bearing in mind the reports and recommendations of the Committee on the
Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People,
Emphasizing once more the right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and
the relevant united Nations resolutions, and expressing its grave concern that
Israel continues to prevent the Palestinian people force from their inalienable rights, in particular their right to self-determination, in
defiance of the principles of international law and in of the will
of the international community and of United Nations resolutions,
Expresses its grave concern that no just solution to the of
Palestine has been achieved and that this problem therefore continues to
aggravate the Middle East conflict, of which it is the core, and to international peace and security, as has been tragically illustrated Israel's invasion and continued occupation of part of Lebanon, in addition to
its continued occupation of Palestinian and other Arab territories,
Welcoming once again the Arab peace plan adopted the Twelfth Arab
Summit Conference, held at Fez, Morocco, on 9 September 1982,
Reiterating its grave concern at the agreements on strategic between the United States of America and Israel signed on 30 November 1981, as
well as the agreements recently concluded in that respect, which would
encourage and support Israeli policies of aggression, expansion and continued
occupation of Palestinian and other Arab territories,
Reaffirming its support for the outcome of the proceedings of the
International Conference on the Question of Palestine held at Geneva in 1. Strongly condemns Israel, the occupying Power, for its
non-compliance with the relevant resolutions of the the
General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights»
2. Condemns Israel's continued occupation of the Palestinian and other
Arab territories, including Jerusalem, in violation of the Charter of the
-70-
24 September 1982, 37/86 A to E of 10 and 20 December 1982, 38/58 A to E of
13 December 1983, 39/49 A to D of 11 December 1984 and 40/96 A to D of
12 December 1985,
Recalling_ further Economic and Social Council resolutions 1865 (LVI) and
1866 (LVI) of 17 Mey 1974,
Reaffirming its resolutions 1982/3 of 1 February 1982, 1983/3 of
15 February 1983, 1984/1l of 29 February 1984 and 1985/4 of 26 February 1985,
Recalling Security Council resolution 573 (2985) of 4 October 1985,
Bearing_in mind the reports and recommendations of the Committee on the
Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People,
Emphasizing one more the right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and
the relevant United Nations resolutions, and expressing its grave concern that
Israel continues to prevent the Palestinian people by force from enjoying
their inalienable rights, in particular their right to self-determination, in
defiance of the principles of international law and in disregard of the will
of the international community and of United Nations resolutions,
Expresses its grave concern that no just solution to the problem of
Palestine has been achieved and that this problem therefore continues to
aggravate the Middle East conflict, of which it is the core, and to endanger
international peace and security, as has been tragically illustrated by
Israel's invasion and continued occupation of part of Lebanon, in addition to
its continued occupation of Palestinian and other Arab territories,
Welcoming once gain the Arab peace plan adopted by the Twelfth Arab
Summit Conference, held at Fez, Morocco, on 9 September 1982,
Reiterating its grave concern at the agreements on strategic co-operation
between the United States of America and Israel signed on 30 November 1981, as
well as the agreements recently concluded in that respect, which would
encourage and support Israeli policies of aggression, expansion and continued
occupation of Palestinian and other Arab territories,
Reaffirming its support for the outcome of the proceedings of the
International Conference on the Question of Palestine held at Geneva in 1983,
l. Strongly condemns Israel, the occupying Power, for its
non-compliance with the relevant resolutions of the Security Council, the
General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights;
2, Condemns Israel's continued occupation of the Palestinian and other
Arab territories, including Jerusalem, in violation of the Charter of the
70by
people»
3. Condemns Israel's aggression and practices against the Palestinian
the thousands civilians;
4. Strongly condemns the Israeli armed aggression on Tunisia and on
1 1985;
5. condemns anew Israel's responsibility for the large-scale
of
be 1982;
6. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
their independent and sovereign State on their national soil in accordance
resolutions;
determination
resolutions;
8. 9. people;
10. -71-
United Nations, the principles of international law and the relevant
resolutions of the United Nations, and demands the immediate, unconditional
and total withdrawal of Israel from all those occupied territories, because
the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories constitutes the major
obstacle hindering the exercise of the right to self-determination the
Palestinian people;
3, Condemns Israel's aggression and practices against the Palestinian
people in the occupied Palestinian territories and outside those territories,
particularly against Palestinians in Lebanon, as a result of the Israeli
invasion of Lebanon which claimed lives of thousands of Lebanese and
Palestinian civilians
4. Strongly_condemns the Israeli armed aggression on Tunisia and on
offices of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Tunisia on ] October 1985
5, Strongly condemns anew Israel's responsibility for the large-scale
massacre in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, which constituted an act of
genocide, and expresses its grave concern that, until a just and equitable
solution to the problem of Palestine has been implemented, the Palestinian
people will exposed to grave dangers, such as the appalling massacre
perpetrated in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in September 1982%
6. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination without external interference and the establishment of
their independent and sovereign State on their national soil in accordance
with General Assembly resolutions
7. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to
their homes and property, from which they have been uprooted by force, and
calls for their return and the exercise of their right to self-determination
in accordance with the principles of international law and General Assembly
resolutions
8, Affirms the right of the Palestinian people to regain their rights
by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of
the United Nations and with relevant United Nations resolutions;
9%. Reaffirms the basic principle that the future of the Palestinian
people can only be decided with its full participation, through its legitimate
and sole representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, in all efforts
and international conferences concerning the question of Palestine and the
future of the Palestinian peoplej
10, Reaffirms its rejection of all partial agreements and separate
treaties in so far as they violate the inalienable rights of the Palestinian
people and contradict the principles of just and comprehensive solutions to
-71united
autonomy" resolutions;
12. 73/ delay, region;
United States of America and Israel towards the above-mentioned international
conference and calls upon the United States and Israel to reconsider their
attitude towards the question of peace in the area, so as to facilitate the
convening of the conference under the auspices of the United Nations and with
the participation of the Palestine Liberation Organization on an equal of to to resolutions;
15. to The occupation".
21/ Question of Palestine.
29 August-United No. E.83.I.21), part 1, chap. I, sect. A.
-72-
the Middle East problem that ensure the establishment of a just peace in the
area, in accordance with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations
and with relevant United Nations resolutions;
11. Reiterates its strong rejection of any plan for "autonomy which
would constitute flagrant disregard of the inalienable right of the
Palestinian people to self-determination without external interference, in
accordance with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations and with
relevant United Nations resolutions
I2. Reaffirms its support for the Geneva Declaration on Palestine
adopted by the International Conference on the Question of Palestine, Z and
affirms its support for the call to convene an international peace conference
on the Middle East, in accordance with the provisions of General Assembly
resolution 38/58 C, and appeals to all States to make further constructive
efforts towards the convening of such a conference without delay+ with a view
to achieving a just peace in the region
13. Expresses its deep regret at the negative reaction of the
United States of America and Israel towards the above-mentioned international
conference and calls upon the United States and Israel to reconsider their
attitude towards the question of peace in the area, so as to facilitate the
convening of the conference under the auspices of the United Nations and with
the participation of the Palestine Liberation Organization on an equal footing
with all parties concerned in the Arab-Israeli conflict, as well as of the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States America;
14. Urges all States, United Nations organs, specialized agencies and
other international organizations to extend their support to the Palestinian
people through its representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, in
its struggle to restore its rights in accordance with the Charter of the
United Nations and with relevant United Nations resolutions
15, Requests the Secretary-General to make available to the Commission
on Human Rights all information pertaining to the implementation of the
present resolution;
16. Decides to place on the provisional agenda of its forty-third
session as a matter of priority the item entitled "me right of peoples to
self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation
13/ Report of the International Conference on the pf Palestine,
Geneva, 29 August--7 September 1983 (United Nations publication, Sales
No, E.83.1.21), part , chap. I, sect. A.
-721986)
1986
SUPPLEMENT 1986
Б/1986/22
E/CN.COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTY-SECOND SESSION
(3 February-14 March 1986)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1986
No. 2
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1986
E/186/22
EICN,4/1986/65
1986/33. Situation in the Arab territories Israel The Commission on Human Rights/
1. Condemns Israel for its continued occupation of the Palestinian
territories, including Jerusalem, and of other Arab territories in violation
of révélant United Nations resolutions and of the provisions of international
law;
2. Strongly condemns Israeli policies and practices of terrorist action
perpetrated against the Palestinian inhabitants of the occupied territories,
such as killing, detention and torture, deportation, and confiscation and
annexation of land, which constitute grave violations of the Charter of the
resolutions;
3. Condemns Israel for its persistence in developing the colonization
of these territories which aims at changing the demographic composition, the
institutional structure and the status of the occupied territories, including
Jerusalem;
4. Reaffirms that such measures as are described in the foregoing
paragraphs constitute grave violations of the Geneva Convention relative to
the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, and
of The Hague Convention IV of 1907, 104/ and that they are null and void with
regard to international law;
5. Calls upon Israel to withdraw immediately from the occupied
Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem, in order to restore to the
Palestinian people their inalienable national rights, and from all the other
occupied Arab territories.
102/ Adopted at the 52nd meeting, on 11 March 1986, by a roll-call vote
of 28 to 6, with 5 abstentions. See chap. XIX, para. 497.
United Nations, Treaty Series,, vol. 75, No. 973, p. 287.
104/ Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, The Conventions
of 1899 and 1907 (New York, Oxford University Press, 1915), p. 100.
-94-
1986/33. Situation in the Arab territories occupied by Israel 102/
The Commission on Human Rights,
l, Condemns Israel for its continued occupation of the Palestinian
territories, including Jerusalem, and of other Arab territories in violation
of revelant United Nations resolutions and of the provisions of international
law;
2, Strongly condemns Israeli policies and practices of terrorist action
perpetrated against the Palestinian inhabitants of the occupied territories,
such as killing, detention and torture, deportation, and confiscation and
annexation of land, which constitute grave violations of the Charter of the
United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all relevant
United Nations resolutions
3, Condemns Israel for its persistence in developing the colonization
of these territories which aims at changing the demographic composition, the
institutional structure and the status of the occupied territories, including
Jerusalem
4. Reaffirms that such measures as are described in the foregoing
paragraphs constitute grave violations of the Geneva Convention relative to
the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, 103/ and
of The Hague Convention IV of 1907, 104/ and that they are null and void with
regard to international law
5. Calls upon Israel to withdraw immediately from the occupied
Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem, in order to restore to the
Palestinian people their inalienable national rights, and from all the other
occupied Arab territories,
102/ Adopted at the 52d meeting, on ll March 1986, by a roll-call vote
of 28 to 6, with 5 abstentions. See chap, XIX, para. 497.
103/ United Nations, Treaty_series, vol, 75, No, 973, p. 287,
104/ Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, The Hague Conventions
of 1899 and 1907 (New York, Oxford University Press$, 1915), p. 100,
94Б/
1987/18
4/FORTYTHIRD SESSION
5
New York, 1987
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTY-THIRD SESSION
(2 February-13 March 1987)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1987
SUPPLEMENT No. UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1987
E/1987/18
E/CN.4/1987/60
4. welcomes 50»
Liberación Río XIX)
6. Liberación Río Res.104 XIX) 7. Expresses 104 XIX);
"The occupation" Adopted to abstentions. 4. Rights,
181 В (II) of
29 November 1947, which called for the establishment of a Palestinian State in
Palestine, 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, 1514 XV) of 14 December 1960,
3236 (XXIX) of 22 November 1974, 3375 XXX) and 3376 XXX) of 10 November 1975,
32/14 of 7 November 1977, 32/20 of 25 November 1977, 32/40 A and В of
2 December 1977, 32/42 of 7 December 1977, 33/28 A to С of 7 December 1978,
34/65 A to D of 29 November and 12 December 1979, ES-7/2 of 29 July 1980,
35/169 A to E of 15 December 1980, 36/120 A to F of 10 December 1981, 36/226 A
В 1981, 11 -20-
4, Welcomes the efforts of the current Chairman of the Assembly of
Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity and the
Secretary-General of the United Nations to promote a just and definitive
solution of the question of Western Sahara, in conformity with General Assembly
resolution 40/501
5. Welcomes also the invitation by the General Assembly to the current
Chairman of the Organization of African Unity and the Secretary-General of the
United Nations to exert every effort to persuade the two parties to the
conflict, the Kingdom of Morocco and the Frente Popular para la Liberacin de
Saguia el-Hamra y de Rio de Oro, to negotiate, in the shortest possible time,
in conformity with Organization of African Unity resolution AHG/Res.104 (XIX)
and General Assembly resolutions 40/50 and 41/16, the terms of a cease-fire
and the modalities for organizing the said referendum;
6, Joins in the appeal by the General Assembly to the Kingdom of Morocco
and the Frente Popular para la Liberacibn de Saguia el-Hamra y de Rio de Oro
to display the political will necessary to implement Organization of African
Unity resolution AHG/Res.I04 (XIX) and General Assembly resolutions 40/50 and
41/16;
7, Dresses its satisfaction at the determination of the United Nations
to co-operate fully with the Organization of African Unity with a view to
implementing the relevant decisions of that organization, in particular
resolution AHG/Res.IO4 (XIX) ;
8. Decides to follow the development of the situation in Western Sahara
and to consider this question within the framework of the agenda item entitled
The right of peoples to self-determination and its application to peoples
under colonial or alien domination or foreign occupation at its
forty-fourth session, as a matter of high priority.
28th meeting
19 February 1987
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 27 to none, with
15 abstentions, See chap. IX.]
1987/4, Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission on Human Recalling General Assembly resolutions 18l A and B (II) of
29 November 1947, which called for the establishment of a Palestinian State in
Palestine, 194 (III) of ll December 1948, 1514 (Xv) of 14 December 1960,
3236 (XXIX) of 22 November 1974, 3375 (XX¥) and 3376 (XX) of 20 November 1975,
32/14 of 7 November 1977, 32/20 of 25 November 1977, 32/40 A and B of
2 December 1977, 32/42 of 7 December 1977, 33/28 A to C of 7 December 1978,
34/65 A to D of 29 November and 22 December 1979, ES-7/2 of 29 July 1980,
35/169 A to E of 15 December 980, 36/120 A to F of 10 December 198l, 36/226 A
and B of 17 December 198l, ES-7/9 of 24 September 1982, 37/86 A to E of 10 and
20 December 1982, 38/58 A to E of 13 December 1983, 39/49 A to D of
l1 December 1984, 40/96 A to D of 12 December 1985 and 41/43 A to D of
2 December 1986,
-20Recalling
further Economic and Social Council resolutions 1865 (LVI) and
1866 (LVI) of 17 May 1974,
Reaffirming its previous resolutions in this regard/ and most recently
resolution 1986/22 of 10 March 1986,
Bearing in mind the reports and recommendations of the Committee on the
Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian people,
Emphasizing once more the right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and
the relevant United Nations resolutions, and expressing its grave concern that
Israel continues to prevent the Palestinian people by force from enjoying
their inalienable rights, in particular their right to self-determination, in
defiance of the principles of international law, United Nations resolutions
and the will of the international community,
its concern that no just solution has been achieved to
the problem of Palestine, which constitutes the core of the Arab-Israeli
conflict,
its concern at the military, economic and political
support given by some States to Israel which encourages and strengthens
policies pursued by Israel based on aggression, expansion and continued
occupation of Palestinian and other Arab territories,
Recalling Israel's brutal practices and crimes of genocide against the
Palestinian people, and its acts of physical liquidation aimed at eliminating
the question of Palestine and hindering the exercise by the Palestinian people
of their right to self-determination, as exhibited in the Sabra and Shatila
massacres in September 1982,
1. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination without external interference and the establishment of
their independent and sovereign State on their national soil in accordance
with the Charter of the United Nations and General Assembly resolutions;
2. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to
their homeland Palestine and their property, from which they have been
uprooted by force;
3. Affirms the right of the Palestinian people to regain their rights
by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of
the United Nations and with relevant United Nations resolutions;
4. Reaffirms the right of the Palestine Liberation Organization, in its
capacity as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, to
full participation in all efforts and international conferences concerning the
question of Palestine and the future of the Palestinian people;
-21-
Recalling_ further Economic and Social Council resolutions 1865 (LI) and
1866 (LVI) of 17 May 1974,
Reaffirming its previous resolutions in this regard, and most recently
resolution 1986/22 of 10 March 1986,
Bearing_in mind the reports and recommendations of the Committee on the
Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian people,
Empbasizing_once more the right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and
the relevant United Nations resolutions, and expressing its grave concern that
Israel continues to prevent the Palestinian people by force from enjoying
their inalienable rights, in particular their right to self-determination, in
defiance of the principles of international law, United Nations resolutions
and the will of the international community,
Expressing its grave concern that no just solution has been achieved to
the problem of Palestine, which constitutes the core of the Arab-Israeli
conflict,
Reiterating its grave concern at the military, economic and political
support given by some States to Israel which encourages and strengthens
policies pursued by Israel based on aggression, expansion and continued
occupation of Palestinian and other Arab territories,
Recalling Israel's brutal practices and crimes of genocide against the
Palestinian people, and its acts of physical liquidation aimed at eliminating
the question of Palestine and hindering the exercise by the Palestinian people
of their right to self-determination, as exhibited in the Sabra and Shatila
massacres in September 1982,
l. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination without external interference and the establishment of
their independent and sovereign State on their national soil in accordance
with the Charter of the United Nations and General Assembly resolutions;
2, Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to
their homeland Palestine and their property, from which they have been
uprooted by forcer
3, Affirms the right of the Palestinian people to regain their rights
by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of
the United Nations and with relevant United Nations resolutions;
4. Reaffirms the right of the Palestine Liberation Organization, in its
capacity as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, to
full participation in all efforts and international conferences concerning the
question of Palestine and the future of the Palestinian people;
-2l5.
Reaffirms its support for the call to convene an international peace
conference on the Middle East, in accordance with the provisions of
General Assembly resolution 38/58 С and other relevant General Assembly
resolutions, and appeals to all States to make further constructive efforts
towards the convening of such a conference;
6. Expresses again its deep regret at the negative attitude of some
States, which is hindering the convening of the international peace
conference, and calls upon these States to reconsider their attitude towards
the question of peace in the Middle East;
7. Strongly condemns Israel for its continued occupation of the
Palestinian and other Arab territories, which violates the Charter of the
United Nations, the principles of international law and the relevant
resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission
on Human Rights and constitutes the major obstacle hindering the exercise of
the right to self-determination by the Palestinian people?
8. Strongly condemns Israel for its non-compliance with the relevant
resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission
on Human Rights;
9. Calls upon Israel to comply with its obligations under the Charter
of the United Nations and withdraw from the Palestinian and Arab territories
which it has occupied since 1967?
10. Urges all States, United Nations organs, specialized agencies and
other international organizations to extend their support and assistance to
the Palestinian people through their representative, the Palestine Liberation
Organization, in their struggle to restore their rights in accordance with the
Charter of the United Nations and with relevant United Nations résolutions;
13-« Requests the Secretary-General to make available to the Commission
on Human Rights, prior to the convening of its forty-fourth session, all
information pertaining to the implementation of the present resolution;
12. Requests the Secretary-General to transmit the present resolution to
the Government of Israel with a view to its implementation and to report
thereon to the Commission at the forty-fourth session;
13. Decides to place on the provisional agenda of its forty-fourth
session as a matter of high priority the item entitled "The right of peoples
to self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation" and to consider, in the context of this
item, the situation in occupied Palestine.
28th meeting
19 February 1987
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 29 to 6, with
7 abstentions. chap. IX.]
-22-
5. Reaffirms its support for the call to convene an international peace
conference on the Middle East, in accordance with the provisions of
General Assembly resolution 38/58 C and other relevant General Assembly
resolutions, and appeals to all States to make further constructive efforts
towards the convening of such a conference
6, Expresses again its deep regret at the negative attitude of some
States, which is hindering the convening of the international peace
conference, and calls upon these States to reconsider their attitude towards
the question of peace in the Middle East;
7. Strongly condemns Israel for its continued occupation of the
Palestinian and other Arab territories, which violates the Charter of the
United Nations, the principles of international law and the relevant
resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission
on Human Rights and constitutes the major obstacle hindering the exercise of
the right to self-determination by the Palestinian people;
8. Strongly condemns Israel for its non-compliance with the relevant
resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission
on Human Rights;
9. Calls upon Israel to comply with its obligations under the Charter
of the United Nations and withdraw from the Palestinian and Arab territories
which it has occupied since 1967;
10. Urges all States, United Nations organs, specialized agencies and
other international organizations to extend their support and assistance to
the Palestinian people through their representative, the Palestine Liberation
Organization, in their struggle to restore their rights in accordance with the
Charter of the United Nations and with releant United Nations resolutions;
I1. Requests the Secretary-General to make available to the Commission
on Human Rights, prior to the convening of its forty-fourth session, all
information pertaining to the implementation of the present resolution;
2, Requests the Secretary-General to transmit the present resolution to
the Government of Israel with a view to its implementation and to report
thereon to the Commission at the forty-fourth session;
13, Decides to place on the provisional agenda of its forty-fourth
session as a matter of high priority the item entitled "The right of peoples
to self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation" and to consider, in the context of this
item, the situation in occupied Palestine.
[Adopted by a
-22roll-
call vote
7 abstentions.
28th meeting
19 February 1987
of 29 to 6, with
See chap. IX.]
E/1988/12
E/CN.4/1988/88
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
ll New York, 1988
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTY-FOURTH SESSION
(1 February-11 March 1988)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1988
SUPPLEMENT No. 2
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1988
12. Decides to place on the provisional agenda of its forty-fifth
session, as a matter of high priority, the item entitled "Question of the
Palestine".
19th 15 February 1988
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 31 to 1, with
11 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
1988/3. Situation in Palestine
The Commission on Human General Assembly resolutions 181 A and B II) of
29 November 1947 and 194 (III) of 11 December 1948 as well as all other
resolutions which confirmed and defined the inalienable rights of the
Palestinian people, and notably their right to self-determination without
foreign interference,
Economic and Social Council resolutions 1865 (LVI) and
1866 (LVI) of 17 May 1974,
its previous resolutions in this regard,
Bearing in mind the reports and recommendations of the Committee on the
Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People,
Emphasizing once more the right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and
from determination, Expressing its concern that no just solution has been achieved to
the problem of Palestine, which constitutes the core of the Arab-Israeli
conflict,
Reiterating its concern at the military, economic political
support given by some States to Israel which encourages and strengthens
policies pursued by Israel based on aggression, expansion and continued
occupation of Palestinian and other Arab territories,
Israel's brutal practices and crimes of against the
-25-
12, Decides to place on the provisional agenda of its forty-fifth
session, as a matter of high priority, the item entitled "Question of the
violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including
Palestine",
9th meeting
15 February l988
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 3l to l, with
ll abstentions. See chap. I,]
1988/3. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 28l A and B (I) of
29 November 1947 and 194 (III) of 1l December 1948 as well as all other
resolutions which confirmed and defined the inalienable rights of the
Palestinian people, and notably their right to self-determination without
foreign interference,
Recalling Economic and Social Council resolutions 1865 (LI) and
1866 (LI) of 17 May 1974,
Reaffirming its previous resolutions in this regard,
Bearing_in mind the reports and recommendations of the Committee on the
Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People,
Emphasizing_once more the right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and
the relevant United Nations resolutions, and expressing its grave concern that
Israel continues to prevent the Palestinian people by force fron enjoying
their inalienable rights, in particular their right to self-determination, in
defiance of the principles of international law, United Nations resolutions
and the will of the international community,
Expressing_its grave concern that no just solution has been achieved to
the problem of Palestine, which constitutes the core of the Arab-Israeli
conflict,
Reiterating_its grave concern at the military, economic and political
support given by some States to Israel which encourages and strengthens
policies pursued by Israel based on aggression, expansion and continued
occupation of Palestinian and other Arab territories,
Recalling Israel's brutal practices and crimes of genocide against the
Palestinian people, and its acts of physical liquidation aimed at eliminating
the question of Palestine and hindering the exercise by the Palestinian people
-25of
their to self-determination, as exhibited in the Sabra and Shatila
massacres in 1982, the continuous air raids on Palestinian camps in
Lebanon and the crimes currently being committed by Israel in killing,
wounding, detaining, torturing and deporting Palestinians,
1- Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination without external interference and the establishment of
their independent and sovereign State on their national soil in accordance
with the Charter of the United Nations and General Assembly resolutions;
2. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to
force;
3. Reaffirms the right of the Palestinian people to regain their rights
by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of
the United Nations and with relevant United Nations resolutions, and affirms
that the uprising of the Palestinian people against the Israeli occupation
since 8 December 1987 is a form of legitimate resistance, an expression of
4. Reaffirms the right of the Palestine Liberation Organization, in its
capacity as the sole legitimate of the Palestinian people, to
full participation in all efforts and international conferences concerning the
question of Palestine and the future of the Palestinian people;
5. Reaffirms its support for the call to convene an international peace
conference on the Middle East, to attended by the permanent members of the
Security Council and the to the Arab-Israeli conflict, including the
conference;
deep States, which is the convening of the international peace
the question of peace in the Middle East;
7. condemns Israel for its continued occupation of the
United Nations, the principles of international law and the relevant
Council, 8. Calls Israel to with its obligations under the Charter
which it has occupied since 1967;
-26-
of their right to self-determination, as exhibited in the Sabra an Shatila
massacres in September 1982, the continuous air raids on Palestinian camps in
Lebanon and the crimes currently being committed by Israel in killing,
wounding, detaining, torturing and deporting Palestinians,
l. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination without external interference and the establishment of
their independent and sovereign State on their national soil in accordance
with the Charter of the United Nations and General Assembly resolutions;
2. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to
their homeland Palestine and their property, from which they have been
uprooted by forcer
3. Reaffirms the right of the Palestinian people to regain their rights
by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of
the United Nations and with relevant United Nations resolutions, and affirms
that the uprising of the Palestinian people against the Israeli occupation
since 8 December 1987 is a form of legitimate resistance, an expression of
their rejection of occupation and a consolidation of their unity under the
leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization;
4. Reaffirms the right of the Palestine Liberation Organization, in its
capacity as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, to
full participation in all efforts and international conferences concerning the
question of Palestine and the future of the Palestinian peopler
5. Reaffirms its support for the call to convene an international peace
conference on the Middle East, to be attended by the permanent members of the
Security Council and the parties to the Arab-Israeli conflict, including the
Palestine Liberation Organization, on an equal footing, in accordance with the
provisions of General Assembly resolution 38/58 C of 13 December 1983 and
other relevant General Assembly resolutions, and appeals to all States to make
further constructive efforts towards the convening of such a conference
6. Expresses again its regret at the negative attitude of some
States, which is hindering the convening of the international peace
conference, and calls upon these States to reconsider their attitude towards
the question of peace in the Middle EAst)
7. Strongly condemns Israel for its continued occupation of the
Palestinian and other Arab territories, which violates the Charter of the
United Nations, the principles of international law and the relevant
resolutions of the Security Ouncil, the General Assembly and the Commission
on Human Rights;
8. Calls upon Israel to comply with its obligations under the Charter
of the United Nations and withdraw from the Palestinian and Arab territories
which it has occupied since 1967%
-269.
all States, United Nations organs, specialized agencies and
other international organizations to extend their support and assistance to
resolutions;
10. on Human Rights, prior to the convening of its forty-fifth session, all
resolution;
11. Requests the Secretary-General to transmit the present resolution to
12. Decides to place on the provisional agenda of its forty-fifth
session as a matter of high priority the item entitled "The right of peoples
to self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien
occupation" Palestine.
29th meeting
1988
[Adopted a roll-call vote of 30 to 4, with
8 abstentions. See chap. IX.J
The Commission on Human Bearing its resolutions 3 (XXXVI) of 14 February 1980, 13 XXXVII) of
6 March 1981, 1982/14 of 25 February 1982, 1983/7 of 16 February 1983, 1984/10
of 29 February 1984, 1985/3 of 26 February 1985, 1986/23 of 10 March 1986 and
1987/5 of 19 February 1987,
14 Also General Assembly resolutions 35/37 of 20 November 1980,
36/34 of 18 November 1981, 37/37 of 29 November 1982, 38/29 of
23 November 1983, 39/13 of 15 November 1984, 40/12 of 13 November 1985, 41/33
10 -27-
9, Urges all States, United Nations organs, specialized agencies and
other international organizations to extend their support and assistance to
the Palestinian people through their representative, the Palestine Liberation
Organization, in their struggle to restore their rights in accordance with the
Charter of the United Nations and with relevant United Nations resolutions
10, Requests the Secretary-General to make available to the Commission
on Human Rights, prior to the convening of its forty-fifth session, all
information pertaining to the implementation of the present resolution#
ll. Requests the Secretary-General to transmit the present resolution to
the Government of Israel with a view to its implementation and to report
thereon to the Commission at its forty-fifth session;
l2, Decides to place on the provisional agenda of its forty-fifth
session as a matter of high priority the item entitled "The right of peoples
to self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation and to consider, in the context of this
item, the situation in occupied Palestine,
29th_meeting
22 February l988
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 30 to 4, with
8 abstentions, See chap. IX.]
1988/4. Situation in Afghanistan
The_Commission on_ Human_ Rights,
Bearing_ in mind that one of the fundamental purposes of the
United Nations set forth in the Charter of the United Nations is to develop
friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal
rights and self-determination of peoples,
Recalling its resolutions 3 (XXXVI) of l4 February 1980, l3 (XXXII) of
6 March 1981, 1982/14 of 25 February 1982, 1983/7 0f 16 February 1983, 1984/10
of 29 February 1984, 1985/3 0f 26 February 1985, 1986/23 of 10 March 1986 and
1987/5 of 19 February 1987,
Further recalling resolution ES-6/2 of l4 January 1980, adopted by the
General Assembly at its sixth emergency special session,
Also recalling General Assembly resolutions 35/37 of 20 November 1980,
36/34 of 18 November 1981, 37/37 of 29 November 1982, 38/29 of
23 November 1983, 39/13 of 15 November 1984, 40/12 of 13 November 1985, 41/33
of 5 November 1986 and 42/15 of l0 November 1987 on the situation in
Afghanistan which, inter alia, reaffirmed the right of the Afghan people to
2786
SOCUL UNITED NATIONS
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTY-FIFTH SESSION
(30 January-10 March 1989)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1989
SUPPLEMENT No. 2
UNITED NATIONS
E/1989/20
E/CN.4/1989/86
resolution AHG/Res.104 (XIX) and General Assembly resolutions 40/50 of
2 December 1985, 41/16 of 31 October 1986, 42/78 of 4 December 1987 and 43/33
of 22 November 1988;
12. Expresses its satisfaction at the determination of the United Nations
to co-operate fully with the Organization of African Unity with a view to
implementing the relevant decisions of that organization, in particular
resolution AHG/Res.104 (XIX);
13. Recalls that the General Assembly has requested the Special Committee
on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the
Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples to continue to
consider the situation in Western Sahara as a matter of priority and to report
14. Recalls that the General Assembly has invited the Secretary-General
of the Organization of African Unity to keep the Secretary-General of the
United Nations informed of the progress achieved in the implementation of the
decisions of the Organization of African Unity relating to Western Sahara;
15. Recalls that the General Assembly has invited the Secretary-General
to follow the situation in Western Sahara closely with a view to the
implementation of Assembly resolution 43/33 and to report thereon to the
Assembly at its forty-fourth session;
16. Decides to follow the development of the situation in Western Sahara
and to consider this question within the framework of the agenda item "The
right of peoples to self-determination and its application to peoples under
colonial or alien domination or foreign occupation" at its forty-sixth session,
as a matter of high priority.
51st meeting
6 March [Adopted by a roll-call vote of 24 to none, with
17 abstentions. See chap. IX.]
1989/19. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 181 A and (II) of
29 November 1947 and 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, as well as all other
resolutions which confirm and define the inalienable rights of the Palestinian
people, particularly their right to self-determination without external
-63-
resolution AHG/Res,104 (XIX) and General Assembly resolutions 40/50 of
2 December 1985, 41/16 of 31 October 1986, 42/78 of 4 December 1987 and 43/33
of 22 November 1988;
12. Expresses its satisfaction at the determination of the United Nations
to co-operate fully with the Organization of African Unity with a view to
implementing the relevant decisions of that organization, in particular
resolution AHG/Res.IO4 (XIX);
13. Recalls that the General Assembly has requested the Special Committee
on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the
Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples to continue to
consider the situation in Western Sahara as a matter of priority and to report
thereon to the General Assembly at its forty-fourth session;
14. Recalls that the General Assembly has invited the Secretary-General
of the Organization of African Unity to keep the Secretary-General of the
United Nations informed of the progress achieved in the implementation of the
decisions of the Organization of African Unity relating to Western Sahara;
15. Recalls that the General Assembly has invited the Secretary-General
to follow the situation in Western Sahara closely with a view to the
implementation of Assembly resolution 43/33 and to report thereon to the
Assembly at its forty-fourth session;
16. Decides to follow the development of the situation in Western Sahara
and to consider this question within the framework of the agenda item "The
right of peoples to self-determination and its application to peoples under
colonial or alien domination or foreign occupation" at its forty-sixth session,
as a matter of high priority.
5lst..meeting
6March 1989
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 24 to none, with
17 abstentions. See chap. IX.]
1989/19. Situation in occupied Palestine
The_ Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 181 A and B (II) of
29 November 1947 and 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, as well as all other
resolutions which confirm and define the inalienable rights of the Palestinian
People, particularly their right to self-determination without external
interference,
-63Recalling
Economic and Social Council resolutions 1865 (LVI) and
1866 (LVI) of 17 May 1974,
Reaffirming its previous resolutions in this regard,
Bearing in mind the reports and recommendations of the Committee on the
Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People,
Reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the relevant
United Nations resolutions, and expressing its grave concern at Israel's
persistence in preventing the Palestinian force from enjoying their
law. community.
Expressing its grave concern that no just solution has been achieved to
the problem of Palestine, which constitutes the core of the Arab-Israeli
conflict.
Reiterating its grave concern at the military, economic and political
support given by some States to Israel, which encourages and supports Israel
in its aggressive and expansionist policies and its continued occupation of
Palestinian and other Arab territories.
Taking note of the decision taken on 15 November 1988 at Algiers by the
Palestine National Council, declaring the establishment of the State of
Palestine,
Taking into account the statement of Mr. Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the
Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, to the
General Assembly on 13 December 1988 in Geneva,
1. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination without external interference and the establishment of its
independent sovereign State on their national soil in accordance with the
Charter of the United Nations and resolutions adopted the General Assembly
since 1947;
2. Welcomes with great satisfaction the declaration of the
establishment of the State of Palestine as an exercise by the Palestinian
people of a fundamental, inalienable right, and considers the decisions of the
Palestine National Council of 15 November 1988 a prerequisite for the
establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East;
3. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return
to their homeland Palestine, in accordance with General Assembly
resolution 194 (III) of 11 December 1948 and subsequent relevant resolutions;
-64-
Recalling Economic and Social Council resolutions 1865 (LVI) and
1866 (LVI) of 17 May 1974,
Reaffirming its previous resolutions in this regard,
Beaingin mind the reports and recommendations of the Committee on the
Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People,
Reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the relevant
United Nations resolutions, and expressing its grave concern at Israel's
persistence in preventing the Palestinian people by force from enjoying their
inalienable rights, in particular their right to self-determination, in
defiance of the principles of international law, United Nations resolutions and
the will of the international community,
Expressing its grave concern that no just solution has been achieved to
the problem of Palestine, which constitutes the core of the Arab-Israeli
conflict,
Reiterating.its grave concern at the military, economic and political
support given by some States to Israel, which encourages and supports Israel
in its aggressive and expansionist policies and its continued occupation of
Palestinian and other Arab territories,
Taking.note of the decision taken on 15 November 1988 at Algiers by the
Palestine National Council, declaring the establishment of the State of
Palestine,
Taking into. account the statement of Mr. Vasser Arafat, Chairman of the
Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, to the
General Assembly on 13 December 1988 in Geneva,
I. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination without external interference and the establishment of its
independent sovereign State on their national soil in accordance with the
Charter of the United Nations and resolutions adopted by the General Assembly
since 1947;
2. Welcomes with great satisfaction the declaration of the
establishment of the State of Palestine as an exercise by the Palestinian
people of a fundamental, inalienable right, and considers the decisions of the
Palestine National Council of 15 November 1988 a prerequisite for the
establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East;
3. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return
to their homeland Palestine, in accordance with General Assembly
resolution 194 (III) of 1l December 1948 and subsequent relevant resolutions;
-644.
Reaffirms the right of the Palestinian to recover their
rights by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the
Charter of the United Nations and with relevant United Nations resolutions,
and affirms that the intifadah of the Palestinian people against the Israeli
occupation since 8 December 1987 is a form of legitimate resistance and an
expression of their rejection of the occupation;
5. Reaffirms its support for the call to convene an effective
permanent members of the Security Council and the to the Arab-Israeli
conflict, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, under the auspices
6. Calls for intensified international efforts to induce the parties
concerned in the conflict to respond to the Palestinian initiative and
to the of the international conference on the
9. all States, United Nations and
other international organizations to extend their support and assistance to
the Palestinian through their representative, the Palestine Liberation
Organization, in their struggle to recover their rights and to liberate their
land from Israeli in accordance with the Charter of the
United Nations and with the relevant United Nations resolutions;
10. Requests the to make available to the Commission
11. the to transmit the resolution to
the Government of Israel with a view to its and to -65-
4. Reaffirms the right of the Palestinian people to recover their
rights by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the
Charter of the United Nations and with relevant United Nations resolutions,
and affirms that the intifadah of the Palestinian people against the Israeli
occupation since 8 December 1987 is a form of legitimate resistance and an
expression of their rejection of the occupation;
5. Reaffirms its support for the call to convene an effective
international peace conference on the Middle East, to be attended by the
permanent members of the Security Council and the parties to the Arab-Israeli
conflict, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, under the auspices
of the United Nations, in accordance with the resolutions of the
General Assembly and the Security Council, and to guarantee the inalienable
national rights of the Palestinian people, in particular their right to
self-determination;
6. Calls for intensified international efforts to induce the parties
concerned in the conflict to respond to the Palestinian peace initiative and
to expedite the convening of the international peace conference on the
Middle East;
7. Strongly condemns Israel for its continued occupation of the
Palestinian and other Arab territories in violation of the Charter of the
United Nations, the principles of international law and the relevant
resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission
on Human Rights;
8. Calls upon Israel to comply with its obligations under the Charter
of the United Nations and to withdraw from the Palestinian and Arab
territories which it has occupied since 1967;
9. Urges all States, United Nations organs, specialized agencies and
other international organizations to extend their support and assistance to
the Palestinian people through their representative, the Palestine Liberation
Organization, in their struggle to recover their rights and to liberate their
land from Israeli occupation, in accordance with the Charter of the
United Nations and with the relevant United Nations resolutions;
10. Regests the Secretary-General to make available to the Commission
on Human Rights, prior to the convening of its forty-sixth session, all
information pertaining to the implementation of the present resolution;
11. Requests the Secretary-General to transmit the present resolution to
the Government of Israel with a view to its implementation and to report
thereon to the Commission at its forty-sixth session;
-6512.
Decides to place on the provisional agenda of its forty-sixth
session, as a matter of high priority, the item "The right of peoples to
self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation" and to consider, in the context of this
item, the situation in occupied Palestine.
51st meeting
6 March 1989
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 31 to 1, with
11 abstentions. See chap. IX.]
1989/20. Situation in Kampuchea
The Commission on Human Rights.
Recalling its resolutions 29 (XXXVI) of 11 March 1980, 11 (XXXVII) of
6 March 1981, 1982/13 of 25 February 1982, 1983/5 of 15 February 1983, 1984/12
of 29 February 1984, 1985/12 of 27 February 1985, 1986/25 of 10 March 1986,
1987/6 of 19 February 1987 and 1988/6 of 22 February 1988 and Economic and
Social Council decisions 1981/154 of 8 May 1981, 1982/143 of 7 May 1982,
1983/155 of 27 May 1983, 1984/148 of 24 May 1984, 1985/155 of 30 May 1985,
1986/146 of 23 1986, 1987/155 of 29 1987 and 1988/143 of 27 May 1988,
Recalling that all its resolutions reaffirm the inherent and right of the people of Kampuchea to fundamental freedoms and human rights, in
particular the right to self-determination.
Recalling once again General Assembly resolutions 34/22 of
14 November 1979, 35/6 of 22 October 1980, 36/5 of 21 October 1981, 37/6
of 28 October 1982, 38/3 of 27 October 1983, 39/5 of 30 October 1984, 40/7 of
5 November 1985, 41/6 of 21 October 1986, 42/3 of 14 October 1987 and 43/19
of inter Further recalling General Assembly resolutions 36/5, 37/7, 38/3, 39/5,
40/7, 41/6, 42/3 and 43/19, which reaffirmed the conviction that, to bring
about a durable peace in South-East Asia, there was an urgent need for the
interference.
Emphasizing, in particular. General Assembly resolution 36/5, in which the
the report of the International Conference on Kampuchea,
which embraced the four cardinal elements of negotiations for a comprehensive
settlement of the Kampuchean problem,
-66-
12. Decides to place on the provisional agenda of its forty-sixth
session, as a matter of high priority, the item "The right of peoples to
self.determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation" and to consider, in the context of this
item, the situation in occupied Palestine,
51st. meeting
6 March. 1989
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 31 to 1, with
11 abstentions, See chap. IX.]
1989/20. Situation in Kampuchea
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling its resolutions 29 (0XVI) of 11 March 1980, 11 (XXXVII) of
6 March 1981, 1982/13 0£ 25 February 1982, 1983/5 of 15 February 1983, 1984/12
of 29 February 1984, 1985/12 0£ 27 February 1985, 1986/25 of 10 March 1986,
1987/6 of 19 February 1987 and 1988/6 of 22 February 1988 and Economic and
Social Council decisions 1981/154 of 8 May 1981, 1982/143 0£ 7 May 1982,
1983/155 0£ 27 May 1983, 1984/148 of 24 May 1984, 1985/155 of 30 May 1985,
1986/146 of 23 May 1986, 1987/155 of 29 May 1987 and 1988/143 0f 27 May 1988,
Recalling that all its resolutions reaffirm the inherent and inalienable
right of the people of Kampuchea to fundamental freedoms and human rights, in
particular the right to self-determination,
Recalling once again General Assembly resolutions 34/22 of
14 November 1979, 35/6 of 22 October 1980, 36/5 of 21 October 1981, 37/6
of 28 October 1982, 38/3 0£ 27 October 1983, 39/5 0f 30 October 1984, 40/7 of
5 November 1985, 41/6 of 21 October 1986, 42/3 of 14 October 1987 and 43/19
Of 3 November 1988, which called, inter alia, for an end to armed
intervention, the total withdrawal of foreign forces from Kampuchea and urgent
recourse to a negotiated peaceful settlement, particularly in the context of
these resolutions,
Further recalling General Assembly resolutions 36/5, 37/7, 38/3, 39/5,
40/7, 41/6, 42/3 and 43/19, which reaffirmed the conviction that, to bring
about a durable peace in South-East Asia, there was an urgent need for the
international community to find a comprehensive political solution to the
Kampuchean problem that would provide for the withdrawal of all foreign forces
and ensure respect for the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity
and neutral and non-aligned status of Kampuchea, as well as the right of the
Kampuchean people to self-determination free from outside interference,
Emphasizing, in particular, General Assembly resolution 36/5, in which the
Assembly approved the report of the International Conference on Kampuchea,
which embraced the four cardinal elements of negotiations for a comprehensive
political settlement of the Kampuchean problem,
--66CN4/
5 ^ ? ^ ^
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1990
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTY-SIXTH SESSION
(29 January-9 March 1990)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1990
SUPPLEMENT No. 2
Su
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1990
E/1990/22
E/CN.4/1990/94
11. Decides to consider the question at its forty-seventh session under
the agenda item "The right of peoples to self-determination and its
application to peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign
occupation".
28th meeting
16 February 1990
[Adopted without a vote. See chap. IX.]
1990/6. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Recalling General Assembly resolutions 181 A and B (II) of
29 November 1947 and 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, as well as all other
resolutions which confirm and define the'inalienable rights of the Palestinian
people, particularly their right to self-determination without external
interference,
Recalling Economic and Social Council resolutions 1865 (LVI) and
1866 (LVI) of 17 May 1974,
Reaffirming its previous resolutions in this regard.
Bearing in mind the reports and recommendations of the Committee on the
Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People,
Reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the relevant
United Nations resolutions, and expressing its grave concern at Israel's
persistence in preventing the Palestinian people by force from enjoying their
inalienable rights, in particular their right to self-determination, in
defiance of the principles of international law. United Nations resolutions
and the will of the international community,
Recalling that military aggression by the forces of any State against the
territory of another State constitutes an offence against the peace and
security of mankind.
Expressing its grave concern that no just solution has been achieved to
the problem of Palestine, which constitutes the core of the Arab-Israeli
conflict,
Reiterating its grave concern at the military, economic and political
support given by some States to Israel, which encourages and supports Israel
in its aggressive and expansionist policies and its continued occupation of
Palestinian and other Arab territories.
-25-
11. Decides to consider the question at its forty-seventh session under
the agenda item "The right of peoples to self-determination and its
application to peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign
occupation",
28th .meeting
16.Febr»Ary 1990
[Adopted without a vote. See chap. IX.]
1990/6. Situation in..occupied. Palestine
The. Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 181 and B (II) of
29 November 1947 and 194 (1I1) of ll December 1948, as well as all other
resolutions which confirm and define the !inalienable rights of the Palestinian
people, particularly their right to self-determination without external
interference,
Recalling Economic and Social Council resolutions 1865 (1VI) and
1866 (LVI) of 17 May 1974,
Reaffirming its previous resolutions in this regard,
Bearing.in mind the reports and recommendations of the Committee on the
Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People,
Reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the relevant
United Nations resolutions, and expressing its grave concern at Israel's
persistence in preventing the Palestinian people by force from enjoying their
inalienable rights, in particular their right to self-determination, in
defiance of the principles of international law, United Nations resolutions
and the will of the international community,
Recalling that military aggression by the forces of any State against the
territory of another State constitutes an offence against the peace and
security of mankind,
Expressing At8. .gave Concern that no just solution has been achieved to
the problem of Palestine, which constitutes the core of the Arab-Israeli
conflict,
Reiterating its grave concern at the military, economic and political
support given by some States to Israel, which encourages and supports Israel
in its aggressive and expansionist policies and its continued occupation of
Palestinian and other Arab territories,
-251.
Reaffirms that the Israeli occupation of Palestine constitutes a
gross violation of human rights and an offence against the peace and security
of mankind;
2. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination without external interference and the establishment of
their independent sovereign State on their national soil in accordance with
the Charter of the United Nations and resolutions adopted by the
General Assembly since 1947;
3. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to
their homeland, Palestine, in accordance with General Assembly
resolution 194 (III) and subsequent relevant resolutions;
4. Reaffirms the right of the Palestinian people to recover their
rights by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the
Charter of the United Nations and with relevant United Nations resolutions,
and affirms that the intifadah of the Palestinian people against the Israeli
occupation since 8 December 1987 is a form of legitimate resistance and an
expression of their rejection of the occupation;
5. Reaffirms its support for the call to convene an effective
international peace conference on the Middle East, with the participation of
the permanent members of the Security Council and the parties to the
Arab-Israeli conflict, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, under
the auspices of the United Nations, in accordance with the resolutions of the
General Assembly and the Security Council, and to guarantee the inalienable
national rights of the Palestinian people, in particular their right to
self-determination;
6. Strongly condemns Israel for its continued occupation of the
Palestinian territories, which constitutes the main obstacle to the exercise
by the Palestinian people of their national rights, foremost of which is their
right to free self-determination on their national soil;
7. Calls upon Israel to comply with its obligations under the Charter
of the United Nations and to withdraw from the Palestinian and other Arab
territories which it has occupied since 1967, in accordance with the relevant
United Nations resolutions;
8. all States, United Nations organs, specialized agencies and
other international organizations to extend their support and assistance to
the Palestinian people through their representative, the Palestine Liberation
Organization, in their struggle to recover their rights and to liberate their
land from Israeli occupation, in accordance with the Charter oi the
United Nations and with the relevant United Nations resolutions;
9. the Secretary-General to make available to the Commission
on Human Rights, prior to the convening of its forty-seventh session, all
information pertaining to the implementation of the present resolution;
-26-
--- --- ----- ·-- -----
I. Reaffirms that the Israeli occupation of Palestine constitutes a
gross violation of human rights and an offence against the peace and security
of mankind;
2. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination without external interference and the establishment of
their independent sovereign State on their national soil in accordance with
the Charter of the United Nations and resolutions adopted by the
General Assembly since 1947;
l
3. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to
their homeland, Palestine, in accordance with General Assembly
resolution 194 (III) and subsequent relevant resolutions;
return to
4. Reaffirms the right of the Palestinian people to recover their
rights by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the
Charter of the United Nations and with relevant United Nations resolutions,
ad affirms that the intifadah of the Palestinian people against the Israeli
occupation since 8 December 1987 is a form of legitimate resistance and an
expression of their rejection of the occupation;
5. Reaffirms its support for the call to convene an effective
international peace conference on the Middle East, with the participation of
the permanent members of the Security Council and the parties to the
Arab-Israeli conflict, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, under
the auspices of the United Nations, in accordance with the resolutions of the
General Assembly and the Security Council, and to guarantee the inalienable
national rights of the Palestinian people, in particular their right to
self-determination;
6. Strongly condemns Israel for its continued occupation of the
Palestinian territories, which constitutes the main obstacle to the exercise
by the Palestinian people of their national rights, foremost of which is their
right to free self-determination on their national soil;
7. Calls upon Israel to comply with its obligations under the Charter
of the United Nations and to withdraw from the Palestinian and other Arab
territories which it has occupied since 1967, in accordance with the relevant
United Nations resolutions;
8. Urges all States, United Nations organs, specialized agencies and
other international organizations to extend their support and assistance to
the Palestinian people through their representative, the Palestine Liberation
Organization, in their struggle to recover their rights and to liberate their
land from Israeli occupation, in accordance with the Charter of the
United Nations and with the relevant United Nations resolutions;
9. Requests the Secretary-General to make available to the Commission
on Human Rights, prior to the convening of its forty-seventh session, all
information pertaining to the implementation of the present resolution;
-2610.
Requests the Secretary-General to transmit the present resolution to
the Government of Israel with a view to its implementation, and to report
thereon to the Commission at its forty-seventh session;
11 • Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its forty-seventh
session, as a matter of high priority, the item "The right of peoples to
self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation" and to consider, in the context of this
item, the situation in occupied Palestine.
29th 19 February 1990
[Adopted by 30 votes to 1, with 10 abstensions
See chap. IX.]
1990/7. Use of mercenaries as a!means of impeding the the right of determination
Commission on Bearing in mind the need for strict observance of the principles of
sovereign equality, political independence, territorial integrity of States
and self-determination of peoples, as well as scrupulous respect for the
principle of the non-use of force or of the threat of the use of force in
international relations, enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and
developed in the Declaration of Principles of International Law concerning
Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in accordance with the
Charter of the United Nations (General Assembly resolution 2625 (XXV)),
Reaffirming the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples and their
liberation movements for their independence, territorial integrity, national
unity and liberation from colonial domination, apartheid and foreign
intervention and occupation, and that their legitimate can in no be considered as or equated with mercenary activities,
Deeply concerned about the increasing menace that the activities of
mercenaries represent for all States, particularly African, Central American
and other developing States,
Recognizing that the use of mercenaries is a threat to peace and security.
Recognizing also that the activities of mercenaries are contrary to
fundamental principles of international law, such as non-interference in the
internal affairs of States, territorial integrity and independence, and
seriously impede the process of the self-determination of peoples against colonialism, racism and apartheid and all forms of domination.
-27-
10. Requests the Secretary-General to transmit the present resolution to
the Government of Israel with a view to its implementation, and to report
thereon to the Commission at its forty-seventh session;
1, Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its forty-seventh
session, as a matter of high priority, the item "The right of peoples to
self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation" and to consider, in the context of this
item, the situation in occupied Palestine,
29t.h meeting
19.February 1990
[Adopted by 30 votes to 1, with 10 abstensions
See chap. IX.]J
1990/7. De of mercenaries as al means of impeding the exercise
of the right of peoples to self-determination
The Commission on Human Rights,
Bearing.in mind the need for strict observance of the principles of
sovereign equality, political independence, territorial integrity of States
and self-determination of peoples, as well as scrupulous respect for the
principle of the non-use of force or of the threat of the use of force in
international relations, enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and
developed in the Declaration of Principles of International Law concerning
Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in accordance with the
Charter of the United Nations (General Assembly resolution 2625 (XX)),
Reaffirming the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples and their
liberation movements for their independence, territorial integrity, national
unity and liberation from colonial domination, apartheid and foreign
intervention and occupation, and that their legitimate struggle can in no way
be considered as or equated with mercenary activities,
Deeply concerned about the increasing menace that the activities of
mercenaries represent for all States, particularly African, Central American
and other developing States,
Recognizing that the use of mercenaries is a threat to international
peace and security,
Recognizing also that the activities of mercenaries are contrary to
fundamental principles of international law, such as non-interference in the
internal affairs of States, territorial integrity and independence, and
seriously impede the process of the self-determination of peoples struggling
against colonialism, racism and apartheid and all forms of foreign domination,
-27.
January-COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTY-SEVENTH SESSION
(28 January--8 March 1991)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1991
SUPPLEMENT No. 2
UNITED NATIONS
E/1991/22
E/CN.4/1991/91
10. Invites the Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity
to keep the Secretary-General of the United Nations informed of the progress
achieved in the implementation of the decisions of the Organization of African
Unity relating to Western Sahara;
11. Invites the Secretary-General to follow the situation in
Western Sahara closely with view to the implementation of General Assembly
resolution 45/21 and to report thereon to the Assembly at its
forty-sixth session;
12. Decides to follow the development of the situation in Western Sahara
and to consider the question at its forty-eighth session, as a matter of high
priority, under the agenda item "The right of peoples to self-determination
and its application to peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign
occupation".
28th meeting
15 February 1991
[Adopted without a vote. See chap. IX.]
1991/6. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights.
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 181 A and B (II) of
29 November 1947 and 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, as well as all other
resolutions which confirm and define the inalienable rights of the Palestinian
people, particularly their right to self-determination without external
interference and to the establishment of their independent State on their
national soil, especially resolution 37/86 E of 20 December 1982,
Recalling Economic and Social Council resolutions 1865 (LVI) and
1866 (LVI) of 17 May 1974,
Reaffirming its previous resolutions in this regard.
Bearing in mind the reports and recommendations of the Committee on the
Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People,
Reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the relevant
United Nations resolutions.
Expressing its grave concern at the persistence of Israel in preventing
by force the Palestinian people from enjoying their inalienable rights, in
particular their right to self-determination, in defiance of the principles of
international law. United Nations resolutions and the will of the
international community, which has affirmed those rights in its different
resolutions.
-26-
10. Invites the Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity
to keep the Secretary-General of the United Nations informed of the progress
achieved in the implementation of the decisions of the Organization of African
Unity relating to Western Sahara;
11. Invites the Secretary-General to follow the situation in
Western Sahara closely with a view to the implementation of General Assembly
resolution 45/21 and to report thereon to the Assembly at its
forty-sixth session;
12. Decides to follow the development of the situation in Western Sahara
and to consider the question at its forty-eighth session, as a matter of high
priority, under the agenda item "The right of peoples to self-determination
and its application to peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign
occupation".
28th meeting
15.February 1991
[Adopted without a vote. See chap, IX.J
1991/6. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 181 A and B (II) of
29 November 1947 and 194 (III) of 1l December 1948, as well as all other
resolutions which confirm and define the inalienable rights of the Palestinian
people, particularly their right to self-determination without external
interference and to the establishment of their independent State on their
national soil, especially resolution 37/86 E of 20 December 1982,
Recalling Economic and Social Council resolutions 1865 (I) and
1866 (LVI) of 17 Mey 1974,
Reaffirming its previous resolutions in this regard,
Bearing. in mind the reports and recommendations of the Commit:ee on the
Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People,
Reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the relevant
United Nations resolutions,
Expressing.its .grave concern at the persistence of Israel in preventing
by force the Palestinian people from enjoying their inalienable rights, in
particular their right to self-determination, in defiance of the principles of
international law, United Nations resolutions and the will of the
international community, which has affirmed those rights in its different
resolutions,
-26Recalling
that military aggression by the forces of any State against the
territory of another State constitutes an offence against the peace and
security of mankind.
Expressing its grave concern that no just solution has been achieved to
the problem of Palestine, which constitutes the core of the Arab-Israeli
conflict.
Reiterating its grave concern at the military, economic and political
support given by some States to Israel, which encourages and supports Israel
in its aggressive and expansionist policies and its continued occupation of
Palestinian and other Arab territories,
1. Reaffirms that the Israeli occupation of Palestine constitutes a
gross violation of human rights and an offence against the peace and security
of mankind;
2. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination without external interference and to the establishment of
their independent sovereign State on their national soil in accordance with
the Charter of the United Nations and resolutions adopted by the
General Assembly since 1947;
3. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to
their homeland, Palestine, in accordance with General Assembly
resolution 194 (III) and subsequent relevant resolutions;
4. Reaffirms the right of the Palestinian people to recover their
rights by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the
Charter of the United Nations and with relevant United Nations resolutions,
and affirms that the intifada of the Palestinian people against the Israeli
occupation since 8 December 1987 is a form of legitimate resistance against
the Israeli military occupation of Palestine and an expression of the
Palestinian people's rejection of the occupation and an affirmation of their
unshakeable desire for liberation and for the exercise of their inalienable
national rights on their national soil;
5. Reaffirms its support for the call to convene an effective
international peace conference on the Middle East, with the participation of
the permanent members of the Security Council and the parties to the
Arab-Israeli conflict, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, under
the auspices of the United Nations, in accordance with the resolutions of the
General Assembly and the Security Council, and to guarantee the inalienable
national rights of the Palestinian people, in particular their right to
self-determination;
6. Strongly condemns Israel for its continued occupation of the
Palestinian territory, which constitutes the main obstacle to the exercise by
the Palestinian people of their national rights, foremost of which is their
right to free self-determination on their national soil;
-27-
Recalling that military aggression by the forces of any State against the
territory of another State constitutes an offence against the peace and
security of mankind,
Expressing.its grave concern that no just solution has been achieved to
the problem of Palestine, which constitutes the core of the Arab-Israeli
conflict,
Reiterating. its grave concern at the military, economic and political
support given by some States to Israel, which encourages and supports Israel
in its aggressive and expansionist policies and its continued occupation of
Palestinian and other Arab territories,
I. Reaffirms that the Israeli occupation of Palestine constitutes a
gross violation of human rights and an offence against the peace and security
of mankind;
2. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination without external interference and to the establishment of
their independent sovereign State on their national soil in accordance with
the Charter of the United Nations and resolutions adopted by the
General Assembly since 1947;
3. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to
their homeland, Palestine, in accordance with General Assembly
resolution 194 (I1I) and subsequent relevant resolutions;
4. Reaffirms the right of the Palestinian people to recover their
rights by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the
Charter of the United Nations and with relevant United Nations resolutions,
and affirms that the intifada of the Palestinian people against the Israeli
occupation since 8 December 1987 is a form of legitimate resistance against
the Israeli military occupation of Palestine and an expression of the
Palestinian people's rejection of the occupation and an affirmation of their
unshakeable desire for liberation and for the exercise of their inalienable
national rights on their national soil;
5. Reaffirms its support for the call to convene an effective
international peace conference on the Middle East, with the participation of
the permanent members of the Security Council and the parties to the
Arab-Israeli conflict, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, under
the auspices of the United Nations, in accordance with the resolutions of the
General Assembly and the Security Council, and to guarantee the inalienable
national rights of the Palestinian people, in particular their right to
self-determination;
6. Strongly condemns Israel for its continued occupation of the
Palestinian territory, which constitutes the main obstacle to the exercise by
the Palestinian people of their national rights, foremost of which is their
right to free self-determination on their national soil;
-27.
7. Calls upon Israel to comply with its obligations under the Charter
of the United Nations and to withdraw from Palestinian and other Arab
territories which it has occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, in
accordance with the relevant United Nations resolutions;
8. Urges all States, United Nations organs, the specialized agencies
and other international organizations to extend their support and assistance
to the Palestinian people through their representative, the Palestine
Liberation Organization, in their struggle to recover their rights to
liberate their land from Israeli occupation, in accordance with the Charter of
the United Nations and with the relevant United Nations resolutions;
9. Requests the Secretary-General to make available to the Commission
on Human Rights, prior to the convening of its forty-eighth session, all
information pertaining to the implementation of the present resolution;
10. Requests the Secretary-General to transmit the present resolution to
the Government of Israel with a view to its implementation, and to report to
the Commission at its forty-eighth session on the extent of achieving that aim;
11. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its forty-eighth
session, as a matter of high priority, the item "The right of peoples to
self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation" and to consider the situation in occupied
Palestine under that item.
28th meeting
15 1991
[Adopted by 29 votes to 1, with
12 abstentions. See chap. IX.]
1991/7. Use of mercenaries as a means of impeding the exercise
of the right of peoples to self-determination
The Commission on Human Rights.
Recalling the purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the
United Nations concerning the strict observance of the principles of sovereign
equality, political independence, territorial integrity of States and
self-determination of peoples, as well as the principle of scrupulously
refraining in international relations from the threat or use of force as
developed in the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning
General XXV)),
Recognizing that mercenaries are used for activities which violate these
principles.
-28-
7. Gals on Israel to comply with its obligations under the Charter
of the United Nations and to withdraw fros the Palestinian and other Arab
territories which it has occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, in
accordance with the relevant United Nations resolutionsr
8. get al States, United Nations organs, the specialized agencies
and other international organizations to extend their support and assistance
to the Palestinian people through their representative, the Palestine
Liberation Organization, in their struggle to recover their rights and to
liberate their land from Israeli occupation, in accordance with the Charter of
the United Nations and with the relevant United Nations resolutions;
9. Ragents the Secretary-General to make available to the Commission
on Human Rights, prior to the convening of its forty-eighth session, all
information pertaining to the implementation of the present resolution;
10, Begets the Secretary-General to transmit the present resolution to
the Government of Israel vith a view to its implementation, and to report to
the Commission at its forty-eighth session on the ertent of achieving that aim;
ii, Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its forty-eighth
session, as a matter of high priority, the item "The right of peoples to
self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation" and to consider the situation in occupied
Palestine under that item,
[Adopted by 29
12 abstentions.
28t.h masting
5. February A99l
votes to l, with
See chap. IX.J
1991/7. Lise of mercenaries. as a means of impeding the .exercise
of.the right of peoples to self-determination
The. Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling the purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the
United Nations concerning the strict observance of the principles of sovereign
equality, political independence, territorial integrity of States and
self-determination of peoples, as well as the principle of scrupulously
refraining in international relations from the threat or use of force as
developed in the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning
Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter
of the United Nations (General Assembly resolution 2625 (XV)),
Recognizing that mercenaries are used for activities which violate these
principles,
-28El1992/
22
EfCN.4/1992/84
ION REPORT ON THE FOKWEIGHTH (27 January-6 March 1992)
ta
>i
ECONOMlC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
,, ,” ,*,’ I, ’ n j
*>II
OFFllClAL RECORDS, 1992
No. 2
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1992
COMMISSION ON
HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTY-EIGHTH SESSION
(27 January-6 March 1992)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1992
SUPPLEMENT No. 2
8g 3
HS
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1992
«,
. ; ·-,.-·,.·.·,
E/1992/22
E/CN.4/1992/84
zaking into account for in the process following the Peace Conference on the
1. Reaffirms uccupied illegal provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949;
2. Reurets that the Government of Israel has not complied with the
provisions of Commission on Human Rights resolutions 199011 and 199113;
3. Draes the Government of Israel to abstain from installing settlers,
including immigrants, in the occupied territories.
27th meeting
14 Februarv 1992
[Adopted by 45 votes to none, with
1 abstention. See chap. IV.]
1992/4. Situation in occunied Palestine
The Commission on Human Riahts,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, in particular the provisions of Articles 1 and 55 thereof,
which affirm the right of peoples to self-determination,
Guided also by the provisions of article 1 of the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and article 1 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which affirm that all peoples have the
right of self-determination,
Takina into conslde. ratlon . the provisions of the Declaration on the
Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples adopted by the
General Assembly in its resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960,
Notinq Security Council resolutions 183 (1963) of 11 December 1963
and 218 (1965) of 23 November 1965, which affirmed the interpretation of the
principle of self-determination as laid down in General Assembly /
resolution 1514 (XV),
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 181 A and B (II) of [
29 November 1947 and 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, as well as all other
resolutions which confirm and define the inalienable rights of the Palestinian I
people, particularly their right to self-determination without external
-26-
Taking.into account the need to create the stable environment required
for progress in the negotiation process following the Peace Conference on the
Middle East convened in Madrid on 30 October 1991,
Convinced that the halting by Israel of its policy of settlement would
constitute a meaningful contribution to the creation of that environment,
I. that the installation of Israeli civilians in the
occupied territories is and constitutes a violation of the relevant
provisions Regrets provisions 1990/1 1991/3;
Urges including immigrants, in the occupied territories.
27th meeting
February 1992
[Adopted by 45 votes to none, with
l abstention. See chap. IV.]
1992/4. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, in particular the provisions of Articles 1 and 55 thereof,
which affirm the right of peoples to self-determination,
Guided also by the provisions of article l of the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and article 1 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which affirm that all peoples have the
right of self-determination,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Declaration on the
Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples adopted by the
General Assembly in its resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960,
Noting Security Council resolutions 183 (1963) of 11 December 1963
and 218 (1965) of 23 November 1965, which affirmed the interpretation of the
principle of self-determination as laid down in General Assembly
resolution 1514 (XV),
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 181 A and B (II) of
29 November 1947 and 194 (III) of ll December 1948, as well as
resolutions which confirm and define the inalienable rights of
people, particularly their right to self-determination without
26all
other
the Palestinian
external
interference and to the establishment of their
national soil , especially Assembly resolutions
37186 E of 20 December 1982,
State on their
7/2 Reaffirminq Bearins in mind the reports and recommendations of the Committee on
the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People which,
from 1976 to 1991, have been submitted to the Security Council through the
General Assembly,
determination accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, the relevant United Nations
resolutions and the provisions of the International Covenants and instruments
relating to the right to self-determination as an international principle and
Excressina its arave concern at the persistence of Israel in preventing
by force the Palestinian people from enjoying their inalienable rights, in
particular their right to self-determination, in defiance of the principles of
international law, United Nations resolutions and the will of the international
community, which has affirmed and recognized those rights,
Recalliw that the military occupation by the armed forces of a State of
the territory of another State constitutes an act of aggression and a crime
against the peace and security of mankind, according to General Assembly
resolution 3314 (XXIX) of 14 December 1974,
Expressina its wave concerg that no just solution has been achieved to
the problem of Palestine, which has constituted the core of the Arab-Israeli
conflict since 1948,
Reiterating its grave concern at the military, economic and political
support given by some States to Israel, which encourages and supports Israel
in its aggressive and expansionist policies, its continued occupation of
Palestinian and other Arab territories and the Judaization of Palestine by
establishing Jewish settlements and settling Jewish immigrants therein,
nq that the directing of the immigration of Jews in an organized
manner to Israel constitutes support to Israel's settlement policy in the
occupied Palestinian territory and an obstacle to the exercise by the
Palestinian people of their right to self-determination,
1. Reaffirms that the Israeli occupation of Palestine constitutes a
gross violation of human rights and an act of aggression against the peace and
security of mankind;
-27-
interference and to the establishment of their independent State on their
national soil, ES-7/2 of 29 July 1980 and
37/86 Reaffirming its previous resolutions in this regard,
Bearing Reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination in
determination as a right of all peoples in the world,
Expressing its grave determination, community, Recalling that military resolution 3314 (XXIX) of 14 December 1974,
Expressing its grave concern that no just solution has been achieved to
the problem of Palestine, which has constituted the core of the Arab-Israeli
conflict since 1948,
Reiterating itsgrave concern at the military, economic political
support given by some States to Israel, which encourages and supports Israel
in its aggressive and expansionist policies, its continued occupation of
Palestinian and other Arab territories and the Judaization of Palestine by
establishing Jewish settlements and settling Jewish immigrants therein,
Affirming that the directing of the immigration of Jews in an organized
manner to Israel constitutes support to Israel's settlement policy in the
occupied Palestinian territory and an obstacle to the exercise by the
Palestinian people of their right to self-determination,
l. Reaffirms that the Israeli occupation of Palestine constitutes a
gross violation of human rights and an act of aggression against the peace and
security of mankind;
-272,
&affirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination without external interference and to the establishment
of their independent sovereign State on their national soil, in accordance
with the Charter of the United Nations and resolutions adopted by the
General Assembly since 1947;
3. Reaffirms also the inalienable right of the Palestinians to
return to their homeland, Palestine, resolution 194 (III) and subsequent relevant resolutions;
4. Reaffirms further the right of the Palestinian people to recover
their by of the Charter of the United Nations and with relevant United Nations
resolutions, the Israeli occupation form resistance against the military occupation of Palestine and an expression of
Palestinian the occupation an their unshakeable desire for inalienable national on soil;
5. its suvwort the call to convene an effective
international peace conference on the Middle East, with the of the permanent members of the Security Council and the to the
Arab-Israeli conflict, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, the auspices of the United Nations, in accordance with the relevant
resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council, and to guarantee
the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people, in particular their
right to self-determination without external interference;
6. Exnresses its great interest in the current process of negotiations,
which began in Madrid on 30 October 1991, between the parties to the conflict
to resolve the problem of Palestine and of the Middle East; affirms the
necessity of this process being based on international legitimacy, on the
principles of international law and on the United Nations resolutions
concerning the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, at the forefront
of which is their right to self-determination, so that the process results in
a just solution leading to a just and permanent peace in the Middle East; also
affirms that any attempt to achieve a peaceful solution in the region which is
not based on the principles of international law and the United Nations
resolutions regarding the Israeli occupation of Palestine and other Arab
territories and the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination free
from external interference will not ensure the achievement of a just,
permanent and comprehensive peace in the Middle East;
7. Stronglp condemns Israel for its continued occupation of the
Palestinian territory, which constitutes the main obstacle to the exercise by
the Palestinian people of their national rights, the foremost of which is
their right to free self-determination on their national soil:
-28-
2. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
self--determination without external interference and to the establishment
of their independent sovereign State on their national soil, in accordance
with the Charter of the United Nations and resolutions adopted by the
General Assembly since 1947;
3. Reaffirms also the inalienable right of the Palestinians to
return to their homeland, Palestine, in accordance with General Assembly
resolution 194 (III) and subsequent relevant resolutions;
4. Reaffirms further the right of the Palestinian people to recover
their rights by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles
of the Charter of the United Nations and with relevant United Nations
resolutions, and affirms that the intifada of the Palestinian people against
the Israeli occupation since 8 December 1987 is a form of legitimate
resistance against the military occupation of Palestine and an expression of
the Palestinian people's rejection of the occupation and an affirmation of
their unshakeable desire for liberation and for the exercise of their
inalienable national rights on their national soil;
5. Reaffirms its support for the call to convene an effective
international peace conference on the Middle East, with the participation
of the permanent members of the Security Council and the parties to the
Arab-Israeli conflict, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, under
the auspices of the United Nations, in accordance with the relevant
resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council, and to guarantee
the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people, in particular their
right to self-determination without external interference;
6. Expresses its.great interest in the current process of negotiations,
which began in Madrid on 30 October 1991, between the parties to the conflict
to resolve the problem of Palestine and of the Middle East; affirms the
necessity of this process being based on international legitimacy, on the
principles of international law and on the United Nations resolutions
concerning the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, at the forefront
of which is their right to self-determination, so that the process results in
a just solution leading to a just and permanent peace in the Middle East; also
affirms that any attempt to achieve a peaceful solution in the region which is
not based on the principles of international law and the United Nations
resolutions regarding the Israeli occupation of Palestine and other Arab
territories and the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination free
from external interference will not ensure the achievement of a just,
permanent and comprehensive peace in the Middle East;
7. Strongly condemns Israel for its continued occupation of the
Palestinian territory, which constitutes the main obstacle to the exercise by
the Palestinian people of their national rights, the foremost of which is
their right to free self-determination on their national soil;
-288.
Calls upon withdraw
I.!)67 by United Nations resolutions:
LLrgsifi all States, and other international organixations to extend their support and assistance
to the Palestinian people through their sole legitimate representative, the
Palestine Liberation Organization, in their struggle to recover their rights
and to liberate their land from Israeli occupation, in accordance with the
Charter of the United Nations and with the relevant United Nations resolutions;
10. Requests General the Government of Israel and to all other Governments, to distribute on the
widest possible scale and to make available to the Commission on Human Rights,
prior to the convening of its forty-ninth session, al.1 information pertaining
to the implementation of the present resolution by the Government of Israel;
II. Decides to include in the provisional agenda for its forty-ninth
session the item entitled "The right of to self-determination and its
to under colonial or alien domination or and to consider the situation in occupied Palestine under that
i-tern, tib meti’
14
[Adopted a roll-call vote of 31 to 2,
with 17 abstentions. TX.]
5.
The . * Cwsslon on Human Rishke. *
m 1989123 S 16 February 1990 and 199114 of . * Bearing ma muad on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples,
. I Re.adfsLrmlag United Nations and the obligation of all States to refrain in their
international from the threat or use of forc'e the
sovereignty, Noting Settlement 19835, -29-
8. Calls upon Israel to comply with its obligations under the Charter
of the United Nations and the principles of international law and to withdraw
from the Palestinian and other Arab territories which it has occupied since
1.967 military force, including Jerusalem, in accordance with the relevant
United Nations resolutions;
9. Urges all States, United Nations organs, the specialized agencies
and other international organizations to extend their support and assistance
to the Palestinian people through their sole legitimate representative, the
Palestine Liberation Organization, in their struggle to recover their rights
and to liberate their land from Israeli occupation, in accordance with the
Charter of the United Nations and with the relevant United Nations resolutions;
10. Requests the Secretary-General to transmit the present resolution to
the Government of Israel and to all other Governments, to distribute it on the
widest possible scale and to make available to the Commission on Human Rights,
prior to the convening of its forty-ninth session, all information pertaining
to the implementation of the present resolution by the Government of Israel;
l1. Decides to include in the provisional agenda for its forty-ninth
session the item entitled "The right of peoples to self-determination and its
application to peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign
occupation" and to consider the situation in occupied Palestine under that
item, as a matter of high priority.
February1992
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 3l to 2,
with 17 abstentions. See chap. IX.]
1992/5. Situation in Afghanistan
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling its resolutions 1989/23 of 6 March 1989, 1990/5 of
16 February 1990 and 1991/4 of 15 February 1991,
Bearing in mind that one of the fundamental purposes of the United Nations
set forth in the Charter is to develop friendly relations among nations based
on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples,
Reaffirming the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations and the obligation of all States to refrain in their
international relations from the threat or use of force against the
sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of any State,
Noting the conclusion at Geneva, on 14 April 1988, of the Agreements on
the Settlement of the Situation Relating to Afghanistan (S/19835, annex I),
--29ECONOMIC
AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1993
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1993
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTY-NINTH SESSION
(1 February-12 March 1993)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1993
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1993
E/1993/23
E/CN.4/1993/122
Recalling its resolutions 1990/1 of 16 February 1990, 1991/3 of
15 February 1991 and 1992/3 of 14 February 1992, which, inter alia, reaffirmed
the illegality of the Israeli settlements in the territories,
Government of settlers, in the territories,
Taking into account for progress in the negotiation process following the Peace Conference on the
Middle East convened in Madrid on 30 October 1991,
Convinced that a complete cessation by Israel of its policy of settlement
would constitute a meaningful contribution to the creation of that
environment,
1. Reaffirms that the installation of Israeli civilians in the
occupied territories is illegal and constitutes a violation of the relevant
provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War;
2. Regrets that the Government of Israel has not fully complied with
the provisions of Commission on Human Rights resolutions 1990/1, 1991/3
and 1992/3;
3. the Government of Israel to abstain from installing settlers,
including immigrants, in the occupied territories.
29th meeting
19 [Adopted by a roll-call vote of 46 to 1. See chap. 1993/4. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights.
Guided by the purposes and of the Charter of the
United Nations, in particular the provisions of Articles 1 and 55 thereof,
which affirm the right of peoples to self-determination,
Guided also by the provisions of article 1 of the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural and article 1 of the International
right of self-determination,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Declaration on the
Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and adopted by the
General Assembly in its resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960,
- 47 -
Recalling its resolutions 1990/1 of 16 February 1990, 1991/3 of
15 February 1991 and 1992/3 of 14 February 1992, which, inter alia, reaffirmed
the illegality of the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories,
Gravely concerned at the large-scale establishment by the Israeli
Government of settlers, including immigrants, in the occupied territories,
which may change the physical character and demographic composition of the
occupied territories,
Taina into.account the need to create the stable environment required
for progress in the negotiation process following the Peace Conference on the
Middle East convened in Madrid on 30 October 1991,
Convinced that a complete cessation by Israel of its policy of settlement
would constitute a meaningful contribution to the creation of that
environment,
1. Reaffirms that the installation of Israeli civilians in the
occupied territories is illegal and constitutes a violation of the relevant
provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War;
2. Reqretg that the Government of Israel has not fully complied with
the provisions of Commission on Human Rights resolutions 1990/1, 1991/3
and 1992/3;
3. Urges the Government of Israel to abstain from installing settlers,
including immigrants, in the occupied territories.
19
29th meeting
February 1993
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 46 to
1993/4. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission onHuman Rights,
1. See chap. IV.]
Guided by the purposes and principles of the charter of the
United Nations, in particular the provisions of Articles l and 55 thereof,
which affirm the right of peoples to self-determination,
Guided algg by the provisions of article 1 of the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and article 1 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which affirm that all peoples have the
right of self-determination,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Declaration on the
Granting of Independence to Colonial countries and Peoples adopted by the
General Assembly in its resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960,
- 47Noting
Security Council resolutions 183 (1963) of 11 December 1963
and 218 (1965) of 23 November 1965, which affirmed the of
Assemblyresolution
1514 (XV),
Recalling General resolutions 181 A and B II) of
29 November 1947 and 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, as well as all other
resolutions which confirm and define the inalienable of the Palestinian
of July Reaffirming its previous resolutions in this Bearing in mind the reports and recommendations of the Committee on
the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian which,
from 1976 to 1992, have been submitted to the Council the
General Assembly,
Reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, the relevant United Nations
resolutions and the provisions of international covenants and instruments
Expressing its grave concern at the persistence of Israel in by force the Palestinian people from enjoying their inalienable rights, in
particular their right to self-determination, in defiance of the of
Recalling that the military occupation by the armed forces of a State of
the territory of another State constitutes an act of aggression and a crime
against the peace and security of mankind, according to General resolution 3314 (XXIX) of 14 December 1974,
Expressing its grave concern that no just solution has been achieved to
the problem of Palestine, which has constituted the core of the Arab-Israeli
Reiterating its grave concern at the military, economic and support given by some States to Israel, which would encourage and Israel in its policies based on and continued Affirming that the directing of the immigration of Jews in an organized
manner to Israel constitutes support for Israel's settlement in the
occupied Palestinian territory and an obstacle to the exercise the
Palestinian people of their to self-determination,
Noting Security Council resolutions 183 (1963) of 11 December 1963
and 218 (1965) of 23 November 1965, which affirmed the interpretation of
the principle of self-determination as laid down in General Assembly
resolution 1514 (XV),
Recallinq General Assembly resolutions 181 A and B (II) of
29 November 1947 and 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, as well as all other
resolutions which confirm and define the inalienable rights of the Palestinian
people, particularly their right to self-determination without external
interference and to the establishment of their independent State on their
national soil, especially Assembly resolutions ES-7/2 0f 29 1980 and
37/86 E of 20 December 1982,
Reaffirming its previous resolutions in this regard,
Beating in mind the reports and recommendations of the Committee on
the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People which,
from 1976 to 1992, have been submitted to the Security Council through the
General Assembly,
Reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, the relevant United Nations
resolutions and the provisions of international covenants and instruments
relating to the right to self-determination as an international principle and
as a right of all peoples in the world,
ExpEe8sing its grave concern at the persistence of Israel in preventing
by force the Palestinian people from enjoying their inalienable rights, in
particular their right to self-determination, in defiance of the principles of
international law, the relevant United Nations resolutions and the will of the
international community, which has affirmed and recognized those rights,
Recalling that the military occupation by the armed forces of a State of
the territory of another State constitutes an act of aggression and a crime
against the peace and security of mankind, according to General Assembly
resolution 3314 (XXIX) of 14 December 1974,
Expressing its grave concern that no just solution has been achieved to
the problem of Palestine, which has constituted the core of the Arab-Israeli
conflict since 1948,
Reiterating its grave concern at the military, economic and political
support given by some States to Israel, which would encourage and support
Israel in its policies based on aggression, expansion and continued occupation
of Palestinian and other Arab territories and the Judaization of the occupied
territory by establishing Jewish settlements and settling Jewish immigrants
therein,
Affirming that the directing of the immigration of Jews in an organized
manner to Israel constitutes support for Israel's settlement policy in the
occupied Palestinian territory and an obstacle to the exercise by the
Palestinian people of their right to self-determination,
- 48 -
1. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination without external interference;
2. Calls upon Israel to comply with its obligations under the Charter
of the United Nations and the principles of international law and to withdraw
from the Palestinian and other Arab territories which it has occupied since
determination;
3. Requests the Secretary-General to transmit the present resolution
to the Government of Israel and to all other Governments, to distribute it on
the widest possible scale and to make available to the Commission on Human
Rights, prior to the convening of its fiftieth session, all information
to the of the resolution by the Government
4. Decides to include in the provisional agenda for its fiftieth
session the item entitled "The right of peoples to self-determination and
its application to peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign
occupation" and to consider the situation in occupied Palestine under that
item, as a matter of high priority.
29th meeting
19 February 1993
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 27 to 1,
with 19 abstentions. See chap. IX.]
1993/5. Use of mercenaries as a means of impeding the exercise
of the right of peoples to self-determination
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling the purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the
United Nations concerning the strict observance of the sovereign self-determination of as well as the need for scrupulous for
General (XXV)),
Recognizing that mercenaries are used for activities which violate these
principles,
Alarmed at the continuing trend of unlawful international activities
involving mercenaries in the perpetration of violent actions inimical to the
1. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination without external interference;
2. Calls.Pon Israel to comply with its obligations under the Charter
of the United Nations and the principles of international law and to withdraw
from the Palestinian and other Arab territories which it has occupied since
1967 by military force, including Jerusalem, in accordance with the relevant
United Nations resolutions, so as to enable the Palestinian people to exercise
their universally recognized right of self-determination;
3. Requestg the Secretary-General to transmit the present resolution
to the Government of Israel and to all other Governments, to distribute it on
the widest possible scale and to make available to the Commission on Human
Rights, prior to the convening of its fiftieth session, all information
pertaining to the implementation of the present resolution by the Government
of Israel;
4. Decides to include in the provisional agenda for its fiftieth
session the item entitled "The right of peoples to self-determination and
its application to peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign
occupation" and to consider the situation in occupied Palestine under that
item, as a matter of high priority.
29th meeting
19 February_1993
(Adopted by a roll-call vote of 27 to ,
with 19 abstentions. See chap. IX.J
1993/5. sepf mercenaries as a means of impeding the exercise
of the right of peoples to self-determination
The Commission pn Human Rights,
Recalling the purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the
United Nations concerning the strict observance of the sovereign equality,
political independence and territorial integrity of States and the
self-determination of peoples, as well as the need for scrupulous respect for
the principle of the non-use of force or threat of the use of force in
international relations as developed in the Declaration on Principles of
International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States
in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations (General Assembly
resolution 2625 (XX)),
Recognizing that mercenaries are used for activities which violate these
principles,
Alarmed at the continuing trend of unlawful international activities
involving mercenaries in the perpetration of violent actions inimical to the
constitutional order of States,
- 49 -
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTIETH SESSION
(31 January - 11 March 1994)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS. 1994
SUPPLEMENT No. 4
UNITED NATIONS
New York and Geneva, 1994
E/1994/24
E/CN 4/1994/132
Stressing that the achievement of a comprehensive and lasting settlement
of the Middle East conflict will constitute a significant contribution to the
strengthening of international peace and security, and is an indispensable
condition for the furthering of human rights in the region,
Recalling the convening of the International Peace Conference on the
Middle East at Madrid on 30 October 1991, on the basis of Security Council
resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967 and 338 (1973) of 22 October 1973,
and the subsequent bilateral negotiations, as well as the meetings of the
multilateral working groups, and noting with satisfaction the broad
international support for the peace process,
Noting the continuing positive participation of the United Nations as a
full extraregional participant in the work of the multilateral working groups,
Bearing in mind the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government
Arrangements, signed by the Government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation
Organization in Washington, D.C., on 13 September 1993,
1. Stresses the importance of, and need for, achieving a
comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East;
2. Emphasizes that the achievement of such a peace is vital for the
full implementation of human rights in the area;
3. Welcomes the peace process started at Madrid and supports the
subsequent bilateral negotiations;
4. Expresses its full support for the achievements of the peace
process thus far, in particular the Declaration of Principles on Interim
Self-Government Arrangements, signed by the Government of Israel and the
Palestine Liberation Organization, and the Agreement between Israel and Jordan
on the Common Agenda, which constitute an important initial step in achieving
a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East, and urges all
parties to implement agreements reached;
5. Considers that an active United Nations role in the Middle East
peace process and in assisting in the implementation of the Declaration of
Principles can make a positive contribution.
30th meeting
18 February 1994
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 48 to 2,
with 2 abstentions. See chap. IX.]
1994/5. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, in particular the provisions of Articles 1 and 55 thereof,
which affirm the right of peoples to self-determination, and scrupulous
- 43 -
respect of the principle of refraining in international relations from the
threat or use of force, as specified in the Declaration on Principles of
International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among
States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations adopted by the
General Assembly in its resolution 2625 (XXV) of 24 October 1970,
Guided also by the provisions of article 1 of the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and article 1 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which affirm that all peoples have the
right of self-determination,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Declaration on the
Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples adopted by the
General Assembly in its resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960,
Guided by the provisions of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of
Action (A/CONF.157/23) adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights, and in
particular part I, paragraphs 2 and 3, relating to the right of
self-determination of all peoples and especialy those subject to foreign
occupation,
Noting Security Council resolutions 183 (1963) of 11 December 1963
and 218 (1965) of 23 November 1965, which affirmed the interpretation of the
principle of self-determination as laid down in General Assembly
resolution 1514 (XV),
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 181 A and B (II) of
29 November 1947 and 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, as well as all other
resolutions which confirm and define the inalienable rights of the Palestinian
people, particularly their right to self-determination without external
interference and to the establishment of their independent State on their
national soil, especially Assembly resolutions ES-7/2 of 29 July 1980 and
37/86 E of 20 December 1982,
Reaffirming its previous resolutions in this regard,
Bearing in mind the reports and recommendations of the Committee on the
Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People which, from 1976
to 1993, have been submitted to the Security Council through the
General Assembly,
Reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, the relevant United Nations
resolutions and declarations, and the provisions of international covenants
and instruments relating to the right to self-determination as an
international principle and as a right of all peoples in the world,
Expressing its grave concern at the persistence of Israel in preventing
by force the Palestinian people from enjoying their inalienable rights, in
particular their right to self-determination,
Recalling that the foreign occupation by the armed forces of a State of
the territory of another State constitutes an obstacle and a grave violation
- 44 -
of human rights according to part I, paragraph 30 of the Vienna Declaration
and Programme of Action, and an act of aggression and a crime against the
peace and security of mankind, according to General Assembly
resolution 3314 (XXIX) of 14 December 1974,
Expressing its grave concern that no just solution has been achieved to
the problem of Palestine, which has constituted the core of the Arab-Israeli
conflict since 1948,
Welcoming the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government
Arrangements signed by the Government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation
Organization on 13 September 1993, aimed at enabling the Palestinian people to
achieve their national rights and, principally, their right to
self-determination free of external intervention,
1. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination without external interference;
2. Calls upon Israel to comply with its obligations under the Charter
of the United Nations and the principles of international law and to withdraw
from the Palestinian and other Arab territories which it has occupied since
1967 by military force, including Jerusalem, in accordance with the relevant
United Nations resolutions, so as to enable the Palestinian people to exercise
their universally recognized right of self-determination;
3. Requests the Secretary-General to transmit the present resolution
to the Government of Israel and to all other Governments, to distribute it on
the widest possible scale and to make available to the Commission on Human
Rights, prior to the convening of its fifty-first session, all information
pertaining to the implementation of the present resolution by the Government
of Israel;
4. Decides to include in the provisional agenda for its fifty-first
session the item entitled "The right of peoples to self-determination and its
application to peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign
occupation" and to consider the situation in occupied Palestine under that
item, as a matter of high priority.
30th meeting
18 February 1994
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 26 to 1,
with 25 abstentions. See chap. IX.]
1994/6. Question of Western Sahara
The Commission on Human Rights,
Having considered the question of Western Sahara,
Reaffirming the inalienable right of all peoples to self-determination
and independence, in accordance with the principles set forth in the
- 45 -
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTY-FIRST SESSION
(30 January - 10 March 1995)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1995
SUPPLEMENT No. 4
UNITED NATIONS
New York and Geneva, 1995
E/1995/23
E/CN.4/1995/176
3. Urges the Government of Israel to abstain fully from installing any
settlers in the occupied territories and to prevent any new installation of
settlers in these territories.
29th meeting
17 February 1995
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 46 votes to 1,
with 3 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
1995/4. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, in particular the provisions of Articles 1 and 55 thereof,
which affirm the right of peoples to self-determination, and scrupulous
respect of the principle of refraining in international relations from the
threat or use of force, as specified in the Declaration on Principles of
International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States
in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations adopted by the
General Assembly in its resolution 2625 (XXV) of 24 October 1970,
Guided also by the provisions of article 1 of the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and article 1 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which affirm that all peoples have the
right to self-determination,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Declaration on the
Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, adopted by the
General Assembly in its resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960,
Guided by the provisions of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of
Action (A/CONF.157/23) adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights, and in
particular part I, paragraphs 2 and 3, relating to the right to
self-determination of all peoples and especially those subject to foreign
occupation,
Noting Security Council resolutions 183 (1963) of 11 December 1963 and
218 (1965) of 23 November 1965, which affirmed the interpretation of the
principle of self-determination as laid down in General Assembly
resolution 1514 (XV),
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 181 A and B (II) of
29 November 1947 and 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, as well as all other
resolutions which confirm and define the inalienable rights of the Palestinian
people, particularly their right to self-determination without external
interference and to the establishment of their independent State on their
national soil, especially Assembly resolutions ES-7/2 of 29 July 1980 and
37/86 E of 20 December 1982,
Reaffirming its previous resolutions in this regard, including the
latest, resolution 1994/5 of 18 February 1994,
-46-
Bearing in mind the reports and recommendations of the Committee on the
Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People which, from 1976
to 1994, have been submitted to the Security Council through the
General Assembly,
Reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, the relevant United Nations
resolutions and declarations, and the provisions of international covenants
and instruments relating to the right to self-determination as an
international principle and as a right of all peoples in the world,
Recalling that the foreign occupation by the armed forces of a State of
the territory of another State constitutes an obstacle to and a grave
violation of human rights according to part I, paragraph 30, of the Vienna
Declaration and Programme of Action, and an act of aggression and a crime
against the peace and security of mankind, according to General Assembly
resolution 3314 (XXIX) of 14 December 1974,
Welcoming the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government
Arrangements signed by the Government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation
Organization on 13 September 1993, aimed at enabling the Palestinian people to
achieve their national rights and, principally, their right to
self-determination free of external intervention,
1. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination without external interference;
2. Calls upon Israel to comply with its obligations under the Charter
of the United Nations and the principles of international law, and to withdraw
from the Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem, and the other Arab
territories which it has occupied since 1967 by military force, in accordance
with the relevant United Nations resolutions, so as to enable the Palestinian
people to exercise their universally recognized right to self-determination;
3. Requests the Secretary-General to transmit the present resolution
to the Government of Israel and to all other Governments, to distribute it on
the widest possible scale and to make available to the Commission on Human
Rights, prior to the convening of its fifty-second session, all information
pertaining to the implementation of the present resolution by the Government
of Israel;
4. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-second
session the item entitled "The right of peoples to self-determination and its
application to peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign
occupation" and to consider the situation in occupied Palestine under that
item, as a matter of high priority.
29th meeting
17 February 1995
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 27 votes to 1,
with 22 abstentions. See chap. IX.]
-47-
E/1996/23
E/CN.4/1996/177
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTY-SECOND SESSION
(18 March-26 April 1996)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1996
SUPPLEMENT NO. 3
UNITED NATIONS
settlements, which may change the physical character and demographic
composition of the occupied territories, would greatly facilitate those
negotiations,
1. Reaffirms that the installation of Israeli civilians in the
occupied territories is illegal and constitutes a violation of the relevant
provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949;
2. Reiterates its request to the Government of Israel to comply fully
with the provisions of Commission resolutions 1990/1, 1991/3, 1992/3, 1993/3,
1994/1 and 1995/3;
3. Urges the Government of Israel to abstain from installing any
settlers in the occupied territories and to prevent any new installation of
settlers in these territories.
34th meeting
11 April 1996
[Adopted by 49 votes to 1, with 3 abstentions.
See chap. IV.]
1996/5. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, in particular the provisions of Articles 1 and 55 thereof,
which affirm the right of peoples to self-determination, and scrupulous
respect of the principle of refraining in international relations from the
threat or use of force, as specified in the Declaration on Principles of
International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States
in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, adopted by the
General Assembly in its resolution 2625 (XXV) of 24 October 1970,
Guided also by the provisions of article 1 of the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and article 1 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which affirm that all peoples have the
right to self-determination,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Declaration on the
Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, adopted by the
General Assembly in its resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960,
Guided by the provisions of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of
Action (A/CONF.157/23), adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights, and
in particular Part I, paragraphs 2 and 3, relating to the right to
self-determination of all peoples and especially those subject to foreign
occupation,
- 44 -
Recalling Security Council resolutions 183 (1963) of 11 December 1963 and
218 (1965) of 23 November 1965, which affirmed the interpretation of the
principle of self-determination as laid down in General Assembly
resolution 1514 (XV),
Recalling also General Assembly resolutions 181 A and B (II) of
29 November 1947 and 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, as well as all other
resolutions which confirm and define the inalienable rights of the Palestinian
people, particularly their right to self-determination without external
interference and to the establishment of their independent State on their
national soil, especially Assembly resolutions ES-7/2 of 29 July 1980 and
37/86 E of 20 December 1982,
Reaffirming its previous resolutions in this regard, including the
latest, resolution 1995/4 of 17 February 1995,
Bearing in mind the reports and recommendations of the Committee on the
Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People which, from 1976
to 1995, have been submitted to the Security Council through the
General Assembly,
Reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, the relevant United Nations
resolutions and declarations, and the provisions of international covenants
and instruments relating to the right to self-determination as an
international principle and as a right of all peoples in the world,
Recalling that the foreign occupation by the armed forces of a State of
the territory of another State constitutes an obstacle to and a grave
violation of human rights according to Part I, paragraph 30, of the Vienna
Declaration and Programme of Action, and an act of aggression and a crime
against the peace and security of mankind, according to General Assembly
resolution 3314 (XXIX) of 14 December 1974,
Welcoming the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government
Arrangements signed by the Government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation
Organization in Washington on 13 September 1993, aimed at enabling the
Palestinian people to achieve their national rights and, principally, their
right to self-determination free of external intervention,
1. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination without external interference;
2. Calls upon Israel to comply with its obligations under the
Charter of the United Nations and the principles of international law, and
to withdraw from the Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and the
other Arab territories which it has occupied since 1967 by military force,
in accordance with the relevant United Nations resolutions, so as to enable
the Palestinian people to exercise their universally recognized right to
self-determination;
- 45 -
3. Requests the Secretary-General to transmit the present resolution
to the Government of Israel and all other Governments, to distribute it on the
widest possible scale and to make available to the Commission on Human Rights,
prior to the convening of its fifty-third session, all information pertaining
to the implementation of the present resolution by the Government of Israel;
4. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-third
session the item entitled "The right of peoples to self-determination and its
application to peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign
occupation" and to consider the situation in occupied Palestine under that
item, as a matter of high priority.
34th meeting
11 April 1996
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 28 votes to 1,
with 23 abstentions. See chap. VII.]
1996/6. Question of Western Sahara
The Commission on Human Rights,
Having considered the question of Western Sahara,
Reaffirming the inalienable right of all peoples to self-determination
and independence, in accordance with the principles set forth in the Charter
of the United Nations and in General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of
14 December 1960, containing the Declaration on the Granting of Independence
to Colonial Countries and Peoples,
Recalling its earlier resolutions, the latest of which is
resolution 1995/7 of 17 February 1995,
Recalling also the agreement in principle given on 30 August 1988 by the
Kingdom of Morocco and the Frente Popular para la Liberación de Saguia
el-Hamra y de Río de Oro to the proposals of the Secretary-General of the
United Nations and the then Chairman of the Assembly of Heads of State and
Government of the Organization of African Unity, in the framework of their
joint mission of good offices,
Recalling further Security Council resolutions 621 (1988) of
20 September 1988, 658 (1990) of 27 June 1990, 690 (1991) of 29 April 1991,
725 (1991) of 31 December 1991, 809 (1993) of 2 March 1993 and 907 (1994) of
29 March 1994 relating to the question of Western Sahara,
Recalling with satisfaction the entry into force of the cease-fire in
Western Sahara on 6 September 1991, in accordance with the proposal of the
Secretary-General accepted by both parties,
Noting the adoption by the Security Council of resolutions 973 (1995) of
13 January 1995, 995 (1995) of 26 May 1995, 1002 (1995) of 30 June 1995,
1017 (1995) of 22 September 1995, 1033 (1995) of 22 December 1995 and
1042 (1996) of 31 January 1996,
- 46 -
E/1997/23
E/CN.4/1997/150
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTYTHIRD
SESSION
(10 March18
April 1997)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1997
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
50
(
b) The recent step towards the further implementation of the relevant
agreements, through the signing of the Protocol concerning the Redeployment in
Hebron;
(c) The report (E/CN.4/1997/16) submitted by the Special Rapporteur
pursuant to Commission resolution 1993/2 A of 19 February 1993;
2. Expresses its deep concern
(a) At the Israeli settlement activities, including the expansion of
settlements, the installation of settlers in the occupied territories, the
expropriation of land, the demolition of houses, the confiscation of property,
the expulsion of local residents and the construction of bypass roads, which
change the physical character and demographic composition of the occupied
territories, including East Jerusalem, since they are illegal, constitute a
violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, and are a major obstacle to peace;
(b) At and strongly condemns all acts of terrorism, whilst calling
upon all parties not to allow any acts of terrorism to affect the ongoing
peace process negatively;
3. Calls upon the Government of Israel
(a) To comply fully with the provisions of previous Commission
resolutions on the subject, most recently resolution 1996/4 of 11 April 1996;
(b) To cease completely its policy of expanding the settlements and
related activities in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem;
(c) To forgo and prevent any new installation of settlers in the
occupied territories;
(d) To address the question of the Israeli settlements in the occupied
territories during the negotiations on the final status of the territories,
which are due to resume within two months after implementation of the Protocol
concerning the Redeployment in Hebron.
26th meeting
26 March 1997
[Adopted by a rollcall
vote of 47 votes to 1,
with 2 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
1997/4. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, in particular the provisions of Articles 1 and 55 thereof,
which affirm the right of peoples to selfdetermination,
and scrupulous
respect of the principle of refraining in international relations from the
threat or use of force, as specified in the Declaration on Principles of
51
International
Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States
in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, adopted by the
General Assembly in its resolution 2625 (XXV) of 24 October 1970,
Guided also by the provisions of article 1 of the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and article 1 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which affirm that all peoples have the
right to selfdetermination,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Declaration on the
Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, adopted by the
General Assembly in its resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960,
Guided by the provisions of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of
Action adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights in June 1993
(A/CONF.157/23), and in particular Part I, paragraphs 2 and 3, relating to the
right to selfdetermination
of all peoples and especially those subject to
foreign occupation,
Recalling Security Council resolutions 183 (1963) of 11 December 1963
and 218 (1965) of 23 November 1965, which affirmed the interpretation of the
principle of selfdetermination
as laid down in General Assembly
resolution 1514 (XV),
Recalling also General Assembly resolutions 181 A and B (II) of
29 November 1947 and 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, as well as all other
resolutions which confirm and define the inalienable rights of the Palestinian
people, particularly their right to selfdetermination
without external
interference and to the establishment of their independent State on their
national soil, especially Assembly resolutions ES7/
2 of 29 July 1980 and
37/86 E of 20 December 1982,
Reaffirming its previous resolutions in this regard, including the
latest, resolution 1996/5 of 11 April 1996,
Bearing in mind the reports and recommendations of the Committee on the
Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People submitted to the
Security Council and the General Assembly,
Reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to selfdetermination
in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, the relevant United Nations
resolutions and declarations, and the provisions of international covenants
and instruments relating to the right to selfdetermination
as an
international principle and as a right of all peoples in the world, as it is a
jus cogens in international law,
Recalling that the foreign occupation by the armed forces of a State of
the territory of another State constitutes an obstacle to and a grave
violation of human rights according to Part I, paragraph 30, of the Vienna
Declaration and Programme of Action, and an act of aggression and a crime
against the peace and security of mankind according to General Assembly
resolution 3314 (XXIX) of 14 December 1974,
52
Welcoming
the Declaration of Principles on Interim SelfGovernment
Arrangements signed by the Government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation
Organization in Washington on 13 September 1993, and the following agreements
aimed at enabling the Palestinian people to achieve their national rights and,
principally, their right to selfdetermination
free of external intervention,
l. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
selfdetermination
without external interference;
2. Calls upon Israel to comply with its obligations under the Charter
of the United Nations and the principles of international law, and to withdraw
from the Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem, and the other Arab
territories which it has occupied since 1967 by military force, in accordance
with the relevant United Nations resolutions, so as to enable the Palestinian
people to exercise their universally recognized right to selfdetermination;
3. Requests the SecretaryGeneral
to transmit the present resolution
to the Government of Israel and all other Governments, to distribute it on the
widest possible scale and to make available to the Commission on Human Rights,
prior to the convening of its fiftyfourth
session, all information pertaining
to the implementation of the present resolution by the Government of Israel;
4. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fiftyfourth
session the item entitled “The right of peoples to selfdetermination
and its
application to peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign
occupation” and to consider the situation in occupied Palestine under that
item, as a matter of high priority.
26th meeting
26 March 1997
[Adopted by a rollcall
vote of 28 votes to 1,
with 21 abstentions. See chap. VII.]
1997/5. Question of Western Sahara
The Commission on Human Rights,
Having considered the question of Western Sahara,
Reaffirming the inalienable right of all peoples to selfdetermination
and independence, in accordance with the principles set forth in the Charter
of the United Nations and in General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of
14 December 1960, containing the Declaration on the Granting of Independence
to Colonial Countries and Peoples,
Recalling its earlier resolutions, the latest of which is
resolution 1996/6 of 11 April 1996,
Recalling also the agreement in principle given on 30 August 1988 by
the Kingdom of Morocco and the Frente Popular para la Liberación de
Saguia elHamra
y de Río de Oro to the proposals of the SecretaryGeneral
of
E/1998/23
E/CN.4/1998/177
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTYFOURTH
SESSION
(16 March24
April 1998)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1998
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
44
1998/
4. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, in particular the provisions of Articles 1 and 55 thereof,
which affirm the right of peoples to selfdetermination,
and scrupulous
respect of the principle of refraining in international relations from the
threat or use of force, as specified in the Declaration on Principles of
International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States
in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, adopted by the
General Assembly in its resolution 2625 (XXV) of 24 October 1970,
Guided also by the provisions of article 1 of the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and article 1 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which affirm that all peoples have the
right to selfdetermination,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Declaration on the
Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, adopted by the
General Assembly in its resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960,
Guided by the provisions of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of
Action adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights in June 1993
(A/CONF.157/23), and in particular Part I, paragraphs 2 and 3, relating to the
right to selfdetermination
of all peoples and especially those subject to
foreign occupation,
Recalling Security Council resolutions 183 (1963) of 11 December 1963
and 218 (1965) of 23 November 1965, which affirmed the interpretation of the
principle of selfdetermination
as laid down in General Assembly
resolution 1514 (XV),
Recalling also General Assembly resolutions 181 A and B (II) of
29 November 1947 and 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, as well as all other
resolutions which confirm and define the inalienable rights of the Palestinian
people, particularly their right to selfdetermination
without external
interference and to the establishment of their independent State on their
national soil, especially Assembly resolutions ES7/
2 of 29 July 1980 and
37/86 E of 20 December 1982,
Reaffirming its previous resolutions in this regard, including the
latest, resolution 1997/4 of 26 March 1997,
Bearing in mind the continued reports and recommendations of the
Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian
People submitted to the Security Council and the General Assembly,
Reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to selfdetermination
in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, the relevant United Nations
resolutions and declarations, and the provisions of international covenants
and instruments relating to the right to selfdetermination
as an
international principle and as a right of all peoples in the world, as it is a
jus cogens in international law,
45
Recalling
that the foreign occupation by the armed forces of a State of
the territory of another State constitutes an obstacle to and a grave
violation of human rights according to Part I, paragraph 30, of the
Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, and an act of aggression and a
crime against the peace and security of mankind according to General Assembly
resolution 3314 (XXIX) of 14 December 1974,
Affirming that the peace process, which aims to achieve a just,
comprehensive and lasting peace, aims at the same time to enable the
Palestinian people to achieve their national rights and, principally, their
right to selfdetermination
free of external intervention as a basic condition
for establishing the longsought
peace,
1. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to
selfdetermination
without external interference;
2. Calls upon Israel to comply with its obligations under the Charter
of the United Nations and the principles of international law, and to withdraw
from the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the
other Arab territories which it has occupied since 1967 by military force, in
accordance with the relevant United Nations resolutions, so as to enable the
Palestinian people to exercise their universally recognized right to
selfdetermination;
3. Requests the SecretaryGeneral
to transmit the present resolution
to the Government of Israel and all other Governments, to distribute it on the
widest possible scale and to make available to the Commission on Human Rights,
prior to the convening of its fiftyfifth
session, all information pertaining
to the implementation of the present resolution by the Government of Israel;
4. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fiftyfifth
session the item entitled “The right of peoples to selfdetermination
and its
application to peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign
occupation” and to consider the situation in occupied Palestine under that
item, as a matter of high priority.
20th meeting
27 March 1998
[Adopted by a rollcall
vote of 34 votes to 1,
with 18 abstentions. See chap. VII.]
1998/5. Question of Western Sahara
The Commission on Human Rights,
Having considered in depth the question of Western Sahara,
Reaffirming the inalienable right of all peoples to selfdetermination
and independence, in accordance with the principles set forth in the Charter
of the United Nations and in General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of
14 December 1960, containing the Declaration on the Granting of Independence
to Colonial Countries and Peoples,
E/1999/23
E/CN.4/1999/167
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTY-FIFTH SESSION
(22 March 30
April 1999)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1999
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
¢
/ /
... '
7<e187
12.
Declares that advisory services and technical cooperation provided
at the request of Governments with a view to developing national capacities in
the field of human rights constitute one of the most efficient and effective
means of promoting and protecting all human rights and democracy;
13. Emphasizes the need for an increase in the allocation of resources
from within the United Nations regular budget for advisory services and
technical cooperation in the field of human rights;
14. Notes with interest the increase in the number of human rights
field presences throughout the world and encourages the High Commissioner to
consider their further improvement in cooperation with other relevant
components of the United Nations system;
15. Welcomes the openended
informal briefings provided by the Office
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and takes note with
appreciation of these opportunities to discuss openly all aspects of the work
of the Office while reiterating the need to analyse the effectiveness of field
presences, and requests the High Commissioner to submit a separate report
containing a comprehensive assessment of field presences to the Commission at
its fiftysixth
session;
16. Invites the High Commissioner to continue to provide information
on cooperation with other United Nations bodies and with Governments and
invites her to make available information concerning agreements with States
and other United Nations bodies and their implementation, in an open and
transparent manner, as appropriate;
17. Calls upon the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights to seek ways and means by which voluntary funds can be used to
provide support to all mechanisms of the Commission;
18. Invites the High Commissioner to submit information pursuant to
the present resolution in her annual report to the Commission;
19. Decides to consider the implementation of the present resolution
at its fiftysixth
session under the relevant agenda item.
56th meeting
27 April 1999
[Adopted without a vote. See chap. IV.]
1999/55. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, in particular the provisions of Articles 1 and 55 thereof,
which affirm the right of peoples to selfdetermination,
and scrupulous
respect of the principle of refraining in international relations from the
threat or use of force, as specified in the Declaration on Principles of
International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States
188
in
Accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, adopted by the
General Assembly in its resolution 2625 (XXV) of 24 October 1970,
Guided also by the provisions of article 1 of the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and article 1 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which affirm that all peoples have the
right of selfdetermination,
Guided further by the provisions of the Vienna Declaration and Programme
of Action adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights in June 1993
(A/CONF.157/23), and in particular Part I, paragraphs 2 and 3, relating to the
right of selfdetermination
of all peoples and especially those subject to
foreign occupation,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 181 A and B (II) of
29 November 1947 and 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, as well as all other
resolutions which confirm and define the inalienable rights of the Palestinian
people, particularly their right to selfdetermination,
Recalling also its previous resolutions in this regard, the latest of
which is its resolution 1998/4 of 27 March 1998,
Reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to selfdetermination
in
accordance with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, the
relevant United Nations resolutions and declarations, and the provisions of
international covenants and instruments relating to the right to
selfdetermination
as an international principle and as a right of all peoples
in the world, as it is a jus cogens in international law,
1. Reaffirms the continuing and unqualified Palestinian right to
selfdetermination,
including the option of a State, and looks forward to the
early fulfilment of this right;
2. Requests the SecretaryGeneral
to transmit the present resolution
to the Government of Israel and all other Governments, to distribute it on the
widest possible scale and to make available to the Commission on Human Rights,
prior to the convening of its fiftysixth
session, all information pertaining
to the implementation of the present resolution by the Government of Israel;
3. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its
fiftysixth
session the item entitled “The right of peoples to
selfdetermination
and its application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation” and to consider the situation in occupied
Palestine under that agenda item, as a matter of high priority.
56th meeting
27 April 1999
[Adopted by a rollcall
vote of 44 votes to 1,
with 8 abstentions. See chap. V.]
E/2000/23
E/CN.4/2000/167
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTY-SIXTH SESSION
(20 March 28 April 2000)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 2000
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
- 58 -
14. Requests the Special Rapporteur to consult States, intergovernmental and
non-governmental organizations in the implementation of the current resolution and to report,
with specific recommendations, his findings on the use of mercenaries to undermine the right to
self-determination to the Commission at its fifty-seventh session;
15. Decides to consider at its fifty-seventh session the question of the use of
mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of
peoples to self-determination under the same agenda item.
35th meeting
7 April 2000
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 35 votes to 11,
with 5 abstentions. See chap. V.]
2000/4. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, in
particular the provisions of Articles 1 and 55 thereof, which affirm the right of peoples to
self-determination, and scrupulous respect of the principle of refraining in international relations
from the threat or use of force, as specified in the Declaration on Principles of International Law
concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in Accordance with the Charter of
the United Nations, adopted by the General Assembly in its resolution 2625 (XXV) of
24 October 1970,
Guided also by the provisions of article 1 of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, which affirm that all peoples have the right of self-determination,
Guided further by the provisions of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action
adopted in June 1993 by the World Conference on Human Rights (A/CONF.157/23), and in
particular Part I, paragraphs 2 and 3, relating to the right of self-determination of all peoples and
especially those subject to foreign occupation,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 181 A and B (II) of 29 November 1947 and
194 (III) of 11 December 1948, as well as all other resolutions which confirm and define the
inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, particularly their right to self-determination,
Recalling also its previous resolutions in this regard, the latest of which is its
resolution 1999/55 of 27 April 1999,
Reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination in accordance with
the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, the relevant United Nations resolutions and
- 59 -
declarations, and the provisions of international covenants and instruments relating to the right to
self-determination as an international principle and as a right of all peoples in the world, as it is a
jus cogens in international law,
1. Reaffirms the permanent and unqualified Palestinian right to self-determination,
including the option of a State, and looks forward to the early fulfilment of this right;
2. Requests the Secretary-General to transmit the present resolution to the
Government of Israel and all other Governments, to disseminate it on the widest possible scale
and to make available to the Commission, prior to the convening of its fifty-seventh session, all
information pertaining to the implementation of the present resolution by the Government of
Israel;
3. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-seventh session the item
entitled “The right of peoples to self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial
or alien domination or foreign occupation” and to consider the situation in occupied Palestine
under that agenda item, as a matter of high priority.
35th meeting
7 April 2000
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 44 votes to 1,
with 6 abstentions. See chap. V.]
2000/5. The right to development
The Commission on Human Rights
Guided by the Charter of the United Nations, expressing in particular the determination
to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom as well as to employ
international mechanisms for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all
peoples,
Recalling that the Declaration on the Right to Development adopted by the
General Assembly in its resolution 41/128 of 4 December 1986 confirmed that the right to
development is an inalienable human right and that equality of opportunity for development is a
prerogative both of nations and of individuals, who make up nations,
Noting that the World Conference on Human Rights reaffirmed the right to development
as a universal and inalienable right and an integral part of all fundamental human rights,
Recognizing that the Declaration on the Right to Development constitutes an integral link
between the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Vienna Declaration and Programme
of Action adopted in June 1993 (A/CONF.157/23) through its elaboration of a holistic vision
integrating economic, social and cultural rights with civil and political rights,
E/2001/23
E/CN.4/2001/167
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTY-SEVENTH SESSION
(19 March - 27 April 2001)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 2001
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
- 43 -
7. Reaffirms the responsibility of the United Nations towards the people of
Western Sahara, as provided for in the settlement plan;
8. Also reaffirms its support for further efforts of the Secretary-General for the
organization and the supervision by the United Nations, in cooperation with the Organization of
African Unity, of a referendum on self-determination of the people of Western Sahara that is
impartial and free of all constraints, in conformity with Security Council resolutions 658 (1990)
and 690 (1991), in which the Council approved the settlement plan for Western Sahara;
9. Recalls the relevant Security Council resolutions, including
resolutions 1131 (1997) of 29 September 1997, 1238 (1999) of 14 May 1999, 1263 (1999)
of 13 September 1999 and 1292 (2000) of 29 February 2000, and takes note of Council
resolutions 1301 (2000) of 31 May 2000, 1309 (2000) of 25 July 2000, 1324 (2000)
of 30 October 2000 and 1342 (2001) of 27 February 2001;
10. Notes that the General Assembly has requested the Special Committee on the
Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence
to Colonial Countries and Peoples to continue to consider the situation in Western Sahara,
bearing in mind the positive ongoing implementation of the settlement plan, and to report
thereon to the Assembly at its fifty-sixth session;
11. Also notes that the General Assembly has invited the Secretary-General to submit
to it, at its fifty-sixth session, a report on the implementation of Assembly resolution 55/141.
43rd meeting
6 April 2001
[Adopted without a vote.
See chap. V.]
2001/2. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, in
particular the provisions of Articles 1 and 55 thereof, which affirm the right of peoples to
self-determination, and reaffirming the need for scrupulous respect of the principle of refraining
in international relations from the threat or use of force, as specified in the Declaration on
Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, adopted by the General Assembly in its
resolution 2625 (XXV) of 24 October 1970,
- 44 -
Guided also by the provisions of article 1 of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, which affirm that all peoples have the right to self-determination,
Guided further by the provisions of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action
adopted in June 1993 by the World Conference on Human Rights (A/CONF.157/23), and in
particular Part I, paragraphs 2 and 3, relating to the right of self-determination of all peoples and
especially those subject to foreign occupation,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 181 A and B (II) of 29 November 1947
and 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, as well as all other resolutions which confirm and define the
inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, particularly their right to self-determination,
Recalling also its previous resolutions in this regard, the latest of which is its
resolution 2000/4 of 7 April 2000,
Reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination in accordance with
the Charter of the United Nations, the relevant United Nations resolutions and declarations,
and the provisions of international covenants and instruments relating to the right to
self-determination as an international principle and as a right of all peoples in the world, as
it is a jus cogens in international law, and a basic condition for achieving a just, lasting and
comprehensive peace in the region of the Middle East,
1. Reaffirms the inalienable, permanent and unqualified right of the Palestinian
people to self-determination, including its right to establish its sovereign and independent
Palestinian State, and looks forward to the early fulfilment of this right;
2. Requests the Secretary-General to transmit the present resolution to the
Government of Israel and all other Governments, to disseminate it on the widest possible scale
and to make available to the Commission, prior to the convening of its fifty-eighth session, all
information pertaining to the implementation of the present resolution by the Government of
Israel;
3. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-eighth session the item
entitled “The right of peoples to self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial
or alien domination or foreign occupation” and to consider the situation in occupied Palestine
under that agenda item, as a matter of high priority.
43rd meeting
6 April 2001
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 48 votes to 2,
with 2 abstentions. See chap. V.]
E/2002/23
E/CN.4/2002/200
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTY-EIGHTH SESSION
(18 March-26 April 2002)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 2002
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
- 41 -
2002/3. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, in
particular the provisions of Articles 1 and 55 thereof, which affirm the right of peoples to
self-determination, and reaffirming the need for the scrupulous respect of the principle of
refraining in international relations from the threat or use of force, as specified in the Declaration
on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States,
adopted by the General Assembly in its resolution 2625 (XXV) of 24 October 1970,
Guided also by the provisions of article 1 of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, which affirm that all peoples have the right to self-determination,
Guided further by the provisions of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action
adopted in June 1993 by the World Conference on Human Rights (A/CONF.157/23), and in
particular Part I, paragraphs 2 and 3, relating to the right of self-determination of all peoples and
especially those subject to foreign occupation,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 181 A and B (II) of 29 November 1947
and 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, as well as all other resolutions which confirm and define
the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, particularly their right to self-determination,
Recalling also Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967
and 338 (1973) of 22 October 1973, and taking note of Council resolutions 1397 (2002)
of 12 March 2002 and 1402 (2002) of 30 March 2002,
Recalling further its previous resolutions in this regard, the latest of which is its
resolution 2001/2 of 6 April 2001,
Reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination in accordance with
the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, the relevant United Nations resolutions and
declarations, and the provisions of international covenants and instruments relating to the right to
self-determination as an international principle and as a right of all peoples in the world, as it is a
jus cogens in international law and a basic condition for achieving a just, lasting and
comprehensive peace in the region of the Middle East,
Welcoming and endorsing the Arab peace initiative based on the proposals of
Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia,
1. Reaffirms the inalienable, permanent and unqualified right of the Palestinian
people to self-determination, including their right to establish their sovereign and independent
Palestinian State, and looks forward to the early fulfilment of this right;
- 42 -
2. Requests the Secretary-General to transmit the present resolution to the
Government of Israel and all other Governments, to disseminate it on the widest possible scale
and to make available to the Commission, prior to the convening of its fifty-ninth session, all
information pertaining to the implementation of the present resolution by the Government of
Israel;
3. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-ninth session the item
entitled “The right of peoples to self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial
or alien domination or foreign occupation” and to consider the situation in occupied Palestine
under that agenda item, as a matter of high priority.
37th meeting
12 April 2002
[Adopted by a recorded vote of 52 votes to 1.
See chap. V.]
2002/4. Question of Western Sahara
The Commission on Human Rights,
Having considered in depth the question of Western Sahara,
Reaffirming the inalienable right of all peoples to self-determination and independence,
in accordance with the principles set forth in the Charter of the United Nations and in
General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960, containing the Declaration
on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples,
Taking note of General Assembly resolution 56/69 of 10 December 2001,
Recalling its resolution 2001/1 of 6 April 2001,
Recalling also the agreement in principle given on 30 August 1988 by the Kingdom of
Morocco and the Frente Popular para la Liberación de Saguia el-Hamra y de Río de Oro to the
proposals of the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Chairman of the Assembly of
Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity in the context of their joint
mission of good offices,
Recalling further Security Council resolutions 658 (1990) of 27 June 1990 and
690 (1991) of 29 April 1991, in which the Council approved a settlement plan for
Western Sahara,
Reaffirming the responsibility of the United Nations towards the people of
Western Sahara, as provided for in the settlement plan,
E/2003/23
E/CN.4/2003/135
(17 March-24 April 2003)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 2003
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
- 33 -
2003/3. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, in
particular the provisions of Articles 1 and 55 thereof, which affirm the right of peoples to
self-determination, and reaffirming the need for the scrupulous respect of the principle of
refraining in international relations from the threat or use of force, as specified in the Declaration
on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States,
adopted by the General Assembly in its resolution 2625 (XXV) of 24 October 1970,
Guided also by the provisions of article 1 of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, which affirm that all peoples have the right to self-determination,
Guided further by the provisions of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action,
adopted in June 1993 by the World Conference on Human Rights (A/CONF.157/23), and in
particular Part I, paragraphs 2 and 3, relating to the right of self-determination of all peoples and
especially those subject to foreign occupation,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 181 A and B (II) of 29 November 1947
and 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, as well as all other resolutions which confirm and define the
inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, particularly their right to self-determination,
Recalling also Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967,
338 (1973) of 22 October 1973, 1397 (2002) of 12 March 2002 and 1402 (2002)
of 30 March 2002,
Recalling further its previous resolutions in this regard, the latest of which is its
resolution 2002/3 of 12 April 2002,
Reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination in accordance with
the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, the relevant United Nations resolutions and
declarations, and the provisions of international covenants and instruments relating to the right to
self-determination as an international principle and as a right of all peoples in the world, as it is
a jus cogens in international law and a basic condition for achieving a just, lasting and
comprehensive peace in the region of the Middle East,
1. Reaffirms the inalienable, permanent and unqualified right of the Palestinian
people to self-determination, including their right to establish their sovereign and independent
Palestinian State, and looks forward to the early fulfilment of this right;
2. Requests the Secretary-General to transmit the present resolution to the
Government of Israel and all other Governments, to disseminate it on the widest possible scale
and to make available to the Commission on Human Rights, prior to the convening of its
sixtieth session, all information pertaining to the implementation of the present resolution by the
Government of Israel;
- 34 -
3. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its sixtieth session the item
entitled “The right of peoples to self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial
or alien domination or foreign occupation” and to consider the situation in occupied Palestine
under that agenda item, as a matter of high priority.
47th meeting
14 April 2003
[Adopted by a recorded vote of 51 votes to 1,
with 1 abstention. See chap. V.]
2003/4. Combating defamation of religions
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling that all States have pledged themselves, under the Charter of the
United Nations, to promote and encourage universal respect for and observance of human
rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion,
Recalling also its resolutions 1999/82 of 30 April 1999, 2000/84 of 26 April 2000,
2001/4 of 18 April 2001 and 2002/9 of 15 April 2002,
Reaffirming that discrimination against human beings on the grounds of religion or belief
constitutes an affront to human dignity and a disavowal of the principles of the Charter of the
United Nations,
Convinced that religious and cultural diversity in the globalizing world needs to be used
as a vehicle for complementary creativity and dynamism and not as a rationale for a new
ideological and political confrontation,
Recalling the United Nations Millennium Declaration, adopted by the General Assembly
on 8 September 2000, welcoming the resolve expressed in the Declaration to take measures to
eliminate the increasing acts of racism and xenophobia in many societies and to promote greater
harmony and tolerance in all societies, and looking forward to its effective implementation at all
levels, including in the context of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted in
September 2001 by the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia
and Related Intolerance (A/CONF.189/12),
Welcoming the proclamation by the General Assembly in its resolution 56/6
of 9 November 2001 of the Global Agenda for Dialogue among Civilizations and invites States,
the organizations and bodies of the United Nations system, within existing resources, other
international and regional organizations and civil societies to contribute to the implementation of
the Programme of Action contained in that resolution,
Welcoming also the progress achieved in the follow-up to the Durban Declaration and
Programme of Action,
E/2004/23
E/CN.4/2004/127
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE SIXTIETH SESSION
(15 March-23 April 2004)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 2004
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
22
2004/3. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, in particular
the provisions of Articles 1 and 55 thereof, which affirm the right of peoples to
self-determination, and reaffirming the need for the scrupulous respect of the principle of
refraining in international relations from the threat or use of force, as specified in the Declaration
on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States
in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, adopted by the General Assembly in its
resolution 2625 (XXV) of 24 October 1970,
Guided also by the provisions of article 1 of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, which affirm that all peoples have the right to self-determination,
Guided further by the provisions of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action,
adopted in June 1993 by the World Conference on Human Rights (A/CONF.157/23), and in
particular Part I, paragraphs 2 and 3, relating to the right of self-determination of all peoples and
especially those subject to foreign occupation,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 181 A and B (II) of 29 November 1947
and 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, as well as all other resolutions which confirm and define
the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, particularly their right to self-determination,
Recalling also Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967,
338 (1973) of 22 October 1973, 1397 (2002) of 12 March 2002 and 1402 (2002) of
30 March 2002,
Recalling further its previous resolutions in this regard, the latest of which is
resolution 2003/3 of 14 April 2003,
Reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination in accordance with
the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, the relevant United Nations resolutions and
declarations, and the provisions of international covenants and instruments relating to the right to
self-determination as an international principle and as a right of all peoples in the world, as it is a
jus cogens in international law and a basic condition for achieving a just, lasting and
comprehensive peace in the region of the Middle East,
1. Reaffirms the inalienable, permanent and unqualified right of the Palestinian
people to self-determination, including their right to establish their sovereign and independent
Palestinian State, and looks forward to the early fulfilment of this right;
2. Requests the Secretary-General to transmit the present resolution to the
Government of Israel and all other Governments, to disseminate it on the widest possible scale
and to make available to the Commission, prior to the convening of its sixty-first session, all
information pertaining to the implementation of the present resolution by the Government of
Israel;
23
3. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its sixty-first session the item
entitled “The right of peoples to self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial
or alien domination or foreign occupation” and to consider the situation in occupied Palestine
under that agenda item, as a matter of high priority.
44th meeting
8 April 2004
[Adopted by a recorded vote of 52 votes to 1.
See chap. V.]
2004/4. Question of Western Sahara
The Commission on Human Rights,
Having considered in depth the question of Western Sahara,
Reaffirming the inalienable right of all peoples to self-determination and independence,
in accordance with the principles set forth in the Charter of the United Nations and in
General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960, containing the Declaration on
the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples,
Taking note of General Assembly resolution 58/109 of 9 December 2003,
Recalling its resolution 2003/1 of 14 April 2003,
Recalling also all resolutions of the General Assembly, the Security Council and the
Commission on Human Rights on the question of Western Sahara,
Recalling further Security Council resolutions 658 (1990) of 27 June 1990
and 690 (1991) of 29 April 1991, in which the Council approved the settlement plan for
Western Sahara,
Recalling Security Council resolutions 1359 (2001) of 29 June 2001 and 1429 (2002)
of 30 July 2002, and taking note of resolution 1495 (2003) of 31 July 2003, in which the Council
indicated its support for the peace plan for self-determination of the people of Western Sahara as
an optimum political solution on the basis of agreement between the two parties,
Taking note of the responses of the parties and neighbouring States to the Personal Envoy
of the Secretary-General concerning the peace plan, contained in the report of the
Secretary-General (S/2003/565 and Corr.1),
Reaffirming the responsibility of the United Nations towards the people of
Western Sahara,
Noting with satisfaction the entry into force of the ceasefire in accordance with the
proposal of the Secretary-General, and stressing the importance that it attaches to the
maintenance of the ceasefire as an integral part of the settlement plan,
E/2005/23
E/CN.4/2005/135
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE SIXTY-FIRST SESSION
(14 March-22 April 2005)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 2005
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
16
II. Resolutions and decisions adopted by the Commission
at its sixty-first session and Chairperson’s statements that
the Commission agreed on by consensus at that session
A. RESOLUTIONS
2005/1. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, in
particular the provisions of Articles 1 and 55 thereof, which affirm the right of peoples to
self-determination, and reaffirming the need for the scrupulous respect of the principle of
refraining in international relations from the threat or use of force, as specified in the Declaration
on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States
in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, adopted by the General Assembly in its
resolution 2625 (XXV) of 24 October 1970,
Guided also by the provisions of article 1 of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, which affirm that all peoples have the right to self-determination,
Guided further by the provisions of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action,
adopted in June 1993 by the World Conference on Human Rights (A/CONF.157/23), and in
particular Part I, paragraphs 2 and 3, relating to the right of self-determination of all peoples and
especially those subject to foreign occupation,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 181 A and B (II) of 29 November 1947
and 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, as well as all other resolutions which confirm and define the
inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, particularly their right to self-determination,
Recalling also Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967,
338 (1973) of 22 October 1973, 1397 (2002) of 12 March 2002 and 1402 (2002) of
30 March 2002,
Recalling further its previous resolutions in this regard, the latest of which is
resolution 2004/3 of 8 April 2004,
Reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination in accordance with
the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, the relevant United Nations resolutions and
declarations, and the provisions of international covenants and instruments relating to the right to
self-determination as an international principle and as a right of all peoples in the world, as it is a
jus cogens in international law and a basic condition for achieving a just, lasting and
comprehensive peace in the region of the Middle East,
17
1. Reaffirms the inalienable, permanent and unqualified right of the Palestinian
people to self-determination, including their right to live in freedom, justice and dignity and to
establish their sovereign and independent State;
2. Reaffirms its support for the solution of two States living side by side in peace and
security, Israel and a viable, democratic, sovereign and territorially contiguous Palestine;
3. Urges all Member States and relevant bodies of the United Nations system to
support and assist the Palestinian people in the early realization of their right to
self-determination;
4. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its sixty-second session the item
entitled “The right of peoples to self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial
or alien domination or foreign occupation” and to consider the situation in occupied Palestine
under that agenda item.
38th meeting
7 April 2005
[Resolution adopted by a recorded vote of 49 votes to 1, with 2 abstentions, as follows:
In favour: Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Bhutan, Brazil, Canada, China, Congo, Cuba,
Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Guatemala, Guinea, Honduras,
Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mexico, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria,
Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa,
Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Togo, Ukraine, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Zimbabwe.
Against: United States of America.
Abstaining: Burkina Faso, Costa Rica.
See chap. V, paras. 73 to 78.]
2005/2. The use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and
impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling all of its relevant resolutions, in which, inter alia, it condemned any State that
permitted or tolerated the recruitment, financing, training, assembly, transit and use of
mercenaries with the objective of overthrowing the Governments of States Members of the
United Nations, especially those of developing countries, or of fighting against national
liberation movements, and recalling also the relevant resolutions and international instruments
adopted by the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council
and the Organization of African Unity, inter alia, the Convention of the Organization of
African Unity on the Elimination of Mercenarism in Africa, as well as the African Union,
Reaffirming the purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations
concerning the strict observance of the principles of sovereign equality, political independence,
territorial integrity of States, self-determination of peoples, the non-use of force or threat of use
of force in international relations and non-interference in affairs within the domestic jurisdiction
of States,
CN4/5 ^ ? ^ ^
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1990
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTY-SIXTH SESSION
(29 January-9 March 1990)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1990
SUPPLEMENT No. 2
Su
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1990
E/1990/22
E/CN.4/1990/94
II. RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE
COMMISSION AT ITS FORTY-SIXTH SESSION
Resolutions
1990/1. Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab territories
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling that, in accordance with article 13, paragraph 2 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to leave any
country including his own and to return to his country.
Affirming that the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to all
Palestinian and Arab territories occupied by Israel since including
Jerusalem,
Seriously concerned at the recent suggestions that immigrants to Israel
may be settled in the occupied territories,
1. Affirms that the settling of Israeli civilians in the occupied
territories is illegal and contravenes the relevant provisions of the Fourth
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War,
2. Calls upon the Government of Israel to refrain from settling
immigrants in the occupied territories.
28th meeting
16 Februaty 1990
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 42 to none,
with 1 abstention. See chap. IV.]
1990/2. Question of violations of human rights in occupied Palestine
A
The Commission on Human Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations as well as the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights,
Guided also by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights,
-15-
I »
I
I
II. RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE
COMMISSION AT ITS FORTY-SIXTH SESSION
A. Resolutions
1990/1. Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab territories
The Commission on Hunan Rights,
Recalling that, in accordance with article 13, paragraph 2 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to leave any
country including his own and to return to his country,
Affirming that the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to all
Palestinian and Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including
Jerusalem,
Seriously concerned at the recent suggestions that immigrants to Israel
may be settled in the occupied territories,
I, Affirms that the settling of Israeli civilians in the occupied
territories is illegal and contravenes the relevant provisions of the Fourth
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War,
2. Calls.Don the Government of Israel to refrain from settling
immigrants in the occupied territories,
28th meeting
16 Februaxy1990
[Adopted by a roll-call vote
with l abstention,
of 42 to none,
See chap. IV.]
1990/2. Question of violations of human rights in occupied Palestine
The Commission on. Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations as well as the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights,
Guided also by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights,
-15January-
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTY-SEVENTH SESSION
(28 January--8 March 1991)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1991
SUPPLEMENT No. 2
UNITED NATIONS
E/1991/22
E/CN.4/1991/91
1991/3. Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab territories
The Commission on Rights.
Recalling that, in accordance with article 13, paragraph 2 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to leave any
country including his own and to return to his country.
Reaffirming that the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection
of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to
Palestinian and all Arab territories occupied Israel since 1967, including
Jerusalem,
Recalling its resolution 1999/1 of 16 February 1990,
Gravely concerned at the large-scale establishment, by the Israeli
Government, of settlers, including immigrants, in the occupied territories
which is liable to change the physical character and the demographic
composition of the occupied territories,
1. Reaffirms that the installation of Israeli civilians in the occupied
territories is illegal and constitutes a violation of the relevant provisions
of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons
in Time of War.- of 12 August 1949;
2. Regrets that the Government of Israel did not comply with the
provisions of Commission on Human Rights resolution 1990/1;
3. Urges the Government of Israel to abstain from installing settlers,
including immigrants, in the occupied territories.
28th meeting
15 February 1991
[Adopted by 38 votes to none, with
1 abstention. See chap. IV.]
1991/4. Situation in The Commission on Human Rights.
Recalling its resolutions 1989/23 of 6 March 1989 and 1990/5 of
16 February 1990,
Bearing in mind that one of the fundamental purposes of the
United Nations set forth in the Charter is to develop friendly relations among
nations based en respect for the principle of equal rights and
self-determination of peoples.
-21-
1991/3. Israeli. settlements in the occupied Arab territories
The. Commission on Human Rights.
kecaking that, in accordance with article 13, paragraph 2 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to leave any
country including his own and to return to his country,
Reaffirming that the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection
of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to
Palestinian and all Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including
Jerusalem,
Recalling its resolution 199/1 of 16 February 1990,
Gravely.concerned at the large-scale establishment, by the Israeli
Government, of settlers, including immigrants, in the occupied territories
which is liable to change the physical character and the demographic
composition of the occupied territories,
1. Reaffirms that the installation of Israeli civilians in the occupied
territories is illegal and constitutes a violation of the relevant provisions
of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons
in Time of Mar, of 12 August 1949;
2. BRegrets that the Government of Israel did not comply with the
provisions of Commission on Human Rights resolution 1990/l;
3. Lrgss the Government of Israel to abstain from installing settlers,
including immigrants, in the occupied territories.
28th meeting
15 February 1991
[Adopted by 38 votes to none, with
1 abstention. See chap. Iv,J
1991/4. Situation in Afghanistan
The. Commission on. Human. Rights,
Recaing its resolutions 1989/23 of 6 March 1989 and 1990/5 of
16 February 1990,
Bearing. ia mi.ad that one of the fundamental purposes of the
United Nations set forth in the Charter is to develop friendly relations among
nations based en respect for the principle of equal rights and
self-determination of peoples,
-21El1992/
22
EfCN.4/1992/84
ION REPORT ON THE FOKWEIGHTH (27 January-6 March 1992)
ta
>i
ECONOMlC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
,, ,” ,*,’ I, ’ n j
*>II
OFFllClAL RECORDS, 1992
No. 2
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1992
COMMISSION ON
HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTY-EIGHTH SESSION
(27 January-6 March 1992)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1992
SUPPLEMENT No. 2
8g 3
HS
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1992
«,
. ; ·-,.-·,.·.·,
E/1992/22
E/CN.4/1992/84
El-Khatib Gmar t-.o 726 (1992) of Commission upon oc delay:
6. Recruests General organisations, international humanitarian organizations
governmental organisations, by ninth session:
ninth . meetwg
call 31 1,
17 IV.]
1992f3. Israeli settlements in the occuoisd Arab territories
The Commission on Human Riahts,
Recallinq that, in accordance with article 13, paragraph 2, of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to leave any
country including his own and to return to his country,
Reaffirminq that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to
Palestinian and all Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including
Recall&g its resolutions 199011 3 15 February 1991,
Gravely concerned the large-scale establishment by the Israeli
Government of settlers, including immigrants, in the occupied territories,
which may change the physical character and demographic composition of the
occupied territories,
-25-
Ghassan Mohammad Soleiman Jarrar, Hassan Abdullah Hassan Sha'ban, Ali Fares
Hassan El--Khatib and Omar Nimer Abdelrahman Safi, and calls upon Israel
to comply with the resolutions of the Security Council, particularly
resolution of 6 January 1992, the General Assembly and the
Commission on Human Rights on the question;
5. Calls upon Israel to refrain immediately from deporting Palestinian
citizens from their homeland, and to allow all those who have been deported
since 1967 to return to their homeland without any obstacle or delay;
Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of the Government of Israel and all other Governments, the
competent United Nations organs, the specialized agencies, regional
intergovernmental organizations, and non-governmental organizations, and to report on progress in its
implementation the Government of Israel to the Commission on Human Rights
at its forty-ninth session;
7. Decides to consider the question at its forty-ninth session as a
matter of high priority.
[Adopted by a roll-call
with abstentions.
27th meeting
14 February 1992
vote of to l,
See chap. 1992/3. occupied Rights,
Recalling leave Reaffirming Israel Jerusalem,
Recalling 1990/1 of 16 February 1990, and 1991/3 of
at scale by demographic composition 25zaking
into account for in the process following the Peace Conference on the
1. Reaffirms uccupied illegal provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949;
2. Reurets that the Government of Israel has not complied with the
provisions of Commission on Human Rights resolutions 199011 and 199113;
3. Draes the Government of Israel to abstain from installing settlers,
including immigrants, in the occupied territories.
27th meeting
14 Februarv 1992
[Adopted by 45 votes to none, with
1 abstention. See chap. IV.]
1992/4. Situation in occunied Palestine
The Commission on Human Riahts,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, in particular the provisions of Articles 1 and 55 thereof,
which affirm the right of peoples to self-determination,
Guided also by the provisions of article 1 of the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and article 1 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which affirm that all peoples have the
right of self-determination,
Takina into conslde. ratlon . the provisions of the Declaration on the
Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples adopted by the
General Assembly in its resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960,
Notinq Security Council resolutions 183 (1963) of 11 December 1963
and 218 (1965) of 23 November 1965, which affirmed the interpretation of the
principle of self-determination as laid down in General Assembly /
resolution 1514 (XV),
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 181 A and B (II) of [
29 November 1947 and 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, as well as all other
resolutions which confirm and define the inalienable rights of the Palestinian I
people, particularly their right to self-determination without external
-26-
Taking.into account the need to create the stable environment required
for progress in the negotiation process following the Peace Conference on the
Middle East convened in Madrid on 30 October 1991,
Convinced that the halting by Israel of its policy of settlement would
constitute a meaningful contribution to the creation of that environment,
I. that the installation of Israeli civilians in the
occupied territories is and constitutes a violation of the relevant
provisions Regrets provisions 1990/1 1991/3;
Urges including immigrants, in the occupied territories.
27th meeting
February 1992
[Adopted by 45 votes to none, with
l abstention. See chap. IV.]
1992/4. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, in particular the provisions of Articles 1 and 55 thereof,
which affirm the right of peoples to self-determination,
Guided also by the provisions of article l of the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and article 1 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which affirm that all peoples have the
right of self-determination,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Declaration on the
Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples adopted by the
General Assembly in its resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960,
Noting Security Council resolutions 183 (1963) of 11 December 1963
and 218 (1965) of 23 November 1965, which affirmed the interpretation of the
principle of self-determination as laid down in General Assembly
resolution 1514 (XV),
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 181 A and B (II) of
29 November 1947 and 194 (III) of ll December 1948, as well as
resolutions which confirm and define the inalienable rights of
people, particularly their right to self-determination without
26all
other
the Palestinian
external
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1993
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1993
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FORTY-NINTH SESSION
(1 February-12 March 1993)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1993
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
New York, 1993
E/1993/23
E/CN.4/1993/122
and its continued deliberate disregard for the provisions of the Convention,
in contravention of resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly
and the Commission on Human Rights;
4. Strongly condemns Israel for its grave violations of article 49
of the Convention and for continuing its policy of deporting Palestinian
citizens and of expelling them from their homeland, as happened to more than
four hundred Palestinian citizens on 17 December 1992, and calls upon Israel
to comply with the resolutions of the Council, resolutions 607 (1988) of 5 January 1988, 608 (1988) of 14 January 1988,
636 (1989) of 6 July 1989, 641 (1989) of 30 August 1989, 672 (1990) of
12 October 1990, 681 (1990) of 20 December 1990, 694 (1991) of 24 May 1991,
726 (1992) of 6 January 1992 and 799 (1992) of 18 December 1992, as well as
with the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly and the Commission on
Human Rights, and to refrain from such a which violates the of international law;
5. Calls upon Israel to allow all those who have been deported
since 1967 to return to their homeland without delay in implementation of the
resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission
on Human Rights;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution
to the attention of the Government of Israel and all other Governments,
the competent United Nations organs, the specialized agencies, regional
intergovernmental organizations, international humanitarian organizations
and non-governmental organizations, and to report on progress in its
implementation by the Government of Israel to the Commission on Human at its fiftieth session;
7. Decides to consider the question at its fiftieth session as a
matter of high priority.
29th meeting
19 February 1993
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 27 to 1,
with 19 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
1993/3. Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab territories
The Commission on Human Rights.
Recalling that, in accordance with article 13, 2, of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to leave any
country, including his own, and to return to his country,
Reaffirming that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to
Palestinian and all Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including
Jerusalem,
46 -
and its continued deliberate disregard for the provisions of the Convention,
in contravention of resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly
and the Commission on Human Rights;
4. Strongly condemns Israel for its grave violations of article 49
of the convention and for continuing its policy of deporting Palestinian
citizens and of expelling them from their homeland, as happened to more than
four hundred Palestinian citizens on 17 December 1992, and calls upon Israel
to comply with the resolutions of the Security council, particularly
resolutions 607 (1988) of 5 January 1988, 608 (1988) of 14 January 1988,
636 (1989) of 6 July 1989, 641 (1989) 0f 30 August 1989, 672 (1990) of
12 October 1990, 681 (1990) of 20 December 1990, 694 (1991) of 24 May 1991,
726 (1992) of 6 January 1992 and 799 (1992) of 18 December 1992, as well as
with the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly and the Commission on
Human Rights, and to refrain from such a policy which violates the principles
of international law;
5. Calls upon Israel to allow all those who have been deported
since 1967 to return to their homeland without delay in implementation of the
resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission
on Human Rights;
6. Requggtg the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution
to the attention of the Government of Israel and all other Governments,
the competent United Nations organs, the specialized agencies, regional
intergovernmental organizations, international humanitarian organizations
and non-governmental organizations, and to report on progress in its
implementation by the Government of Israel to the Commission on Human Rights
at its fiftieth session;
7. Decides to consider the question at its fiftieth session as a
matter of high priority.
29th meeting
1g February 1993
(Adopted by a roll-call vote of 27 to l,
with 19 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
1993/3. Israeli,settlements in the occupied Arab territories
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling that, in accordance with article 13, paragraph 2, of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to leave any
country, including his own, and to return to his country,
Reaffirming that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to
Palestinian and all Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including
Jerusalem,
- 4A6
Recalling its resolutions 1990/1 of 16 February 1990, 1991/3 of
15 February 1991 and 1992/3 of 14 February 1992, which, inter alia, reaffirmed
the illegality of the Israeli settlements in the territories,
Government of settlers, in the territories,
Taking into account for progress in the negotiation process following the Peace Conference on the
Middle East convened in Madrid on 30 October 1991,
Convinced that a complete cessation by Israel of its policy of settlement
would constitute a meaningful contribution to the creation of that
environment,
1. Reaffirms that the installation of Israeli civilians in the
occupied territories is illegal and constitutes a violation of the relevant
provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War;
2. Regrets that the Government of Israel has not fully complied with
the provisions of Commission on Human Rights resolutions 1990/1, 1991/3
and 1992/3;
3. the Government of Israel to abstain from installing settlers,
including immigrants, in the occupied territories.
29th meeting
19 [Adopted by a roll-call vote of 46 to 1. See chap. 1993/4. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights.
Guided by the purposes and of the Charter of the
United Nations, in particular the provisions of Articles 1 and 55 thereof,
which affirm the right of peoples to self-determination,
Guided also by the provisions of article 1 of the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural and article 1 of the International
right of self-determination,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Declaration on the
Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and adopted by the
General Assembly in its resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960,
- 47 -
Recalling its resolutions 1990/1 of 16 February 1990, 1991/3 of
15 February 1991 and 1992/3 of 14 February 1992, which, inter alia, reaffirmed
the illegality of the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories,
Gravely concerned at the large-scale establishment by the Israeli
Government of settlers, including immigrants, in the occupied territories,
which may change the physical character and demographic composition of the
occupied territories,
Taina into.account the need to create the stable environment required
for progress in the negotiation process following the Peace Conference on the
Middle East convened in Madrid on 30 October 1991,
Convinced that a complete cessation by Israel of its policy of settlement
would constitute a meaningful contribution to the creation of that
environment,
1. Reaffirms that the installation of Israeli civilians in the
occupied territories is illegal and constitutes a violation of the relevant
provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War;
2. Reqretg that the Government of Israel has not fully complied with
the provisions of Commission on Human Rights resolutions 1990/1, 1991/3
and 1992/3;
3. Urges the Government of Israel to abstain from installing settlers,
including immigrants, in the occupied territories.
19
29th meeting
February 1993
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 46 to
1993/4. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission onHuman Rights,
1. See chap. IV.]
Guided by the purposes and principles of the charter of the
United Nations, in particular the provisions of Articles l and 55 thereof,
which affirm the right of peoples to self-determination,
Guided algg by the provisions of article 1 of the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and article 1 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which affirm that all peoples have the
right of self-determination,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Declaration on the
Granting of Independence to Colonial countries and Peoples adopted by the
General Assembly in its resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960,
- 47COMMISSION
ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTIETH SESSION
(31 January - 11 March 1994)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS. 1994
SUPPLEMENT No. 4
UNITED NATIONS
New York and Geneva, 1994
E/1994/24
E/CN 4/1994/132
II. RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE COMMISSION
AT ITS FIFTIETH SESSION
A. Resolutions
1994/1. Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab territories
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling that, in accordance with article 13, paragraph 2, of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to leave any
country, including his own, and to return to his country,
Reaffirming that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to
Palestinian and all Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including
Jerusalem,
Recalling its resolutions 1990/1 of 16 February 1990, 1991/3 of
15 February 1991, 1992/3 of 14 February 1992 and 1993/3 of 19 February 1993
which, inter alia, reaffirmed the illegality of the Israeli settlements in the
occupied territories,
Gravely concerned at the establishment by the Israeli Government of
settlers in the occupied territories, which may change the physical character
and demographic composition of the occupied territories,
Welcoming the positive development which originated with the
International Peace Conference on the Middle East, convened at Madrid on
30 October 1991, including in particular the Declaration of Principles on
Interim Self-Government Arrangements signed by the Government of Israel and
the Palestine Liberation Organization on 13 September 1993, as well as all the
efforts for the creation of a peaceful and stable environment in the
Middle East,
Noting the report (E/CN.4/1994/14) submitted by the Special Rapporteur
pursuant to resolution 1993/2A of 19 February 1993 and referring to
information provided to him on confiscation of land by the Israeli authorities
before and after the signing of the Declaration of Principles on
13 September 1993,
Convinced that a complete cessation by Israel of its policy of settlement
would constitute, especially at the present stage of the process, a meaningful
contribution to the creation of a peaceful and stable environment,
1. Reaffirms that the installation of Israeli civilians in the
occupied territories is illegal and constitutes a violation of the relevant
provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949;
2. Regrets that the Government of Israel has not fully complied with
the provisions of Commission on Human Rights resolutions 1990/1, 1991/3,
1992/3 and 1993/3;
- 36 -
3. Urges the Government of Israel to abstain from installing any
settlers in the occupied territories.
30th meeting
18 February 1994
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 49 to 1,
with 1 abstention. See chap. IV.]
1994/2. Human rights in the occupied Syrian Golan
The Commission on Human Rights,
Deeply concerned at the suffering of the population of the Syrian and
other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967 and the continued Israeli
military occupation, and that the human rights of the population continue to
be violated,
Recalling Security Council resolution 497 (1981) of 17 December 1981, in
which the Council, inter alia, decided that the Israeli decision to impose its
laws, jurisdiction and administration in the occupied Syrian Golan was null
and void and without international legal effect, and demanded that Israel
should rescind forthwith its decision,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 36/226 B of 17 December 1981,
ES-9/1 of 5 February 1982, 37/88 E of 10 December 1982, 38/79 F of
15 December 1983, 39/95 F of 14 December 1984, 40/161 F of 16 December 1985,
41/63 F of 3 December 1986, 42/160 F of 8 December 1987, 43/21 of
3 November 1988, 43/58 F of 6 December 1988, 44/2 of 6 October 1989, 45/74 F
of 11 December 1990, 46/47 F of 9 December 1991, 47/70 F of 14 December 1992
and 48/41 D of 10 December 1993,
Recalling also General Assembly resolution 3414 (XXX) of 5 December 1975
and other relevant resolutions in which the Assembly, inter alia, demanded the
immediate, unconditional and total withdrawal of Israel from the Arab
territories occupied since 1967,
Recalling further General Assembly resolution 3314 (XXIX) of
14 December 1974, in which it defined an act of aggression,
Reaffirming once more the illegality of Israel's decision of
14 December 1981 to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the
occupied Syrian Golan, which has resulted in the effective annexation of that
territory,
Reaffirming that the acquisition of territory by force is inadmissible
under the principles of international law and under the Charter of the
United Nations and the relevant resolutions of the Security Council and the
General Assembly, and that all territories thus occupied by Israel must be
returned,
Taking note with deep concern of the report of the Special Committee to
Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian
- 37 -
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTY-FIRST SESSION
(30 January - 10 March 1995)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1995
SUPPLEMENT No. 4
UNITED NATIONS
New York and Geneva, 1995
E/1995/23
E/CN.4/1995/176
1995/3. Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab territories
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling that, in accordance with article 13, paragraph 2, of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to leave any
country, including his own, and to return to his country,
Reaffirming that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to
Palestinian and all Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including
Jerusalem,
Recalling its resolutions 1990/1 of 16 February 1990, 1991/3 of
15 February 1991, 1992/3 of 14 February 1992, 1993/3 of 19 February 1993 and
1994/1 of 18 February 1994 which, inter alia, reaffirmed the illegality of the
Israeli settlements in the occupied territories,
Gravely concerned at the continued establishment by the Israeli
Government and at its allowing the establishment of settlers in the
occupied territories, which may change the physical character and demographic
composition of the occupied territories,
Welcoming the positive development which originated with the
International Peace Conference on the Middle East, convened in Madrid on
30 October 1991, including in particular the Declaration of Principles on
Interim Self-Government Arrangements signed in Washington by the Government of
Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization on 13 September 1993 and the
subsequent Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area, signed in Cairo
by the same parties on 4 May 1994, as well as all their continuing efforts for
the creation of a peaceful and stable environment in the Middle East,
Noting the report (E/CN.4/1995/19) submitted by the Special Rapporteur
pursuant to resolution 1993/2 A of 19 February 1993, in which he refers,
inter alia, to the continued resort to expropriation and to the expansion of
existing settlements,
Convinced that a complete cessation by Israel of its policy of expanding
the settlements would constitute, especially at the present stage of the peace
process, a meaningful contribution to the creation of a peaceful and stable
environment,
1. Reaffirms that the installation of Israeli civilians in the
occupied territories is illegal and constitutes a violation of the relevant
provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949;
2. Regrets that the Government of Israel has not fully complied with
the provisions of Commission on Human Rights resolutions 1990/1, 1991/3,
1992/3, 1993/3 and 1994/1;
-45-
3. Urges the Government of Israel to abstain fully from installing any
settlers in the occupied territories and to prevent any new installation of
settlers in these territories.
29th meeting
17 February 1995
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 46 votes to 1,
with 3 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
1995/4. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, in particular the provisions of Articles 1 and 55 thereof,
which affirm the right of peoples to self-determination, and scrupulous
respect of the principle of refraining in international relations from the
threat or use of force, as specified in the Declaration on Principles of
International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States
in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations adopted by the
General Assembly in its resolution 2625 (XXV) of 24 October 1970,
Guided also by the provisions of article 1 of the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and article 1 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which affirm that all peoples have the
right to self-determination,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Declaration on the
Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, adopted by the
General Assembly in its resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960,
Guided by the provisions of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of
Action (A/CONF.157/23) adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights, and in
particular part I, paragraphs 2 and 3, relating to the right to
self-determination of all peoples and especially those subject to foreign
occupation,
Noting Security Council resolutions 183 (1963) of 11 December 1963 and
218 (1965) of 23 November 1965, which affirmed the interpretation of the
principle of self-determination as laid down in General Assembly
resolution 1514 (XV),
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 181 A and B (II) of
29 November 1947 and 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, as well as all other
resolutions which confirm and define the inalienable rights of the Palestinian
people, particularly their right to self-determination without external
interference and to the establishment of their independent State on their
national soil, especially Assembly resolutions ES-7/2 of 29 July 1980 and
37/86 E of 20 December 1982,
Reaffirming its previous resolutions in this regard, including the
latest, resolution 1994/5 of 18 February 1994,
-46-
E/1996/23
E/CN.4/1996/177
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTY-SECOND SESSION
(18 March-26 April 1996)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1996
SUPPLEMENT NO. 3
UNITED NATIONS
8. Decides to consider the question at its fifty-third session, as a
matter of high priority.
34th meeting
11 April 1996
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 27 votes to 2,
with 23 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
1996/4. Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab territories
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling that, in accordance with article 13, paragraph 2, of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to leave any
country, including his own, and to return to his country,
Reaffirming that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, is applicable to
Palestinian and all Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including
Jerusalem,
Recalling its resolutions 1990/1 of 16 February 1990, 1991/3 of
15 February 1991, 1992/3 of 14 February 1992, 1993/3 of 19 February 1993,
1994/1 of 18 February 1994 and 1995/3 of 17 February 1995 in which,
inter alia, it reaffirmed the illegality of the Israeli settlements in the
occupied territories, and noting that Israel has not fully complied with the
provisions of those resolutions,
Welcoming the positive development that originated with the International
Peace Conference on the Middle East convened in Madrid on 30 October 1991,
including in particular the Declaration of Principles on Interim
Self-Government Arrangements signed in Washington by the Government of Israel
and the Palestine Liberation Organization on 13 September 1993 as well
as the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip signed in
Washington by the same parties on 28 September 1995, followed by the partial
redeployment of the Israeli army from the main Palestinian towns and the
democratic election of the Palestinian Council and President of the
Palestinian Authority,
Condemning in the strongest terms all acts of terrorism, and calling on
the Parties not to allow them to affect the ongoing peace process negatively,
Noting with appreciation the report (E/CN.4/1996/18) submitted by
the Special Rapporteur pursuant to resolution 1993/2 A of 19 February 1993,
in which he recommends, inter alia, that the confiscation of Palestinian-owned
land and the construction or expansion of settlements should be halted
immediately,
Noting that the question of the Israeli settlements in the occupied
territories will be addressed during the negotiations on the final status of
the territories, which will start not later than May 1996, and convinced in
this regard that a complete cessation by Israel of its policy of expanding the
- 43 -
settlements, which may change the physical character and demographic
composition of the occupied territories, would greatly facilitate those
negotiations,
1. Reaffirms that the installation of Israeli civilians in the
occupied territories is illegal and constitutes a violation of the relevant
provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949;
2. Reiterates its request to the Government of Israel to comply fully
with the provisions of Commission resolutions 1990/1, 1991/3, 1992/3, 1993/3,
1994/1 and 1995/3;
3. Urges the Government of Israel to abstain from installing any
settlers in the occupied territories and to prevent any new installation of
settlers in these territories.
34th meeting
11 April 1996
[Adopted by 49 votes to 1, with 3 abstentions.
See chap. IV.]
1996/5. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, in particular the provisions of Articles 1 and 55 thereof,
which affirm the right of peoples to self-determination, and scrupulous
respect of the principle of refraining in international relations from the
threat or use of force, as specified in the Declaration on Principles of
International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States
in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, adopted by the
General Assembly in its resolution 2625 (XXV) of 24 October 1970,
Guided also by the provisions of article 1 of the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and article 1 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which affirm that all peoples have the
right to self-determination,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Declaration on the
Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, adopted by the
General Assembly in its resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960,
Guided by the provisions of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of
Action (A/CONF.157/23), adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights, and
in particular Part I, paragraphs 2 and 3, relating to the right to
self-determination of all peoples and especially those subject to foreign
occupation,
- 44 -
E/1997/23
E/CN.4/1997/150
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTYTHIRD
SESSION
(10 March18
April 1997)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1997
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
49
void,
constitute a flagrant violation of international law and of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War, of 12 August 1949, and have no legal effect;
5. Calls once again upon Member States not to recognize any of the
legislative or administrative measures and actions referred to in the present
resolution;
6. Requests the SecretaryGeneral
to bring the present resolution to
the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations and
international humanitarian organizations and to give it the widest possible
publicity, and to report to the Commission on Human Rights at its fiftyfourth
session;
7. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fiftyfourth
session, as a matter of high priority, the item entitled “Question of the
violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including
Palestine”.
26th meeting
26 March 1997
[Adopted by a rollcall
vote of 26 votes to 1,
with 23 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
1997/3. Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab territories
The Commission on Human Rights,
Reaffirming that all Member States have an obligation to promote and
protect human rights and fundamental freedoms as stated in the Charter of the
United Nations and as elaborated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
the International Covenants on Human Rights and other applicable instruments,
Mindful that Israel is a party to the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, which is
applicable to Palestinian and all Arab territories occupied by Israel since
1967, including East Jerusalem,
Recalling its previous resolutions, most recently resolution 1996/4 of
11 April 1996, in which, inter alia, it reaffirmed the illegality of the
Israeli settlements in the occupied territories,
1. Welcomes
(a) The positive developments that originated with the International
Peace Conference on the Middle East convened in Madrid on 30 October 1991,
including in particular the Declaration of Principles on Interim
SelfGovernment
Arrangements signed in Washington by the Government of Israel
and the Palestine Liberation Organization on 13 September 1993 as well as the
Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip signed in Washington by
the same parties on 28 September 1995;
50
(
b) The recent step towards the further implementation of the relevant
agreements, through the signing of the Protocol concerning the Redeployment in
Hebron;
(c) The report (E/CN.4/1997/16) submitted by the Special Rapporteur
pursuant to Commission resolution 1993/2 A of 19 February 1993;
2. Expresses its deep concern
(a) At the Israeli settlement activities, including the expansion of
settlements, the installation of settlers in the occupied territories, the
expropriation of land, the demolition of houses, the confiscation of property,
the expulsion of local residents and the construction of bypass roads, which
change the physical character and demographic composition of the occupied
territories, including East Jerusalem, since they are illegal, constitute a
violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, and are a major obstacle to peace;
(b) At and strongly condemns all acts of terrorism, whilst calling
upon all parties not to allow any acts of terrorism to affect the ongoing
peace process negatively;
3. Calls upon the Government of Israel
(a) To comply fully with the provisions of previous Commission
resolutions on the subject, most recently resolution 1996/4 of 11 April 1996;
(b) To cease completely its policy of expanding the settlements and
related activities in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem;
(c) To forgo and prevent any new installation of settlers in the
occupied territories;
(d) To address the question of the Israeli settlements in the occupied
territories during the negotiations on the final status of the territories,
which are due to resume within two months after implementation of the Protocol
concerning the Redeployment in Hebron.
26th meeting
26 March 1997
[Adopted by a rollcall
vote of 47 votes to 1,
with 2 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
1997/4. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, in particular the provisions of Articles 1 and 55 thereof,
which affirm the right of peoples to selfdetermination,
and scrupulous
respect of the principle of refraining in international relations from the
threat or use of force, as specified in the Declaration on Principles of
E/1998/23
E/CN.4/1998/177
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTYFOURTH
SESSION
(16 March24
April 1998)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1998
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
43
1998/
3. Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab territories
The Commission on Human Rights,
Reaffirming that all Member States have an obligation to promote and
protect human rights and fundamental freedoms as stated in the Charter of the
United Nations and as elaborated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
the International Covenants on Human Rights and other applicable instruments,
Mindful that Israel is a party to the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, which is
applicable to Palestinian and all Arab territories occupied by Israel
since 1967, including East Jerusalem,
Recalling its previous resolutions, most recently resolution 1997/3 of
26 March 1997, in which, inter alia, it reaffirmed the illegality of the
Israeli settlements in the occupied territories,
1. Welcomes the report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of
human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967
(E/CN.4/1998/17);
2. Expresses its grave concern
(a) At the Israeli settlement activities, including the expansion of
the settlements, the installation of settlers in the occupied territories, the
expropriation of land, the demolition of houses, the confiscation of property,
the expulsion of local residents and the construction of bypass roads, which
change the physical character and demographic composition of the occupied
territories, including East Jerusalem, since they are illegal, constitute a
violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War and are a major obstacle to peace;
(b) At and strongly condemns all acts of terrorism, whilst calling
upon all parties not to allow any acts of terrorism to affect the ongoing
peace process negatively;
3. Calls upon the Government of Israel
(a) To comply fully with the previous Commission resolutions on the
subject, most recently resolution 1997/3;
(b) To match its stated commitment to the peace process with concrete
actions to fulfil its obligations and cease completely its policy of expanding
the settlements and related activities in the occupied territories, including
East Jerusalem;
(c) To forgo and prevent any new installation of settlers in the
occupied territories.
20th meeting
27 March 1998
[Adopted by 51 votes to 1. See chap. IV.]
E/1999/23
E/CN.4/1999/167
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTY-FIFTH SESSION
(22 March 30
April 1999)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1999
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
¢
/ /
... '
7<e44
1999/
7. Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab territories
The Commission on Human Rights,
Reaffirming that all Member States have an obligation to promote and
protect human rights and fundamental freedoms as stated in the Charter of the
United Nations and as elaborated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
the International Covenants on Human Rights and other applicable instruments,
Mindful that Israel is a party to the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, which is
applicable to Palestinian and all Arab territories occupied by Israel
since 1967, including East Jerusalem,
Recalling its previous resolutions, most recently resolution 1998/3
of 27 March 1998, in which, inter alia, it reaffirmed the illegality of the
Israeli settlements in the occupied territories,
1. Welcomes:
(a) The Wye River Memorandum of 23 October 1998 and calls for the
full implementation of the Memorandum, as well as of the IsraeliPalestinian
Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip of 28 September 1995
and other related agreements;
(b) The report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human
rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 (E/CN.4/1999/24) and
expresses its regret at the lack of cooperation on the part of the Government
of Israel with the Special Rapporteur;
2. Expresses its grave concern:
(a) At the Israeli settlement activities and their increase since
the signing of the Wye River Memorandum, including the expansion of the
settlements, the installation of settlers in the occupied territories, the
expropriation of land, the demolition of houses, the confiscation of property,
the expulsion of local residents and the construction of bypass roads, which
change the physical character and demographic composition of the occupied
territories, including East Jerusalem and, since they are illegal, constitute
a violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War and are a major obstacle to peace;
(b) At and strongly condemns all acts of terrorism, whilst calling
upon all parties not to allow any acts of terrorism to affect the ongoing
peace process negatively;
3. Urges the Government of Israel:
(a) To comply fully with the previous Commission resolutions on the
subject, most recently resolution 1998/3 of 27 March 1998;
45
(
b) To match its stated commitment to the peace process with concrete
actions to fulfil its obligations and cease completely its policy of expanding
the settlements and related activities in the occupied territories, including
East Jerusalem;
(c) To forgo and prevent any new installation of settlers in the
occupied territories;
4. Decides to continue its consideration of this question at its
fiftysixth
session.
50th meeting
23 April 1999
[Adopted by a rollcall
vote of 50 votes to 1,
with 2 abstentions. See chap. VIII.]
1999/8. Human rights in Cuba
The Commission on Human Rights,
Reaffirming the obligation of all Member States to promote and protect
human rights and fundamental freedoms as stated in the Charter of the
United Nations and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
Mindful that Cuba is a party to the International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
and the Convention on the Rights of the Child,
Reasserting the Commission's obligation to promote and protect human
rights on the basis of the universal nature of the Declaration, in all
countries of the world, independently from other bilateral or regional issues
affecting the country in question,
Expressing its concern at the continued violation of human rights and
fundamental freedoms in Cuba, such as freedom of expression, association and
assembly and rights associated with the administration of justice, despite the
expectations raised by some positive steps taken by the Government of Cuba in
the past few years,
Considering the urgent need to adopt the necessary measures to ensure
full respect for human rights in Cuba and to contribute to developing a more
pluralistic society and a more efficient economy, and considering also the
willingness of the international community to assist therein,
1. Welcomes the fact that the Government of Cuba has taken the first
steps towards the opening of society for religious institutions, and expects
that Cuban citizens will be granted the right to freedom of religion and
belief;
2. Encourages the Government of Cuba to continue to allow thematic
special rapporteurs to visit Cuba;
E/2000/23
E/CN.4/2000/167
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTY-SIXTH SESSION
(20 March 28 April 2000)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 2000
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
- 68 -
5. Calls once again upon Member States not to recognize any of the legislative or
administrative measures and actions referred to above;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the attention of
all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized agencies, regional
intergovernmental organizations and international humanitarian organizations and to give it the
widest possible publicity, and to report to the Commission on Human Rights at its
fifty-seventh session;
7. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-seventh session, as a
matter of high priority, the item entitled “Question of the violation of human rights in the
occupied Arab territories, including Palestine”.
52nd meeting
17 April 2000
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 31 votes to 1,
with 19 abstentions. See chap. VIII.]
2000/8. Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab territories
The Commission on Human Rights,
Reaffirming that all Member States have an obligation to promote and protect human
rights and fundamental freedoms as stated in the Charter of the United Nations and as elaborated
in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on Human Rights
and other applicable instruments,
Mindful that Israel is a party to the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, which is applicable to Palestinian and all
Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including East Jerusalem,
Recalling its previous resolutions, most recently resolution 1999/7 of 23 April 1999, in
which, inter alia, it reaffirmed the illegality of the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories,
1. Welcomes:
(a) The Sharm el Sheikh memorandum of 4 September 1999, while noting with
concern the delays in its implementation, and calls for the full implementation of the
memorandum, as well as of the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip of 28 September 1995 and other related agreements;
(b) The report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the
Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967 (E/CN.4/2000/25) and hopes that the
Government of Israel will cooperate with the Special Rapporteur to allow him fully to discharge
his mandate;
- 69 -
2. Expresses its grave concern:
(a) At the continuing Israeli settlement activities, in spite of the Government’s
moratorium on new construction permits, including the expansion of the settlements, the
installation of settlers in the occupied territories, the expropriation of land, the demolition of
houses, the confiscation of property, the expulsion of local residents and the construction of
bypass roads, which change the physical character and demographic composition of the occupied
territories, including East Jerusalem, since all these actions are illegal, constitute a violation of
the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and are a
major obstacle to peace;
(b) At and strongly condemns all acts of terrorism, whilst calling upon all parties not
to allow any acts of terrorism to affect the ongoing peace process negatively;
3. Urges the Government of Israel:
(a) To comply fully with the previous Commission resolutions on the subject, most
recently resolution 1999/7 of 23 April 1999;
(b) To match its stated commitment to the peace process with concrete actions to
fulfil its obligations and cease completely its policy of expanding the settlements and related
activities in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem;
(c) To forgo and prevent any new installation of settlers in the occupied territories;
4. Decides to continue its consideration of this question at its fifty-seventh session.
52nd meeting
17 April 2000
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 50 votes to 1,
with 1 abstention. See chap. VIII.]
2000/9. Question of the realization in all countries of the economic, social and
cultural rights contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights, and study of special problems which the developing countries
face in their efforts to achieve these human rights
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the principles relating to economic, social and cultural rights enshrined in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights,
Recalling its previous resolutions on the realization of economic, social and cultural
rights, including resolution 1998/33 of 17 April 1998, in which it decided, inter alia, as part of
E/2001/23
E/CN.4/2001/167
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTY-SEVENTH SESSION
(19 March - 27 April 2001)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 2001
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
- 66 -
17. Decides to consider this question at its fifty-eighth session under the same agenda
item, as a matter of high priority.
61st meeting
18 April 2001
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 28 votes to 2,
with 22 abstentions. See chap. VIII.]
2001/8. Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab territories
The Commission on Human Rights,
Reaffirming that all Member States have an obligation to promote and protect human
rights and fundamental freedoms as stated in the Charter of the United Nations and as elaborated
in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on Human Rights
and other applicable instruments,
Mindful that Israel is a party to the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, which is applicable to Palestinian and all
Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including East Jerusalem,
Recalling its previous resolutions, most recently resolution 2000/8 of 17 April 2000, in
which, inter alia, it reaffirmed the illegality of the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories,
Expressing its concern regarding the security risks related to the presence of the
settlements in the occupied territories,
1. Welcomes:
(a) The reports of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the
Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967 (E/CN.4/S-5/3 and E/CN.4/2001/30) and
calls upon the Government of Israel to cooperate with the Special Rapporteur to allow him fully
to discharge his mandate;
(b) The report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on
her visit to the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel, Egypt and Jordan from 8 to
16 November 2000 (E/CN.4/2001/114);
(c) The report of the Human Rights Inquiry Commission established pursuant to
Commission on Human Rights resolution S-5/1 of 19 October 2000 (E/CN.4/2001/121);
2. Expresses its grave concern:
(a) At the continuing Israeli settlement activities, including the expansion of the
settlements, the installation of settlers in the occupied territories, the expropriation of land, the
- 67 -
demolition of houses, the confiscation of property, the expulsion of Palestinians and the
construction of bypass roads, which change the physical character and demographic composition
of the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem, since all these actions are illegal, constitute
a violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War and are a major obstacle to peace;
(b) At and strongly condemns all acts of terrorism and violence;
(c) At the closures of and within the Palestinian territories which contribute, together
with other factors, to the unrest and violence that have been prevailing in the zone for several
months;
3. Urges the Government of Israel:
(a) To comply fully with the previous Commission resolutions on the subject, most
recently resolution 2000/8 of 17 April 2000;
(b) To take concrete actions to fulfil its obligations and cease completely its policy
of expanding the settlements and related activities in the occupied territories, including
East Jerusalem;
(c) To forgo and prevent any new installation of settlers in the occupied territories;
(d) To implement the recommendations regarding the settlements made by the
High Commissioner in her report, including to ensure that the Israeli security forces protect
Palestinians from violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers;
4. Urges the parties to create the conditions which will allow the resumption of the
peace process, building on the full implementation of previous agreements and the progress that
was made on all major issues during the last negotiations between the Government of Israel and
the Palestinian Authority, in order to find a just and lasting peace based on Security Council
resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967 and 338 (1973) of 22 October 1973 and other
relevant United Nations resolutions, including the inadmissibility of acquisition of territory by
war, the need for every State in the area to be able to live in security, and the principle of land for
peace;
5. Decides to continue its consideration of this question at its fifty-eighth session.
6lst meeting
18 April 2001
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 50 votes to 1,
with 1 abstention. See chap. VIII.]
E/2002/23
E/CN.4/2002/200
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTY-EIGHTH SESSION
(18 March-26 April 2002)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 2002
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
- 49 -
5. Calls once again upon Member States not to recognize any of the legislative or
administrative measures and actions referred to above;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the attention of
all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized agencies, regional
intergovernmental organizations and international humanitarian organizations and to give it
the widest possible publicity, and to report to the Commission at its fifty-ninth session;
7. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-ninth session, as a matter
of high priority, the item entitled “Question of the violation of human rights in the occupied
Arab territories, including Palestine”.
37th meeting
12 April 2002
[Adopted by a recorded vote of 34 votes to 1,
with 18 abstentions. See chap. VIII.]
2002/7. Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab territories
The Commission on Human Rights,
Reaffirming that all Member States have an obligation to promote and protect human
rights and fundamental freedoms, as stated in the Charter of the United Nations and as elaborated
in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on Human Rights
and other applicable instruments,
Mindful that Israel is a party to the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, which is applicable to Palestinian and all
Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including East Jerusalem, and recalling the
declaration adopted by the Conference of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva
Convention, held in Geneva on 5 December 2001,
Recalling its previous resolutions, most recently resolution 2001/8 of 18 April 2001, and
taking note of General Assembly resolution 56/61 of 10 December 2001, in which, inter alia, the
illegality of the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories was reaffirmed,
Expressing its concern regarding the security threats related to the presence of the
settlements in the occupied territories, as expressed in the report of the Sharm el-Sheikh
Fact-Finding Committee (the Mitchell Report),
1. Welcomes the report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in
the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 (E/CN.4/2002/32) and calls upon the Government
of Israel to cooperate with the Special Rapporteur to allow him fully to discharge his mandate;
- 50 -
2. Expresses its grave concern:
(a) At the dramatic escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has led to a
spiral of anger, hatred and further violence, and to increased suffering for both Israelis and
Palestinians;
(b) At the continuing Israeli settlement activities, including the expansion of the
settlements, the installation of settlers in the occupied territories, the expropriation of land,
including agricultural land, the demolition of houses, the confiscation or destruction of property,
the expulsion of Palestinians and the construction of bypass roads, which change the physical
character and demographic composition of the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem,
since all these actions are illegal, constitute a violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and are a major obstacle to peace;
(c) At and strongly condemns all acts of violence, including all acts of terror,
provocation, incitement and destruction, in particular the indiscriminate terrorist attacks over the
past weeks, killing and injuring civilians;
(d) At the closures of and within the Palestinian territories and the restriction of the
freedom of movement of the Palestinians, which contribute, together with other factors, to the
intolerable level of violence that has been prevailing in the zone for more than a year;
3. Urges the Government of Israel:
(a) To comply fully with the previous Commission resolutions on the subject, most
recently resolution 2001/8;
(b) To reverse its settlement policy in the occupied territories, including
East Jerusalem, and to stop the expansion of existing settlements, including “natural growth”
and related activities;
(c) To prevent any new installation of settlers in the occupied territories;
(d) To implement the recommendations regarding the settlements made by the
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in her report to the Commission at its
fifty-seventh session on her visit to the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel, Egypt and
Jordan (E/CN.4/2001/114);
(e) To take and implement measures, including confiscation of arms, with the aim of
preventing illegal acts of violence by Israeli settlers, and other measures to guarantee the safety
and protection of the Palestinian civilians in the occupied territories;
4. Urges the parties to implement immediately Security Council
resolutions 1397 (2002) of 12 March 2002 and 1402 (2002) of 30 March 2002, and calls for the
Israeli and Palestinian sides and their leaders to cooperate in the implementation of the
Palestinian-Israeli security work plan (Tenet ceasefire plan) and the Mitchell Report
- 51 -
recommendations with the aim of resuming negotiations on a political settlement based on
Council resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967, 338 (1973) of 22 October 1973,
1397 (2002) , 1402 (2002), 1403 (2002) of 4 April 2002 and other relevant United Nations
resolutions, the principles of the Peace Conference on the Middle East, held in Madrid
on 30 October 1991, the Oslo Accords and subsequent agreements, including the inadmissibility
of acquisition of territory by war, the end to the occupation of 1967 and the principle of land for
peace, which will allow two States, Israel and Palestine, to live in peace and security and play
their full part in the region;
5. Decides to continue its consideration of this question at its fifty-ninth session.
38th meeting
12 April 2002
[Adopted by a recorded vote of 52 votes to 1.
See chap. VIII.]
2002/8. Question of the violation of human rights in the
occupied Arab territories, including Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations as well as by
the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
Recalling Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967 and 338 (1973)
of 22 October 1973, and taking note of Council resolutions 1397 (2002) of 12 March 2002,
1402 (2002) of 30 March 2002 and 1403 (2002) of 4 April 2002 that called upon both parties to
move immediately to a meaningful ceasefire, as well as for withdrawal of Israeli troops and for
an immediate cessation of all acts of violence, including all acts of terror, provocation,
incitement and destruction,
Guided by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
Taking into consideration the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, the provisions of Additional
Protocol I thereto of 1977 and the Hague Convention IV of 1907,
Recalling the resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the
Commission on Human Rights relating to the applicability of the Geneva Convention relative to
the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to the occupied Palestinian territory, including
East Jerusalem,
E/2003/23
E/CN.4/2003/135
(17 March-24 April 2003)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 2003
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
- 43 -
18. Also calls once again upon Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory,
including East Jerusalem, occupied since 1967, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the
United Nations and the Commission on Human Rights, as a basic condition for achieving a just,
lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East;
19. Calls upon the relevant United Nations organs urgently to consider the best ways
to provide the necessary international protection for the Palestinian people until the cessation of
the Israeli occupation of its territory;
20. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the attention of
the Government of Israel and all other Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the
specialized agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations and international humanitarian
organizations, to disseminate it on the widest possible scale and to report on its implementation
by the Government of Israel to the Commission on Human Rights at its sixtieth session;
21. Also requests the Secretary-General to provide the Commission with all
United Nations reports issued between the sessions of the Commission that deal with the
conditions in which the citizens of the Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories are living
under the Israeli occupation;
22. Decides to consider this question at its sixtieth session under the same agenda
item, as a matter of high priority.
48th meeting
15 April 2003
[Adopted by a recorded vote of 33 votes to 5,
with 15 abstentions. See chap. VIII.]
2003/7. Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab territories
The Commission on Human Rights,
Reaffirming that all States have an obligation to promote and protect human rights and
fundamental freedoms, as stated in the Charter of the United Nations and as elaborated in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on Human Rights and other
applicable instruments,
Mindful that Israel is a party to the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, which is applicable de jure to Palestinian
and all Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including East Jerusalem, and recalling
the declaration adopted by the Conference of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva
Convention, held in Geneva on 5 December 2001,
Recalling its previous resolutions, most recently resolution 2002/7 of 12 April 2002, and
taking note of General Assembly resolution 57/126 of 11 December 2002, in which, inter alia,
the illegality of the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories was reaffirmed,
- 44 -
Expressing its concern that continuing Israeli settlement activity undermines the
realization of a two-State solution to the conflict, and therefore threatens the long-term security
of Palestinians as well as Israelis,
Expressing its concern also regarding the security threats related to the presence of the
settlements in the occupied territories, as expressed in the report of the Sharm el-Sheikh
Fact-Finding Committee (the Mitchell Report),
1. Welcomes the report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in
the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 (E/CN.4/2003/30 and Add.1) and calls upon the
Government of Israel to cooperate with the Special Rapporteur to allow him fully to discharge
his mandate;
2. Expresses its grave concern at:
(a) The continuation, at an escalated level, of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which
has led to a seemingly endless spiral of hatred and violence and to increased suffering for both
Israelis and Palestinians;
(b) The continuing Israeli settlement activities, including the illegal installation of
settlers in the occupied territories and related activities, such as the expansion of settlements, the
expropriation of land, the demolition of houses, the confiscation and destruction of property, the
expulsion of Palestinians and the construction of bypass roads, which change the physical
character and demographic composition of the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem,
and constitute a violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons
in Time of War; settlements are a major obstacle to peace and to the creation of an independent,
viable, sovereign and democratic Palestinian State in accordance with Security Council
resolution 1397 (2002) of 12 March 2002;
(c) And strongly condemns all acts of violence, including indiscriminate terrorist
attacks killing and injuring civilians, provocation, incitement and destruction;
(d) The closures of and within the Palestinian territories and the restriction of the
freedom of movement of the Palestinians, including the extensive curfews imposed on the
West Bank cities for long periods of time, which contribute, together with other factors, to the
intolerable level of violence that has been prevailing in the zone for more than two years, have
caused an extremely precarious humanitarian situation for the civilian population and have a
negative impact on the enjoyment of economic and social rights in the Palestinian territories,
affecting in particular the most vulnerable groups of the population;
(e) The construction of the so-called security fence in the Palestinian territories,
including in and around East Jerusalem;
3. Urges the Government of Israel:
(a) To comply fully with the previous Commission resolutions on the subject, most
recently resolution 2002/7;
- 45 -
(b) To reverse its settlement policy in the occupied territories, including
East Jerusalem, and, as a first step towards their dismantlement, to stop immediately the
expansion of existing settlements, including “natural growth” and related activities;
(c) To prevent any new installation of settlers in the occupied territories;
(d) To stop the construction of the so-called security fence in the Palestinian
territories, including in and around East Jerusalem, and other illegal activities, such as
confiscation of land or demolition of houses, that it entails;
(e) To implement the recommendations regarding the settlements made by the
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in her report to the Commission at its
fifty-seventh session on her visit to the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel, Egypt and
Jordan (E/CN.4/2001/114);
(f) To take and implement serious measures, including confiscation of arms and
enforcement of criminal sanctions, with the aim of preventing illegal acts of violence by Israeli
settlers, and other measures to guarantee the safety and protection of the Palestinian civilians in
the occupied territories;
4. Urges the parties to cooperate in the early and unconditional implementation,
without modifications, of the “road map” endorsed by the “Quartet”* with the aim of resuming
negotiations on a political settlement, which is in accordance with the resolutions of the
Security Council and other relevant United Nations resolutions, the principles of the
Peace Conference on the Middle East, held in Madrid on 30 October 1991, the Oslo Accords
and subsequent agreements, which will allow two States, Israel and Palestine, to live in peace
and security and play their full part in the region;
5. Decides to continue its consideration of this question at its sixtieth session.
48th meeting
15 April 2003
[Adopted by a recorded vote of 50 votes to 1,
with 2 abstentions. See chap. VIII.]
2003/8. Human rights situation of the Lebanese detainees in Israel
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling the report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of Security Council
resolutions 425 (1978) and 426 (1978) of 19 March 1978 (S/2000/460), in particular
paragraphs 7, 8, 12, 14, 16, 17, 21 and 48, endorsed by the Council (S/PRST/2000/18),
* United States of America, the European Union, the Russian Federation and the
United Nations.
E/2004/23
E/CN.4/2004/127
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE SIXTIETH SESSION
(15 March-23 April 2004)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 2004
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
35
2. Also calls upon Israel to desist from changing the physical character,
demographic composition, institutional structure and legal status of the occupied Syrian Golan,
and emphasizes that the displaced persons of the population of the occupied Syrian Golan must
be allowed to return to their homes and to recover their properties;
3. Further calls upon Israel to desist from imposing Israeli citizenship and Israeli
identity cards on the Syrian citizens in the occupied Syrian Golan and to desist from its
repressive measures against them, and from all other practices mentioned in the report of the
Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian
People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories;
4. Determines that all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken or to
be taken by Israel, the occupying Power, that purport to alter the character and legal status of the
occupied Syrian Golan are null and void, constitute a flagrant violation of international law and
of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and have
no legal effect;
5. Calls once again upon Member States not to recognize any of the legislative or
administrative measures and actions referred to above;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the attention of
all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized agencies, regional
intergovernmental organizations and international humanitarian organizations and to give it the
widest possible publicity, and to report to the Commission at its sixty-first session;
7. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its sixty-first session, as a matter
of high priority, the item entitled “Question of the violation of human rights in the occupied Arab
territories, including Palestine”.
49th meeting
15 April 2004
[Adopted by a recorded vote of 31 votes to 1,
with 21 abstentions. See chap. VIII.]
2004/9. Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab territories
The Commission on Human Rights,
Reaffirming that all States have an obligation to promote and protect human rights and
fundamental freedoms, as stated in the Charter of the United Nations and as elaborated in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on Human Rights and other
applicable instruments,
Mindful that Israel is a party to the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, which is applicable de jure to Palestinian
and all Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including East Jerusalem, and recalling the
declaration adopted by the Conference of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva
Convention, held in Geneva on 5 December 2001,
36
Recalling its previous resolutions, most recently resolution 2003/7 of 15 April 2003, and
taking note of General Assembly resolution 58/98 of 9 December 2003, in which, inter alia, the
illegality of the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories was reaffirmed,
Welcoming the presentation to the parties by the Quartet* of the road map to a permanent
two-State solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (S/2003/529, annex) and noting the call for a
freeze on settlement activity, and taking note of the proposals for an Israeli withdrawal from the
Gaza Strip, which could represent a significant step towards the implementation of the road map,
provided that it took place in the context of the road map; it was a step towards a two-State
solution; it did not involve a transfer of settlement activity to the West Bank; there was an
organized and negotiated handover of responsibility to the Palestinian Authority; and Israel
facilitated the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Gaza,
Gravely concerned at the widespread violations of human rights and international
humanitarian law which continue to result from the occupation of the Occupied Palestinian
Territory,
Concerned in particular that the route marked out for the so-called security fence under
construction by Israel, the occupying Power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in
and around East Jerusalem, could prejudge future negotiations and make the two-State solution
physically impossible to implement and would cause further humanitarian and economic
hardship to the Palestinians,
Expressing its concern at the failure of the Government of Israel to cooperate fully with
the relevant United Nations mechanisms, in particular the Special Rapporteur on the situation of
human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967,
Also expressing its concern that continuing Israeli settlement activity undermines the
realization of a two-State solution to the conflict, and therefore threatens the long-term security
of Palestinians as well as Israelis,
Further expressing its concern regarding the security threats related to the presence of the
settlements in the occupied territories, as expressed in the report of the Sharm el-Sheikh
Fact-Finding Committee (the Mitchell Report),
1. Welcomes the report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in
the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 (E/CN.4/2004/6 and Add.1) and calls upon the
Government of Israel to cooperate with the Special Rapporteur to allow him fully to discharge
his mandate;
2. Expresses its grave concern at:
(a) The continuation, at an escalated level, of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which
has led to a seemingly endless spiral of hatred and violence and to increased suffering for both
Israelis and Palestinians;
* The European Union, the Russian Federation, the United Nations and the United States of
America.
37
(b) The continuing illegal Israeli settlement activities in the occupied territories and
related activities, such as the expansion of settlements, the expropriation of land, the demolition
of houses, the confiscation and destruction of property, the expulsion of Palestinians and the
construction of bypass roads, which change the physical character and demographic composition
of the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem, and constitute a violation of the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, settlements are a major
obstacle to peace and to the creation of an independent, viable, sovereign and democratic
Palestinian State in accordance with Security Council resolution 1397 (2002) of 12 March 2002;
(c) And strongly condemns all acts of violence, including indiscriminate terrorist
attacks killing and injuring civilians, provocation, incitement and destruction, and urges the
Palestinian Authority to demonstrate concretely its determination in the fight against terrorism
and extremist violence;
(d) The continuing high level of casualties on both sides, particularly civilians, and,
while recognizing Israel’s right to self-defence in the face of terrorist attacks against its citizens,
urges the Government of Israel to exert maximum effort to avoid civilian casualties and to put a
halt to extrajudicial killings, which are contrary to international law;
(e) The continued closures of and within the Palestinian territories and the restriction
of the freedom of movement of the Palestinians, including the extensive curfews imposed on the
West Bank cities for long periods of time, which contribute, together with other factors, to the
intolerable level of violence that has prevailed in the zone for more than three years, have caused
an extremely precarious humanitarian situation for the civilian population and have had a
negative impact on the enjoyment of economic and social rights in the Palestinian territories,
affecting in particular the most vulnerable groups of the population;
(f) The continued construction of the so-called security fence in the Palestinian
territories, including in and around East Jerusalem;
(g) The route marked out for the so-called security fence in the occupied West Bank
and the envisaged departure of the route from the Armistice Line of 1949 which could prejudge
future negotiations and make the two-State solution physically impossible to implement, and the
creation of a closed zone between the so-called security fence and the Armistice Line and the
consequent humanitarian and economic hardship for the Palestinians, thousands of whom are
being cut off from essential services, land and water resources;
3. Urges the Government of Israel:
(a) To comply fully with the previous Commission resolutions on the subject, most
recently resolution 2003/7;
(b) To reverse its settlement policy in the occupied territories, including
East Jerusalem, and, as a first step towards their dismantlement, to stop immediately the
expansion of existing settlements, including “natural growth” and related activities;
(c) To prevent any new installation of settlers in the occupied territories;
38
(d) To implement the recommendations regarding the settlements made by the
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in her report to the Commission at its
fifty-seventh session on her visit to the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel, Egypt and Jordan
(E/CN.4/2001/114);
(e) To take and implement serious measures, including confiscation of arms and
enforcement of criminal sanctions, with the aim of preventing illegal acts of violence by Israeli
settlers, and other measures to guarantee the safety and protection of the Palestinian civilians in
the occupied territories;
4. Demands that Israel stop and reverse the construction of the so-called security
fence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, which is a
departure from the Armistice Line of 1949 and is in contradiction to relevant provisions of
international law;
5. Urges the parties to implement immediately and fully, without modifications, the
road map endorsed by the Security Council, with the aim of resuming negotiations on a political
settlement which is in accordance with the resolutions of the Council and other relevant
United Nations resolutions, the principles of the Peace Conference on the Middle East, held in
Madrid on 30 October 1991, the Oslo Accords and subsequent agreements, which will
allow two States, Israel and Palestine, to live in peace and security and play their full part in the
region;
6. Decides to continue its consideration of this question at its sixty-first session.
49th meeting
15 April 2004
[Adopted by a recorded vote of 27 votes to 2,
with 24 abstentions. See chap. VIII.]
2004/10. Question of the violation of human rights in the
occupied Arab territories, including Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and by the
provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
Recalling Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967, 338 (1973)
of 22 October 1973, 1397 (2002) of 12 March 2002, 1402 (2002) of 30 March 2002
and 1403 (2002) of 4 April 2002 that called upon both parties to move immediately to a
meaningful ceasefire, for withdrawal of Israeli troops and for an immediate cessation of all acts
of violence, including all acts of terror, provocation, incitement and destruction,
Guided by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
E/2005/23
E/CN.4/2005/135
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE SIXTY-FIRST SESSION
(14 March-22 April 2005)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 2005
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
29
9. Decides to consider this issue at its sixty-second session under the same
agenda item.
49th meeting
14 April 2005
[Resolution adopted by a recorded vote of 46 to none, with 4 abstentions, as follows:
In favour: Argentina, Armenia, Bhutan, Brazil, Burkina Faso, China, Congo, Costa Rica, Cuba,
Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Guatemala, Guinea, Honduras,
Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan,
Paraguay, Peru, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland,
Togo, Ukraine, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Zimbabwe.
Against: None.
Abstaining: Australia, Canada, Japan, United States of America.
See chap. VI, paras. 94 to 98.]
2005/6. Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including
East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and affirming the
inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force,
Reaffirming that all States have an obligation to promote and protect human rights and
fundamental freedoms, as stated in the Charter of the United Nations and as elaborated in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on Human Rights and other
applicable instruments,
Recalling relevant resolutions of the Commission, the Security Council and the
General Assembly, most recently General Assembly resolution 59/123 of 10 December 2004
in which it reaffirmed, inter alia, the illegality of the Israeli settlements in the occupied
territories,
Mindful that Israel is a party to the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, which is applicable de jure to Palestinian
and all Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including East Jerusalem and the
Syrian Golan, and recalling the declaration adopted by the Conference of High Contracting
Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, held in Geneva on 5 December 2001,
Considering that the transfer by the occupying Power of parts of its own civilian
population into the territory it occupies constitutes a breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention
and relevant provisions of customary law, including those codified in Additional Protocol I to the
Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949,
30
Noting the advisory opinion rendered on 9 July 2004 by the International Court of Justice
on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
(see A/ES-10/273 and Corr.1), and its conclusion that “the Israeli settlements in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory (including East Jerusalem) have been established in breach of international
law”,
Taking note of General Assembly resolution ES-10/15 of 20 July 2004,
Recalling its attachment to the implementation by both parties of their obligations under
the Quartet* road map to a permanent two-State solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
(S/2003/529, annex), which was endorsed by the Security Council in resolution 1515 (2003)
of 19 November 2003, and noting in particular the road map’s call for a freeze on all settlement
activity,
Expressing its concern that continuing Israeli settlement activity undermines the
realization of a two-State solution,
Noting the potential of the announced withdrawals by Israel, the occupying Power, from
the Gaza Strip and from certain parts of the northern West Bank, which can represent a step
towards the implementation of the Quartet road map and a two-State solution, provided that they
take place within the context of the road map and that they should not involve transfer of
settlement activity to the West Bank, that there should be an organized and negotiated handover
of responsibility to the Palestinian Authority and that Israel should facilitate the rehabilitation
and reconstruction of the Gaza Strip,
Expressing grave concern about the continuing construction, contrary to international
law, by Israel of the wall inside the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around
East Jerusalem, and expressing its concern in particular about the route of the wall in departure
from the Armistice Line of 1949, which could prejudge future negotiations and make the
two-State solution physically impossible to implement and which is causing the Palestinian
people further humanitarian hardship,
Deeply concerned that the wall’s route has been traced in such a way as to include the
great majority of the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including
East Jerusalem,
Expressing its concern at the failure of the Government of Israel to cooperate fully with
the relevant United Nations mechanisms, in particular the Special Rapporteur on the situation of
human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967,
1. Welcomes the report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in
the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 (E/CN.4/2005/29 and Add.1) and calls upon the
Government of Israel to cooperate with the Special Rapporteur to allow him fully to discharge
his mandate;
* The United States of America, the Russian Federation, the European Union and the United Nations.
31
2. Welcomes the understandings by both parties at the summit held in
Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, on 8 February 2005, to stop all acts of violence as well as the positive
steps taken by them in fulfilment of these understandings and urges them to enhance a new spirit
of cooperation and to promote an atmosphere conducive to the establishment of peace and
coexistence;
3. Expresses its grave concern at:
(a) The continuing Israeli settlement and related activities, in violation of
international law, including the expansion of settlements, the expropriation of land, the
demolition of houses, the confiscation and destruction of property, the expulsion of Palestinians
and the construction of bypass roads, which change the physical character and demographic
composition of the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan, and
constitute a violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in
Time of War, and in particular article 49 of that Convention; settlements are a major obstacle to
the establishment of a just and comprehensive peace and to the creation of an independent,
viable, sovereign and democratic Palestinian State;
(b) The new construction plan by the Government of Israel announced
on 21 March 2005 for a project of 3,500 additional housing units in Maale Adumim and the
planned expansion of two other settlement blocks in the West Bank, and deplores the negative
impact of these plans on the confidence between the two parties at a time when a genuine
window of opportunity exists to relaunch the peace process, as the continuation of settlement
activities by Israel, the occupying Power, would be a violation of international humanitarian
law, the relevant United Nations resolutions and Israeli commitments in the context of the
road map;
(c) The continued closures of and within the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the
restriction of the freedom of movement of people and goods, including the extensive curfews
imposed for long periods of time, which do not contribute to restoring confidence and
reinforcing the ongoing dialogue between the two parties, and have caused an extremely
precarious humanitarian situation for the civilian population as well as impaired the economic
and social rights of the Palestinian people;
(d) The continued construction, contrary to international law, of the wall inside the
Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem;
4. Takes note with satisfaction of the resumption of the dialogue between the parties
and the steps forward taken, and urges the Government of Israel:
(a) To reverse the settlement policy in the occupied territories, including
East Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan and, as a first step towards their dismantlement, to stop
immediately the expansion of the existing settlements, including “natural growth” and related
activities;
(b) To prevent any new installation of settlers in the occupied territories;
32
5. Demands that Israel implement the recommendations regarding the settlements
made by the then United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in her report to the
Commission at its fifty-seventh session on her visit to the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel,
Egypt and Jordan (E/CN.4/2001/114);
6. Calls upon Israel to take and implement serious measures, including confiscation
of arms and enforcement of criminal sanctions, with the aim of preventing acts of violence
by Israeli settlers, and other measures to guarantee the safety and protection of the Palestinian
civilians and Palestinian properties in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including
East Jerusalem;
7. Demands that Israel, the occupying Power, comply fully with its legal obligations,
as mentioned in the advisory opinion rendered on 9 July 2004 by the International Court of
Justice;
8. Urges the parties to seize the opportunity offered by the current political context
to give renewed impetus to the peace process and to implement fully the road map endorsed by
the Security Council in resolution 1515 (2003), with the aim of reaching a comprehensive
political settlement in accordance with the resolutions of the Council, including
resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967 and 338 (1973) of 22 October 1973, and other
relevant United Nations resolutions, the principles of the Peace Conference on the Middle East,
held in Madrid on 30 October 1991, the Oslo Accords and subsequent agreements, which will
allow two States, Israel and Palestine, to live in peace and security;
9. Decides to continue its consideration of this question at its sixty-second session.
49th meeting
14 April 2005
[Resolution adopted by a recorded vote of 39 votes to 2, with 12 abstentions, as follows:
In favour: Argentina, Armenia, Bhutan, Brazil, Burkina Faso, China, Congo, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt,
Eritrea, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gabon, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mauritania,
Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia,
South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Ukraine, Zimbabwe.
Against: Australia, United States of America.
Abstaining: Canada, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Italy,
Netherlands, Romania, Togo, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
See chap. VIII, paras. 125 to 130.]
2005/7. Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people
in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling the applicability of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civil
Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including
East Jerusalem, and the relevant resolutions of the Security Council and the Commission on
Human Rights,
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTIETH SESSION
(31 January - 11 March 1994)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS. 1994
SUPPLEMENT No. 4
UNITED NATIONS
New York and Geneva, 1994
E/1994/24
E/CN 4/1994/132
and calls upon Israel to comply with its international commitments, to respect
the Convention and to apply it in the occupied Palestinian territory,
including Jerusalem;
2. Urges once more all States parties to the Convention to make every
effort to ensure the Israeli occupation authorities' respect for and
compliance with the provisions of the Convention in the Palestinian and all
other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem, and
to undertake the necessary practical measures to ensure the provision of
international protection for the Palestinian people under occupation, in
accordance with the provisions of article 1 and other relevant articles of the
Convention;
3. Strongly condemns once more the refusal of Israel to apply the
Convention to Palestine and the Arab territories occupied since 1967 and to
their inhabitants, Israel's policies of perpetrating crimes of torture against
Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention camps and
its continued deliberate disregard for the provisions of the Convention, in
contravention of resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and
the Commission on Human Rights;
4. Calls upon Israel to allow those who have been deported since 1967
to return to their homeland without delay in implementation of the resolutions
of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission on Human
Rights;
5. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to
the attention of the Government of Israel and all other Governments, the
competent United Nations organs, the specialized agencies, regional
intergovernmental organizations, international humanitarian organizations and
non-governmental organizations, and to report on progress in its
implementation by the Government of Israel to the Commission on Human Rights
at its fifty-first session;
6. Decides to consider the question at its fifty-first session as a
matter of high priority.
30th meeting
18 February 1994
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 26 to 1,
with 25 abstentions. See chap. IV.]
1994/4. Middle East peace process
The Commission of Human Rights,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 48/58 on the Middle East peace
process, adopted on 14 December 1993,
Recalling also the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action
(A/CONF.157/23) adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights,
- 42 -
Stressing that the achievement of a comprehensive and lasting settlement
of the Middle East conflict will constitute a significant contribution to the
strengthening of international peace and security, and is an indispensable
condition for the furthering of human rights in the region,
Recalling the convening of the International Peace Conference on the
Middle East at Madrid on 30 October 1991, on the basis of Security Council
resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967 and 338 (1973) of 22 October 1973,
and the subsequent bilateral negotiations, as well as the meetings of the
multilateral working groups, and noting with satisfaction the broad
international support for the peace process,
Noting the continuing positive participation of the United Nations as a
full extraregional participant in the work of the multilateral working groups,
Bearing in mind the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government
Arrangements, signed by the Government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation
Organization in Washington, D.C., on 13 September 1993,
1. Stresses the importance of, and need for, achieving a
comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East;
2. Emphasizes that the achievement of such a peace is vital for the
full implementation of human rights in the area;
3. Welcomes the peace process started at Madrid and supports the
subsequent bilateral negotiations;
4. Expresses its full support for the achievements of the peace
process thus far, in particular the Declaration of Principles on Interim
Self-Government Arrangements, signed by the Government of Israel and the
Palestine Liberation Organization, and the Agreement between Israel and Jordan
on the Common Agenda, which constitute an important initial step in achieving
a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East, and urges all
parties to implement agreements reached;
5. Considers that an active United Nations role in the Middle East
peace process and in assisting in the implementation of the Declaration of
Principles can make a positive contribution.
30th meeting
18 February 1994
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 48 to 2,
with 2 abstentions. See chap. IX.]
1994/5. Situation in occupied Palestine
The Commission on Human Rights,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, in particular the provisions of Articles 1 and 55 thereof,
which affirm the right of peoples to self-determination, and scrupulous
- 43 -
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTY-FIRST SESSION
(30 January - 10 March 1995)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1995
SUPPLEMENT No. 4
UNITED NATIONS
New York and Geneva, 1995
E/1995/23
E/CN.4/1995/176
5. Also decides that the Special Rapporteur, in carrying out his
mandate, shall seek and receive credible and reliable information from
Governments, specialized agencies and intergovernmental and non-governmental
organizations;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to provide the Special Rapporteur
with all necessary assistance;
7. Requests the Special Rapporteur to report to the Commission at its
fifty-second session on his activities;
8. Urges all States to cooperate with the Special Rapporteur in the
fulfilment of his mandate;
9. Decides to consider at its fifty-second session the question of the
use of mercenaries as a means of impeding the exercise of the right of peoples
to self-determination under the agenda item entitled "The right of peoples to
self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien
domination or foreign occupation";
10. Recommends the following draft decision to the Economic and Social
Council for adoption:
[For the text, see chap. I, sect. B, draft decision 1]
29th meeting
17 February 1995
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 34 votes to 1,
with 15 abstentions. See chap. IX.]
1995/6. Middle East peace process
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling its resolution 1994/4 of 18 February 1994, Subcommission on
Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities resolution 1994/13
of 25 August 1994, General Assembly resolutions 49/88 of 16 December 1994
and 48/58 of 14 December 1993, and Economic and Social Council
resolution 1994/29 of 27 July 1994,
Recalling also the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action
(A/CONF.157/23) adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights,
Stressing that the achievement of a comprehensive, just and lasting
settlement of the Middle East conflict will constitute a significant
contribution to strengthening international peace and security, and is a
critical condition for the furthering of human rights in the region,
Recalling the convening of the International Peace Conference on the
Middle East in Madrid on 30 October 1991, on the basis of Security Council
resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967 and 338 (1973) of 22 October 1973,
-49-
and the subsequent bilateral negotiations, as well as the meetings of the
multilateral working groups, and noting with satisfaction the broad
international support for the peace process,
Noting the continuing positive participation of the United Nations as a
full extraregional participant in the work of the multilateral working groups,
Bearing in mind the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government
Arrangements, signed by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in
Washington, D.C. on 13 September 1993, and the subsequent Agreement on the
Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area, signed by the Government of Israel and the
Palestine Liberation Organization in Cairo on 4 May 1994,
Also bearing in mind the Agreement between Israel and Jordan on the
Common Agenda, signed in Washington, D.C. on 14 September 1993, the Washington
Declaration, signed by Jordan and Israel on 25 July 1994, the 29 August 1994
agreement on the preparatory transfer of powers and responsibilities, and the
Jordan-Israel Treaty of Peace of 26 October 1994,
1. Stresses the importance of, and need for, achieving a
comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East;
2. Emphasizes that the achievement of such a peace is vital to the
full implementation of human rights in the area;
3. Welcomes the peace process started in Madrid and supports the
subsequent bilateral negotiations;
4. Also welcomes the establishment of the Palestinian Authority and
its positive efforts to develop sound governance based on the will of the
Palestinian people and democratic procedures;
5. Calls upon the Centre for Human Rights to make available, on
request, its programme of advisory services and technical assistance to the
Palestinian Authority, and invites Governments to contribute to the programme;
6. Expresses its full support for the achievements of the peace
process thus far, in particular the Declaration of Principles on Interim
Self-Government Arrangements, signed by Israel and the Palestine Liberation
Organization, the subsequent Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area,
signed by the Government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization,
the representative of the Palestinian people, the 29 August 1994 agreement on
the preparatory transfer of powers and responsibilities, the Agreement between
Israel and Jordan on the Common Agenda, the Washington Declaration signed by
Jordan and Israel on 25 July 1994, and the Jordan-Israel Treaty of Peace of
26 October 1994, which constitute important steps in achieving a
comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East, and urges all
parties to implement the agreements reached;
-50-
7. Encourages the continuation of negotiations on the implementation
of the next stage of the Declaration of Principles.
29th meeting
17 February 1995
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 50 votes. See chap. IX.]
1995/7. Question of Western Sahara
The Commission on Human Rights,
Having considered the question of Western Sahara,
Reaffirming the inalienable right of all peoples to self-determination
and independence, in accordance with the principles set forth in the Charter
of the United Nations and in General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of
14 December 1960, containing the Declaration on the Granting of Independence
to Colonial Countries and Peoples,
Recalling its earlier resolutions, the latest of which is
resolution 1994/6 of 18 February 1994,
Recalling also the agreement in principle given on 30 August 1988 by the
Kingdom of Morocco and the Frente Popular para la Liberación de Saguia
el-Hamra y Río de Oro to the proposals of the Secretary-General of the
United Nations and the current Chairman of the Conference of Heads of State
and Government of the Organization of African Unity, in the framework of their
joint mission of good offices,
Also recalling Security Council resolutions 621 (1988) of
20 September 1988, 658 (1990) of 27 June 1990, 690 (1991) of 29 April 1991,
725 (1991) of 31 December 1991, 809 (1993) of 2 March 1993 and 907 (1994) of
29 March 1994 relating to the question of Western Sahara,
Recalling with satisfaction the entry into force of the cease-fire in
Western Sahara on 6 September 1991, in accordance with the proposal of the
Secretary-General accepted by both parties,
Taking note of the adoption of resolution 973 (1995) by the Security
Council on 13 January 1995,
Taking note of the statement made by the President of the Security
Council on 29 July 1994,
Welcoming the appointment of Mr. Erik Jensen as Deputy Special
Representative of the Secretary-General for Western Sahara and the progress
made, under his guidance, by the Identification Commission of the
United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara,
-51-
E/1996/23
E/CN.4/1996/177
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTY-SECOND SESSION
(18 March-26 April 1996)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1996
SUPPLEMENT NO. 3
UNITED NATIONS
1996/7. Middle East peace process
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling its resolutions 1994/4 of 18 February 1994 and 1995/6 of
17 February 1995, General Assembly resolutions 49/88 of 16 December 1994 and
50/21 of 12 December 1995, and Economic and Social Council resolutions 1994/29
of 27 July 1994 and 1995/52 of 28 July 1995,
Recalling also the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action
(A/CONF.157/23) adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights,
Stressing that the achievement of a comprehensive, just and lasting
settlement of the Middle East conflict will constitute a significant
contribution to strengthening international peace and security, and is a
critical condition for the furthering of human rights in the region,
Recalling the convening of the International Peace Conference on the
Middle East in Madrid on 30 October 1991, on the basis of Security Council
resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967 and 338 (1973) of 22 October 1973,
and the subsequent bilateral negotiations, as well as the meetings of the
multilateral working groups, and noting with satisfaction the broad
international support for the peace process,
Noting the continuing positive participation of the United Nations as a
full extraregional participant in the work of the multilateral working groups,
Bearing in mind the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government
Arrangements, signed by the Government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation
Organization in Washington, D.C. on 13 September 1993, the Agreement on the
Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area, signed by the Government of Israel and the
Palestine Liberation Organization in Cairo on 4 May 1994, and the Interim
Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip signed by the Government of
Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in Washington, D.C. on
28 September 1995,
Also bearing in mind the Agreement between Israel and Jordan on the
Common Agenda, signed in Washington, D.C. on 14 September 1993, the Agreement
on the Preparatory Transfer of Powers and Responsibilities signed by the
Government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization on
29 August 1994, and the Jordan-Israel Treaty of Peace of 26 October 1994,
Recalling the Declaration on Measures to Eliminate International
Terrorism annexed to General Assembly resolution 49/60, in which the Assembly
declared that acts, methods and practices of terrorism constituted a grave
violation of the purposes and principles of the United Nations, and might pose
a threat to international peace and security, jeopardize friendly relations
among States, hinder international cooperation and aim at the destruction of
human rights, fundamental freedoms and the democratic bodies of society,
1. Stresses the importance of, and the need for, achieving a
comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East;
- 49 -
2. Emphasizes that the achievement of such a peace is vital to the
full implementation of human rights in the area;
3. Welcomes the peace process started in Madrid and supports the
subsequent bilateral negotiations;
4. Also welcomes the establishment of the Palestinian Authority and
its positive efforts to develop sound governance based on the will of the
Palestinian people and democratic procedures;
5. Further welcomes the elections for the Palestinian Interim
Self-Governing Authority held on 20 January 1996 which provide a democratic
basis for the establishment of Palestinian institutions;
6. Supports the declaration adopted at the Summit of Peacemakers held
at Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, on 13 March 1996, which had as its objectives
enhancing the peace process, promoting security and combating terrorism, and
condemns terrorist attacks in the Middle East which seek to undermine the
peace process and which have caused loss of life and injuries;
7. Calls upon the Centre for Human Rights to make available, on
request, its programme of advisory services and technical assistance to the
Palestinian Authority, and invites Governments to contribute to the programme;
8. Expresses its full support for the achievements of the peace
process thus far, in particular the Declaration of Principles on Interim
Self-Government Arrangements, signed on 13 September 1993 by the Government of
Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, the representative of the
Palestinian people, the subsequent Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho
Area, signed on 4 May 1994 by the Government of Israel and the Palestine
Liberation Organization, their 29 August 1994 Agreement on the Preparatory
Transfer of Powers and Responsibilities, the Interim Agreement on the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip, of 28 September 1995, the Agreement between
Israel and Jordan on the Common Agenda, of 14 September 1993, the Washington
Declaration, signed by Jordan and Israel on 25 July 1994, and the
Jordan-Israel Treaty of Peace of 26 October 1994, which constitute important
steps in achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East,
and urges all parties to implement the agreements reached;
9. Encourages the continuation of negotiations on the implementation
of the next stage of the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government
Arrangements.
34th meeting
11 April 1996
[Adopted without a vote. See chap. VII.]
- 50 -
E/1997/23
E/CN.4/1997/150
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
REPORT ON THE FIFTYTHIRD
SESSION
(10 March18
April 1997)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
OFFICIAL RECORDS, 1997
SUPPLEMENT No. 3
UNITED NATIONS
55
1997/
6. Middle East peace process
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling its resolution 1996/7 of 11 April 1996,
Recalling also the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action adopted by
the World Conference on Human Rights (A/CONF.157/23),
Recalling further the convening of the International Peace Conference on
the Middle East in Madrid on 30 October 1991, on the basis of Security Council
resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967 and 338 (1973) of 22 October 1973,
and the subsequent bilateral negotiations, as well as the meetings of the
multilateral working groups, and noting with satisfaction the broad
international support for the peace process,
Noting the continuing positive participation of the United Nations as an
extraregional participant in the work of the multilateral working groups,
Recalling the Declaration on Measures to Eliminate International
Terrorism annexed to General Assembly resolution 49/60 of 9 December 1994, in
which the Assembly declared that acts, methods and practices of terrorism
constituted a grave violation of the purposes and principles of the
United Nations, and might pose a threat to international peace and security,
jeopardize friendly relations among States, hinder international cooperation
and aim at the destruction of human rights, fundamental freedoms and the
democratic bodies of society,
1. Stresses the importance of, and the need for, achieving a
comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East;
2. Emphasizes that the achievement of such a peace is vital to the
full implementation of human rights in all areas;
3. Welcomes the peace process started in Madrid and supports the
subsequent bilateral negotiations;
4. Also welcomes the Protocol concerning the Redeployment in Hebron
of 17 January 1997 signed by the Government of Israel and the Palestine
Liberation Organization, and the subsequent redeployment of Israeli troops
from parts of Hebron;
5. Further welcomes the release of female Palestinian prisoners from
Israeli detention as a confidencebuilding
measure;
6. Calls upon all parties to protect the human rights and well-being
of all detained persons under their control;
7. Supports the declaration adopted at the Summit of Peacemakers held
at Sharm El Sheik, Egypt, on 13 March 1996, which had as its objectives
enhancing the peace process, promoting security and combating terrorism, and
condemns terrorist attacks in the Middle East which seek to undermine the
peace process and which have caused loss of life and injuries;
56
8.
Calls upon all parties to work to advance a free civil society,
under the rule of law;
9. Calls upon the Centre for Human Rights to continue to make
available, on request, its programme of advisory services and technical
assistance to the Palestinian Authority, and invites Governments to continue
to contribute to the programme;
10. Expresses its full support for the achievements of the peace
process thus far, in particular the Declaration of Principles on Interim
Self-Government Arrangements, signed on 13 September 1993 by the Government of
Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, the representative of the
Palestinian people, the subsequent Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho
Area, signed on 4 May 1994 by the Government of Israel and the Palestine
Liberation Organization, their 29 August 1994 Agreement on the Preparatory
Transfer of Powers and Responsibilities, the Interim Agreement on the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip, of 28 September 1995, the Protocol concerning
the Redeployment in Hebron signed on 17 January 1997, the Agreement between
Israel and Jordan on the Common Agenda, of 14 September 1993, the Washington
Declaration, signed by Jordan and Israel on 25 July 1994, and the
JordanIsrael
Treaty of Peace of 26 October 1994, which constitute important
steps in achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East,
and urges all parties to implement the agreements reached;
11. Encourages the continuation of negotiations on the implementation
of the next stage of the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government
Arrangements.
26th meeting
26 March 1997
[Adopted without a vote. See chap. VII.]
1997/7. Human rights and unilateral coercive measures
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations,
Reaffirming the pertinent principles and provisions contained in the
Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States proclaimed by the
General Assembly in its resolution 3281 (XXIX) of 12 December 1974, in
particular article 32 which declares that no State may use or encourage the
use of economic, political or any other type of measures to coerce another
State in order to obtain from it the subordination of the exercise of its
sovereign rights,
Recognizing the universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated
character of all human rights and, in this regard, reaffirming the right to
development as an integral part of all human rights,
Distr.
GENERAL
E/CN.4/1994/14
28 January 1994
ENGLISH
Original: FRENCH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Fiftieth session
Item 4 of the provisional agenda
QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE OCCUPIED
ARAB TERRITORIES, INCLUDING PALESTINE
Report on the human rights situation in the Palestinian
territories occupied since 1967, submitted by
Mr. René Felber, Special Rapporteur, pursuant to
Commission on Human Rights resolution 1993/2 A
CONTENTS
Paragraphs Page
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 - 4 2
I. ACTIVITIES OF THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR . . . . . 5 - 31 2
II. MAJOR CONCERNS REGARDING THE HUMAN RIGHTS
SITUATION SINCE SEPTEMBER 1993 . . . . . . . . 32 - 44 6
III. PRELIMINARY CONCLUSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 - 47 8
GE.94-10439 (E)
E/CN.4/1994/14
page 2
INTRODUCTION
1. At its forty-ninth session, the Commission on Human Rights adopted
resolution 1993/2 A, dated 19 February 1993 and entitled "Question of the
violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including
Palestine".
2. In paragraph 4 of resolution 1993/2 A, the Commission decided to appoint
a special rapporteur with the following mandate:
"(a) To investigate Israel’s violations of the principles and
bases of international law, international humanitarian law and the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War,
of 12 August 1949, in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel
since 1967;
(b) To receive communications, to hear witnesses, and to use such
modalities of procedure as he may deem necessary for his mandate;
(c) To report, with his conclusions and recommendations, to the
Commission on Human Rights at its future sessions, until the end of the
Israeli occupation of those territories."
3. Further to consultations with the Bureau, on 13 September 1993 the
Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights appointed Mr. René Felber
(Switzerland) as Special Rapporteur.
4. At its 44th plenary meeting, held on 28 July 1993, the Economic and
Social Council adopted decision 1993/253, in which it approved Commission
resolution 1993/2 A.
I. ACTIVITIES OF THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR
5. Once his mandate was confirmed, the Special Rapporteur set out to examine
the many documents prepared by the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli
Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs
of the Occupied Territories, specialized agencies such the International
Labour Office (ILO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), and
non-governmental organizations, particularly reports by the International
Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and Amnesty International.
6. The announcement in late August 1993 of a forthcoming agreement between
the Israeli Government and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) raised
the hopes of the entire international community and the signature of the
Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements in
Washington on 13 September 1993 prompted many Governments to express their
support for the peace process thus embarked on and also brought promises of
material help for the territories acceding to autonomy.
7. Needless to say, these major political developments could not fail to
influence the Special Rapporteur’s approach to his work. The political
process initiated between the PLO and Israel was not to be hampered by
unilaterally condemning one side or the other, thus providing fuel for Israeli
E/CN.4/1994/14
page 3
and Palestinian opponents of the project. It was clear that only Jericho and
the Gaza Strip were covered by the arrangements of 13 September 1993 and that
the remainder of the occupied territories would see no change in status.
Moreover, the agreement would not actually enter into force until after
special negotiations were held between the signatories.
8. Accordingly, these were the new circumstances the Special Rapporteur had
to take into account, but they did not make him, any more than the persons
with whom he spoke, think that he should give up his mandate.
9. The Special Rapporteur therefore contacted the permanent representatives
of the countries directly concerned, politically and geographically, with the
situation in Palestine. All were agreed on the need to start on the work
connected with his mandate.
10. The same questions that stemmed from the new circumstances were raised in
the course of talks in Geneva with the representatives of the non-governmental
organizations, Amnesty International and the International Commission of
Jurists, as well as with a delegation of the International Committee of the
Red Cross at the Committee’s headquarters. Everyone concluded that the
mandate should be continued, while bearing in mind the new political
developments.
11. To discharge his mandate, it was essential for the Special Rapporteur to
be able to visit Palestine in person and, consequently, for him to obtain the
authorization of the Israeli Government to do so. He thought it pointless
simply to visit the neighbouring countries, Jordan, Egypt or the Syrian Arab
Republic, and to redo the work of conducting inquiries and gathering evidence,
something the members of the General Assembly’s Special Committee have been
doing with remarkable perseverance over the past 25 years. Their work is no
sense to be challenged; it is set out in reports which remain a highly
important source of information.
12. On 17 September 1993, the Special Rapporteur wrote to Mr. Shimon Peres,
Israel’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, to inform him of his point of view, his
personal support for the peace process, and the need to fulfil his mandate.
He emphasized the importance and the dimension of human rights throughout
Palestine, including the parts of Palestine that were to become autonomous in
the near future.
13. On 6 October 1993, the Special Rapporteur reminded the Minister of that
letter when he was able to approach him briefly in Lisbon. He said that he
was ready to meet him as soon as possible during one of his forthcoming visits
to Europe.
14. In his reply of 27 October 1993, Mr. Peres informed the Special
Rapporteur that he was ready to meet him in Europe in the near future. It was
decided later that an opportunity would be afforded when an Israeli delegation
came to the Davos Symposium in late January 1994.
15. In fact, the Special Rapporteur still had no authorization or invitation
to go to Israel and the occupied territories in order to discharge his
mandate.
E/CN.4/1994/14
page 4
16. On 9 December 1993, the Special Rapporteur, accompanied by the Special
Procedures Chief of the Centre for Human Rights, was received by
Mr. Yasser Arafat in Tunis. The head of the PLO, while acknowledging of
course the obvious change at the political level, also called for the Special
Rapporteur’s mandate to be maintained. He spoke of the arrangements he had
made for respect for human rights in the future autonomous regions.
17. Lastly, in the last week of December, Ambassador Itzhak Lior, Permanent
Representative of Israel to the International Organizations in Geneva,
telephoned the Special Rapporteur and told him that Mr. Shimon Peres, Minister
for Foreign Affairs, was inviting him personally to go to Jerusalem, where he
would be free to visit the occupied territories.
18. Early in the new year, weighing up the fact that a possible visit could
only be a short one if it was to be made before the start of the session of
the Commission on Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur quickly evaluated the
circumstances and concluded that the Israeli offer should be taken up
promptly. Mr. Ibrahima Fall, Assistant-Secretary-General for Human Rights,
encouraged that view. The visit was organized in a few days and the Special
Rapporteur arrived in Jerusalem on 18 January 1994, together with a staff
member of the Centre for Human Rights and a United Nations interpreter.
19. The Special Rapporteur and his team, accommodated in Jerusalem, had the
logistical support of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization
(UNTSO), whose headquarters was made available to them throughout their stay,
together with two vehicles and two security guards who also acted as drivers.
It was thus possible to arrange the programme flexibly.
20. It is important to emphasize that the Israeli Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, except for talks with representatives of the Israeli authorities,
played absolutely no part in organizing the Special Rapporteur’s stay and
never required him to be accompanied by members of the Israeli forces. He was
therefore the first person with an official mandate from the Commission on
Human Rights to be able to visit the occupied territories and talk freely with
persons he had contacted in advance.
21. After being welcomed by Ambassador Johanan Bein, Deputy Director-General
of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and by Mrs. Erella Hadar, Director of the
Ministry’s Human Rights Department, the Special Rapporteur was received in
Tel Aviv on 19 January by Colonel Ahaz Ben-Ari, who is head of the
International Law Section of the military judicial authorities and in charge
of monitoring application of the law in the occupied territories. The Israeli
view that making the inhabitants of the occupied territories subject to
Israeli military law was thus amply explained to the Special Rapporteur.
22. The Special Rapporteur continued his visit in Tel Aviv with talks with
General Freddy Zach, Deputy Coordinator of the Civilian Administration in the
territory. From him, too, the Special Rapporteur heard a general statement
about the problems of the Administration and the role that the army plays in
it, as well as a brief outline of what is to happen after Gaza and Jericho
become autonomous. Both persons interviewed were very receptive to his
questions and their answers were very comprehensive and detailed.
E/CN.4/1994/14
page 5
23. On the same day, the Special Rapporteur talked with Mr. Yossi Beilin, the
Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, in Jerusalem. Mr. Beilin spoke of the
Israeli Government’s readiness to bring the negotiations to a successful
conclusion, saying that the tension between the occupying troops and the
Palestinian population was a clear sign that an occupier, regardless of the
reasons advanced to justify his presence, would never be anything but an
intruder and even an enemy, and that the Middle East stood in need of peace
and security.
24. The second political interview took place on Thursday, 20 January 1994,
with Mr. Shimon Peres, Minister for Foreign Affairs. The major interest of
this meeting lay in the view of the whole region’s future, as conceived by
Mr. Peres, who pointed to the Middle East’s development potential and the need
to assign less funds to the army and set them aside for investment that will
foster development.
25. Still on 20 January, the Special Rapporteur visited Ramallah to meet
representatives of six Palestinian non-governmental organizations who were
joined by a representative of B’tselem an Israeli non-governmental
organization. The main points raised in the course of the talks were often
identical to those raised in the reports by the Special Committee.
26. Above all, the Special Rapporteur raised the problem of political
prisoners (detained in Israel) and military decrees, the problem of the
Palestinians’ right to ownership, confiscation of land, the serious issue of
penalties or steps taken against Palestinians being commensurate with the
offence committed, and also the question of sealing houses or rooms.
27. The question which causes most concern with regard to the future is still
the burning issue of the existence of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian
territories.
28. The Special Rapporteur also met Mrs. Hanan Ashrawi, who is to deal
personally with human rights questions in Palestine and will shortly set up a
committee. All the Palestinians with whom the Special Rapporteur spoke
expressed the hope that the Special Rapporteur’s mandate would be continued
and that he would also visit the territories of the Gaza Strip and Jericho
after they become autonomous.
29. The Special Rapporteur spent Friday, 21 January 1994 visiting Gaza. With
the help of the officers of UNTSO based in Gaza, he passed through the Israeli
military control points to reach the town of Gaza, which he toured with the
local representative of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for
Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
30. It is necessary to have visited Gaza in order to appreciate exactly what
an occupation means and to get a very clear sense of the tension existing in
the town and throughout the surrounding territory. That tension is naturally
felt by all the representatives of the international and charitable
organizations working in the region. A certain weariness was particularly
evident in the pessimistic comments of Mr. Raji Sourani, Director of the
Gaza Centre for Rights and the Law, who met the Special Rapporteur in Gaza to
tell him of his concerns.
E/CN.4/1994/14
page 6
31. Quite clearly, a longer visit would permit a more detailed study of the
issues raised. Accordingly, the Special Rapporteur hopes to be able to
organize a longer stay in Palestine to obtain further specific information and
also to put these questions in person to the Israeli authorities.
II. MAJOR CONCERNS REGARDING THE HUMAN RIGHTS
SITUATION SINCE SEPTEMBER 1993
32. The following paragraphs contain a brief summary of the main concerns
regarding the observance of human rights in the occupied Palestinian
territories since the signing of the Declaration of Principles on Interim
Self-Government Arrangements on 13 September 1993, as explained to the Special
Rapporteur.
33. These questions were discussed with the representatives of the Israeli
authorities and with Palestinians with whom the Special Rapporteur spoke
during his recent mission. They will continue to receive his attention when
he undertakes a more detailed analysis of the problems involved.
Observance of the right to life and physical integrity
34. The number of incidents resulting in the loss of Palestinian and Israeli
lives in the occupied territories has not declined since the signing of the
above-mentioned agreement.
35. The Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the occupied territories
since September 1993 are thought to have been the victims of extrajudicial
executions or of the use of unnecessary force out of proportion to the
circumstances. This loss of human life is said to have been caused by
soldiers, the frontier police and infiltration units while making arrests, at
road blocks or checkpoints, during exchanges of fire with the army, or in the
course of attacks on Israeli soldiers or civilians. According to the
information available to the Special Rapporteur, 45 Palestinians died in this
way between 13 September and 31 December 1993.
36. The Israelis killed by Palestinians are reported to have been shot,
stabbed or run over by vehicles. Some of them are said to have died in road
accidents after stones had been thrown at their vehicles. Vehicles have also
been loaded with explosives for suicide operations. A number of Israeli
soldiers and civilians are also reported to have been deliberately killed
after being taken prisoner. Organizations such as Hamas (Islamic resistance
movement), the Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(DFLP) are reported to have claimed responsibility for a number of these
murders. More than 20 Israelis have died in this way since September 1993.
37. Since the signing of the September agreement, there have been further
reports of Palestinians being killed by other Palestinians as a result of
interfactional disputes or because they were suspected of collaborating with
the Israeli authorities, or because of "moral offences" linked with drug
trafficking. Thirty-three such cases were reported between 13 September and
31 December 1993.
38. Concerns regarding the torture and ill-treatment of Palestinians being
held in detention were expressed by a number of informants. Most of the
E/CN.4/1994/14
page 7
reports concerned persons subjected to interrogation. All allegations of
torture and ill-treatment should be rapidly and thoroughly investigated by
independent judicial bodies and the persons identified as responsible
prosecuted. Interrogation guidelines should be consistent with the absolute
prohibition of the use of torture or ill-treatment.
Acts of violence
39. The Special Rapporteur is particularly concerned by the violence among
opponents of the peace agreement on both sides, particularly members of the
Hamas movement and Israeli settlers. Although it is difficult to ascertain
who triggered the wave of violence, reports received by the Special Rapporteur
suggest that it was started by members of the Hamas movement when the
agreement was announced and involved mainly the use of incendiary bombs. This
is said to have provoked a violent reaction from settlers, who are reported to
have burned tires to block roads. They are also reported to have attacked
Palestinian houses and to have damaged or destroyed vehicles, as well as
beating up civilians in the street and firing shots. The Special Rapporteur
was informed that the rules applied by settlers concerning the use of firearms
are less stringent than those enforced in the army.
40. Both Israeli and Palestinian authorities should, as a matter of priority,
take measures to contain this violence, which may pose the most serious threat
to the peace process. The Israeli authorities in particular should ensure
that the army exercises restraint in responding to outbreaks of violence. It
was stated repeatedly that the army did not intervene to prevent such
outbreaks and even that it protected the settlers involved. Given the new
situation, the extremely complex question of settlements and the behaviour of
their inhabitants should be examined carefully. The Palestinian police to be
deployed in the autonomous areas should also be on the alert for such
incidents and intervene to prevent them. The Special Rapporteur noted with
concern a number of reports of an increase in the quantities of weapons and
munitions being smuggled into the territories.
Situation of prisoners
41. The Special Rapporteur was informed that 617 Palestinian detainees had
been released immediately following the signing of the agreement. A second
group of 101 individuals was reported to have been released at the beginning
of 1994. The Special Rapporteur also learnt that about 11,700 persons
remained in prison in the occupied territories and in Israel, 4,500 of them in
central prisons and the remainder in military prison camps. During his recent
mission, the Special Rapporteur was informed that the conditions of detention
had not improved significantly, despite the promises made by the Israeli
prison authorities following the reported strike by more than 5,000 prisoners
at the end of 1992. The practice of placing prisoners in solitary confinement
is reported to have continued. Special concern was expressed regarding the
access of Palestinian doctors to prisoners in need of urgent medical care.
42. In view of the new climate of understanding, it is essential to review
the situation of all Palestinian prisoners and expedite their release. One
priority should be the release of all political detainees accused or found
guilty of non-violent political offences and of persons imprisoned without a
fair trial, particularly those tried by military tribunals before the
introduction of the right of appeal. In addition, all persons under
E/CN.4/1994/14
page 8
administrative detention - 356 at the end of 1993 - should be released if they
did not participate in acts of violence. Cases of prisoners who cannot be
released and did not receive a fair trial should be reviewed by the courts.
Demolition of houses
43. The totally arbitrary demolition of houses, very often by way of
collective punishment, has long been a major source of concern. The Special
Rapporteur was informed that this practice had declined significantly since
the signing of the agreement. A number of houses were reported to have been
destroyed or damaged, however, during raids in search of armed men. The
sealing of houses or accommodation belonging to persons suspected of security
offences would seem to have continued.
Confiscation of land and expansion of settlements
44. The Special Rapporteur was informed that the Israeli authorities
customarily confiscated an average of 2,000 to 3,000 dunums of land each month
before the signing of the September 1993 agreement and that, since
October 1993, 17,000 dunums of land had been confiscated, seven times more
than before. He was also informed that one of the major problems of the Arab
population in the territories was the registration of land.
III. PRELIMINARY CONCLUSIONS
45. In examining the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian
territories, account must be taken of a basic factor referred to by most of
the persons with whom the Special Rapporteur spoke during his mission, both
Palestinian and Israeli, namely, the continued decline of the standard of
living during more than 25 years of occupation. This concern must be a main
focus of efforts to improve the human rights situation in the occupied
Palestinian territories. During his conversation with the Special Rapporteur,
the Israeli Minister for Foreign Affairs said that raising the standard of
living should be the top priority. Mrs. Hanan Ashrawi also emphasized this
aspect by stressing the interdependence of the economic development of the
territories and the enjoyment of human rights by their inhabitants.
46. Nevertheless, this observation can in no way absolve the Israeli
Government from applying all the international principles of human rights and
humanitarian law espoused by the State of Israel, as well as the relevant
principles of customary law. In addition, these principles should also be
observed by the Palestinians, regardless of the fact that they have not
formally subscribed to the treaties in question.
47. For the reasons given in section I, this report is only of a preliminary
nature and is inevitably incomplete in that the Special Rapporteur did not
have time to conduct more extensive first hand inquiries on the spot. The
Commission will appreciate the fact that, despite the severe constraints which
circumstances imposed on him, he has endeavoured to seize every opportunity
that presented itself in forming his opinion. The Special Rapporteur, in
accordance with the wishes expressed by all the Palestinians with whom he
spoke, is ready to continue his work and to visit the territories at the
earliest opportunity, taking account also of current political developments.
-----
UNITED NATIONS E
Economic and Social
Council
Distr.
GENERAL
E/CN.4/1995/19
13 December 1994
ENGLISH
Original: FRENCH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Fifty-first session
Agenda item 4
QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE OCCUPIED
ARAB TERRITORIES, INCLUDING PALESTINE
Report on the human rights situation in the Palestinian
territories occupied since 1967, submitted by
Mr. René Felber, Special Rapporteur, pursuant to
Commission on Human Rights resolution 1993/2 A
CONTENTS
Paragraphs Page
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 - 5 2
I. ACTIVITIES OF THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR . . . . . . . . 3
II. HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 - 49 5
III. SITUATION IN GAZA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 - 65 11
IV. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . 66 - 80 13
GE.94-75039 (E)
E/CN.4/1995/19
page 2
Introduction
1. Subsequent to his brief visit in January 1994, which was the subject of a
brief report, the Special Rapporteur went to Israel and the occupied
territories, as well as to Gaza and Jericho, from 16 to 27 October 1994. He
was accompanied by a staff member of the Centre for Human Rights and an
interpreter from the United Nations Office at Geneva. Thanks are due to the
United Nations Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories,
Mr. T.E. Larsen, who helped organize the visit and the team’s travel in the
various parts of the territories, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs of
Israel, who facilitated the Special Rapporteur’s work by agreeing to requests
to visit certain reserved areas (prisons) and allowed the mission complete
freedom of movement.
2. A few important points should be made here:
(a) The Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights remains
the only holder of an official mandate authorized to travel freely in Israel
and the occupied territories;
(b) The Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting
the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied
Territories, whose mandate was given to it by the United Nations
General Assembly, has never been authorized to enter the territories and again
this year was not able to enter Gaza or Jericho. Testimony has always been
collected in the neighbouring countries: Egypt, Jordan and Syria;
(c) Testimony collected by the Special Committee in April and May 1994
is reflected in report A/49/511, submitted to the General Assembly. The
report is accompanied by the Special Committee’s conclusions;
(d) On 26 August 1994, the Special Rapporteur met at the Palais des
Nations in Geneva with the three members of the Special Committee, who were
holding a working meeting;
(e) The Special Rapporteur has agreed that the Special Committee’s
report should be included in the file. He will not resume hearing witnesses,
since that has already been done; he of course reserves the right to hear any
one who may be able to help him fulfil his mandate, but will not establish a
list of witnesses.
3. Finally, it should be emphasized that the Declaration of Principles, the
successive agreements signed at Washington and Cairo between Israel and the
PLO and the achievement of autonomy in the Gaza Strip and Jericho have altered
the political situation in the occupied territories. The peace process that
has begun is considered irreversible, and the Israeli authorities are
naturally replying to all the remarks addressed to them and all criticisms of
non-respect for human rights in the occupied territories. It is to be hoped
that the pursuit of the process will bring solutions to the problems raised;
no other steps should be planned in the meantime.
4. The bloody attack in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, 19 October 1994, took place
during the Special Rapporteur’s visit. It was preceded by the abduction of
E/CN.4/1995/19
page 3
Corporal Wachsman and the Israeli army’s failed attempt to free the young
soldier. A few weeks earlier, an exchange of fire in a pedestrian street in
West Jerusalem had left several people, including the two attackers, dead.
Such events naturally strengthen the position of Israelis who oppose the peace
process and increase the anger and pressure on the Government of all those in
favour of harsh and violent repression.
5. In the words of the directors of Betzelem, the Israeli Information Centre
on Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, the balance between the desire to
enforce human rights and to reach a peaceful solution between Israelis and
Palestinians, and the punitive policy towards all Arabs living in the occupied
territories is extremely fragile. Attacks such as those that occurred during
our visit lead automatically to a popular reaction in favour of repression.
We must admit that, although we were never afraid, during our entire visit we
noted an almost palpable tension in Israel, as well as in the occupied
territories and Gaza.
I. ACTIVITIES OF THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR
Monday, 30 May 1994 Geneva, meeting of Special Rapporteurs of the
Tuesday, 31 May 1994 Commission on Human Rights
Friday, 26 August 1994 Geneva, talks with members of the Special
Committee
17-25 October 1994 Programme of work in Israel and in the occupied
territories
Monday, 17 October 1994
Tel Aviv
Meeting with Brigadier-General A.-S. Ramot, Deputy Coordinator of General
Government Operations in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district;
Meeting with Colonel David Yahav, head of the International Law Section,
Office of the Military Judge Advocate General.
Jerusalem
Talks with Mr. David Libai, Minister of Justice;
Talks with Mrs. Hanan Ashrawi, head of the Executive Committee of the
independent Palestinian Committee for Citizens’ Rights.
Tuesday, 18 October 1994
Gaza
Meeting with Mr. T.E. Larsen, United Nations Special Coordinator in the
Occupied Territories;
Meeting with President Yasser Arafat;
E/CN.4/1995/19
page 4
Meeting with Mr. Raji Sourani and other members of the Gaza Centre for
Rights and Law;
Meeting with Mr. Haidar Abdel Shafi.
Wednesday, 19 October 1994
Meeting with General A. Overkill and staff members of the office of the
United Nations Special Coordinator for the Occupied Territories,
concerning the training of units of the Palestinian police;
Meeting with Mr. Freih Abu Middein, Minister of Justice in the
Palestinian Authority;
Meeting with Major General Nasser Youssef, head of the Palestinian Police
Force;
Thursday, 20 October 1994
Jerusalem
Meeting with Mr. Andreas Wigger, head of the International Committee of
the Red Cross delegation in Tel Aviv, and Mr. Darcy Christen, head of the
International Committee of the Red Cross sub-delegation in Jerusalem.
Ramallah
Talks with Mr. Ahmad Sayyad, director of the Mandela Institute for
Political Prisoners;
Talks with Mr. Fateh Azzam and members of the Al Haq human rights
organization;
Visit to a ransacked home and a home whose entrances were sealed off.
Tel Aviv
Talks with Mr. Shimon Peres, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Israel.
Friday, 21 October 1994
Negev desert
Meeting with Colonel Lex Gez, commander of Ansar III "Ketziot" detention
camp;
Visit to the detention camp;
Unsupervised interviews with nine prisoners.
E/CN.4/1995/19
page 5
Sunday, 23 October 1994
Jerusalem
Luncheon-meeting with Mr. Yossi Beilin, Deputy Minister for Foreign
Affairs of Israel.
Monday, 24 October 1994
Jerusalem
Meeting with Mr. Yizhar Be’er, Executive Director, and Mr. Yuval Ginbar,
researcher, at Betzelem, Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in
the Occupied Territories;
Meeting with Mr. Khader Shkirat, director of the Land and Water
Establishment for Studies and Legal Services.
Tuesday, 25 October 1995
Hebron
Meeting with Mr. Eric Marquelet and staff members of the ICRC office in
Hebron and with Mr. Zahi Jaradat, staff member of Al Haq, in Hebron;
Meeting with Mr. Mustafa Abdel-Nabi Natshe, mayor of Hebron;
Tour of the city with Dr. Zraya, municipal councillor;
Tour of the prison in Dahariya (near Hebron).
Jerusalem
Meeting with Mrs. Erella Hadar, Director of the Human Rights Department,
Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
II. HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
A. People
6. Rather than discuss a series of specific cases, we shall make some
observations based on testimony collected by several non-governmental
organizations and the Special Committee, which were brought to our attention
through the reports that have been circulated.
7. We would like to point out, however, that whenever a former prisoner was
brought before us, the problem of lengthy interrogations under unacceptable
conditions (seated on a chair with no back, hands tied behind the back, etc.)
was mentioned. Some witnesses mentioned the smallness of the cells in which
they were held during the interrogations, with their hands tied to rings set
in the ceiling. Intense psychological pressures are brought to bear; one
released prisoner told us that in order to make him confess, his interrogators
brought in his pregnant sister, who was on the verge of giving birth, and
E/CN.4/1995/19
page 6
threatened to rape her if he did not cooperate. Interrogations and their
attendant suffering can last for up to 30 days in some cases, even if the
person is later found innocent.
8. On 21 October 1994, we visited the military detention camp at Ketziot in
the Negev desert. Opened in 1988, temporarily, to relieve the overcrowding in
the West Bank prisons, it is still operating, after being enlarged five times.
Its total capacity was 7,500 prisoners. We observed that several sections had
been closed, bringing the number of occupants down to 853 prisoners, including
85 administrative detainees.
9. This prison should be closed rapidly. However, its commander told us
that new prisoners were sent there for short periods of detention.
10. The location of the Ketziot camp, in the Negev desert in Israeli
territory, is in itself an infringement of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which
prohibits holding prisoners in a country other than their own.
11. The remoteness of the camp makes it particularly difficult to visit
prisoners. A monthly visit by two adults and two children per prisoner is
authorized. Some families have to travel an entire day to reach the camp.
Since most visitors are women, the obligatory search before the visit becomes
a serious problem if it is conducted by soldiers. The Muslim world does not
tolerate such practices, which challenge their traditions and rules.
12. When temporary measures become long-term, unbearable situations are
created. Prisoners are housed in army tents which have a short life span and
do not stand up to desert conditions.
13. The prisoners are young: when we visited, the average age in the camp
was determined to be 25-26 years. What can we say about these men, who are
subjected to temperatures approaching 40 degrees centigrade during the day
and 0 degrees at night?
14. They are held in a camp enclosed by wire netting and surrounded by an
embankment on which vehicles can be driven, so that the camp resembles a huge
bowl.
15. Since the prisoners inevitably talk with each other all day long, in
certain circumstances discussions automatically become political meetings.
The most influential prisoners quickly impose their points of view and we can
state that under such conditions, the camp is in fact a training centre for
the war against the Israeli occupiers. Sad proof of this was given to us by
the camp commander, who told us that the latest attacks by Palestinians had
been carried out by individuals released from Ketziot shortly (a few months)
before: the automatic rifle attack in the pedestrian street in Jerusalem, the
abduction of Corporal Wachsman and his subsequent execution during the failed
release attempt by an Israeli commando group and, finally, the bloody suicide
attack carried out by a young Palestinian in a city bus in Tel Aviv on
19 October 1994.
16. At our request, we were able to meet and speak with a group of nine
prisoners, unsupervised by Israeli guards. Most of them spoke about the
E/CN.4/1995/19
page 7
visiting system, mentioned above, and said how difficult it was to bear
detention under the conditions prevailing in the Ketziot camp. Several
complained of not receiving proper treatment when sick: the camp’s military
doctor was frequently changed and cases were not followed up. There are
frequent skin infections due to the lack of hygiene in the camp, and the harsh
conditions of detention often cause back problems. Dental care is not
provided, and it is difficult to get serious cases transferred to hospitals.
The food is the same as that given to the soldiers in charge of the camp.
Meals are prepared by cooks chosen from among the prisoners.
17. We had drawn up a list of eight prisoners whom we wished to meet; the
camp commander granted our request immediately and assembled seven of them
(the eighth had been released earlier), who were spontaneously joined by two
more.
18. The following are the prisoners whom we met at Ansar III Ketziot:
Mr. Samir Mohammed El Aloul;
Mr. Abed El Rahman Mahmoud Jumaah;
Mr. Mahmoud Ismail Atweh;
Mr. Khadr Mahmoud Abbas;
Mr. Nizar Awadhallah;
Mr. Wajih Eid;
Mr. Ahmed Qatalmish
and two prisoners whose names were unfortunately not noted.
19. It should be mentioned that 85 prisoners in the Ketziot camp are
administrative detainees. They have served their sentences and are being kept
in detention for a six-month period, renewable three times, because they are
considered dangerous. Mr. Ahmed Qatalmish had just been given a third
six-month detention period a few days before our visit.
20. We would like to acknowledge the open-mindedness of the camp commander,
Colonel Lex Gez, who replied straightforwardly to all our questions,
authorized us to tour the camp and immediately granted our request to meet a
group of prisoners whose names had been given to him when we arrived.
21. Our 25 October 1994 visit to the prison in Dahariya, near Hebron, was a
further illustration of the prisoners’ difficult conditions of detention. The
communal rooms house 30 or so prisoners on straw mattresses. The only light
enters through small openings at the top of a wall four metres high. The fact
that detention here is brief does not make up for the overcrowding and lack of
basic hygiene.
22. Both prisons are visited regularly by representatives of the
International Committee of the Red Cross.
E/CN.4/1995/19
page 8
23. We deliberately fixed on the prisoners issue, for that was the problem
that the representatives of non-governmental organizations whom we met in the
occupied territories always mentioned as being in their view the problem to be
dealt with first, in particular with regard to political prisoners.
24. Another problem directly involving the prisoners is the hindrance to
freedom of movement. After every attack - and we wish to make it clear that
we are not condoning bloody terrorist acts - collective punitive measures are
taken by Israel. In general, the territories and autonomous areas are sealed
off, preventing Palestinian workers from going to their jobs in Israel and
thus depriving them of their only income.
25. This method disrupts Israel’s agriculture and, in particular, the
construction industry, leading the Government to authorize the hiring of
foreign workers, especially Thais.
26. The full effect of these measures can be gauged when it is realized that
over 20,000 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip work outside the autonomous
territory. We met them on the afternoon of 19 October 1994, when they were
being sent home without being told how long the measure against them would
last, after the Tel Aviv attack, which was in fact committed by a terrorist
who was not from Gaza.
27. Collective punishment has serious consequences, even if, according to one
of the people in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with whom we spoke, it
ensures the safety of the Palestinian workers who might be victims of acts of
revenge in Israel.
28. Sealing off the territories and the Gaza Strip also prevents students
from that tiny region from attending schools in the West Bank.
29. This lack of freedom of movement is also felt on a general level by the
fact that the Palestinians do not hold passports and are therefore only able
to travel on the basis of documents issued specially for each case by the
Israeli authorities.
30. Commercial restrictions were decreed in Hebron after the massacre in the
Mosque of Abraham inside the Tomb of the Patriarchs on 25 February 1994.
Besides the fact that the Mosque was closed, which prevented the Muslims from
visiting their traditional place of worship, it was decided to protect the
small settlement inside the old city by closing the central market in Hebron.
Farmers and market gardeners are now forced to sell their products in an
improvised marketplace on a city roundabout where the traffic flow is
necessarily continuous, in an area smaller than that of the traditional
marketplace. The closing of the market automatically led to the closing of
the shops surrounding it, because they had lost all their customers.
31. In order to protect the settlers in the centre of the city (some 40
to 50 people), a powerful military control system is constantly maintained.
The streets leading to the Israeli houses are closed off by concrete blocks
and those needed for the movement of the settlers themselves or for access to
the Palestinians’ homes are strictly controlled by armed soldiers. No
Palestinian cars are allowed into this area, and its inhabitants must make
E/CN.4/1995/19
page 9
lengthy and unnecessary detours to go home. Children going to and from school
are subjected to the same controls as if they were living in the closed-off
area.
32. There is much provocation and harassment of Palestinians by settlers:
stone-throwing, burning of cars, broken windows, etc.
33. The people of Hebron are weary, and the inhabitants who can no longer
stand the attacks on their homes, especially when they are located near the
Kiryat Arba settlement are abandoning their houses. But the Israeli
authorities do not permit new construction within the city. Houses built
without a permit, and permits are issued sparingly, are demolished. We cannot
avoid feeling that all efforts are focused on preventing normal life in Hebron
and fostering an "Israelization" of the city by causing its inhabitants to
leave.
34. It need hardly be added that Hebron has become a particularly sensitive
point in the territories and that violence - leading, of course, to harsh
repression - could erupt in the city at any time.
35. To complete this part of the report dealing with direct violations of
individuals, emphasis should be placed on the insecurity that prevails in the
occupied territories from a legal point of view. In addition to the Israeli
legislation, numerous orders issued by the military authorities administering
the territories are in force. Rules differ from one community to another and
one region to another according to the commanders who issued them and the
events or disturbances that have occurred in each place; they often remain in
force even if the original cause has disappeared.
B. Water
36. In a region like the one covered by the occupied territories and the
Gaza Strip, the importance of water reserves and public water supply can well
be imagined. With a few exceptions (Bethlehem, Ramallah), water supply is
controlled by the Israelis.
37. Water consumption is governed by a quota system: the Palestinians
receive 120 m3 per year per inhabitant, while the Israeli settlers receive
600 m3 per year per inhabitant. The price of water is set at $1.60 per m3 for
the Palestinians and $0.60 for the settlements.
38. Annual water reserves are estimated to be approximately 600 million m3,
100 to 120 million m3 of which are allocated to the Palestinians; the rest is
under the control of the Israeli administration which makes it available to
the settlements (not exclusively).
39. Before autonomy, Gaza had access to approximately 20 million m3 of water
per year; this quota has been reduced to 10 million m3. It should be
emphasized that most Palestinians do not have running water.
40. Some of our questions concerning the water supply were met with the reply
that there was nothing to prevent the Palestinians from drilling wells.
However, the maximum drilling depth is 100 m. Since the settlements can drill
----
E/CN.4/1995/19
page 10
wells as deep as 500 m below ground, those drillings have a better chance of
reaching water and interfere with water catchment at lesser depths.
41. This information was supplied to us by the director of the Land and Water
Establishment for Studies and Legal Services, Mr. Khadr Shkeirat, who is
working to defend the land and water rights of the Palestinians.
C. Land
42. Although everyone now agrees that the policy of establishing new Israeli
settlements in the occupied territories has come to an end, everyone in the
areas we visited also agreed that the existing settlements were expanding.
43. Methods for occupying land belonging to Palestinians have in all
likelihood changed today: the perimeters of certain settlements (Hebron) are
extended and trees on the neighbouring Palestinian lands are uprooted to
increase the settlements’ surface area. Practically no action is taken on
legal complaints, and the guilty parties are never thwarted.
44. Land is expropriated in order to build roads to facilitate access to the
settlements, linking them to each other and avoiding the Palestinian
communities. Expropriations are made for reasons of the public interest (to
open quarries, for example). Lands are confiscated in order to establish
"protected natural areas". It is noticeable that these areas, like the two
quarries we were shown, which required 1 million m2 of land, are located on the
boundary line between two settlements, thus forming an extensive control area.
45. The Palestinians are generally opposed to the confiscation of their lands
and therefore reject the compensation they are offered. Cases brought before
the courts only lead to confirmation of what is planned or has already been
carried out and the setting of compensation.
46. During our first visit in January 1994, our attention was drawn to the
question of the destruction of houses in which terrorists were hiding or might
hide. This method of repression no longer appears to be used, or in any case
not systematically. The effects of another method, however, that of sealing
houses, are still being felt today.
47. In Ramallah, we saw a house whose entrances had been sealed since 1990
and whose occupants are still living in a small, flimsy, makeshift shed, in
front of the building. Young children only know their house by its facade and
closed doors. It is obvious that no one is in a position to decide when and
how the house should be reopened and restored to its owners. No rules have
been established in this area, and the entire family continues to be punished,
while a new decision cannot be obtained.
48. In the same town, a family was awakened on Wednesday, 19 October 1994
at 2 a.m. by a group of officers (four or five according to the occupants’
testimony) using a megaphone to order all the occupants of the house outside.
They were there to arrest a suspect, who turned out to be one of the family’s
children, a young student. Leaving the family outside, the group of officers
went into the house and systematically ransacked all the rooms: arm chairs,
sofas, and beds were ripped open, cupboards emptied and their contents strewn
---
E/CN.4/1995/19
page 11
on the ground, the kitchen destroyed, appliances ripped out and broken, food
containers overturned, including the olive jars which were emptied out on the
terrace, school notebooks and textbooks torn apart. To crown this glorious
military feat, one of the men defecated in the hall and threw his excrement on
one of the beds. These events occurred over seven hours before the Tel Aviv
attack on the same day and can in no way be considered an act of revenge.
49. We immediately reported this case to one of the Israelis with whom we
were dealing, who said that while he regretted it, it demonstrated - if any
demonstration was needed - that, despite orders and despite the difficult
peace process, soldiers of an occupying army could always commit abuses, for
fun or out of hatred, and that such abuses stirred up hatred against them and
all the occupiers.
III. SITUATION IN GAZA
50. It has to be admitted that after a few months of autonomy, the situation
in the Gaza Strip is quite confused and the Palestinian authority is
collapsing under a host of problems.
51. Security is in the hands of the Palestinian police force, under the
command of Major-General Nasser Youssef. This hastily-formed force appears to
have been accepted by the population, despite the fact that the men composing
it come from outside the region. On-the-spot training is provided by officers
of the Norwegian and Swedish police, in cooperation with the Centre for Human
Rights.
52. Turning soldiers into policemen is not a simple matter, and the new
police officers must first and foremost receive instruction on citizens’
rights, the limits of police action and human rights in general.
General Youssef hopes that a police school will be established using foreign
experts. No financing for this project is yet available.
53. Freedom of expression is guaranteed, and no distinction is made between
supporters or opponents of the peace process or the Palestinian authority.
The next step is to guarantee freedom of the press.
54. The fact that the population possesses weapons makes security control
difficult; weapons possession will necessarily have to be controlled. This
serious problem will have to be settled through the adoption of a law
currently under study, according to information we received from Mr. Freih Abu
Meddein, who is responsible for justice in the Palestinian authority.
55. Tensions between the Palestinian authority and its political opposition
are considerable, and police operations are always extremely delicate. The
opposition regularly infringes the rules laid down, for example by organizing
unauthorized demonstrations, with no possibility of intervention. There is
always a high risk of confrontation. It is likewise difficult to apply the
agreement with Israel, which stipulates that the Palestinian police forces
must act at the request of the Israelis and follow certain procedures, as part
E/CN.4/1995/19
page 12
of a mutual assistance arrangement. Such difficulties can in no way be
considered as excuses, and everyone in Gaza regrets the lack of clear
legislation.
56. Mrs. Hanan Ashrawi - whose organization has its headquarters in
Jerusalem - is even asking for unification of the legislation for all the
occupied territories and autonomous areas. History, the military occupation
and its decrees and the recent autonomy have all left their mark on the legal
rules governing the entire region, but have not led to a clarification or
unification of them.
57. This issue cannot be resolved without the holding of free elections in
the autonomous areas, which would set up an authority empowered to legislate.
Nevertheless, in the agreements the Israeli authorities reserved the right to
oppose certain provisions or laws if it found them to be a threat to Israel’s
security!
58. The autonomous territories also need help in the training of judges.
59. All the military decrees issued during the 27 years of occupation are
potentially repealable, but that cannot be done without Israel’s agreement.
60. Although the intifada stopped when the Gaza Strip and Jericho attained
autonomy - i.e. with the first effects of the peace process that grew out of
the Oslo and Cairo agreements - and despite the withdrawal of the Israeli
occupying troops from Gaza, 450 soldiers remain there to protect the Israeli
settlements in the territory.
61. As regards infrastructures, everything must be rebuilt or built, in
particular in Gaza City: roads, sewerage, water supply system, etc., are in a
pitiful state. The magnificent beaches must be cleaned if tourism is to be
developed one day.
62. The 20,000 to 30,000 workers with jobs in Israel remain a problem. The
unemployment rate is currently at 60 per cent, and the reconstruction of Gaza,
whose financing is not definite, will not absorb all of the unemployed.
63. In order to meet its own needs, the Palestinian authority will have to
set up or reorganize a public administration capable of collecting taxes.
Such a disadvantaged population will certainly provide too little tax revenue
to cover the needs of the political authority, even if they are accurately
estimated.
64. In the economic sphere, the situation in Gaza is particularly disturbing.
The land in the region is poor, predominantly sand, and exports practically
non-existent. Nearly all products consumed in Gaza come from Israel.
Development is conceivable only with heavy support from abroad.
65. Although most of the people we visited favour peace, the precariousness
of their situation, the slow pace of change and their receding hopes for a
better life are producing bitterness that cannot fail in the long term to be
dangerous for stability throughout the region.
E/CN.4/1995/19
page 13
IV. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
66. Our assessment of the situation in the occupied territories and the
autonomous area of Gaza, together with the facts and testimony we collected
(which, of course, it was not possible to verify in detail) were communicated
to the Israeli authorities when we met with ministers and members of their
staff.
67. The peace process initiated in 1993 presupposes that the parties pursuing
the negotiations will have the will to make their decisions irreversible.
This should eventually lead to an expansion of Palestinian autonomy in the
territories and to the Palestinians taking over the management and
administration of certain sectors (education, health, etc.).
68. At the same time, bilateral solutions are being sought for the
establishment of peace and new relations between the States of the
Middle East. The recent agreement with the Kingdom of Jordan is indicative of
the Israelis’ desire to eliminate the state of war between Israel and its
neighbours.
69. All the positive steps that have been taken cannot be ignored. It has to
be acknowledged, however, that human rights will have the most chance of being
enforced once the process has been completed. Therefore, it is the
international community’s duty to support that process, and also to provide
those involved in it with strong material support. Otherwise, the hopes
raised will turn into disappointment tinged with anger, and the
attack-repression cycle will resume throughout the country.
70. There remain two sensitive points with which we have not dealt in this
report: Jerusalem and the settlements.
71. Regarding the first point, the Palestinian reactions to the Jordan-Israel
agreement and the position taken by H.M. King Hussein demonstrate, if any
proof is needed, how particularly sensitive this issue is.
72. As regards the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and in
Gaza, it is not necessary to be a prophet to say that they will necessarily be
an extremely delicate point in the negotiation of relations between Israel and
its Palestinian neighbours. The settlements’ status will have to be defined
clearly, and the problem of their security cannot ultimately be resolved by
maintaining specialized troops in territories that have regained their
autonomy and still less so in the event of independence.
73. Even if the large majority of people whom we met acknowledge that the
entire country has always had Jews and Muslims living side by side, the
current situation, if not redefined, must inevitably lead to painful
confrontations. We had already emphasized this problem in our very brief
report of 28 January 1994.
74. It is for the international community to support the process and the
negotiations now under way, encourage a successful outcome and facilitate the
E/CN.4/1995/19
page 14
implementation of the agreements reached. Then and then only can we conceive
of new relations between Israelis and Palestinians, in which human rights will
naturally be taken into account.
75. Since the territories were occupied, the Special Committee appointed by
the General Assembly is charged with monitoring respect for human rights in
that part of the world. It has never been authorized to enter Israel or the
territories in order to fulfil its mandate. It has prepared its reports by
hearing witnesses outside the territories. Neither the General Assembly nor
the Commission on Human Rights have been able to persuade Israel to change its
attitude towards the Committee.
76. Neither the General Assembly nor the Commission has had any particular
success in the area of enforcement of human rights in the occupied
territories. No specific measures have been taken, and political condemnation
is not proving effective. International public opinion is similar to Israeli
public opinion: it regards security as taking precedence over human rights,
and every terrorist attack brings out this feeling anew. Reading this report
will not lead to a rapid or appreciable change in the situation in the
occupied territories.
77. We draw the conclusion that only States, through bilateral or
multilateral relations, are in a position to influence the Israeli Government
or even the negotiators in the peace process. The same States also have the
possibility of participating actively in the success of the projects
undertaken, through financial and technical assistance to the autonomous
regions. Let us cease to think, in contradiction with what the history of
mankind, and especially recent centuries, has taught us, that the military
occupation of a territory by a foreign army is compatible with human rights as
we conceive them today and as they have been defined.
78. The solution of course lies in the establishment of normal peaceful
relations between States, to guarantee the existence and security of each of
them.
79. That does not mean that we should stop denouncing human rights violations
or intervening in countries where human rights are under threat. But if the
solution to the problem lies elsewhere than in simply reporting facts through
the publication of a report, then let us change our method.
80. It is in this spirit that we submit this report, which naturally
concludes with a proposal to do away with our services, and even to do away
with appointing a Special Rapporteur in the occupied territories altogether.
A report may soothe consciences, but its effectiveness should be measured by
the impact of the points it makes and by how seriously they are taken by those
to whom they are addressed.
-----
UNITED NATIONS E
Economic and Social
Council
Distr.
GENERAL
E/CN.4/1996/18
15 March 1996
Original: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Fifty-second session
Item 4 of the provisional agenda
QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE OCCUPIED
ARAB TERRITORIES, INCLUDING PALESTINE
Report on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories
occupied since 1967, submitted by Mr. Hannu Halinen, Special Rapporteur,
pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolution 1993/2 A
I. INTRODUCTION
1. At its forty-ninth session, the Commission on Human Rights adopted
resolution 1993/2 A, of 19 February 1993, entitled "Question of the violation
of human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine".
2. In paragraph 4 of that resolution, the Commission decided to appoint a
special rapporteur with the following mandate:
"(a) To investigate Israel’s violations of the principles and
bases of international law, international humanitarian law and the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War,
of 12 August 1949, in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel
since 1967;
"(b) To receive communications, to hear witnesses, and to use such
modalities of procedure as he may deem necessary for his mandate;
"(c) To report, with his conclusions and recommendations, to the
Commission on Human Rights at its future sessions, until the end of the
Israeli occupation of those territories."
GE.96-10882 (E)
E/CN.4/1996/18
page 2
3. At its 44th plenary meeting, on 28 July 1993, the Economic and Social
Council adopted decision 1993/253, in which it approved Commission
resolution 1993/2 A.
4. On 13 September 1993, the Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights
appointed Mr. René Felber (Switzerland) as Special Rapporteur. Mr. Felber
presented reports to the Commission at its fiftieth and fifty-first sessions
(E/CN.4/1994/14 and E/CN.4/1995/19 respectively). After presenting his second
report to the Commission, Mr. Felber resigned as Special Rapporteur on
9 February 1995.
5. In a letter dated 18 April 1995, the Chairman of the Commission on Human
Rights at its fifty-first session, after consultations with the Bureau,
informed the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights of his decision to
appoint Mr. Hannu Halinen (Finland) as Special Rapporteur. The appointment of
the Special Rapporteur has been brought to the attention of the Government of
Israel by the Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights.
6. In keeping with the general philosophy guiding the approach of the
special rapporteurs of the Commission on Human Rights to the discharge of
their mandates, the Special Rapporteur did not see his role as accusatory, but
rather as having the objective of establishing a meaningful and constructive
dialogue with all the parties concerned in overcoming problems having to do
with issues relating to his mandate.
7. In embarking on his mandate, the Special Rapporteur was aware of the
important political developments in the peace process between Israel and the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) that were initiated by the signing of
the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-government Arrangements in
Washington on 13 September 1993. The political process was enhanced further
by the signing in Cairo, on 4 May 1994, of the Israel-PLO Agreement on the
Gaza Strip and Jericho Area, which was followed by the establishment of the
Palestinian Authority there. The signing on 28 September 1995 in Washington
of the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip
broadened Palestinian self-government in the West Bank and marked the end of
the first stage of negotiations between Israel and the PLO. In pursuance of
the Interim Agreement, elections for the Palestinian Council were held
on 20 January 1996.
8. In a letter addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Israel, the
Special Rapporteur stated that he believed that the exercise of his mandate
should help to contribute to the peace process that began with the signing of
the historic agreements in Washington and Cairo. In order to carry out his
mandate in the most impartial and objective manner, he thought it extremely
important to know the views of the Israeli authorities in order to enable him
to present a comprehensive report to the Commission on Human Rights based on
the most up-to-date and accurate information available. As an initial step,
he requested to meet with the Permanent Representative of Israel to the
United Nations Office at Geneva and asked to benefit from the cooperation of
the Government of Israel with a view to carrying out a visit to Israel and the
occupied territories. A letter with similar content was sent to the Permanent
Representative of Israel.
E/CN.4/1996/18
page 3
9. On 14 November 1995, the Permanent Representative of Israel addressed a
letter to the Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights, expressing the
serious reservations of the Government of Israel about the Special
Rapporteur’s mandate. The letter stated that, unlike the mandates of all
other "geographical" special rapporteurs, which are on a one-year basis and
subject to renewal, the mandate in resolution 1993/2 A was open-ended. The
Permanent Representative expressed the view that, at a time when the Middle
East peace process was advancing and the Palestinian Authority taking full
responsibility for self-government in the West Bank, in addition to Gaza and
Jericho, it was inconceivable that the Special Rapporteur’s mandate should
remain unchanged. In the light of the above, the Special Rapporteur was
informed that Israel was not in a position to receive him.
10. The Special Rapporteur regrets the lack of cooperation on part of the
Government of Israel regarding his mandate for certain reasons of principle,
whereas the objective of the Special Rapporteur is to be helpful in addressing
problems whose existence not even Israel denies and suggesting solutions to
them by establishing a constructive dialogue with all sides aimed at
overcoming them.
11. The Special Rapporteur met with representatives of non-governmental
organizations and received written information from Governments,
intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations as well as individuals.
12. The Special Rapporteur availed himself of the opportunity afforded when a
Palestinian delegation came to the meeting of the World Economic Forum in
Davos at the beginning of February 1996 to meet with the President of the
Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat. On that occasion, Mr. Arafat invited
the Special Rapporteur to visit Gaza.
13. Given the proximity of the upcoming session of the Commission on Human
Rights, the Special Rapporteur decided to carry out a short visit to Gaza from
2 to 4 March 1996, together with a staff member from the Centre for Human
Rights of the United Nations Secretariat.
14. During his visit to Gaza, the Special Rapporteur met with the President
of the Palestinian Authority, Mr. Arafat, and discussed issues relating to his
mandate. He also availed himself of the opportunity of being in Gaza to
acquaint himself with the situation there. The Special Rapporteur met with
the Ministers of Economy, Planning and International Cooperation, Health,
Labour and Social Affairs of the Palestinian Authority as well as with a
number of newly elected members of the Palestinian Council. He also met with
the Presidential Adviser on Human Rights as well as with representatives of
non-governmental and humanitarian organizations. In addition, the Special
Rapporteur met with Mr. Terje Larsen, United Nations Special Coordinator in
the Occupied Territories.
15. The Special Rapporteur wishes to express his appreciation to Mr. Arafat
and the Palestinian Authority for the cooperation extended to him in the
course of the mission.
E/CN.4/1996/18
page 4
16. The Special Rapporteur expresses his sincere gratitude to the
United Nations Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories and the staff
of his Office for the most efficient logistical and other support provided to
the mission at very short notice.
II. PRINCIPAL CONCERNS REGARDING THE SITUATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
17. As indicated above, the Special Rapporteur was unable to visit Israel and
the totality of the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. Although the
Special Rapporteur received valuable information relating to his mandate
during the short visit to Gaza, he believes it is not sufficient to write of a
comprehensive and balanced report. His report is therefore based not entirely
on the type of information that could have been obtained during extensive and
detailed first-hand inquiries in the course of a comprehensive visit to the
area but to a considerable extent on written and oral information received
from Governments as well as intergovernmental, non-governmental and
humanitarian organizations. The report is therefore of necessity incomplete
in view of the constraints imposed on the Special Rapporteur.
18. The peace process, which began with the signing of the Declaration of
Principles in 1993, has brought important political changes in the occupied
territories and has enhanced the understanding between Palestinians and
Israelis. It has gained further momentum with the recent signing of the
Interim Agreement, which includes positive elements as far as human rights are
concerned and bodes well for the future. The subsequent elections for the
Palestinian Council, as an expression of democracy in action, have been
organized on schedule and are considered by the international observers an
accurate reflection of the wishes of the Palestinian electorate. Article XIX
of the Interim Agreement entitled "Human rights and the rule of law" states
that "Israel and the Council shall exercise their powers and responsibilities
pursuant to this Agreement with due regard to internationally accepted norms
and principles of human rights and the rule of law". The completion of the
peace process is the best way to ensure respect for human rights and the rule
of law. However, the promotion of human rights and democracy is crucial to
the success of the peace process. Guaranteeing these standards should not be
viewed as compromising the peace process.
19. Despite the positive developments cited above and the transfer of certain
powers and responsibilities to the Palestinian Authority, it ought to be
recalled that the Israeli occupation continues to be legally in force during
the transition period. Israel therefore continues to be bound by the
requirements of humanitarian law, in particular the Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949.
20. The Special Rapporteur has visited Gaza and finalized the present report
at a particularly difficult time for both Israelis and Palestinians. A series
of 4 suicide bomb attacks in Israel (2 in Jerusalem, 1 in Ashkelon and 1 in
Tel Aviv) in the space of 9 days has resulted in the death of some 60 persons,
while hundreds have been wounded. The Special Rapporteur condemns acts of
violence and terror constituting violations of human rights perpetrated by
extremists who are adversaries of peace. The Special Rapporteur expresses his
E/CN.4/1996/18
page 5
sincere condolences to the families of the innocent victims of criminal
terrorist acts. The peace process has led to substantive advances in
relations between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples and is a clear
manifestation of their desire for peace. Terrorism creates a security
situation that undermines the peace process. Acts of terrorism often lead to
the adoption of countermeasures that violate human rights and humanitarian
law. These measures involve harsh repression and punitive policy against
Palestinians living in the occupied territories. When applied
indiscriminately to a large portion of the Palestinian population, such
countermeasures may lead to an escalation of tension, which in turn may
contribute to the strengthening of the position of those who use violence to
oppose the peace process. The Special Rapporteur regrets the collective
measures taken against the Arab population of the occupied territories in this
context. During his visit to Gaza, the Special Rapporteur was able to observe
on 4 March 1996 demonstrations against violence and in favour of peace.
21. The following paragraphs contain a brief summary of the principal
concerns regarding the situation of human rights in the territories covered by
the Special Rapporteur’s mandate.
Closure and other measures related to security incidents
22. The first measure imposed on the occupied territories after terrorist
incidents in Israel is usually their complete closure, which seals the Gaza
Strip and West Bank from each other as well as East Jerusalem and Israel.
This policy amounts to collective punishment, in violation of article 33 of
the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, and results in the severe restriction of
the freedom of movement of the inhabitants of the occupied territories. The
Special Rapporteur was informed by the Palestinian Authority that, since the
transfer of power to the Palestinian Authority in 1994, the Gaza Strip has
been subjected to more than 150 days of total closure. Fears have been
expressed that the current closure imposed on Gaza on 25 February 1996 may
last until the Israeli elections at the end of May. On several occasions,
Gaza has been described to the Special Rapporteur as a large prison in such
circumstances. It has also been reported that the 465 towns and villages
still under Israeli control in the West Bank have been declared closed
military areas. The Special Rapporteur was informed that Palestinians
required three different permits in order to be able to travel between Gaza
and the West Bank. The problem is compounded further by the fact that the
arrangements for safe passages between Palestinian autonomous areas foreseen
by the peace agreements have not been implemented, although the West Bank and
Gaza Strip are considered one territorial unit.
23. The restrictions on the freedom of movement resulting from closures have
serious consequences for the health of the population of the occupied
territories. Since hospitals in Gaza do not provide tertiary care and lack
advanced diagnostic tools, closures affect both patients and health workers.
Israeli human rights organizations have requested that special permits be
issued for medical personnel. Denial of access to medical services, mostly
provided by medical institutions in East Jerusalem, is especially serious for
cardiac and cancer patients. The problem of oxygen may also become
E/CN.4/1996/18
page 6
particularly acute as there is no oxygen station in Gaza. The Special
Rapporteur was informed of the case of a woman who died on 27 February 1996
when the ambulance transporting her out of the Gaza Strip was delayed at the
Erez checkpoint for five hours.
24. Closures have a particularly adverse effect on the already fragile
economic situation and lead to further deterioration in living conditions,
especially in the Gaza Strip. The Special Rapporteur was informed that the
losses for the Palestinian economy resulting from the closure may equal or
even exceed contributions from donor countries. With every closure, the
permits of Palestinian labourers working in Israel are automatically
cancelled. Unemployment in the Gaza Strip rises to more than 80 per cent
during complete closures. In addition, some 80 per cent of commercial
transactions in Gaza involve the Israeli economy. The economic situation was
described to the Special Rapporteur as a time bomb.
25. Freedom of education is also affected by the closures. It has been
reported, for example, that on 11 March 1996 a senior Israeli Defence Force
(IDF) officer ordered all students from Gaza registered at West Bank colleges
and universities to report immediately to the Israeli Civil Administration
office, following which they would be returned to the Gaza Strip. A number of
educational institutions are reported to have been raided and/or closed. The
Special Rapporteur was informed that the closure currently imposed on the
occupied territories has resulted in the shortage of a number of basic
commodities, including food, especially in the Gaza Strip.
26. Closures weaken further the already fragile Palestinian institutions,
which are suffering from the adverse effects of the occupation and require the
establishment or reconstruction of the civil, political, economic, social and
cultural infrastructure. Closures severely disrupt all aspects of the daily
lives of Palestinians living under direct Israeli rule and those living in the
self-rule areas.
27. The recent suicide bomb attacks in Israel by Palestinian extremists
opposed to the peace process have prompted the Israeli authorities to
intensify a number of measures against the Palestinian population of the
occupied territories that remains under its rule. In addition to the closure,
another immediate effect of the security incidents were the mass arrests of
persons suspected of affiliation with the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements,
which are believed to be extrajudicial in nature. Arrests have reportedly
also been made on the basis of family connections to perpetrators of security
attacks. A number of houses belonging to the families of persons who carried
out bomb attacks have been sealed and one has been demolished. Other
demolitions have been foreseen. Also, a curfew was imposed on the community
near Hebron from where two of the suicide bombers originated. It is believed
that the recent wave of arrests will entail increased use of administrative
detention without charge or trial, whose maximum period was extended in 1995
from six months to one year, renewable. The security concerns of both Israel
and the Palestinian Authority have placed overwhelming pressure on the
Palestinian Authority to maintain order and the security of both parties in
areas under its control. Over 600 arrests are reported to have taken place in
E/CN.4/1996/18
page 7
areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority. It has been reported
that alleged Islamic activists have been arrested extrajudicially on a massive
scale. It has also been reported that the Palestinian Authority has arrested
family members of wanted persons who could not be located.
Prisoners and detainees
28. In view of the mass arrests that have been carried out in the wake of the
recent suicide bomb attacks in Israel, fears have been expressed that both
Israel and the Palestinian Authority may be subjecting detainees to torture
and ill-treatment. In Israel, many of the persons arrested are reported to be
held incommunicado for long periods, during which secret internal guidelines
for interrogation may be applied by the General Security Service (GSS). The
Special Rapporteur was informed that GSS systematically uses interrogation
methods that constitute torture and ill-treatment. Such methods of
interrogation have been described as including sleep deprivation, hooding,
beating, position abuse and violent shaking that provokes potentially fatal
movements of the head. Since October 1994, these guidelines, which allow for
"a moderate measure of physical pressure" as well as psychological pressure,
have allowed for harsher interrogation methods. Exceptional dispensations of
this nature were prolonged on 22 January 1996. The practices described above
violate articles 27 (1), 31 and 32 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The
Special Rapporteur has received disturbing information that persons arrested
in the areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority have also been subjected
to torture and mistreatment, in contravention of internationally recognized
human rights standards. Human rights violations were not denied by the
representatives of the Palestinian Authority with whom the Special Rapporteur
met. In fact, existing problems were very openly discussed in those meetings.
29. It has been reported that there are currently some 3,500 Palestinian
prisoners in Israeli detention facilities. Many have been transferred from
prisons in the occupied territories to Israel, in violation of article 49 of
the Fourth Geneva Convention. Within the framework of the implementation of
the peace agreements between Israel and the PLO, 889 prisoners were released
in October 1995 and some 950 were released in January 1996 prior to the
elections for the Palestinian Council. However, 29 female prisoners continue
to be detained in Israeli detention centres, in contravention of the Interim
Agreement. The Special Rapporteur was informed that a large number of those
released were common law prisoners and those nearing the end of their
sentence.
Land confiscation and settlements
30. The Special Rapporteur’s attention was drawn to the continued policy of
confiscation of Palestinian-owned land in spite of the peace process and in
breach of article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The expropriated land
is used mostly for the expansion of existing Israeli settlements and the
building of bypass roads around them, which cantonizes Arab population areas
in the occupied territories. The Special Rapporteur was informed that Israel
still controls some 40 per cent of land in the Gaza Strip in and around the
settlements and the military installations maintained for their protection.
The presence of settlements raises tension in the area and leads to outbursts
of violence.
E/CN.4/1996/18
page 8
III. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
31. The continuation of the peace process is the best guarantee that human
rights in the area covered by the Special Rapporteur’s mandate will be
respected. The Special Rapporteur is of the opinion that he can contribute
constructively to the peace process and the establishment of democracy in the
areas covered by his mandate by facilitating concrete steps aimed at improving
the situation of human rights.
32. A new situation has been engendered by the peace process, where Israelis
and Palestinians move from confrontation to reconciliation. Only dialogue can
ensure true and lasting peace in the region, for which the cooperation of both
parties is essential. Democracy, peaceful relations and respect for human
rights and humanitarian law are conducive to the exploitation of the Middle
East’s development potential that can result in prosperity for all the peoples
of the region. Economic development is also essential for political stability
and peace.
33. The Special Rapporteur strongly condemns acts of violence aimed at
derailing the peace process. The perpetrators of such acts should be
condemned by the international community as a whole in no uncertain terms. No
one has the right to condone the arbitrary killing of innocent victims, and
the Special Rapporteur expresses sympathy with their families. While measures
preventing such criminal acts are necessary, so are measures preventing
violations of human rights. In addressing their security concerns, Israel and
the Palestinian Authority should bear in mind the human rights consequences of
their security policy: the measures undertaken have to be compatible with
respect for human rights. The halting of terrorism cannot be carried out at
the expense of human rights. The terrorist attacks and the measures taken to
counter them are no doubt setbacks in this context. Reconciliation is,
regrettably, not yet irreversible. A way out of the vicious circle of
violence and repression has to be found. Upholding law and order should not
in any way replace strict adherence to the rule of law.
34. Israel should reconsider its policy of full-scale closure and other
indiscriminate measures amounting to collective punishment imposed on the
occupied territories. When applying measures that restrict the enjoyment of
human rights, the principles of necessity and proportionality should be taken
into consideration.
35. The confidence-building measures described in article XVI of the Interim
Agreement, involving the release of Palestinian detainees and prisoners,
including women, should be implemented without delay.
36. The use of torture, whether by Israelis or Palestinians, should be
absolutely prohibited. Allegations of torture should be investigated by
independent judicial organs and those responsible prosecuted. As recommended
by the United Nations Committee against Torture, an immediate end should be
put to current interrogation practices and all victims of such practices
should be granted access to appropriate rehabilitation and compensation
E/CN.4/1996/18
page 9
measures. It recommended that interrogation procedures be published in full
so that they are both transparent and seen to be consistent with the standards
of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment.
37. All persons placed in administrative detention by the Government of
Israel should be brought to a fair trial or released. Trials should be held
in conformity with international standards for fairness, with due process
safeguards.
38. The confiscation of Palestinian-owned land and the construction or
expansion of settlements should be halted immediately.
39. Human rights violations perpetrated in areas under the control of the
Palestinian Authority have not been denied by its representatives and have
been referred to in discussions. The protection and promotion of human rights
is a general responsibility. It is essential that the Special Rapporteur be
able to study and report about the situation of human rights in a
comprehensive, forward-looking and action-oriented way. The situation on the
ground, particularly vis-à-vis the peace process, has to be reflected
appropriately in the mandate of the Special Rapporteur. The Special
Rapporteur expresses satisfaction that this fact has been understood by the
Palestinian Authority, which has promised him full cooperation in reviewing
the mandate accordingly. The Special Rapporteur cannot be effective in his
work without the full cooperation of the Government of Israel. The
responsibility of improving the human rights situation in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip lies with both Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which should
apply all the principles of human rights and humanitarian law. Israel, as the
occupying Power, continues to have special obligations under the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of
12 August 1949.
40. The Special Rapporteur invites the Commission on Human Rights to consider
amending his mandate in accordance with the foregoing.
41. In view of the complexity of applicable laws in areas under the
Palestinian Authority, it would be important that the international legal
standards enshrined in international human rights instruments be incorporated
into domestic legislation by the newly elected Palestinian Council.
42. The complex situation in the Middle East highlights the need for the
establishment of a new human rights culture. Human rights are an integral
part of democracy and development as well as of peace and security.
Broadening the awareness and understanding of human rights is a major task,
particularly in times of high tension and deep suspicion. There is no
alternative, however. Without respect for human rights, there can be no
lasting peace, no sustainable development or democracy. The Centre for Human
Rights and the Special Rapporteur are prepared to make their contribution,
together with other organizations and partners. Donor countries and agencies
have responded commendably in supporting the peace process. This process is
now challenged in an unprecedented way and it is in need of all the support it
can obtain. The United Nations Special Coordinator in the Occupied
E/CN.4/1996/18
page 10
Territories and his Office are doing admirable work in mobilizing and
organizing international support for Palestinians. The Centre for Human
Rights should accelerate the implementation of programmes of advisory services
and technical assistance to complement the work of the Special Coordinator.
43. Exceptional circumstances require new approaches. Instead of repeating
accusations over and over again, an attempt should be made to create a
concrete, action-oriented human rights strategy for the Palestinian
territories. This would require the support of all partners and in particular
the full participation of both Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The fact
needs to be stated that there are violations of human rights by both sides.
It appears indispensable that the role of the Special Rapporteur be reviewed
so as to enable him to make a more action-oriented contribution to the
protection and promotion of human rights in the area. This would entail
addressing human rights problems in a comprehensive and integrated manner with
a view to finding the most effective ways and means to prevent their
escalation and to advance overall respect for human rights.
-----
UNITED
NATIONS E
Economic and Social
Council
Distr.
GENERAL
E/CN.4/1997/16
19 February 1997
Original: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Fiftythird
session
Item 4 of the provisional agenda
QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE OCCUPIED
ARAB TERRITORIES, INCLUDING PALESTINE
Report on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories
occupied since 1967, submitted by Mr. Hannu Halinen, Special Rapporteur,
pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolution 1993/2 A
Introduction
1. At its forty-ninth session, the Commission on Human Rights adopted
resolution 1993/2 A of 19 February 1993, entitled "Question of the violation
of human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine".
In paragraph 4 of that resolution, the Commission decided to appoint a special
rapporteur.
2. At its 44th plenary meeting, on 28 July 1993, the Economic and Social
Council adopted decision 1993/253, in which it approved Commission
resolution 1993/2 A.
3. The former Special Rapporteur, Mr. René Felber (Switzerland), presented
reports to the Commission at its fiftieth and fifty-first sessions
(E/CN.4/1994/14 and E/CN.4/1995/19 respectively). He resigned as Special
Rapporteur on 9 February 1995. The current Special Rapporteur,
Mr. Hannu Halinen (Finland), was appointed in April 1995 by the Chairman of
the Commission on Human Rights and presented a report to the Commission at its
fifty-second session (E/CN.4/1996/18).
4. The Special Rapporteur continues to believe that his role is not an
accusatory one, but rather has the objectives of establishing a meaningful and
constructive dialogue with all the parties concerned and helping to overcome
problems having to do with human rights concerns in the area.
GE.9710554
(E)
E/CN.4/1997/16
page 2
5. The Special Rapporteur is aware that he is called upon to exercise his
mandate in the context of the important political developments in the peace
process between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) which
follow the signing of the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip (the so-called Oslo II Agreement) in 1995, the
elections in January 1996 for the Palestinian Council, the elections in Israel
in May 1996 and, more recently, the signing of the Protocol Concerning the
Redeployment in Hebron on 15 January 1997. He believes that the exercise of
his mandate, which is to prevent violations of human rights and improve the
overall human rights situation, should help to contribute to the peace
process.
6. During the period under review, the Special Rapporteur met with
representatives of Governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental
organizations and received written information from intergovernmental and
nongovernmental
organizations as well as from individuals. The Special
Rapporteur is of the opinion that contacts with the representatives of the
Israeli authorities and a greater possibility for visits in the area would
have helped him even further to exercise his mandate in the most impartial and
objective manner.
7. Since the last session of the Commission on Human Rights and on the
basis of the discussions that took place there, the Special Rapporteur availed
himself of every opportunity afforded to him to hold both formal and informal
discussions on issues related to his mandate, in Geneva, New York and the
Middle East. Before submitting his report to the Commission, the Special
Rapporteur decided to carry out a short visit to the occupied Palestinian
territories from 23 to 27 January 1997, together with a staff member from the
Centre for Human Rights. He visited Gaza, Ramallah and Jericho. In the
course of 1996, the Special Rapporteur received an invitation from the League
of Arab States to visit its headquarters in Cairo. The Special Rapporteur
travelled to Cairo on 28 and 29 January 1997. During the year, he also had
the occasion to meet informally with the representatives of the Government of
Israel.
8. During his visit to Gaza, the Special Rapporteur met with the President
of the Palestinian Authority, Mr. Yasser Arafat, and discussed issues relating
to his mandate. The Special Rapporteur also met with the Speaker of the
Palestinian Council and with the Chief Justice of the Palestinian Authority.
He availed himself of the opportunity to acquaint himself with the situation
in Gaza. In addition, the Special Rapporteur met with Mr. Peter Hansen, the
United Nations Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories, a.i. and
CommissionerGeneral
of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for
Palestine Refugees in the Near East. In Jericho, the Special Rapporteur met
with the Minister for Local Government of the Palestinian Authority. During
his visit to Gaza and Ramallah, the Special Rapporteur met with
representatives of United Nations agencies, non-governmental and humanitarian
organizations.
9. At the invitation of the League of Arab States, the Special Rapporteur
met in Cairo with the Secretary-General of the League, Mr. Ahmed Esmat Abdel
Meguid. Mr. Said Kamal, the head of the Palestinian Affairs Department of the
League of Arab States, was also present. The Special Rapporteur took
E/CN.4/1997/16
page 3
advantage of his presence in Cairo to meet with representatives of the
Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Egypt. He met with Mr. Said El Masri,
Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, as well as other senior officials from
the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
10. The Special Rapporteur wishes to express his appreciation to Mr. Arafat
and the Palestinian Authority for the cooperation extended to him in the
course of the mission.
11. The Special Rapporteur expresses his sincere gratitude to the
High Commissioner/Centre for Human Rights and to the United Nations Special
Coordinator in the Occupied Territories and the staff of their offices in Gaza
for the most efficient logistical and other support provided to the mission.
I. PRINCIPAL CONCERNS REGARDING THE SITUATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
12. The Special Rapporteur would like to draw attention to the fact that
today, human rights are an integral building block of both basic pillars on
which the United Nations rests, namely, peace and economic and social
development. Consequently, human rights should be promoted and protected in
maintaining and strengthening peace and security and advancing social and
economic development. Lasting peace cannot be achieved without respect for
human rights. Without peace, violations of human rights are more systematic
and serious.
13. The Special Rapporteur would like to point out that security is not just
a military concept. It is largely dependent on economic and social
wellbeing.
Human security is not just about weapons; it is even more about
human dignity. Human rights, along with humanitarian assistance and election
monitoring, have become an integral part of maintaining peace and security.
It should be recognized that one of the basic reasons for the creation of
societies is to improve the conditions of humanity; to set human beings at the
centre of collective concerns.
14. On a global scale, political and security issues, human rights,
humanitarian affairs, social and economic development and democracy are linked
inextricably. A comprehensive, coordinated and flexible approach has to be
found in considering all these elements in the context of IsraeliPalestinian
relations.
15. During the period under consideration, the peace process has gone
through a very fragile phase. In particular following the conclusion of the
Hebron accords, most of the hopes and expectations attached to the peace
process have gained new impetus. Terrorist incidents such as those which
overshadowed the mission of the Special Rapporteur a year ago have largely
been avoided, but the danger that such acts may be committed in the future
remains. The real test of the process is yet to come with the beginning of
the negotiations on the so-called permanent status issues.
16. In his previous report, the Special Rapporteur indicated that the
completion of the peace process was the best way to ensure respect for human
rights and the rule of law. However, the promotion of human rights and
democracy was crucial to the success of the peace process. Guaranteeing those
E/CN.4/1997/16
page 4
standards should not be viewed as compromising the peace process. Both the
Declaration of Principles on Interim SelfGovernment
Arrangements signed
in 1993 and the Interim Agreement of 1995 include important references as far
as human rights are concerned. Furthermore, the permanent status
negotiations, if and when they achieve the goals expected of them, are clearly
instrumental for the solving of many of the gravest human rights problems.
17. Human rights cannot be set aside, however, to await the outcome of the
negotiations. Despite substantial steps taken by both Israel and the
Palestinian Authority to improve the human rights situation, serious human
rights violations continue to occur in the area. The root cause of the
violations, the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, remains
legally in force during the transition period. Therefore, international
humanitarian law, the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, remains fully applicable to and
binding on Israel.
18. International human rights law and international humanitarian law
provide the legal basis for the consideration of the human rights situation.
The peace process, on the other hand, is by nature a political process.
Without it, respect for human rights would be inconceivable. While reflecting
the political will of the people, it is also a necessary precondition for
the promotion and protection of human rights. It is indispensable, however,
that the relationship between human rights and the peace process be discussed
and further clarified. In the view of the Special Rapporteur, the
IsraeliPalestinian
Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip
leaves a great deal open to interpretation with respect to human rights,
particularly as concerns the strengthening of the rule of law. Since human
rights are not the raison d'être for the Agreement or for the upcoming
negotiations, a comprehensive solution to this question can hardly be
expected. Therefore, the peace process cannot prejudge the exercise of human
rights in the Palestinian territories in the future. For that, the
contribution of and interaction with the Palestinian Authority and the
Palestinian Legislative Council are essential. The full implementation by
both Israel and the Palestinian Authority of international human rights law,
as embodied in the International Covenants on Human Rights and other
international human rights instruments, is the guarantee for the respect of
human rights. A reminder about this fact is not contrary, but rather
complementary to the peace process.
19. The following paragraphs contain a brief summary of the principal
concerns regarding the situation of human rights in the Palestinian
territories occupied since 1967. The only purpose of the Special Rapporteur
in drawing attention to these concerns is related to the respect for human
rights; they should not be read as accusatory, but rather in the context of
finding ways to overcome them. Since the Special Rapporteur was unable to
visit Israel officially, his report contains less first-hand information than
he would have hoped to be able to present. He met informally, however, with
senior officials from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Israel who informed
the Special Rapporteur that their principal preoccupation still concerned the
mandate, notably its duration, and the desire that it be placed on an equal
E/CN.4/1997/16
page 5
footing with the mandates of other country-oriented Special Rapporteurs. The
Special Rapporteur feels strongly that the more contacts and discussions he
has, the more helpful his work.
20. During his brief visit to Gaza and parts of the West Bank, the Special
Rapporteur was able to obtain valuable written and oral information from
intergovernmental, non-governmental and humanitarian organizations. Although
incomplete, the report reflects the insight which the Special Rapporteur has
managed to gain despite the constraints cited above. As he visited both the
West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Special Rapporteur was able to observe how the
human rights concerns were prioritized by the inhabitants of the different
parts of the occupied territories.
21. The issue of settlements is emerging as the greatest preoccupation of
the inhabitants of the occupied territories, especially in the West Bank. The
confiscation of Palestinian land and settlement activity violate articles 53
and 49 respectively of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The settlement question
came to the fore after the lifting on 2 August 1996 by the then newly elected
Government of Israel of the freeze on settlement activity imposed in 1992 by
the former Labour administration. In practical terms, this meant that new
settlements could be built and the existing ones expanded. There are
currently 144 settlements in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, inhabited by
more than 140,000 Israeli settlers.
22. Settlement expansion presupposes the confiscation of Arab-owned land in
the occupied territories. At present, settlement expansion is being carried
out on recently confiscated land as well as on land that was expropriated from
Palestinians some 10 to 15 years ago. Much of it is prime agricultural land,
including olive groves and pastures. The uprooting of olive trees and the
dumping of waste from settlements on Palestinian-owned land have caused
considerable environmental degradation, as has the diversion of fresh water
from the Gaza Strip to Israel as the water used by the inhabitants of Gaza
becomes increasingly salty and unfit for use in agriculture. Recently, the
expansion of the Maaleh Adumim settlement has given rise to repeated forcible
expulsions from its vicinity of members of the Jahalin bedouin tribe. Apart
from the expansion of settlements, large tracts of land have been expropriated
for the construction of bypass roads linking the various settlements and the
settlements with Israel. It has been reported that much wider strips of land
than necessary, sometimes up to 250 metres wide, have been cleared and
bulldozed for this purpose. In addition, no construction is allowed
within 150 metres of a bypass road.
23. During the period under review, settler violence, particularly in
Hebron, has been observed repeatedly. On 1 January 1997, a settler wearing an
Israeli Defence Forces uniform opened fire on Palestinians with live
ammunition in the Old City of Hebron, wounding six persons. Violent clashes
took place in September 1996 between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian
civilians as well as members of the Palestinian police in the wake of
Palestinian protests against the opening of an entrance to the Western Wall
Tunnel in the Moslem Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City located beneath the
Al Aqsa Mosque compound. It has been reported that excessive and
indiscriminate force was used by the Israeli forces against civilians,
including live ammunition and heavy weaponry such as tanks, armed personnel
E/CN.4/1997/16
page 6
carriers and helicopter gunships. Some 65 Palestinians and 15 Israeli
soldiers were killed and an estimated 1,600 persons wounded. It has been
alleged that snipers were used as well and that the majority of those killed
or wounded were shot in the head or upper part of the body, showing an
intention to kill or cause serious bodily injury in contravention of
article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Wilful killing or causing of
serious bodily injury are considered as grave breaches of the Convention under
article 147. Medical workers were reportedly also fired at, in violation of
articles 20, 21 and 24 of Protocol II Additional to the Geneva Conventions.
24. In paragraphs 22 to 27 of his previous report (E/CN.4/1996/18), the
Special Rapporteur described the effects of the closure imposed by the Israeli
authorities on the occupied territories in the wake of security incidents
which took place in February and March 1996. The closure remains the
principal human rights concern of the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip. The
Special Rapporteur was informed that closure of the Gaza Strip was imposed for
287 days in 1996. The effects of the closure were felt all the more in view
of the fact that the "safe passages" for the movement of persons, vehicles and
goods between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, which comprise a single
territorial unit under article XXXI (8) of the Oslo II Agreement, have not
been opened to date. A complete "internal" closure of the occupied
territories, which places under virtual town arrest the inhabitants of some
465 localities populated by Palestinians in areas of the West Bank which are
under Israeli control, was applied for 10 days for the second time in 1996
after the violent clashes in September. Closures amount to collective
punishment in violation of article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Their
most obvious effect is the severe restriction of the right to liberty of
movement enshrined in article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights.
25. Closures have continued to have a devastating impact on the
already fragile Palestinian economy, maintaining unemployment at an
estimated 40 per cent in the Gaza Strip and 30 per cent in the West Bank. The
right to work is protected under article 39 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
The closure has restricted the movement of products, giving rise to losses
estimated at millions of dollars. The Special Rapporteur is convinced that
Palestinian economic development contributes to reducing the threat of
violence and terrorism. He welcomes the steps which have been taken to ease
the closure. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the decision of the Israeli
authorities to increase to 55,000 the number of work permits issued to
Palestinian labourers allowing them to work in Israel, and calls for further
increases in the near future. Further rapid progress should be made including
the free movement of goods and the opening of the Gaza airport, port and the
safe passages. Improved living conditions and effective socio-economic
development for the Palestinians are crucial elements for a sustainable
improvement of the human rights situation.
26. The deterioration of the situation of women in the occupied territories
has been reported as one of the "hidden" effects of the closure. Another
adverse effect of the closure on the social fabric in the territories has been
a reported pronounced increase in the rate of divorce. The closure and
related problems are conducive to accumulating stress among the people,
thereby affecting the mental well-being of some segments of the population.
E/CN.4/1997/16
page 7
27. The closure has continued to have a detrimental effect on the health
situation of the population in the occupied territories in general, especially
in Gaza, and a shortage of medical supplies has been reported. The supply and
transport of medical supplies and other relief items are protected by
articles 23, 55 and 59 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. At least 10 persons
are believed to have died in 1996 for lack of a permit or as a result of
delays at border crossings giving access to better equipped medical facilities
in the West Bank, in Jerusalem or in Israel, including at least 7 pregnant
women; this contravenes article 16 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
28. The closure has had a serious impact on education since 1,200 Gazan
students are still not able to attend classes at the educational institutions
in the West Bank where they are enrolled. Many have already lost an entire
academic year. Their situation amounts to collective punishment, prohibited
by article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and deprives them of the
enjoyment of the right of everyone to education enshrined in article 13 of the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Education was
also disrupted severely during the total closure, particularly in the
West Bank.
29. It is estimated that some 1,000 Palestinians were arrested after the
terrorist incidents which took place in Israel in February and March 1996, an
estimated 100 of whom were placed in administrative detention. Eight homes
belonging to the families of those thought to be involved in the security
incidents were demolished, in contravention of article 53 of the Fourth Geneva
Convention. It has been reported that 75 per cent of the persons arrested
were subsequently released without charges. After the withdrawal and
redeployment of the Israeli army from the major Palestinian cities in the
West Bank in 1995, all Palestinian prisoners were transferred from the
occupied territories to Israel, in violation of articles 49 and 76 of the
Fourth Geneva Convention. It is estimated that some 3,700 Palestinians are
currently detained in Israeli prisons. There are at present approximately
250 Palestinians in administrative detention, including 7 minors whose
administrative detention has been extended recently, in contravention of
articles 37 and 40 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Numerous
administrative prisoners have had their administrative detention period
extended several times, including Shawan Jabarin, a staff member of the Al-Haq
human rights organization, in violation of article 78 of the Fourth Geneva
Convention. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the release of 31 female
Palestinian prisoners on 11 February 1997. He also welcomes the closing of
the Ketziot military detention camp in the Negev desert in May 1996.
30. A development regarding the treatment of Palestinian detainees which has
given rise to considerable international concern is the permission granted to
the General Security Service by the Israeli High Court of Justice regarding
the use of force in the interrogation of suspects in connection with security
matters such as the prevention of terrorist attacks. It should be recalled
that the guidelines for interrogation contained in the report of the Landau
Commission allowing for the use of "moderate physical pressure" were already
deemed completely unacceptable by the United Nations Committee against
Torture. The General Security Service had been authorized by an
interministerial committee since October 1994 to apply "special measures"
relating to physical pressure which are believed to amount to aggravated forms
E/CN.4/1997/16
page 8
of torture. Article 2 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment provides for no derogation from
the freedom from torture enshrined in article 7 of the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights, even in cases of threat of war and other public
emergencies. One interrogation method, which has already resulted in the
death of one detainee, is violent shaking of the head which may result in
brain haemorrhaging or permanent incapacitation. The High Court rulings in
January and November 1996 lifting the interim injunctions prohibiting the use
of physical force by the General Security Service in the interrogation of
detainees amount to its sanctioning of torture and ill-treatment. Persons are
also believed to have died as a result of torture and illtreatment
in
detention centres under the control of the Palestinian Authority due to the
overwhelming pressure reportedly placed on the Authority to deal with its
own and Israeli security concerns. Detainee Yousef AlBaba
died
on 1 February 1997 in Nablus under suspicious circumstances.
31. Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem are reportedly increasingly
being treated by the Israeli authorities as resident aliens, i.e. foreigners:
through the Interior Ministry's policy regarding the issuing of identity
cards, the Palestinians' residency status in the city is being altered. It
should be recalled that Palestinians from other parts of the occupied
territories are not allowed to enter Jerusalem, which has reportedly resulted
in the destruction of its economy and vital links, in particular with the
West Bank from which it has been legally separated by Israel. The lack of
housing and job opportunities has forced many of its residents to seek
employment outside the city's municipal boundaries as established by the
Israeli authorities, which is used by the same authorities as a justification
for the revocation of Palestinians' identity cards on the grounds that
Jerusalem is no longer their "centre of life". These measures have also
affected those Jerusalemites studying abroad. Some persons have been expelled
when they reached 16 years of age. Women from Jerusalem married to
nonJerusalemites
have reportedly not been allowed into the city and family
reunification has become much more difficult. It is estimated that some
60,000 to 80,000 identity cards of Jerusalemites living outside the
Israeliimposed
city boundaries have been revoked.
II. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
32. Despite the grave concerns reported to the Special Rapporteur,
satisfaction should be expressed that both Israel and the Palestinian
Authority are showing concern and making continuous efforts to advance the
respect for human rights. An overall deterioration of the human rights
situation, therefore, has largely been avoided and determined steps in the
right direction have been taken, particularly concerning the release of
prisoners and the advancement of the Palestinian economy.
33. The Government of Israel is functioning in an open and democratic
environment. It is thus exposed to criticism and pressure, both national and
international. The Special Rapporteur is convinced that isolating or singling
out the Israeli Government in international forums would not be conducive to
improvements in Israel's human rights record. The consistent building up of
awareness in the country about international human rights standards and the
participation of the society at all levels in implementing those standards are
E/CN.4/1997/16
page 9
to be further encouraged. The free press and an active non-governmental
organization community contribute in a significant manner to the ongoing
domestic discussion. What is crucial, however, is the role of the Government
in this context. The duty of the international community is to convince the
Government, not in a confrontational and accusatory way, but in the spirit of
compromise and mutual understanding, that cooperation, be it bilateral, with
regional organizations or with the United Nations, is in its best interest.
What is at stake is the building of confidence and trust between Israelis and
Palestinians. At stake to the same extent is the building of trust and
confidence between the Israeli Government and the world community.
34. It should be recalled that the mandate of the Special Rapporteur, as
contained in paragraph 4 of Commission on Human Rights resolution 1993/2 A,
is:
"(a) To investigate Israel's violations of the principles and
bases of international law, international humanitarian law and the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time
of War, of 12 August 1949, in the Palestinian territories occupied by
Israel since 1967;
"(b) To receive communications, to hear witnesses, and to use
such modalities of procedure as he may deem necessary for his mandate;
"(c) To report, with his conclusions and recommendations, to the
Commission on Human Rights at its future sessions, until the end of the
Israeli occupation of those territories."
35. During informal contacts with representatives of the Israeli Government,
the Special Rapporteur was informed repeatedly that the Government would
cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur as soon as Israel is placed on an
equal footing with other countries subjected to the scrutiny of a special
rapporteur. The Special Rapporteur has no reason to doubt the sincerity of
the Israeli Government in this respect.
36. In his report to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-second
session, the Special Rapporteur pointed out that it appeared indispensable
that the role of the Special Rapporteur should be reviewed so as to enable him
to make a more action-oriented contribution to the protection and promotion of
human rights in the area. The report noted further that the Special
Rapporteur could not be effective in his work without the full cooperation of
the Government of Israel. The responsibility for improving the human rights
situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip lies with both Israel and the
Palestinian Authority, which should apply all the principles of human rights
and humanitarian law. Israel, as the occupying Power, continues to have
special obligations under the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949. On that basis, the
Special Rapporteur invited the Commission on Human Rights to consider amending
his mandate.
37. It is clear that the mandate of the Special Rapporteur as adopted some
four years ago is in some ways obsolete and exceptional; it does not refer at
all to the peace process; it does not authorize the Special Rapporteur to
E/CN.4/1997/16
page 10
study and recommend constructive human rights and humanitarian programmes to
prevent violations or remedy their aftermath; it limits itself to Israel's
violations only in the occupied territories; and, unlike all other mandates,
its duration is open-ended. However, it is equally clear that the root cause
of the violations, the occupation, is an exceptional situation, and can
consequently warrant a certain exceptional consideration.
38. The Special Rapporteur notes with satisfaction the recent decision by
the Government of Israel to release all Palestinian women prisoners. It is
hoped that this would lead to the early release of other prisoners, as already
stipulated in the so-called Oslo Agreements. For the Government of Israel,
measures taken with respect to the Palestinian prisoners in Israel would
undoubtedly be the clearest way to convey its sincerity in building up a
relationship of trust with the Palestinian Authority.
39. Reports of practices amounting to torture during interrogation by
Israeli security officials continue to give cause for concern. The exercise
of physical and psychological pressure allowed recently by the High Court of
Israel in conjuction with interrogation procedures is contradictory to the
standards enshrined in the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and cannot be accepted. All allegations
of torture should be investigated by independent judicial bodies. Those found
guilty should not enjoy impunity. The recommendation by the United Nations
Committee against Torture to put an immediate end to current interrogation
practices and grant access to appropriate rehabilitation and compensation
measures to the victims of such practices should be implemented without
further delay.
40. A large number of persons remain in administrative detention where they
have been placed by the Government of Israel. In some cases, detention has
been extended for years. All such detainees should be brought to a fair trial
or released.
41. The settlements are in contradiction to the Geneva Conventions as well
as the human rights of the Palestinian people. The Government of Israel
should not wait for the outcome of the negotiations regarding the peace
process but should rather deal with this highly sensitive issue as early as
possible. No new settlements should be built, no existing ones expanded and
no bypass roads or security areas should be established without consulting the
indigenous population.
42. Measures taken by the Israeli Government to increase the freedom of
movement are to be welcomed. Steps such as increasing the number of work
permits issued to Palestinians, which will help to enhance the Palestinian
economy, are clearly conducive to the alleviation of many human rights
problems. The closure and other indiscriminate measures amounting to
collective punishment imposed on the inhabitants of the occupied territories
should be discontinued.
43. It should be noted that as long as the occupation continues, the
Palestinian Authority has no responsibility based on international law to
respect obligations of human rights and humanitarian law, since formally it
cannot be a party to any relevant agreements or conventions. Therefore, it is
E/CN.4/1997/16
page 11
all the more noteworthy that the Palestinian Authority is making consistent
efforts to act already at this stage in accordance with those agreements and
conventions.
44. The Palestinian Authority is facing a comprehensive nation-building
programme. The Palestinian society has decided to embark on a path leading to
democracy, good governance, the rule of law and respect for human rights.
International support is not only badly needed but can be an effective and
even instrumental contribution to nation-building, thereby helping to prevent
conflicts in the future. The international response, notably from the donor
community, has been commendable. The Special Rapporteur is looking forward to
the same excellent cooperation with Mr. Chinmaya Gharekhan, the United Nations
Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories appointed recently by the
Secretary-General, as he enjoyed with his predecessor, Mr. Terje Roed Larsen.
The recent opening of the office of the High Commissioner/Centre for Human
Rights in Gaza is a significant step towards the promotion of human rights in
the area.
45. The Special Rapporteur had the opportunity to visit the office of the
High Commissioner/Centre for Human Rights in Gaza established on the basis of
an agreement with the Palestinian Authority for the implementation of a
technical cooperation programme . The office is responsible for implementing a
multi-component programme focusing on institution-building in the area of the
rule of law, including support to law reform efforts, strengthening the system
for the administration of justice, cooperation with national human rights
institutions, support to non-governmental organizations and formulation of a
national plan of action for human rights. Implementation of the programme has
commenced in cooperation with key government ministries, law enforcement
agencies, the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizen's Rights and
Palestinian non-governmental organizations. The Special Rapporteur is pleased
to report that full cooperation has been extended to the High Commissioner/
Centre for Human Rights by the Palestinian authorities in this regard. The
Special Rapporteur considers continued cooperation as an essential aspect of
the development efforts currently under way in Palestinian areas under
selfrule,
and as an important means of improving human rights protection in
those areas. He welcomes the commitment of the Palestinian authorities to
make it a success.
46. The Palestinian Authority cooperates fully with the international
community. This cooperation is the best guarantee that those few human rights
concerns attributed to the Palestinian Authority cases
of torture,
administrative detention and restrictions on the freedom of the press and
opinion can
be duly solved.
47. One of the key elements of the post-Hebron agenda has to be the
prevention of violent conflicts. The cause of conflicts often lies in the
violation of human rights which, in turn, generates tension that can lead to
outbursts of violence. Crucial in preventing crises is the increased
accountability of Governments and administrative structures as well as respect
for human rights and the rule of law.
48. Violations of human rights touch the very heart of the people affected.
Building up the trust and confidence necessary for sustainable peace in the
E/CN.4/1997/16
page 12
area is difficult, if not impossible, without determined efforts to suppress
those violations. The peace process, while addressing itself to the root
cause of violations, the foreign occupation, provides the best framework and
guarantee for eradicating human rights problems in the area. Therefore, the
Special Rapporteur calls for the full implementation of the Interim Agreement
of 1995.
49. Since human rights concerns go beyond the scope of the peace process as
such, they need to be considered on their own merits, and in a comprehensive
manner. Globally, the key forum for this discussion is the Commission on
Human Rights. The Commission, instead of repeating old accusations, should
engage in a profound discussion about the ways and means of addressing the
human rights situation in a constructive and forward-looking manner. The
Special Rapporteur is confident that the Commission, while considering further
improvements in its working methods, will find a more forward-looking and
businesslike approach for the discussion of the human rights situation in the
Middle East. This is all the more important because ignoring relevant
developments or setting conditions for their consideration would not be
conducive to the ultimate aim, the improvement of the human rights situation.
50. The understanding of the fact that Israelis and Palestinians are going
to have to live together is gradually gaining ground. The understanding of
the human rights issues in that context and what to do to deal with them still
need to be worked out. This entails more contacts and discussions, more
transparency, more participation at all levels, more publicity, but also more
confidential approaches, meetings and seminars. The Special Rapporteur, while
noting with satisfaction an increasing number of bilateral, regional and
international efforts in this regard, would encourage more concerted action by
relevant parties to focus on human rights in the context of the peace process.
51. We all know what the problems are. We cannot solve them by attacking
each other but by sitting down together, analysing them objectively and
finding the trust and confidence to overcome them.
UNITED
NATIONS E
Economic and Social
Council
Distr.
GENERAL
E/CN.4/1998/17
19 February 1998
Original: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Fifty-third session
Item 4 of the provisional agenda
QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE
OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES, INCLUDING PALESTINE
Report on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories
occupied since 1967, submitted by Mr. Hannu Halinen, Special Rapporteur,
pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolution 1993/2 A
Introduction
1. At its forty-ninth session, the Commission on Human Rights adopted
resolution 1993/2 A of 19 February 1993, entitled “Question of the violation
of human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine”. In
paragraph 4 of that resolution, the Commission decided to appoint a special
rapporteur. The resolution was approved by the Economic and Social Council in
decision 1993/253 of 28 July 1993.
2. In paragraph 4 of the resolution, the Commission decided to appoint a
special rapporteur with the following mandate:
“(a) To investigate Israel's violations of the principles and
bases of international law, international humanitarian law and the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time
of War, of 12 August 1949, in the Palestinian territories occupied by
Israel since 1967;
“(b) To receive communications, to hear witnesses, and to use
such modalities of procedure as he may deem necessary for his mandate;
“(c) To report, with his conclusions and recommendations, to the
Commission on Human Rights at its future sessions, until the end of the
Israeli occupation of those territories.”
GE.9810566
(E)
E/CN.4/1998/17
page 2
3. The former Special Rapporteur, Mr. René Felber (Switzerland), presented
reports to the Commission at its fiftieth and fifty-first sessions
(E/CN.4/1994/14 and E/CN.4/1995/19, respectively). The current Special
Rapporteur, Mr. Hannu Halinen (Finland), presented reports to the Commission
at its fifty-second and fifty-third sessions (E/CN.4/1996/18 and
E/CN.4/1997/16, respectively).
4. The Special Rapporteur wishes to reiterate the belief that his role is
not an accusatory one, but rather has the objectives of establishing a
meaningful and constructive dialogue with all the parties concerned and
helping overcome problems having to do with human rights concerns in the area.
He believes that the exercise of his mandate should prevent violations of
human rights and improve the overall human rights situation.
5. During the period under review, the Special Rapporteur met with
representatives of Governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental
organizations and individuals and received written information from
intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations as well as individuals.
The Special Rapporteur regrets the lack of cooperation on the part of the
Government of Israel. The cooperation of all Governments with international
mechanisms is important. In this case it would clearly be in the interest not
only of respect for human rights but also of the Government itself.
6. Since the last session of the Commission on Human Rights, the Special
Rapporteur availed himself of every opportunity afforded to him to hold both
formal and informal discussions on issues related to his mandate, in Geneva,
Brussels and the Middle East. Before submitting his report to the Commission,
the Special Rapporteur decided to carry out a visit to the occupied
Palestinian territories, Israel, Jordan and Egypt from 12 to 22 January 1998,
together with a staff member from the Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights. He visited Jerusalem, Gaza, Hebron, Ramallah, Jericho,
Tel Aviv, Amman and Cairo.
7. The Special Rapporteur met in Hebron with the President of the
Palestinian Authority, Mr. Yasser Arafat, and discussed issues relating to his
mandate. In Gaza, the Special Rapporteur met with Mr. Kamal El-Sharafi,
Chairman of the Committee of Oversight and Human Rights of the Palestinian
Legislative Council; Mr. Riyad Al-Zanoun, Minister of Health of the
Palestinian Authority; Mr. Nabeel Shaath, Minister of Planning and
International Cooperation of the Palestinian Authority, and Mr. Said Modalall,
DirectorGeneral
of Employment at the Ministry of Labour of the Palestinian
Authority. In Jericho, the Special Rapporteur met with Mr. Saeb Erekat, the
Minister for Local Government of the Palestinian Authority. In Ramallah, the
Special Rapporteur met with Mrs. Hanan Ashrawi, Minister of Higher Education
of the Palestinian Authority. While in Gaza, the Special Rapporteur met with
Mr. Peter Hansen, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and
Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and with
Mr. Francis Dubois, Deputy Special Coordinator, Office of the United Nations
Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories (UNSCO). During his visit to
the area, the Special Rapporteur met with representatives of United Nations
agencies, national and international humanitarian and non-governmental
organizations as well as with private individuals.
E/CN.4/1998/17
page 3
8. In Jordan, the Special Rapporteur met in Amman with Mr. Ibrahim Badran,
Director-General of the Department of Palestinian Affairs, and with
Mr. Rajab Sukayri, Director of the Department of International Organizations
at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. While in Amman, the Special Rapporteur
also met with Mr. Jorgen Lissner, United Nations Resident Coordinator and
Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme.
9. In Egypt, the Special Rapporteur met in Cairo with Mr. Amr Moussa, the
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Egypt; Mrs. Naila Gabr, Deputy Assistant
Foreign Minister for Human Rights; Mr. Gehad Madi, Deputy Assistant Foreign
Minister for International Legal Affairs; and with Mr. Mohamed Nosrat, Deputy
Assistant Foreign Minister for Palestinian Affairs. While in Cairo, the
Special Rapporteur also met with Mr. Esmat Abdel Meguid, the Secretary-General
of the League of Arab States. Mr. Said Kamal, the head of the Palestinian
Affairs Department of the League of Arab States, was also present. The
Special Rapporteur also met with Mr. Nadir Hadj-Hammou, Deputy Resident
Representative, United Nations Development Programme.
10. In October 1997, the Special Rapporteur carried out a brief visit to the
occupied Palestinian territories in order to acquaint himself with the
situation of Palestinian children.
11. In December 1997, the Special Rapporteur attended a conference entitled
“Human Rights and the Final Status Issues” in Gaza City.
12. The Special Rapporteur wishes to express his appreciation to Mr. Arafat
and the Palestinian Authority for the kind cooperation extended to him in the
course of his mission. The Special Rapporteur also wishes to extend his
appreciation to Mr. Amr Moussa and the Government of Egypt as well as to the
Jordanian authorities for the kind cooperation extended to him during his
mission.
13. The Special Rapporteur expresses his sincere gratitude to the High
Commissioner for Human Rights and to the United Nations Special Coordinator in
the Occupied Territories and the staff of their offices in Gaza for the most
efficient logistical and other support provided to the mission.
I. PRINCIPAL CONCERNS REGARDING THE SITUATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
14. There is a deepening sense of frustration among the people in the
Middle East vis-à-vis the peace process. This is understandable, since the
success of the process is connected to its results. Also, the Special
Rapporteur in his reports has expressed his support for the peace process,
stressing that the permanent status negotiations, if and when satisfactorily
concluded, would solve many of the gravest human rights problems in the area.
There is an urgent need for the revival of the peace process.
15. Yet, the peace process is not an end in itself but just a framework -
albeit the main one - in searching for peace. It needs to be reiterated that
lasting peace cannot be achieved without respect for human rights. Promotion
and protection of human rights is part and parcel of maintaining and
E/CN.4/1998/17
page 4
strengthening peace and security and advancing social and economic
development. It is in this context that the Special Rapporteur draws
attention to the main features of the human rights situation in the area.
16. Terrorism can never be tolerated. Abhorrent acts of terrorism can only
destroy the prospects for a just and durable peace. During the period under
consideration, terrorist incidents and threats of such incidents once again
increased. Measures to prevent terrorism, including training and education,
are necessary. But they have to be carried out under all circumstances
within the rule of law and respect for human rights.
17. International human rights law and international humanitarian law
continue to provide the legal basis for the consideration of the human rights
situation. Despite steps taken by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority
to improve their record, serious human rights violations occur persistently.
It needs to be reiterated that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian
territories, which is the root cause of the violations, remains legally in
force, including during the transition period. International humanitarian
law, particularly the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, remains therefore fully applicable
to and binding on the Government of Israel.
18. Palestinian economic development is a prerequisite for political
stability, and therefore the best guarantee of security for Israel, both in
the short and the long term. The Palestinians, in exercising their right to
economic development, have to have open trade access to the outside world,
including Israel. The international community has fully understood the
significance of the removal of obstacles to Palestinian economic development.
The declining indicators of the Palestinian economy, however, are a clear sign
that development is reversing, constituting a growing threat to security.
19. The following paragraphs contain a brief summary of the principal
concerns regarding the situation of human rights in the Palestinian
territories occupied since 1967. The reason why the Special Rapporteur draws
attention to these concerns is to foster respect for human rights; they should
not be read as accusatory, but rather in the context of finding ways to
overcome them. The report contains less first-hand information than the
Special Rapporteur would have hoped to present owing to the lack of a
possibility to visit Israel officially. The Special Rapporteur is convinced
that more contacts and discussions would enable him to fulfil his mandate in
an even more objective and impartial manner.
20. The Special Rapporteur wishes to recall that during his visits to Gaza,
East Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank, he was able to obtain valuable
written and oral information from intergovernmental, non-governmental and
humanitarian organizations as well as from individuals. It has contributed to
the insight into the situation which the Special Rapporteur has managed to
gain despite the constraints cited above.
21. One of the most serious and persistent sources of concern and tension in
the occupied territories brought to the attention of the Special Rapporteur is
the approximately 3,500 Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli prisons and
detention centres, in violation of articles 49 and 76 of the Fourth Geneva
E/CN.4/1998/17
page 5
Convention. It will be recalled that the Oslo Accords called for the release
of Palestinian detainees. Their conditions of detention are reportedly not in
keeping with international standards and include poor quality of food in
insufficient quantities, inadequate medical treatment and violent suppression
of prisoners’ protests by the prison authorities. Numerous detainees were
reportedly denied access to an attorney as well as family visits. The Special
Rapporteur’s attention was drawn to the treatment of mentally ill prisoners
who are sometimes treated as healthy or placed in solitary confinement, which
aggravates their condition. The Special Rapporteur was informed that it is
estimated that some 100,000 Palestinians have been in prison since the
beginning of the occupation. At present, there are seven female Palestinian
prisoners.
22. The number of administrative detainees has risen significantly during
the period under review. There are currently some 500 Palestinian
administrative detainees. The majority of the detainees have had their
detention renewed, many of them more than once. The Special Rapporteur was
informed that the detention order of one particular detainee, who has spent
5½ years in jail, has been renewed 12 times. Children under 18 have also been
placed in administrative detention, in violation of article 37 (b) of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child which Israel ratified in 1991.
23. The Special Rapporteur was informed about the issuing of a new military
order in September 1997 allowing Israeli forces to arrest persons in Area A
under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority which includes the
Gaza Strip. For the first time since 1994, there is an administrative
detainee from the Gaza Strip.
24. There are reportedly up to 1,200 persons held in administrative
detention by the Palestinian Authority. Allegedly, a total of 14 detainees
have died while in detention. The complex legal system, lack of legislation
and insufficient training and education have contributed to this situation.
25. The treatment of Palestinian detainees held on suspicion of alleged
security offences during the period of interrogation is cause for serious
concern. The administrative guidelines followed by the Israeli General
Security Service as defined in the confidential Landau Commission Report
permit the exercise of “moderate physical pressure” which amounts to torture.
They have been endorsed on several occasions by Israel’s High Court of
Justice, on a casebycase
basis. Methods of interrogation include hooding,
sleep and food deprivation, position abuse, exposure to very loud music and
extremes of cold and heat as well as violent shaking of the prisoner which
leaves no visible traces but can lead to permanent incapacitation or death.
In 1997, the United Nations Committee against Torture indicated that such
interrogation methods constituted breaches of the Convention against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, ratified by
Israel in 1991. International law absolutely prohibits torture and no
exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or threat of war,
internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked
as a justification of torture. The Committee recommended that any methods of
interrogation that are in conflict with the provisions of articles 1 and 16 of
the Convention cease immediately.
E/CN.4/1998/17
page 6
26. The Special Rapporteur was told that torture and ill-treatment of
Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons and detention centres were so
systematic that people did not fully realize what kind of treatment they were
being subjected to.
27. The Special Rapporteur’s attention was drawn to the situation of former
prisoners who have undergone torture during their incarceration. They
suffered from psychosocial consequences such as chronic post-traumatic stress,
depression, paranoia, social avoidance and anxiety. Many behaved in a violent
manner with their wives and children. It is estimated that some 50,000
children in the Gaza Strip suffered from such behaviour which was reflected in
contact disorders such as inability to relate to parents, teachers and other
children. It is estimated that 38 per cent of such children aged between 6
and 12 suffer from moderate to severe post-traumatic stress disorder. These
emotional disorders have long-term effects, make children more aggressive,
disobedient and violent, affect their dignity and lower their selfesteem.
It
is believed that the hatred of children towards the treatment meted out to
their fathers as well as to the families visiting prisoners by the Israeli
authorities will itself be perpetuated later on by those same children.
28. The Special Rapporteur was informed that all prisoners tortured in 1997
suffered from mental problems. Some had neurological and orthopaedic problems
as well.
29. Torture and ill-treatment in the detention centres under the control of
the Palestinian Authority have reportedly continued due to the pressure said
to be placed on the Authority to deal with its own and Israeli security
concerns.
30. The Special Rapporteur met in Gaza with a number of former detainees and
with the mothers and relatives of Palestinian prisoners. He was informed
about the economic and social hardships suffered by the prisoners’ families,
especially if they were the principal breadwinners, which also negatively
affected family cohesion. The relatives complained of frequent transfers of
prisoners in Israel which made family visits even more difficult. The Special
Rapporteur was told that some 100 prisoners did not receive family visits at
all because they do not have living close relatives or because the relatives
eligible to visit them could not obtain security clearance. After often
humiliating searches, relatives would be allowed in groups of 10 at a time to
spend 45 minutes with the prisoners. The Special Rapporteur was informed that
55 per cent of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails belonged to the Fatah
movement.
31. The Special Rapporteur was informed that more than 50 per cent of the
Palestinian population is under 15 years of age. The situation of children
cannot be separated from the overall situation of human rights in the occupied
territories. The occupation has had and continues to have detrimental effects
on the development of children who have been conditioned by the situation of
violence and have become victims of social, economic and psychological
circumstances. Many Palestinian children are described as “growing up before
their time”. It is estimated that one third of those killed during the
intifada were children. Children have continued to suffer in confrontations
between Palestinians and the Israeli Defence Forces: some 70 per cent of
E/CN.4/1998/17
page 7
persons injured during the clashes which broke out in Hebron in June 1997 were
children. The occupation has also led to a virtual dismantling of the social
infrastructure. The weakening of the family structure has led to a rise in
juvenile delinquency.
32. The Special Rapporteur was told that there were currently between 70
and 90 Palestinian children in Israeli prisons. They were reportedly
subjected to the same treatment as adults, including during interrogation.
Some are reported to have been denied access to lawyers and family visits.
It has been reported that children have also been placed in administrative
detention and that there are currently some five to seven child administrative
detainees, some of whom have had their detention orders renewed. The Special
Rapporteur was alerted to the fact that detention of children alters their
value systems and may have grave repercussions on their future psychological
well-being.
33. The Special Rapporteur was informed about the vulnerable position of
women in Palestinian society, which was very often rooted in traditions as
well as the attitudes of both secular and religious leaders and for which
blame could not be placed on the Israeli occupation. Owing to the application
of the prevailing laws, their position was described as difficult in cases of
divorce and child custody, early marriage, as well as in relation to offences
regarding honour. In addition, women and girls are often the first victims of
domestic violence as wives and daughters of former prisoners suffering from
psychological disorders, or of workers unable to go to Israel and provide
income for their families. Suicide rates among women are said to be on the
rise.
34. The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action confirmed the human
rights of women and of the girl child to be an inalienable, integral and
indivisible part of universal human rights. Furthermore, it set as priority
objectives of the international community the full and equal participation of
women in political, civil, economic, social and cultural life, as well as the
eradication of all forms of discrimination on grounds of sex. The principle
of equality is inherent in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The
Declaration also refers specifically to the family and marriage (article 16),
owning property (article 17), motherhood and childhood (article 25), and equal
access to (also higher) education (article 26). The principles enshrined in
both documents are relevant in the Palestinian territories and intensified
work is needed to fully implement them.
35. An increase in malnutrition has been registered among pregnant women and
pre-school age children who are suffering from iron and iodine deficiencies
which can cause slow mental development.
36. The Special Rapporteur was informed that the situation in the occupied
territories had worsened in a number of areas since the signing of the Oslo
Accords and that there was no more trust in the peace process. One of the
principal causes of this deterioration was the repeated closures of the
occupied territories, which constitutes collective punishment of the
population, in particular after security incidents such as those which took
place in Israel in March and July 1997. The impact of the closing of borders
between Israel and the occupied territories has been aggravated by the
E/CN.4/1998/17
page 8
so-called internal closures of Palestinian agglomerations as well as of
international borders with Jordan and Egypt. The Special Rapporteur was told
that there were 77 days of closure of the occupied territories in 1997.
Closures have severely restricted the freedom of movement of Palestinians
between parts of the occupied territories as well as their access to
Jerusalem. For example, the internal closure of Bethlehem for more than
one month caused a 50 per cent decline in the number of births taking place
in medical facilities there.
37. The closures have led to a further deterioration of the economic
situation and a rise in unemployment. The persistently high unemployment has
resulted in the increased incidence of child labour and a concomitant decline
in the importance accorded to education. The dropout rate has risen
significantly. The Special Rapporteur was informed that 25 per cent of the
children who entered the labour force were the sole breadwinners in their
families. The lack of income and inability to buy food during the closures of
the occupied territories have reportedly led many Palestinian families to eat
only one meal a day and significantly reduce their intake of protein. Some
56 per cent of families were forced to borrow money during the closure in
order to buy food. The reduced protein intake has resulted in a greater
incidence of rickets and anaemia in children. The Special Rapporteur was told
that the average worker supported 7 to 10 persons, a number which sometimes
rose to 20 during the closures of the occupied territories.
38. It should be recalled that the safe passages between parts of the
occupied territories foreseen under the Oslo Accords have not been implemented
to date although the Gaza Strip and West Bank constitute a single territorial
unit under that agreement. The Special Rapporteur’s attention was drawn to
the particular hardships faced by the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip during the
closures of the occupied territories by the Israeli authorities: only persons
with work permits are allowed to leave Gaza which is not the case with the
inhabitants of the West Bank. The Gaza Strip has been described by
Palestinians as a large prison.
39. In addition to employment, closures have continued to have a negative
impact on the overall economic situation in the occupied territories,
especially in the Gaza Strip. Factories have been closed for lack of raw
materials and access to export markets and construction has come to a halt.
Nevertheless, the Special Rapporteur was informed that although agricultural
produce from Gaza could not be exported to Israel for alleged security
reasons, this did not affect the products of branches of Israeli companies
in Gaza.
40. The Special Rapporteur’s attention was drawn to the problem of fishermen
in Gaza which affects an estimated 5,000 families. In addition to being
allowed to fish only 12 miles from shore instead of the 20 miles stipulated in
the Oslo Accords, fishermen complained that the Israeli forces consider the
sea as a bordercrossing
and impose a ban on fishing during closures of the
occupied territories. The Special Rapporteur was told that Israeli forces
often harassed and fired at fishermen, detained them for long periods, shot at
or sunk their boats and destroyed their nets.
E/CN.4/1998/17
page 9
41. Closures have a particularly adverse cumulative effect on children.
The Special Rapporteur was told that post-traumatic effects were easier to
document than the hidden effects of the closure. He was given the example of
curfews which were frequently imposed on the occupied territories in the past
and which adversely affected the relationship of small children with their
parents. The current situation was described as being worse than before the
peace process. The situation of the population in the occupied territories
was described as an “addiction to trauma”, with the breaking point very near.
42. The closure has also resulted in the destruction of the image of
authority figures such as headmasters or teachers who have on occasion been
arrested in a humiliating way by the Israeli forces when their permits had
expired. Gazan schools also suffer from overcrowding: children have to go to
school in two shifts, sometimes up to 59 in a single class. Numerous children
are said to have left school owing to their families' deteriorating economic
situation and reportedly work in factories, as street vendors, or collect old
newspapers.
43. The Special Rapporteur’s attention was drawn to the fact that a number
of children in rural areas of the West Bank as well as in Area A have been
killed by landmines left by the Israeli army in military training areas.
44. The Special Rapporteur was informed that there were no deaths of
Palestinians at Israeli checkpoints or at bordercrossings
and that there were
no major problems with the passage of medicine. Permits were automatically
issued to medical staff in the occupied territories who make up 64 per cent of
the personnel of hospitals serving Palestinians in East Jerusalem. However,
the problem of patients whose treatment was delayed remained. The Special
Rapporteur’s attention was drawn to the delay in transporting Palestinian
patients from East Jerusalem to other medical facilities since the Israeli
ambulances waited for an escort before entering that part of the city. On the
other hand, Palestinian ambulances are reported rarely to obtain the
permission of the Israeli Health Ministry to install siren and radio systems,
for security reasons.
45. The Special Rapporteur was informed that the Israeli Parliament was to
adopt a law that would deny compensation to Palestinian victims who were
injured or surviving family members of those who were killed during the
intifada. The reason given by the Israeli authorities is that the deaths were
caused by activities linked to war; this amounts to considering the
Palestinian civilian population as combatants. Compensation is the only way
victims of human rights violations are able to obtain redress and for many it
is the only way for victims to pay for the medical treatment needed for their
injuries. In addition to widening the scope of what constitutes combatant
activity, the adoption of such a law would further reduce the accountability
of Israeli security forces for human rights violations perpetrated against the
civilian population of the occupied territories. Articles 7 and 8 (concerning
equal protection of the law and effective remedy) of the Universal Declaration
should be recalled in this connection.
46. Possibly the single most preoccupying factor which has exacerbated the
situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories is the
increased construction and expansion of Israeli settlements and bypass roads.
E/CN.4/1998/17
page 10
A turning point in this regard was the decision by the Israeli Government on
26 February 1997 to construct a settlement on Jabal Abu Ghneim in East
Jerusalem, to be called Har Homa. Construction work on the settlement the
first new settlement to be built since the lifting of the freeze imposed on
new settlement construction by the previous Labour Government began
on
18 March 1997. (In any case, despite the so-called freeze, a 43 per cent
expansion in settlement activity was reported during the Labour Government.)
Together with the recent announcement of plans to build a Jewish settlement in
the Ras El Amud neighbourhood of East Jerusalem, Har Homa would complete the
chain of Israeli settlements surrounding East Jerusalem, thereby preventing
Palestinian territorial continuity. It has been alleged that the construction
of at least seven new settlements had begun since the current Israeli
Government took office. The Special Rapporteur was also informed about the
opening of new stone quarries, in particular since the signing of the Oslo
Accords, which caused considerable environmental damage in the occupied
Palestinian territories.
47. The expansion and building of settlements and bypass roads implies
confiscation of substantial areas of Palestinian-owned land. The Special
Rapporteur was informed, however, that approximately 25 per cent of the
housing units in existing settlements were unoccupied. The master plans of
settlements were reportedly reviewed every three to five years. The Special
Rapporteur was informed that the Israeli authorities had plans for greater
Jerusalem that included annexing to the city the ring of settlements
surrounding it, encompassing territory up to the city of Ramallah, and
expanding further the Maaleh Adumim settlement. If expanded, Maaleh Adumim
would have an area of some 60 square kilometres, making the settlement larger
than Tel Aviv, although it houses only 20,000 inhabitants. The Bedouins
living around Jerusalem have been particularly affected by land confiscation.
It is estimated that more than 15,000 Bedouins are threatened with eviction
from sites which they currently inhabit, without even being given alternative
sites in which to settle by the Israeli Civil Administration. The Special
Rapporteur was told that the current policy of eviction and land confiscation
would ultimately render Area C and, gradually, Area B empty of Arabs. The
Israeli settlement policy was described as a well-planned tool of annexation
which would lead to a “Bantustanization” of Palestinian territory into
territorially unconnected enclaves. During his visit to the Gaza Strip, the
Special Rapporteur was able to visit the Mawasi area near Khan Younis which is
cut off from that city and is completely surrounded by settlements.
48. In its resolution ES10/
2 of 25 April 1997, the General Assembly
condemned the construction by Israel of a new settlement in Jabal Abu Ghneim
to the south of occupied East Jerusalem, and reaffirmed that Israeli
settlements in all the territories occupied by Israel since 1967 were illegal
and an obstacle to peace. It called for the cessation of all forms of
assistance and support for illegal Israeli activities in the occupied
Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, in particular settlement
activities.
49. In his report submitted in accordance with General Assembly
resolution ES10/
2, the Secretary-General stated that, demographically, the
establishment of this settlement would have a significant effect on further
advancing the forced alteration of the religious and ethnic composition of
E/CN.4/1998/17
page 11
occupied East Jerusalem. In addition, he indicated that, economically, the
establishment of a settlement on the site was expected to have damaging
effects on an already devastated Palestinian economy in the occupied
territories, as the broader Palestinian economy would feel the immediate
effects of the resulting separation of the economic hub of East Jerusalem from
the towns and agricultural areas of the rest of the West Bank (see
A/ES10/
6S/
1997/494, chap. III).
50. In its resolution ES10/
3 of 15 July 1997, the General Assembly
condemned the failure of the Government of Israel to comply with the demands
made by the Assembly at its tenth emergency special session. It reiterated
that all illegal Israeli actions in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of
the occupied Palestinian territory, especially settlement activity, and the
practical results thereof could not be recognized irrespective of the passage
of time. The Assembly recommended to Member States that they actively
discourage activities which directly contributed to any construction or
development of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory,
including Jerusalem, and demanded that Israel make available to Member States
the necessary information about goods produced or manufactured in the illegal
settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem.
51. The confiscation by the Israeli authorities of the identity cards of
Palestinian Jerusalemites continues. This policy is said to have begun in
1993 and has reportedly been intensified since the signing of the Oslo
Accords. It is estimated that up to 15,000 identity cards may have been
confiscated so far. Israeli officials have reportedly officially recognized
in March 1997 for the first time that the confiscation of Palestinian identity
cards in Jerusalem was taking place and that some 1,467 cards were confiscated
by May 1997. It should be recalled that Palestinians are considered as
residents, not as citizens of Jerusalem, unless they officially take Israeli
citizenship. The policy concerns Palestinians who have lived outside
Jerusalem or abroad for more than seven years, those who live outside the
city’s official municipal boundaries, as well as Palestinians with dual
citizenship, but is not applied to the Jewish inhabitants of Jerusalem. It is
estimated that some 60,000 to 80,000 Palestinians might be considered by the
Israeli authorities as living outside the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem.
52. In order to retain their residency rights in Jerusalem, Palestinian
inhabitants have to prove that the city is their “centre of life” by
presenting rent slips, electricity and water bills, tax returns and birth
certificates to the municipal authorities, even if Jerusalem is their city of
origin. Persons unable to present proof are reportedly not eligible for
health insurance and their children cannot attend government schools. The
situation has been aggravated by the introduction of the requirement by the
Israeli authorities that both parents of a newborn child be residents of
Jerusalem for the child to be legally registered. The Special Rapporteur was
informed that there are currently some 5,000 newborn children who are not
registered because their parents do not meet the required criteria. In
addition, a child born in the West Bank to parents who are both residents of
Jerusalem may not be registered in that city. The lack of automatic
registration of children has engendered serious health problems. It has been
E/CN.4/1998/17
page 12
reported that children have died because of the refusal of Israeli healthcare
institutions to treat them when they were told that the children did not have
insurance.
53. Children in Jerusalem are said to not be part of either the Palestinian
or Israeli national structure which represents a considerable problem for
their sense of identity. Administratively, they belong to the Israeli system
where they are not treated on an equal footing with Israeli children. It has
been reported that there has been an increase in child labour among
Jerusalemites who have complete access to Israel. The children, some of whom
are reportedly as young as 12 and constitute cheap labour, are hired on an
informal basis in factories, as agricultural and construction workers or in
restaurants. The Special Rapporteur was informed that the dropout rate in
schools in Jerusalem was much higher than in the West Bank. The uncertainty
about their residency rights is reported to have had deep psychological
effects on children. The worsening economic situation and decline in family
income, especially in Jerusalem’s Old City, have given rise to hyperactive
children or those who are slow learners.
54. The Special Rapporteur’s attention was drawn to the taxation system in
East Jerusalem where the Palestinian population was described as paying a
25 per cent contribution to the municipal budget but receive only 5 per cent
of the services in return. It is estimated that some 15 per cent of
Jerusalem’s Palestinian residents do not have proper sanitation.
55. The Special Rapporteur was informed about the arnona, i.e. the municipal
real estate tax paid on the basis of the surface area owned or rented and
which is often higher than the rent paid for particular premises. He was told
that this tax was one of the “silent” ways in which the Israeli authorities
were transferring Arab inhabitants out of Jerusalem since few shopkeepers had
the money to pay the arnona. Since some 90 per cent of the customers in East
Jerusalem come from the West Bank, many shops have had to close for lack of
income as a result of the closures imposed on the occupied territories.
56. The situation of the Arab population of East Jerusalem is compounded
further by a 35 per cent rate of unemployment. It is estimated that some
40 per cent of Arab Jerusalemites live below the poverty line. The difficult
economic and social situation, lack of adequate housing, as well as house
demolitions, which have been described as leading to a “quiet deportation” of
Arab Jerusalemites, have in 1996 made the Jewish population of East Jerusalem
a majority for the first time. It should also be recalled that since 1967,
64 per cent of East Jerusalem’s territory, more than 70 square kilometres, has
been confiscated.
57. The policies described above were described as “quiet deportation”,
“apartheid” and “ethnic expulsion”. They were also said to be making native
Jerusalemites stateless persons and foreigners in their own homeland.
58. A serious source of preoccupation has been the increase in the number of
house demolitions in the occupied territories. In 1997, the number of
Palestinian-owned houses demolished in East Jerusalem was said to be greater
than the number demolished during the intifada. In August 1997 alone,
19 houses were demolished in Jerusalem. The Special Rapporteur was informed
E/CN.4/1998/17
page 13
that 60 per cent of the Palestinian population does not have adequate housing.
In October 1997, the Special Rapporteur visited the so-called “Steadfastness
Camp” at Al Samud in Jerusalem which is inhabited by some 500 persons from the
city whose houses have been demolished and who do not wish to leave the city’s
official municipal boundaries.
59. The Special Rapporteur was informed of the seven phases, each one
requiring an official stamp by the competent authority, through which
Palestinians in Jerusalem and other parts of the occupied territories had to
pass in order to obtain building permits. Building permits are reportedly not
issued if a single stamp is missing.
60. A total of 80 houses owned by Arabs were demolished in East Jerusalem
since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993. Some 118 houses were
demolished in 1997 in the West Bank for lack of building permits while 7 were
demolished for security reasons. An estimated 574 houses were demolished in
the occupied territories since the current Israeli Government took office and
eight new bypass roads have been built. The Special Rapporteur was informed
that some 50,000 trees were uprooted in the occupied territories in 1997.
61. The Special Rapporteur was informed about the situation of Palestinian
workers. Palestinian workers are hired as casual, day labourers and not
salaried workers in Israel. There are currently some 50,000 workers from the
West Bank and Gaza who have permits to work in Israel.
62. In view of the total dependence of the Palestinian economy on that of
Israel as a result of the occupation and the high rates of unemployment in all
parts of the occupied territories, Palestinian workers have no choice but to
seek employment in Israel. As a result of the closure, Israeli employers have
increasingly resorted to hiring foreign workers to substitute for
Palestinians. It is estimated that there are currently some 80,000 to
90,000 legally employed foreign workers in Israel. The total number of
foreign workers in Israel, including illegal ones, is estimated at some
200,000.
63. The Special Rapporteur was informed that Palestinian workers receive
minimum wages in Israel but at times end up receiving less than the minimum
wage, which reportedly amounts to approximately one half or one third of the
wages earned by Israelis for the same work. The Special Rapporteur’s
attention was drawn to the fact that only some 70 per cent of workers with
permits actually went to work in Israel. He was informed about the phenomenon
of a network of “permit brokers” who sell three-month permits to Palestinians
and who allegedly work in collusion with employers. When an employer does not
want to pay a Palestinian worker, it is reported that they call the
authorities at the Israeli checkpoint and claim that the person has never
turned up for work. When caught by the authorities, the permits of these
workers are confiscated and they have to pay a fine.
64. The Special Rapporteur was informed about an incident in which settlers
brought dogs to attack Palestinian workers waiting by the side of the road.
Seven persons were reportedly injured. The Israeli Defence Forces did not
intervene.
E/CN.4/1998/17
page 14
65. The Special Rapporteur was informed that most Palestinians had lost
faith in the peace process and that Israeli occupation of the occupied
territories and its policies and practices were thwarting the development of
Palestinian civil society, while waiting for it to implode. The Special
Rapporteur was told that Palestinians were feeling frustration from four
sources: lack of employment and, consequently, income and other social and
economic factors; human rights violations perpetrated by Israel; violations
perpetrated by the Palestinian Authority; and frustration stemming from the
perceived inability of the United Nations to improve their plight. On the
other hand, he was told that as far as Palestinians were concerned, the
Israeli public was only interested in bombings and car thefts but was unaware
of the real situation prevailing in the occupied territories.
II. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
66. The overall assessment of the human rights situation in the occupied
territories again remains disturbing. Some positive developments can be
recognized, particularly regarding work permits and certain other economic
measures as well as treatment of medical cases. The main concerns related to
the Israeli Government - as described above - stay, however, unchanged. The
Palestinian Authority and the Legislative Council have continued their work
towards the building of civil society and rule of law. In addition to some
concerns mentioned before, further efforts need to be made regarding
transparency and accountability, functioning of the judiciary, as well as
freedom of the press and opinion.
67. There are references - however few in number and short in substance - to
human rights and the rule of law in the so-called Oslo agreements. Their
implementation, or at least an ongoing follow-up discussion on their contents,
is first and foremost in the hands of the parties themselves. This discussion
has still to be commenced. There are two reasons for this: firstly, the
peace process itself is undergoing severe difficulties and secondly, the
examination and implementation of the human rights clauses in the interim
agreements has not even begun. The international community, and particularly
the Commission on Human Rights, has the responsibility to consider, in a
holistic and action-oriented manner, the human rights situation in the area,
with a view to encouraging the parties to engage themselves in a discussion on
human rights.
68. During the cold war Europe was divided into two blocs. In the
early 1970s a dialogue between the blocs was initiated, which led in 1975 to
the signing of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in
Europe at a summit meeting of 35 Heads of State. Later developments,
including the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the cold war, would have
been unthinkable without the CSCE process initiated in Helsinki. What is the
secret of the success of the CSCE (which today is called the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE) and could it contribute to the quest
for peace in the Middle East?
69. The CSCE Final Act consists of three parts (“Baskets”): security,
economic relations and human rights. At the same time, the backbone of the
Final Act was the list of 10 principles: 1. Sovereign equality, respect for
the rights inherent in sovereignty; 2. Refraining from the threat or use of
E/CN.4/1998/17
page 15
force; 3. Inviolability of frontiers; 4. Territorial integrity of States;
5. Peaceful settlement of disputes; 6. Non-intervention in internal affairs;
7. Respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom
of thought, conscience, religion or belief; 8. Equal rights and
self-determination of peoples; 9. Cooperation among States; 10. Fulfilment in
good faith of obligations under international law. These principles adopted
almost a quarter of a century ago have retained their validity and importance
in international relations even today.
70. At the outset the various parties were almost diametrically opposed on
the issues regarding the Baskets. In the preparatory as well as the follow-up
phases of the Final Act it became clear that progress required the acceptance
of these components and principles as a whole. Security was supported by
agreeing on concrete confidence-building measures, which in turn was made
possible by agreeing on steps in the economic and human dimensions. Today, the
interrelationship and interdependence of these elements is taken as fact and
forms the basis for the ongoing deliberations among the now 53 OSCE countries.
71. In his previous reports, the Special Rapporteur has indicated that the
completion of the peace process is the best way to ensure respect for human
rights and the rule of law, adding, however, that “the promotion of human
rights and democracy was crucial to the success of the peace process”
(E/CN.4/1997/16, para. 16). The peace process, while addressing itself to the
root cause of violations, the foreign occupation, still provides a framework
and a guarantee for the eradication of human rights problems in the area. The
peace process is in need of revival. The question is, can that happen without
a more comprehensive approach? The cornerstone of sustainable peace are
security, democracy, development and human rights. Without considering them
together, a lasting peace is hardly attainable. With regard to human rights
in particular, the early launching of a dialogue, based on facts and in this
wider context, is, in the final analysis, in the interest of all parties to
the conflict. Accordingly, the answer of the Special Rapporteur to the above
question is an unqualified yes: the CSCE concept can be used as an example in
helping to untie the knots binding parties in the Middle East, but only if the
human dimension is added to the security-related and economic dimensions of
the search for peace.
72. The mandate of the Special Rapporteur, as it stands, is exceptional. It
puts Israel in a different position compared to other countries subjected to
the scrutiny of a special rapporteur. The mandate prejudges the outcome of
the investigation. The consideration of the human rights situation in the
area on the basis of the mandate is limited only to Israel’s violations of
international law. And the mandate, unlike all the other mandates under the
Commission on Human Rights, is not reviewed periodically. The main reason
given for the unique mandate is the foreign occupation, which is said to
constitute a unique situation in the world.
73. It has been the consistent view of the Special Rapporteur that the
mandate has to be reviewed. The only reason for amending the mandate is the
respect for human rights; the Special Rapporteur has to have a sufficiently
broad mandate to contribute to achieving that goal. To that effect the
Special Rapporteur - as an independent expert - needs to be given equal
treatment with other special rapporteurs.
E/CN.4/1998/17
page 16
74. As far as the review of the mandate is concerned, the matter is in the
hands of the Commission. An early consideration is to be hoped for.
Meanwhile, the Special Rapporteur, the parties concerned and the Commission on
Human Rights have to decide what is the best and most effective way to proceed
in preventing human rights violations and improving the respect for human
rights. There are basically three choices: to continue under the present
mandate and follow it strictly; to consider the human rights situation
broadly, exploiting all avenues in attempting to improve it; or to quit. In
considering each of these alternatives one has to ask the question: What
effect would it have on the human rights situation?
75. The position of the Special Rapporteur is clear: every effort has to be
made to increase awareness of all aspects of human rights in order to find,
together, solutions to the prevailing problems. If the mandate is imperfect
in certain ways, giving up is not the answer. Widening mutual understanding
and widening the common ground is the answer.
76. Full credit is to be given to the Palestinian Authority and people for
their openness in discussing the human rights situation and for the
cooperation extended to the Special Rapporteur. Some serious human rights
concerns exist in the Palestinian society, partly based on the occupation,
partly on their own. The Palestinian Authority has never referred to the
mandate as a restriction in their discussions concerning the overall human
rights situation in the occupied territories. On the contrary, there is a
broad willingness on the part of the Authority and the Legislative Council,
supported enthusiastically by the non-governmental organizations and the
Palestinian people, to discuss human rights problems in a transparent manner
and to find concrete ways to manifest their de facto respect for international
human rights and humanitarian law. Towards that end, all contributions and
support by the international community to the Palestinians in orienting their
society towards democracy and rule of law are highly appreciated.
77. The Government of Israel has so far refused to receive the Special
Rapporteur for reasons connected with the mandate. Israel is already an
established society with a free press and other democratic structures. As
such, Israel also should have the courage to look beyond the mandate, to
cooperate fully with the international human rights mechanisms and to
participate actively in the substantive debate in this respect.
78. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights, as the leading
international body on human rights, could certainly improve its methods of
work, including its agenda and the mandate of the Special Rapporteur. The
human rights situation in the Middle East, however, cannot wait for the
outcome of the already lengthy deliberations in this context. The human
rights situation, furthermore, cannot be held hostage to the political
discussions on the ground. The clear and unequivocal mandate of the
Commission - which the Special Rapporteur strongly supports - is to conduct an
in-depth human rights debate regarding the occupied territories, and on that
basis find ways and means to improve the situation. From the debate so far it
appears that the emphasis in a large number of contributions has been on the
political situation. This limits the scope of the debate and demonstrates an
incomplete understanding of the need for human rights to be considered in the
E/CN.4/1998/17
page 17
broader context. It is therefore indispensable that the significance of human
rights and their interrelationship with other topics referred to in the
discussion be further clarified.
79. The consideration of the human rights situation in the occupied
territories would also greatly benefit from the discussion of other items on
the agenda of the Commission on Human Rights. In the interest of achieving
substantive improvement of the human rights situation, it is not conceivable
to separate the item from other relevant subsequent items on the agenda. This
is, undoubtedly, at the same time a question of principle, one concerning
better and more efficient interaction between all items on the agenda, as well
as between all parts of the United Nations human rights mechanisms in general.
The consideration of the question of the Middle East, which now is as a
separate country situation the first substantive item on the agenda, requires
urgent attention in this respect.
80. The General Assembly at its tenth emergency session recommended
(resolution ES10/
4) that the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva
Convention convene a conference on measures to enforce the Convention in the
occupied territories. The recommendation was to be followed up by a meeting
of experts to discuss matters of a procedural and logistical nature giving due
regard to the actual situation in the occupied territories relative to the
Fourth Geneva Convention, as well as the legal and political implications of
the conference, keeping in mind the obligations of Israel and other States
parties under this Convention.
81. In his report to the Commission on Human Rights in 1997, the Special
Rapporteur indicated that he was able to visit and acquaint himself with the
work of the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Gaza, which
opened in November 1996. This technical cooperation programme, entitled
“Support for the Rule of Law in Palestine”, is funded under the United Nations
Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights and has
two international staff members and three local staff. The programme has been
well received and has generated considerable enthusiasm among its
beneficiaries. The Palestinian Authority has requested that it be expanded
and has already included it in the Palestinian Development Plan for 1998-2000.
It provides technical assistance and advisory services to the Palestinian
Authority through projects focused on institutionbuilding
in the area of the
rule of law such as: the establishment of a legal framework consistent with
human rights standards; the development of an official human rights policy;
and the strengthening of national structures for promoting and protecting
human rights with special focus on the administration of justice through
training for police, prison officials, judges, prosecutors and lawyers, as
well as assisting the Palestinian Authority in formulating a national plan of
action for human rights in Gaza and the West Bank.
82. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the expanding cooperation programmes and
projects with some regional organizations and individual donors in the human
rights field. The small office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is
spearheading United Nations efforts in this regard. However, since within the
United Nations human rights are increasingly considered in the wider context
with peace and security as well as economic and social development, and
E/CN.4/1998/17
page 18
accordingly are to be incorporated in all activities throughout the
Organization, the overall contribution of the United Nations system can be
expected to grow.
83. Building a civil society under occupation is a major challenge. All
steps aimed at strengthening the democratic structures, including the
multiparty system, should be supported. Since the peace process started and
because of the closures, “people to people” contacts have undertaken a
dramatic change. The concept is still viable, however, and can in the future
lead to positive changes in public opinion and at the decisionmaking
level.
Meanwhile, the non-governmental organizations on both sides continue to work
actively to increase awareness of the situation and identify measures to
improve it.
84. In this fiftieth year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights it
should be recalled that most of the articles of the Declaration are highly
relevant for the human rights situation in the occupied territories. They
should be revisited by the parties concerned, not in the interest of looking
for reasons for attacking the others but in the solemn spirit of the preamble
of the Declaration.
UNITED
NATIONS E
Economic and Social
Council
Distr.
GENERAL
E/CN.4/1999/24
20 January 1999
Original: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Fifty-fifth session
Item 8 of the provisional agenda
QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE OCCUPIED
ARAB TERRITORIES, INCLUDING PALESTINE
Report on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian
territories occupied since 1967, submitted by Mr. Hannu Halinen,
Special Rapporteur, pursuant to Commission on Human Rights
resolution 1993/2 A
Introduction
1. At its forty-ninth session, the Commission on Human Rights adopted
resolution 1993/2 A of 19 February 1993, in which it decided to appoint a
special rapporteur with the following mandate:
“(a) To investigate Israel's violations of the principles and
bases of international law, international humanitarian law and the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time
of War, of 12 August 1949, in the Palestinian territories occupied by
Israel since 1967;
“(b) To receive communications, to hear witnesses, and to use
such modalities of procedure as he may deem necessary for his mandate;
“(c) To report, with his conclusions and recommendations, to the
Commission on Human Rights at its future sessions, until the end of the
Israeli occupation of those territories.”
2. The former Special Rapporteur, Mr. René Felber (Switzerland), presented
reports to the Commission at its fiftieth and fifty-first sessions
(E/CN.4/1994/14 and E/CN.4/1995/19 respectively). The current Special
Rapporteur, Mr. Hannu Halinen (Finland), presented reports to the Commission
at its fifty-second, fifty-third and fifty-fourth sessions (E/CN.4/1996/18,
E/CN.4/1997/16 and E/CN.4/1998/17, respectively).
GE.9910312
(E)
E/CN.4/1999/24
page 2
3. The Special Rapporteur once again wishes to reiterate the belief that
his role is not an accusatory one, but rather has the objectives of
establishing a meaningful and constructive dialogue with all the parties
concerned and helping overcome problems having to do with human rights
concerns in the area. He continues to believe that the exercise of his
mandate should prevent violations of human rights and improve the overall
human rights situation.
4. During the period under review, the Special Rapporteur met with
representatives of Governments, intergovernmental, non-governmental
organizations and individuals and received written information from
intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations as well as individuals.
The Special Rapporteur should once again like to reiterate his regret at the
lack of cooperation on the part of the Government of Israel, which he
continues to believe would be clearly in the interest not only of respect
for human rights but also of the Government itself.
5. Since the last session of the Commission on Human Rights, the Special
Rapporteur availed himself of every opportunity afforded to him to hold both
formal and informal discussions on issues related to his mandate, in Geneva,
Brussels, the Middle East and other venues. Before submitting his report to
the Commission, the Special Rapporteur decided to carry out a visit to the
occupied Palestinian territories, Israel and Egypt from 3 to 12 January 1999,
together with a staff member from the Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights. He visited Jerusalem, Gaza, Ramallah, Jericho, Tel Aviv, and
Cairo.
6. The Special Rapporteur met in Ramallah with the President of the
Palestinian Authority, Mr. Yasser Arafat, and discussed issues relating to
his mandate. Also in Ramallah, he met with Mr. Nabeel Shaath, Minister of
Planning and International Cooperation of the Palestinian Authority, and with
Mrs. Hanan Ashrawi, Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. In
Jericho, the Special Rapporteur met with Mr. Saeb Erekat, the Minister for
Local Government of the Palestinian Authority. In Gaza, the Special
Rapporteur met with Mr. Kamal El-Sharafi, Chairman of the Committee of
Oversight and Human Rights of the Palestinian Legislative Council; as well
as with Dr. Haider Abdel Shafi, Commissioner-General of The Palestinian
Independent Commission for Citizens' Rights. While in Gaza, the Special
Rapporteur met with Mrs. Soha Arafat, President of the Palestinian High
Council for Motherhood and Childhood, as well as with Mr. Chinmaya Gharekhan,
the United Nations Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories. In
Jerusalem, the Special Rapporteur met with Mr. Feisal Husseini. During his
visit to the area, the Special Rapporteur met with representatives of
United Nations agencies, national and international humanitarian
organizations, with representatives of a large number of Palestinian and
Israeli nongovernmental
organizations, academic institutions as well as with
private individuals.
7. In June 1998, the Special Rapporteur attended a conference in Jerusalem
entitled “Fifty Years of Human Rights Violations”.
8. In Egypt, the Special Rapporteur met in Cairo with Mr. Amr Moussa, the
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Egypt, and Mrs. Naila Gabr, Deputy Assistant
E/CN.4/1999/24
page 3
Foreign Minister for Human Rights. While in Cairo, the Special Rapporteur
also met with Mr. Ahmed Esmat Abdel Meguid, the Secretary-General of the
League of Arab States, and Mr. Said Kamal, the head of the Palestinian
Affairs Department of the League of Arab States. In addition, he met
with Mr. Edmund Cain, United Nations Resident Coordinator, and
Mr. Nadir Hadj-Hammou, Deputy Resident Representative, United Nations
Development Programme.
9. The Special Rapporteur wishes to express his appreciation to Mr. Arafat
and the Palestinian Authority for the kind cooperation extended to him in the
course of his mission. The Special Rapporteur also wishes to extend his
appreciation to Mr. Amr Moussa and the Government of Egypt as well as to the
League of Arab States.
10. The Special Rapporteur expresses his sincere gratitude to the High
Commissioner for Human Rights and to the United Nations Special Coordinator in
the Occupied Territories and the staff of their offices in Gaza for the most
efficient logistical and other support provided to the mission.
I. PRINCIPAL CONCERNS REGARDING THE SITUATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
11. Despite encouraging steps agreed upon at Wye Plantation in October 1998,
the process leading to a lasting peace remains stalled. Some positive
developments can be recognized in the alleviation of human rights concerns
in the area. However, the threat of further human rights violations has
increased in a tangible way due to frustration linked to the
non-implementation of the agreed processes, on the one hand, and heightened
political tension on the other.
12. The Special Rapporteur reaffirms once again that sustainable peace
cannot be achieved without respect for human rights. The promotion and
protection of human rights is an indispensable part of maintaining and
strengthening peace and security as well as advancing social and economic
development. A piecemeal approach to peace is not viable; only a
comprehensive peace covering the economic, social and security interests of
both sides can guarantee a lasting solution. Human rights are universal,
indivisible, interdependent and interrelated. This approach, adopted by the
international community at the World Conference on Human Rights, applies also
to peace. The old axiom, Si vis pacem, para bellum (If you want peace,
prepare yourself for war.), can no longer offer either side an acceptable
justification, in terms of purely military considerations. A wider concept of
security - as discussed and formulated in other regions of the world - is
required to establish the basis for the search for peace between Israelis and
Palestinians.
13. To understand the inherent interrelationship between human rights and
peace and security requires trust on both sides in future peaceful coexistence
between the two peoples, based on equal human values. Instead of imposing
unilateral acts on the other partner, a determined quest by both sides for
confidence-building measures is urgently needed. Confidence is not built by
breaking agreements or acquiescing to situations that cause frustration. In
the long run, an effective fight against terrorism is unthinkable without
trust and confidence between the parties.
E/CN.4/1999/24
page 4
14. The foundation of peace and security is firmly established in
international law. Strict adherence, de facto and de jure, to international
human rights law and international humanitarian law is the prerequisite for
creating trust and strengthening security in the wider sense. The Israeli
occupation of the Palestinian territories is the root cause of human rights
violations in the area. The occupation remains legally in force during the
transition period. International humanitarian law, and particularly the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War, of 12 August 1949, is therefore fully applicable to and binding on the
Government of Israel.
15. The United Nations General Assembly, in its resolution ES-10/3
recommended that the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention
convene a conference on measures to enforce the Convention in the occupied
Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem, and to ensure its respect in
accordance with their obligations under article 1. This recommendation was
reiterated in resolutions ES10/
4 and ES10/
5. It is necessary to proceed on
the path suggested by the General Assembly as soon as possible, for two main
reasons: first, at a time of complex political processes there is a need to
reaffirm the legal status of the occupied territories until the end of the
occupation; second, the human rights and humanitarian concerns as described
below are in themselves a raison d'être for re-establishing the applicability
of the Convention in general, as well as with respect to the concrete
situations in question.
16. Notwithstanding steps taken to improve the Palestinian economy - such as
shorter periods of closures, increased number of work permits, the opening of
the Gaza airport and discussions on the seaport and industrial park - there
are still no signs of sustained economic growth. Too many factors remain
which create obstacles in the pursuit of, inter alia, open access to markets,
fair competition rules and taxation procedures, as well as private and public
sector investments. The disproportional dependence of the occupied
territories on the Israeli trade and economy does not allow healthy economic
development for the Palestinians. To let Palestinians exercise their right
to economic development would inevitably contribute to enforcing political
stability and security for both Israelis and Palestinians.
17. The following paragraphs contain a brief summary of the principal
concerns regarding the situation of human rights in the Palestinian
territories occupied since 1967. The Special Rapporteur wishes to reiterate
that the reason he draws attention to these concerns is to foster respect for
human rights. They should therefore not be read as being accusatory, but
rather in the context of finding ways to overcome these concerns. The report
once again contains less first-hand information than the Special Rapporteur
would have hoped to present owing to the lack of a possibility to visit Israel
officially. He remains convinced that more contacts and discussions would
enable him to fulfil his mandate in an even more objective and impartial
manner.
18. The Special Rapporteur wishes to recall that during his visits to Gaza,
East Jerusalem, parts of the West Bank and Israel, he was able to obtain
valuable written and oral information from intergovernmental, non-governmental
and humanitarian organizations as well as from individuals. He made a point
E/CN.4/1999/24
page 5
of meeting the main Israeli non-governmental organizations in order to ensure
that his sources of information were as wide and accurate as possible in light
of the constraints cited above.
19. Violations of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories have
continued during the period under review, to a large extent along the same
lines as in the past. During his recent visit to the area, the Special
Rapporteur was able to gain insight into the human rights issues currently
giving rise to the greatest preoccupation among the Palestinian population.
These concerns have been exacerbated by the unilateral suspension by Israel
on 2 December 1998 of the implementation of the Wye River Memorandum. Several
interlocutors told the Special Rapporteur that human rights violations
actually stemmed from the peace agreements and that the Palestinian population
was currently living in a vacuum as far as protection of their human rights
was concerned. He was told that Israel was violating human rights in the name
of security. Nevertheless, human rights were, more than before, being seen by
some as the vehicle to advance the peace process.
20. The occupation was viewed as being more forceful after the beginning of
the peace process. The Special Rapporteur was told that before the peace
process, the majority of human rights violations were individual, whereas they
had become more collective in nature. The general human rights situation in
areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority had deteriorated since
the signing of the Wye River Memorandum. People thought that the situation
was better without the peace process. Other sources informed the Special
Rapporteur that not much had changed in the pattern of human rights
violations, but rather in their scope.
21. The expansion of existing Israeli settlements and the building of new
ones, as well as bypass roads connecting the settlements between themselves
and with Israel, is currently the source of greatest concern in the occupied
territories. In addition, the bypass roads disrupt the demographic continuity
of the Arab environment. Ten bypass roads are said to have been built in the
occupied territories in 1998. The attendant confiscation of Palestinian-owned
land and the destruction of their agricultural infrastructure is further
exacerbating tensions in the occupied territories. The Special Rapporteur was
told that for the first time, farmers in some areas were prevented by the
Israeli authorities from harvesting their crops. The Special Rapporteur's
attention was drawn by all of his interlocutors to the pronounced increase
in Israeli settlement activity and the concomitant confiscation of
Palestinian-owned land since the signing of the Wye River Memorandum in
October 1998. According to most estimates, the number of settlements built in
contravention of article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention has reached 190.
22. The Special Rapporteur was able to visit a number of settlements in and
around Jerusalem and to observe the network of bypass roads. He was informed
that the building of 28 new bypass roads was announced after the signing of
the Wye River Memorandum. He was told that the Israeli occupation had
deprived Arab Jerusalemites of approximately 80 per cent of their land and
that there were currently 17 settlements which spread in three “belts” around
the city. The intention was to expand “Greater Jerusalem” into “Metropolitan
Jerusalem”, an “umbrella” that would incorporate neighbouring municipalities.
The Special Rapporteur was told that 52 per cent of the land in East Jerusalem
E/CN.4/1999/24
page 6
was for Palestinians while some 34 per cent had been given to Jews. There
were practically no Jews in East Jerusalem in 1967; at present, there are
some 163,000 Israelis and 155,000 to 158,000 Palestinians. The Israeli
authorities have set the ratio of the Israeli and Palestinian populations in
East Jerusalem at 73.5 per cent Jews and 26.5 per cent Arabs. Of particular
concern to Palestinians was Israeli construction in the Arab neighbourhoods
of Ras El Amud and Silwan. After the signing of the Wye River Memorandum,
settlers seized a house in the Sheikh Jara neighbourhood and moved into
two additional houses. Preparations for similar actions were said also to be
under way in Ras El Amud and Burj Laqlaq. Numerous Bedouin are threatened
with eviction from sites near the settlements in the Jordan Valley and Jericho
areas. The Special Rapporteur visited a Palestinian living in a bus which is
completely surrounded by a settlement built on his land.
23. The Special Rapporteur was able to observe the infrastructure work which
had been carried out for the settlement on Jabal Abu Ghneim, to be called
Har Homa. It will be recalled that in its resolution ES10/
2, the
General Assembly condemned the construction by Israel of a new settlement in
Jabal Abu Ghneim to the south of occupied East Jerusalem, and reaffirmed that
Israeli settlements in all the territories occupied by Israel since 1967 were
illegal and an obstacle to peace. In its resolution ES10/
3, the Assembly
condemned the failure of the Government of Israel to comply with the demands
made by the Assembly at its tenth emergency special session in
resolution ES10/
2. It reiterated that all illegal Israeli actions in
occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory,
especially settlement activity, and the practical results thereof could not
be recognized irrespective of the passage of time.
24. The increased rate of demolition of Palestinian houses which has
continued unabated has given rise to serious concern over the period under
review. The reason given is that they had been built without a licence, in an
“unscientific way” or in a “green area”. Some 21,000 housing units would be
required for the Palestinian inhabitants of Jerusalem alone. A licence to
build a house, which involves a lengthy procedure, costs approximately
US$ 25,000 and expires within a year even if no construction takes place.
In addition, Palestinians are not allowed to build more than two floors.
In 1997, the Special Rapporteur visited the Samud “Steadfastness Camp” on a
site in East Jerusalem where some 70 families whose houses had been demolished
were living in tents in order not to leave the municipal boundaries of
Jerusalem and lose their identity cards. During his recent visit to the area,
he visited 16 of those families who are now living in an unfinished building
in East Jerusalem with no amenities. According to the sources, 31 Palestinian
structures were demolished in Jerusalem in 1998, affecting more than
300 persons including 120 children. He was told that 17 houses and a school
had been demolished for the construction of Road No. 1. Over 700 demolitions
are estimated to have taken place from the signing of the Oslo Accords until
the end of 1998. The Special Rapporteur was informed that, in addition to
constituting collective punishment, house demolitions were considered by
Palestinians as sources of extreme provocation and incitement.
25. The situation of the Arab inhabitants of Jerusalem continued to be
precarious, particularly with regard to their identity cards, which made the
registration of newborn children and family reunification in the city
E/CN.4/1999/24
page 7
difficult. The registration of children may take up to seven years if one of
the parents is not from Jerusalem. It is estimated that there are currently
some 10,000 unregistered Palestinian children in Jerusalem. This means that
they do not have a birth certificate and cannot obtain an identity card at the
age of 16, cannot enrol at a university or get married. The “centre of life”
criterion has continued to be applied by the Israeli authorities to determine
whether Palestinians are entitled to live in Jerusalem. All Palestinians in
Jerusalem are considered as foreigners and the “Law of Entry into Israel”
of 1952 is applied. The Special Rapporteur was informed that many persons
with identity cards discover that they have been deleted from the
municipality's computer. From January to August 1998, 346 identity cards were
taken from Arab Jerusalemites. The Special Rapporteur was informed that the
conflict was being changed from a national into an ethnic one. He was told
that the Israeli authorities applied a “three circles policy” to the Arab
inhabitants of Jerusalem, consisting of isolation, deportation and
replacement, with the alleged aim of reducing the Palestinian population
to not even a minority by the time of the final status negotiations.
26. The Special Rapporteur was informed that the issue of residency
rights and identity cards had serious repercussions on the health of Arab
Jerusalemites, particularly infants, since the National Insurance Institute
conducts an investigation of the whole family's residency status every time a
child is born. The investigation may take more than a year and starts anew
with every new birth in the family. During the investigation, the infant does
not benefit from health insurance. This practice may have very serious
repercussions for children who require medical treatment after birth.
The Special Rapporteur was informed that the infant mortality rate in
East Jerusalem was double that of the Jewish sector.
27. The Special Rapporteur was informed about the situation of disabled
Palestinians and the legacy of the occupation with regard to the destruction
of the infrastructure, affecting economic and social rights and having a
negative psychological effect. Disabled Palestinians felt discriminated
against and said they were receiving only 15 to 20 per cent of the services
provided to Israelis. The Special Rapporteur was told that Israeli soldiers
treat Palestinians with disabilities in a dehumanizing way and that many did
not receive permits to enter Israel for treatment. It was estimated that
some 15,000 Palestinians were permanently disabled during the intifada.
Reference was made to the access law regarding all public facilities. The
situation of prisoners with disabilities was described as particularly
difficult. In addition, the Special Rapporteur was told that prisoners who
had been imprisoned in small spaces could develop physical disabilities.
28. The issue of Palestinian prisoners who remain detained in Israeli
prisons and detention centres, in violation of articles 49 and 76 of the
Fourth Geneva Convention, continues to be a serious source of concern for the
population of the occupied territories. The Special Rapporteur was informed
that more than 2,200 Palestinians continue to be detained in Israel, 7 of whom
are women and some 40 of whom are minors under 16 years of age. Their
conditions of detention were described as not meeting international standards,
especially regarding medical care and sanitation. The Special Rapporteur was
told that detainees only received urgent dental treatment while convicted
prisoners receive more thorough dental treatment. Many prisoners are placed
E/CN.4/1999/24
page 8
in isolation, individually and in groups, at times reportedly for no reason
or on the grounds that they are “troublemakers”. The Special Rapporteur was
informed that two prisoners had been killed during a recent hunger strike.
29. A serious problem facing Palestinian detainees is lack of access to
their lawyers and of family visits owing to the restrictions placed by the
Israeli authorities on the freedom of movement of Palestinians between parts
of the occupied territories and Israel. The Special Rapporteur was informed
that some prisoners had not received family visits for years because their
family members cannot obtain a permit to enter Israel. Prisoners are
occasionally subjected to transfers which creates additional difficulties for
visits. The Special Rapporteur was told that the sentences meted out to
Palestinian prisoners were harsher after the signing of the Oslo Accords. For
example, on 4 January 1999 five minors were sentenced to five-month prison
sentences for throwing stones. A number of Palestinian detainees are
represented by Israeli lawyers.
30. Palestinian lawyers have complained that they do not receive Israeli
military orders in writing immediately after they have been issued. Military
orders are issued in accordance with the Emergency Regulations dating back to
the British Mandate and are applicable even in area A which is under the
control of the Palestinian Authority. The Special Rapporteur was told that
the lack of due process and of fair trial guarantees has serious repercussions
for both the prisoners and their family, especially children, including at the
psychological level. The Special Rapporteur was informed about Military
Order 1456 of 11 June 1998 concerning armed civil guards in settlements whom
the police are allowed to ask for assistance. He was told that settler
guards, like the police and army, have the right to arrest persons.
Four Palestinians were killed by settlers in the West Bank in 1998. So
far, 1,457 military orders have been issued regarding the West Bank
and 1,316 concerning the Gaza Strip.
31. The Special Rapporteur was informed that the number of administrative
detainees had declined considerably during the period under review, and
currently stands at fewer than 100 persons. Among the administrative
detainees are persons who had served their prison terms and had been
transferred to administrative detention instead of being released, as was the
case with a person who had completed serving a 10-year prison sentence.
In 1998, three persons from the Gaza Strip were placed in administrative
detention. There were nine hunger strikes in different prisons during the
same period. The current longeststanding
administrative detainee is in his
fifth year of detention. It should be recalled that the Oslo Accords called
for the release of Palestinian detainees. In addition, the Wye River
Memorandum called for the release of 750 Palestinian prisoners, only 250 of
whom have been released to date.
32. Administrative detentions by the Palestinian Authority continue to be
worrying. Reportedly, there was a sharp increase in detentions during the
last months of 1998. Many cases were related to individuals exercising their
right to freedom of expression.
33. The interrogation methods used by the Israeli General Security
Service (GSS) with regard to Palestinian detainees and prisoners suspected of
E/CN.4/1999/24
page 9
alleged security offences have remained the same. The Special Rapporteur was
informed that the new development in this connection was that the GSS had
stopped denying that it resorts to such methods. It will be recalled that the
administrative guidelines under the confidential Landau Commission report
followed by the GSS permit the exercise of “moderate physical pressure” and
that, in 1997, the United Nations Committee against Torture found that such
methods constituted breaches of the Convention against Torture and Other
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, ratified by Israel
in 1991, and therefore amounted to torture. International law absolutely
prohibits torture and “no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a
state of war or threat of war, internal political instability or any other
public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture”. The
Committee recommended that interrogations applying any other methods that are
in conflict with the provisions of articles 1 and 16 of the Convention cease
immediately.
34. One source informed the Special Rapporteur that during the period under
review, the methods of torture used by the GSS had become less dramatic and
violent, mostly consisting of hooding and position abuse. Nevertheless, the
Special Rapporteur was informed about an interrogation method which consisted
of cutting off a detainee’s blood circulation by placing him in extremely
tight handcuffs; the resulting strong pressure on the upper arm causes the
person to lose consciousness in approximately three minutes. A lawyer showed
the Special Rapporteur a “torture chart” drawn up by the GSS indicating the
type of torture or ill-treatment to which a detainee or prisoner was
subjected, on what dates and at what times.
35. The Special Rapporteur’s attention was drawn to the role of doctors in
the context of interrogation methods amounting to torture who are required to
fill in a type of “fitness for interrogation” form, thereby indicating which
interrogation methods should not be used and hence contributing to torture.
He was informed that the GSS law and the discussion of the bill concerning
compensation to Palestinian victims of torture by the Israel Defence Forces in
the Knesset Committee on Constitutional Law had been suspended, but that they
could be resumed at any time.
36. The Special Rapporteur met in Gaza with mental health professionals who
deal with Palestinian torture victims. They informed him that even years
after their release, former prisoners and their families continued to suffer
traumas which affected the whole Palestinian community. One of the
manifestations of the humiliation and psychological effects of torture was
domestic violence. The Special Rapporteur’s interlocutors were currently
working on prevention, capacity-building, awareness campaigns and training
services in the field of mental health as well as therapies to teach people
how to cope. Numerous people suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
The situation of former prisoners and their wives and children was further
compounded by the serious economic situation in which parents at times cannot
even provide the family with food, as well as the dashed hopes regarding the
peace process and the hardships it has brought to the population of the
occupied territories. The Special Rapporteur was informed that the
unemployment rate in Gaza stood at 62 per cent and that there was a very
strong correlation between the unemployment of fathers and anxiety in
children.
E/CN.4/1999/24
page 10
37. The Special Rapporteur was informed about the process of legitimizing
torture in Israel through legislation. To date, the High Court of Justice has
not pronounced itself regarding the legality of interrogation methods which
amount to torture, but has lifted interim injunctions prohibiting torture with
regard to specific cases. The Knesset has also not taken a decision on the
matter to date. Should it pass legislation to that effect, Israel would
become the first country to officially legalize torture. The Special
Rapporteur was informed that the Israeli authorities persisted in the
affirmation that the methods described above did not amount to torture.
38. Palestinians detained by the Palestinian Authority are often, in the
course of interrogation, subjected to torture. It has been mentioned that in
a number of cases, a chain of culpability can be established: the Palestinian
policeman torturing detainees may well himself have been a victim of torture
by Israelis.
39. The Special Rapporteur was informed that on the whole, strict closures
of the occupied territories as a form of collective punishment had been
implemented to a lesser degree than in the past. Nevertheless, the occupied
territories were subjected to six weeks of closure between September 1998 and
mid-November. Closures as well as curfews continued to be applied in specific
locations in the occupied territories when security incidents occurred.
40. Palestinian workers need a permit to work in Israel. These are issued
in limited numbers and according to certain criteria. The permits are
time-limited and allow the bearers to work, but are not obtained through a
governmental employment agency so the workers do not get health and other
insurance, proper wages and other benefits. Most Palestinian workers employed
in Israel receive minimum wages or well below that level. The Special
Rapporteur was informed that restrictions on the freedom of movement and the
need to obtain work permits were becoming a form of blackmail used against
workers by so-called “permit brokers”. In addition, the sources stated that
the issuing of magnetic identity cards and the renewal of permits had
increasingly become conditioned upon accepting to collaborate with the Israeli
security authorities. The Special Rapporteur was informed that numerous
workers were fired after only a few days and their permits cancelled. There
has been a 30 per cent increase in this type of worker complaint during the
period under review: 120 out of 300 cases of complaint concerned cheating by
Israeli employers. Workers were on occasion also beaten by their employers.
Employers have also threatened workers who ask for their rights with dismissal
or tell them they will call the police and say that the worker tried to stab
them. The situation of Palestinian workers was said to be worst in the Erez
industrial zone.
41. The limitations imposed on the freedom of movement of the population of
the occupied territories have continued to affect to a large extent their
social and economic wellbeing.
In addition to the limited number of
Palestinian workers who have permits to work in Israel, the harsh economic
situation has been further compounded by the failure of Israeli tax
authorities to refund monies owed to Palestinians. The Palestinian and
Israeli economies continue to be closely interrelated, and the Palestinian
economy is totally dependent on Israel. The Special Rapporteur was told
that 90 per cent of all goods consumed by Palestinians come from Israel. The
E/CN.4/1999/24
page 11
amount of Israeli control exercised over the import and export of goods, in
particular agricultural produce, continued to have a negative impact on
Palestinian trade.
42. Palestinians still need permits to enter Israel and other parts of the
occupied territories, in particular East Jerusalem, despite the fact that
article 4 of the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government
Arrangements states that “the two sides view the West Bank and the Gaza Strip
as a single territorial unit”. The subsequent Interim Agreement signed on
28 September 1995 provides for procedures to operate a “safe passage” between
the two parts of the territories, which has not occurred to date. Movement
between parts of the occupied territories and between the occupied territories
and Israel remains very difficult. During his recent mission to the area, the
Special Rapporteur was obliged to hold one meeting in the West Bank since one
of the persons present did not have a permit to enter Jerusalem.
43. The Special Rapporteur was once again informed about the situation of
children in the occupied territories, in particular in the Gaza Strip. He was
informed that the economic and social situation also affected the health of
children. According to a survey, 20 per cent of children under six years of
age suffered from malnutrition. Most children do not complete primary
education. The Special Rapporteur was informed that children in the
Gaza Strip were harassed by soldiers near settlements when they had to cross
certain areas in order to go to school. In addition, some 400 students from
Gaza continued to be denied access to universities in the West Bank. As an
example, the Special Rapporteur was informed that five years ago, 35 per cent
of students in one faculty of Bir Zeit University in the West Bank were from
Gaza. This number has now been reduced to 1 out of 120. The restrictions
imposed on the freedom of movement of Palestinians continued to have serious
repercussions on their health, causing daily suffering for people who cannot
get permits in order to undergo medical treatment in Israel or other parts of
the occupied territories. The Special Rapporteur was told that out of
the 600 children born with a congenital heart condition in Gaza, only
half were sent for treatment.
44. The Special Rapporteur visited the Palestinian High Council for
Motherhood and Childhood which was in the process of developing a Palestinian
National Plan for Motherhood and Childhood. He also visited the “Palestine
Avenir Foundation” which had programmes for children in the areas of
rehabilitation of physically handicapped children; a mobile education unit;
education and culture courses; and a mural painting programme.
45. The number of violent clashes between Palestinians and Israelis declined
owing to the fewer opportunities for direct physical contact in comparison to
the intifada period. Still, 334 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli
soldiers or settlers since the Oslo peace process began. Five Palestinians
were killed during recent clashes in the occupied territories, some of whom by
rubber-coated steel bullets which are used to disperse demonstrations. One of
them was 20year-
old Nasser Erekat who was shot in the head with a rubber
bullet from a distance of about 10 metres while the Israeli army’s rules of
engagement directives concerning regulations for opening fire stipulate that
rubber bullets should not be fired from less than 40 metres’ distance, should
not be fired at children, and should only be fired at the lower part of the
E/CN.4/1999/24
page 12
body. It is estimated that since the beginning of the intifada, at least
57 Palestinians, including 28 children, have been killed by rubber-coated
steel bullets. Hardly any soldiers have been brought to justice. In
Bethlehem, 18 children were shot by Israeli soldiers in recent clashes and
2 persons were killed in Kalkiliya by live ammunition. Most of the persons
injured had been shot in the lower part of the body.
46. The Special Rapporteur was informed that there were fewer deaths at
checkpoints owing to Israeli soldiers refusing to allow Palestinian ambulances
to pass. Nevertheless, there were two deaths at checkpoints in 1998. One of
them was a mother who died after childbirth at the checkpoint in Hebron. The
Israeli soldiers made her wait because she did not have a permit. The Special
Rapporteur was told that the Israeli army had admitted that this was a mistake
and against its policy and the soldiers concerned were reportedly brought
before a military court.
47. The Special Rapporteur asked most of his interlocutors about
people-to-people relations between Israelis and Palestinians. He was told
that the Israelis most often encountered by Palestinians were soldiers and
settlers. The Special Rapporteur was also told that it was difficult to have
people-to-people contacts in the light of the restrictions on the freedom of
movement of Palestinians. He was told that there had been a higher level of
cooperation between the two peoples during the intifada and before the signing
of the Oslo Agreements. One person said that Israel was “the furthest country
in the world” for Palestinians.
II. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
48. The human rights situation in the occupied territories is hostage to
political considerations and expediences. The understanding of the importance
of a wider concept of security, including respect for human rights and
humanitarian law, with respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is
spreading within the international community. Unfortunately, the parties
themselves do not yet share this view, thereby prolonging the conflict
unnecessarily.
49. Human rights must be integrated into the political and economic
discussions concerning the conflict. To facilitate this, solutions and
conclusions reached elsewhere should be carefully studied - such as the model
of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe referred to by the
Special Rapporteur in his last report (E/CN.4/1998/17, paras. 6870).
Within
the United Nations, only a few years ago the interrelationship between human
rights and peace and security was fiercely contested. Today, this fact is
routinely accepted, highlighted by the Secretary-General, the High
Commissioner for Human Rights and Member States in their statements and
actions. This consideration could be a starting point for reviewing human
rights in the context of ongoing processes, in particular those based on the
Oslo Agreements and the Wye River Memorandum.
50. Regrettably, an overall assessment of the human rights situation remains
worrying. While there is certain positive development to be recognized on the
E/CN.4/1999/24
page 13
Israeli side - such as the decrease in administrative detentions and
discontinuation of the most flagrant torture methods - it appears that such
violations are increasing on the Palestinian side. The pressure exercised by
the Occupying Power on the Palestinian Authority, while explaining many
violations, does not justify them, nor does it absolve the Palestinian
Authority of its responsibility. Tackling human rights violations is not a
zero-sum game: both parties have their responsibilities to combat violations,
based on their commitments and obligations under international law.
51. Persons placed under administrative detention by the Palestinian
Authority should be brought before a court of justice without delay or
released. Decisions of the court should be promptly implemented. Special
emphasis should be given to the independence of the judiciary. Torture should
not be allowed under any circumstances.
52. The volatile and disturbing political situation requires in-depth
studies of the applicability of international law and continuous scrutiny of
the fulfilment of obligations therein. This involves mainly the Government of
Israel as a party to relevant conventions and agreements. A constructive
engagement by the Government of Israel is called for.
53. An early and well-prepared convening of a conference of the High
Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, as recommended by the
General Assembly, is of the utmost importance.
54. The full and equal enjoyment by women of all human rights is a priority
for the United Nations and for its Member States. This includes the
integration and full participation of women in the Palestinian nation-building
programmes as well as working towards the elimination of violence against
women in public and private life. While bearing in mind that respect for
rights of women and children in the occupied territories depends to a large
extent on religion, social customs and family traditions, determined
legislative efforts need to be maintained to enforce those rights.
55. The Palestinian people are being subjected to intensified pressure to do
their part in the peace process. The Palestinian Authority, the Legislative
Council, Palestinian institutions and the Palestinian people have to work
together to fight against all human rights violations and build a democratic
nation. The international community, Governments, non-governmental
organizations and individuals should increasingly focus on this field in
assisting Palestinians in their nation-building programme.
56. The Palestinian Authority, the Legislative Council, non-governmental
organizations and the Palestinian people are once again to be commended for
the full and constructive cooperation accorded to the Special Rapporteur.
Their openness and readiness to discuss the human rights situation in all its
aspects in a frank and transparent manner reflects a serious attitude towards
respect for human rights. At the same time, it provides the basis for
combating violations and improving the situation. The invaluable support of
the international community in this work will continue to be crucial in the
future.
E/CN.4/1999/24
page 14
57. The Government of Israel, regrettably, still refuses to cooperate with
the United Nations human rights mechanisms. The position of the Government is
contained in a letter addressed to the Special Rapporteur, which is reproduced
below:
“Dear Mr. Ambassador,
“1. We have taken note of your request of 22 December 1998, that
Israel cooperate with you as Special Rapporteur to the Territories
during your forthcoming visit to the area.
“2. As you are aware, on 19 February 1993, the Commission on Human
Rights adopted resolution 1993/2 A on the 'Question of the violation of
human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine', in
which it decided to 'appoint a Special Rapporteur to investigate
Israel’s violations of the principles and bases of international law,
international humanitarian law and the Geneva Convention Relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949, in the
Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967'.
“3. This resolution, like any other such resolutions adopted within
the United Nations system, singles out Israel in a flagrantly negative
way:
“(a) It predetermines the Rapporteur’s role, resolving ab initio
that Israel is in violation of international law and international
conventions.
“(b) Contrary to all other 'geographical' rapporteurs who are
appointed by the Commission on an annual basis, this Rapporteur has been
assigned an open-ended mandate that is never subject to scrutiny,
critique or modification.
“(c) The mandate is intrinsically anachronistic. It disregards
the negotiations that have taken place between Israel and the PLO,
resulting in a series of agreements by which over 97 per cent of the
Palestinian population in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are living
under autonomous Palestinian administration. The Palestinian Authority,
established by these agreements, exercises legislative, administrative
and judicial powers over virtually all spheres of the population’s daily
life.
“(d) The mandate completely ignores the fact that there are
two sides to the Middle East conflict. The Palestinian Authority has
undertaken to respect human rights, yet at least 14 people have died
while being tortured under interrogation in Palestinian prisons during
the last three years. International humanitarian organizations cite
numerous other grave violations of human rights under the Palestinian
Authority, which the Rapporteur is not authorized to investigate
according to the mandate.
E/CN.4/1999/24
page 15
“4. Despite the biased and unbalanced mandate, Israel decided to
invite the previous Rapporteur - former President of Switzerland,
Mr. René Felber - as a personal guest of the Minister of Foreign
Affairs, with a view to assisting him in carrying out his functions.
“5. Two years after his appointment, Mr. Felber reached the
conclusion that the problems in the Territories are political, and not
humanitarian in nature. He thereupon resigned as Special Rapporteur
on 9 February 1995.
“6. The Commission turned a blind eye to the conclusions set out in
his report and, in April 1995, appointed a successor, in your person,
without consulting Israel or even troubling to inform its Foreign
Minister of the appointment.
“7. In light of the above, Israel decided to discontinue its
cooperation with the Special Rapporteur, indicating however, that if the
mandate were amended to become even-handed and time-limited, Israel
would reconsider its position.
“8. Nevertheless, Israel’s Ambassador in Geneva cooperated with you
informally in 1995, 1996 and 1997, yet your reports have been
consistently inaccurate and misleading, containing unsubstantiated or
simply false facts, and repeatedly disregarding Israel’s position.
“9. In this context, allow me to quote your own reports, between 1996
and 1998 on the need to change your mandate:
'the Special Rapporteur invites the Commission on Human
Rights to consider amending his mandate in accordance with the
foregoing' (para. 40, E/CN.4/1996/18 of 6 March 1996) (emphasis
added).
'it is clear that the mandate of the Special Rapporteur as adopted
some four years ago is in some ways obsolete and exceptional; it
does not refer at all to the peace process; it does not authorize
the Special Rapporteur to study and recommend constructive human
rights and humanitarian programmes to prevent violations or remedy
their aftermath. It limits itself to Israel’s violations only in
the Occupied Territories; and unlike all other mandates, its
duration is open-ended ...' (para. 37, E/CN.4/1997/16 of
19 February 1997);
'the mandate of the Special Rapporteur, as it stands, is
exceptional. It puts Israel in a different position compared to
other countries subjected to the scrutiny of a Special Rapporteur.
The mandate prejudges the outcome of the investigation. The
consideration of the human rights situation in the area on the
basis of the mandate is limited only to Israel’s violations of
international law. And the mandate, unlike all the other mandates
under the Commission on Human Rights, is not reviewed
periodically.
E/CN.4/1999/24
page 16
'The main reason given for the unique mandate is the foreign
occupation, which is said to constitute a unique situation in
the world. It has been the consistent view of the Special
Rapporteur that the mandate has to be reviewed.' (paras. 72-73,
E/CN.4/1998/17 dated 19 February 1998).
“10. Until a revision is adopted, Israel regrets that it remains unable
to accede to your request of 22 December 1998.
“We would request that the full text of this letter be
incorporated in the body of your forthcoming report, as an authoritative
statement of Israel’s position.
“Please accept, Mr. Ambassador, the assurances of my highest
consideration.
David Peleg
Ambassador
Permanent Representative”
58. In his statement at the fiftyfourth
session of the Commission on Human
Rights on 20 March 1998, the Special Rapporteur stated: “The attempt to
discredit the report of the Special Rapporteur by the Government concerned is
not new in this forum; that is rather expected particularly from a Government
refusing to cooperate with the Rapporteur assigned to it. Therefore, to
fulfil my task better, I have felt very strongly on the need to accomplish
this cooperation. Based on the contents of my reports, the mandate is not and
need not be the obstacle to the cooperation. And if that is the case, let me
remind you once again that my voice seems to be among those very few who are
asking amendments to the mandate - although in my case from the point of view
of overall consistency as well as an improved framework for considering human
rights”.
59. As referred to in the last report (para. 73): “... The only reason for
amending the mandate is the respect for human rights; the Special Rapporteur
has to have a sufficiently broad mandate to contribute to achieving that goal.
To that effect the Special Rapporteur - as an independent expert - needs to be
given equal treatment with other special rapporteurs.” The Special Rapporteur
stands by this statement.
60. Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur stated in his report (para. 77):
“... Israel should also have the courage to look beyond the mandate, to
cooperate fully with the international human rights mechanisms and to
participate actively in the substantive debate in this respect.” The contents
of the reports of the Special Rapporteur, and particularly the debate attached
to the last report at the fiftyfourth
session of the Commission, are clear
evidence of the fact that there is no linkage between the mandate and
cooperation. Nor can the cooperation be conditioned by the mandate.
61. The Special Rapporteur disagrees strongly with the insinuation in the
letter cited above that there are no humanitarian problems in the occupied
territories. If for nothing else, this report, together with earlier reports,
is proof of violations against humanitarian as well as human rights law.
E/CN.4/1999/24
page 17
62. As referred to in the Introduction to this report, the Special
Rapporteur has made every effort to reflect the situation as accurately as
possible, based on information from a wide variety of Palestinian, Israeli and
international sources. The Special Rapporteur would undoubtedly also take the
facts and position of the Israeli Government into account in his report,
should the Government choose to share that information with him.
63. It should be reiterated that the human rights concerns in the occupied
territories cannot be held hostage to the political processes and discussions.
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights is the main body to draw
attention to and conduct an in-depth debate on the human rights situation in
the area. This debate cannot take place in a vacuum. On the other hand, it
should not be used to attack either party for political purposes only. In the
debate - instead of accusing one side or the other for violations of human
rights - an effort should be made to clarify the role of human rights in the
context of ongoing political and economic discussions. Moreover, the debate
should seek ways and means to do away with existing violations and to prevent
any new violations.
64. The United Nations human rights mechanism has grown to an extensive
network of thematic and country rapporteurs. Further efforts should be made
to benefit more effectively from this machinery. Improved coordination and
dissemination of information between the rapporteurs are essential. The
working methods of the Commission, including its agenda, should continuously
be reviewed to ensure the maximum output from its deliberations.
65. The international community has established that a just, comprehensive
and sustainable peace settlement in the Middle East is based on certain key
principles such as the right to self-determination for the Palestinians,
including the establishment of a Palestinian State. Building a civil society
under occupation remains a major challenge. Democracy, including regular
elections and a multiparty system, and the rule of law are goals that need
constant and unwavering attention by the Palestinian Authority, together with
the Palestinian institutions and people. Democracy, rule of law and respect
for human rights are inextricably linked and where continuous support by
Governments, international and non-governmental organizations, donors and
individuals is needed most.
66. While celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, it ought to be recalled that almost all provisions of the
Declaration are being violated in the occupied territories. To have a real
reason to celebrate, let us start to work together to go through all those
articles and make them a reality.
UNITED
NATIONS E
Economic and Social
Council
Distr.
GENERAL
E/CN.4/2000/25
15 March 2000
Original: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Fifty-sixth session
Item 8 of the provisional agenda
QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE OCCUPIED
ARAB TERRITORIES, INCLUDING PALESTINE
Report on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories
occupied since 1967, submitted by Mr. Giorgio Giacomelli,
Special Rapporteur, pursuant to Commission on Human Rights
resolution 1993/2 A
CONTENTS
Paragraphs Page
Executive summary............................................................................................................. 3
Introduction ........................................................................................... 1 - 4 6
I. JURISDICTION............................................................................ 5 - 9 6
II. PRINCIPAL CONCERNS REGARDING HUMAN
RIGHTS ........................................................................................ 10 - 58 7
A. The right of return ............................................................. 10 - 12 7
B. Land and population transfer............................................. 13 - 21 8
C. Right to a safe and healthy environment........................... 22 - 30 10
D. Torture............................................................................... 31 - 33 11
GE.00-11680 (E)
E/CN.4.2000/25
page 2
CONTENTS (continued)
Paragraphs Page
II. PRINCIPAL CONCERNS REGARDING HUMAN
RIGHTS (continued)
E. Prisoners, administrative detention, administration
of justice ............................................................................ 34 - 37 12
F. Children, women and the family....................................... 38 - 43 13
G. Closures and the freedoms of movement, education,
religion, expression and information................................. 44 - 49 14
H. Situation of Jerusalem ....................................................... 50 - 52 15
I. Workers and fishermen ..................................................... 53 - 56 16
J. Collective punishment....................................................... 57 - 58 16
III. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ....................... 59 - 81 17
E/CN.4/2000/25
page 3
Executive summary
The mandate of the Special Rapporteur was established by Commission on Human
Rights resolution 1993/2 A of 19 February 1993, to investigate Israel's violations of the
principles and bases of international law, international humanitarian law and the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, in
the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967 and to report to the Commission until the
end of the Israeli occupation of those territories. The current Special Rapporteur,
Mr. Giorgio Giacomelli (Italy), was appointed in December 1999 and this is his first report. The
Special Rapporteur undertook a mission to the area where he held meetings in the West Bank,
the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem with Palestinian and Israeli non-governmental organizations,
international organizations on the ground, grass-roots and community organizations, individuals,
and Palestinian Authority institutions. The Special Rapporteur regrets the lack of cooperation by
the Israeli authorities.
In light of the mandate, this report addresses the subject of military occupation and
actions and omissions of the Occupying Power limited to the duration of the occupation. In the
occupied Palestinian territories, Israel bears the responsibilities of Occupying Power, as the
Commission reaffirmed in resolution 1993/2. Obligations of international humanitarian law
applying to Israel, its covenanted human rights obligations and those arising from customary law
and general principles of international law constitute the framework for the investigation that has
led to the present report.
The majority of refugees displaced as a result of the 1948 war, those from the West Bank,
the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem displaced in the war of 1967, and refugees from Gaza and
elsewhere during and after the hostilities of October 1973 still live in 30 camps created after
the 1948 war (8 in Gaza and 22 in the West Bank, including Jerusalem). Currently, at least
1,353,547 Palestinian registered refugees and other holders of the right of return (as well as to
compensation and/or restitution) reside in the territories that are the subject of this mandate.
Israel bears the primary responsibility for the implementation of the right of return.
Population transfer constitutes a particularly grave violation of human rights and
humanitarian law and violates the long-established public international law principle of the
unacceptability of the acquisition of territory by force, as well as specific resolutions concerning
Israel’s confiscation of land and settlement activities. Since 1967, Israel has confiscated an
estimated 60 per cent of the West Bank, 33 per cent of the Gaza Strip, and approximately
33 per cent of the Palestinian land area in Jerusalem for public, semi-public and private use in
order to create Israeli military zones, settlements, industrial areas, elaborate “by-pass” roads, and
quarries, as well as to hold “State land” for exclusive Israeli use. Israel presently maintains
19 settlements in Gaza, 158 in the West Bank and at least 16 in occupied Jerusalem. In 1999
alone, Israel established 44 new settlement outposts in the West Bank.
Israeli occupation forces frequently carry out punitive and violent demolitions of
Palestinian homes for lack of permit as well as forcible evictions of entire villages. Since 1987,
16,700 Palestinians (including 7,300 children) have lost their homes in this way. In 1999, Israel
demolished 31 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem and 50 in the West Bank, the latter in
Area C. Another 28,000 remain under threat. Israeli occupation practices also affect the natural
E/CN.4.2000/25
page 4
environment of the occupied Palestinian territories, including degradation of the infrastructure,
land confiscation, water depletion, uprooting of trees, dumping of toxic waste and other
pollution.
Torture is absolutely forbidden, both under international human rights and humanitarian
law, and freedom from torture is a non-derogable right. Although Israel ratified the Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 1991, the
Israeli General Security Service (GSS) has used torture systematically during the interrogation of
Palestinians suspected of security offences. The United Nations Committee against Torture has
determined that this amounts to a breach of the Convention against Torture, deemed them
“completely unacceptable”, and determined that it should cease immediately. On
6 September 1999, Israel’s High Court of Justice issued a unanimous decision that ruled that the
GSS violent interrogation techniques against Palestinian detainees were illegal, but refrained
from defining them as torture and advised that such practices might be acceptable if specifically
authorized by new legislation. The Court also indicated that GSS interrogators who would use
these methods in extreme circumstances might not be criminally liable as they would be able to
rely on the defence of necessity.
After the withdrawal and redeployment of the Israeli army from the major Palestinian
cities in the West Bank in 1995, all Palestinian political prisoners were transferred from the
occupied territories to Israel, in violation of article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Although there have been releases under the implementation of the peace agreements, the
number of prisoners remains high, standing currently at about 1,500. The practice of
administrative detention, without charges or trial, whereby orders can be renewed indefinitely for
six-month periods, has continued. There has been a reduction in the number of administrative
detainees, who currently number 13. The conditions of detention are said to be below
international standards and difficulties of access to prisoners are faced by their lawyers and
families.
The occupation, including the complete dependence of the Palestinian economy on Israel,
lack of infrastructure, measures of collective punishment such as closures and house demolitions
have caused the disruption of the fabric of society, with particularly serious effects on the family,
which is a fundamental social support resource in Palestinian society. Palestinian children have
suffered considerably as a result of the Israeli occupation and more than 90 per cent have
experienced multiple traumatic events in their lives. Attention should be drawn to the situation
of Palestinian juveniles (aged between 14 and 17) imprisoned in Israel, in contravention of
article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Four Palestinian children were killed in 1999; 102
children were injured, 82 by Israeli soldiers, 19 by settlers and 1 by both.
The enjoyment of fundamental human rights and freedoms by the population of the
occupied Palestinian territories is severely curtailed by measures such as closures, which
separate parts of the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem, from each other as well as
from Israel and which have been imposed systematically since 1993. The “Erez II” checkpoint
under construction near Bethlehem will de facto completely separate the northern from the
southern part of the West Bank, a situation compounded by permit requirements for non-resident
Palestinians to enter Jerusalem. Closures have severely curtailed the freedom of movement,
E/CN.4/2000/25
page 5
regulated through the policy of permits and magnetic cards, education and religion of the
population of the occupied territories. There does not seem, however, to be any specific
interference with freedom of expression.
The city of Jerusalem, under Israeli military closure since 1993, represents a
concentration of the range of human rights concerns and the combined consequences of the
Israeli occupation. Government’s discriminatory treatment of Palestinians affect all aspects of
life, as well as having dramatic ramifications on the demographic, historic and cultural nature of
the city itself.
The economic dependence of the occupied territories on Israel affects all sectors, in
particular owing to Israeli control of the movement of goods, trade, and especially the labour
market, where Palestinian workers are discriminated against on the basis of their civil status and,
on the pretext of security, receive disproportionately low wages, inferior benefits, and work
under poor conditions. This has resulted in an estimated 10-15 per cent decrease in real
per capita income for the population of the occupied territories from 1993 to 1999. There are
currently some 50,000 Palestinian workers employed daily in Israel. Another category of
workers affected are fishermen in the Gaza Strip who are exposed to attacks and harassment by
Israeli navy patrols, as well as destruction of their nets.
The Special Rapporteur notes that violations acquire special gravity and meaning when
taken into consideration in their composite form. Just as some of the above-mentioned violations
tend to accumulate such that, each day that they are not dealt with, their consequences increase
in gravity and effect, they also assume other dimensions and beget ancillary human rights
consequences. The Special Rapporteur recognizes that the purpose of protection enshrined in
humanitarian law, in particular in the Hague Regulations and the Fourth Geneva Convention,
until today has not been served. In general, the recommendation of the Special Rapporteur
cannot be but that of a rigorous implementation of the letter and spirit of the relevant
international norms, which implies the reversal of illegal trends, correction and, where
appropriate, restitution.
E/CN.4.2000/25
page 6
Introduction
1. At its forty-ninth session, the Commission on Human Rights adopted resolution 1993/2 A
of 19 February 1993, in which it decided to appoint a special rapporteur with the following
mandate:
“(a) To investigate Israel's violations of the principles and bases of international law,
international humanitarian law and the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since
1967;
“(b) To receive communications, to hear witnesses, and to use such modalities of
procedure as he may deem necessary for his mandate;
“(c) To report, with his conclusions and recommendations, to the Commission on
Human Rights at its future sessions, until the end of the Israeli occupation of those territories.”
2. The former Special Rapporteurs, Mr. René Felber (Switzerland) and Mr. Hannu Halinen
(Finland), presented reports to the Commission from its fiftieth to its fifty-fifth sessions
(E/CN.4/1994/14, E/CN.4/1995/19, E/CN.4/1996/18, E/CN.4/1997/16, E/CN.4/1998/17 and
E/CN.4/1999/24, respectively). The current Special Rapporteur, Mr. Giorgio Giacomelli (Italy),
was appointed in December 1999 by the Chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights.
3. Prior to presenting his report to the Commission on Human Rights at its
fifty-sixth session, the Special Rapporteur undertook a mission to the area where he held
meetings with a wide range of interlocutors in connection with his mandate. This included
meetings with Palestinian and Israeli NGOs, international organizations on the ground,
grass-roots and community organizations, individuals and Palestinian Authority institutions.
Information was gathered through eyewitness observation, oral testimony, and documentation
from a wide variety of sources. On this mission, the Special Rapporteur met with these
interlocutors in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem.
4. The Special Rapporteur regrets the lack of cooperation by the Israeli authorities. As was
previously brought to the Commission’s attention, Israel rejects the mandate claiming that, since
its establishment, a new situation prevails and violations are committed by other parties. While
the Special Rapporteur has to limit his inquiry to the scope of the mandate, he is nonetheless
aware of allegations and violations peripheral to his mandate related to actions or omissions by
Israel in other areas, and by the Palestinian Authority (PA). However, in light of the mandate,
this report addresses the subject of military occupation, and actions and omissions of the
Occupying Power limited in time to the duration of the occupation.
I. JURISDICTION
5. Under the Charter of the United Nations, a Member State is obligated to “respect and
promote human rights”. Additionally, Israel is constitutionally bound by the terms of the
“Partition of Palestine” resolution of the General Assembly, 181 (II), which states in Part I,
chapter 2, paragraph 3: “All persons within the jurisdiction of the [Arab or Jewish] State shall be
E/CN.4/2000/25
page 7
entitled to equal protection of the laws.” Israel bears an obligation to respect, promote and fulfil
human rights, arising from its ratification of the various human rights and humanitarian law
treaties. In the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel bears the responsibilities of Occupying
Power, as the Commission on Human Rights in its resolution 1993/2 reaffirmed.
6. United Nations human rights treaty bodies have established that the responsibility and
obligation to observe human rights, especially upon a ratifying State, encompasses the State
jurisdiction even when such jurisdiction exceeds the State’s entitled territory, whether such
territories are occupied, administered or overseen in any other form. This position has been
reaffirmed in the case of treaty bodies reviewing Israel’s covenanted obligations.
7. In the occupied territories, with the exception of Jerusalem, Israel variously has shared
the “personal”, “functional” and “geographical” elements of jurisdiction with the Palestinian
(National) Authority during the interim period and up to today, in a patchwork of Areas “A”,
“B” and “C” as defined by agreement of the parties in the Oslo process. However, in all these
areas Israel continues to exert control over the movement of people and goods between and
among jurisdictional areas and the external borders. As a matter of agreement with the
Palestinian representatives, Israel also claims the right to enter all areas for purposes of security.
8. Therefore, throughout this review period, international humanitarian law obligations
apply to Israel, as well as its covenanted human rights obligations and those arising from
customary law and general principles of international law. These norms and instruments
constitute the framework for the investigation that has led to the present report.
9. It is noted that the humanitarian law instruments (notably the Hague Regulations
Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land of 1907, art. 43) prohibits an Occupying
Power from imposing its own legal system in an occupied zone and/or subjecting the occupied
civilian population to its domestic laws. In the case under review, despite these prohibitions, the
Occupying Power has supplanted its domestic legal regime in occupied Jerusalem by an act of
Knesset in 1981. In the other occupied zones, Israel selectively has replaced existing laws with
its own domestic laws and military orders. This violation of international law includes Israel’s
application of its municipal law to its citizens and Israeli institutions settling in the occupied
territories.
II. PRINCIPAL CONCERNS REGARDING HUMAN RIGHTS
A. The right of return
10. The plight of Palestinian refugees in these territories has remained a concern throughout
the period of occupation. Most of these refugees were made homeless as a consequence of the
war of 1948, as well as the simultaneous and subsequent confiscation of their land, properties
and homes, and large-scale demolition of their villages by Israel. Currently, at least 1,353,547
Palestinian registered refugees and other holders of the right of return (as well as to
compensation and/or restitution) reside in the territories subject to this mandate. The Special
Rapporteur notes that the duty holder, in the case of this right, is also the Occupying Power and
bears the main responsibility for the return of persons residing in the occupied Palestinian
territories, displaced as a result of the 1948 war, those from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and
E/CN.4.2000/25
page 8
Jerusalem displaced in the war of 1967, and refugees from Gaza and elsewhere during and after
the hostilities of October 1973. The majority of these refugees still live in 30 camps created
after the 1948 war (8 in Gaza and 22 in the West Bank, including Jerusalem).
11. The continuing violation of the right of return emerged as a special concern during the
Special Rapporteur’s visit. It is his observation that it is increasingly a subject of both popular
and political discourse, including in the form of opinion polls, editorials and petitions,
reinforcing the claim to this right. Refugees feel that they are the subjects of continuing
violation while kept in limbo for political reasons. Although the international community
continues to provide services for Palestinian refugees, they note that there is a lack of adequate
protection because they do not fall under the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees
of 1951. Israel bears the primary responsibility for the implementation of the right of return, but
has not demonstrated willingness to implement it. However, it should be noted that the plight of
the Palestinian refugees has become the subject of discourse in certain Israeli political and civil
society quarters. For instance, although he did not acknowledge responsibility, in an
October 1999 speech to the Knesset Prime Minister Barak expressed regret for the suffering of
the Palestinian people, including refugees.
12. It is observed, in particular, that the violation of this right grew greater during this review
period - as with every passing year - and as the number of right holders grows, the values of their
potential compensation and restitution claims increase, and the political and logistical aspects of
the task become more complex and difficult.
B. Land and population transfer
13. It should be recalled that population transfer, as manifest in cases of the past decade,
constitutes a particularly grave violation of human rights and humanitarian law. In this
connection, the Special Rapporteur notes the increase in forced eviction of Palestinians and the
implantation of Israeli settlers in the territories under review.
14. The Occupying Power’s confiscation of land and properties belonging privately and
collectively to the Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories is a dominant feature of the
occupation and an essential component of population transfer carried out by Israel. This practice
violates the long-established international law principle of the unacceptability of the acquisition
of territory by force, as well as specific resolutions concerning Israel’s confiscation of land and
settlement activities. Since 1967, Israel has confiscated land for public, semi-public and private
use in order to create Israeli military zones, settlements, industrial areas, elaborate “by-pass”
roads, and quarries, as well as to hold “State land” for exclusive Israeli use. Estimates place the
proportion of Palestinian land confiscated by Israel at some 60 per cent of the West Bank,
33 per cent of the Gaza Strip, and at least 32.5 km2, or approximately 33 per cent of the
Palestinian land area in Jerusalem.
15. In the occupied Palestinian territories, planning since 1967 has been assumed by the
military authorities and, for instance, continues to be carried out for Areas B and C in the
West Bank by the civil Israeli administration based in the settlement of Bayt El. This practice is
E/CN.4/2000/25
page 9
in violation of article 43 of the Hague Regulations which, as noted above, prohibit an Occupying
Power from altering the legal system in occupied territories. Israeli domestic laws, including
Basic Laws, military orders and planning regulations, are applied with discrimination against and
disadvantage to the Palestinian population.
16. Israeli authorities impose their own physical planning regime and master plans on
villages, towns and rural areas, thereby restricting Palestinian living areas. For example, 1994
Israeli master plans - announced two years later - created six quarries on West Bank land.
In 1999 alone, Israel established 44 new settlement outposts in the West Bank, on a combined
land area of 9,953 dunums (2,488 acres). During the same year, Israeli planning authorities
approved 14 new by-pass roads in the West Bank and Jerusalem which call for the confiscation
of another 10,129 dunums (2,532 acres) of Palestinian land.
17. While applying very tight restrictions and granting very few permissions to build, Israeli
occupation forces frequently carry out punitive and violent demolitions of Palestinian homes for
lack of permit. Interlocutors reported the myriad difficulties and discriminatory practices that
Palestinians face in obtaining building permits and information about imposed master plans.
Sometimes punishment for infractions is retroactive to the establishment or public disclosure of a
master plan. Since 1987, 16,700 Palestinians (including 7,300 children) have lost their homes in
this way.
18. Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has not
fallen since 1993. In fact, although the area and number of Palestinians living under direct Israel
civilian control are smaller, the average yearly demolition of Palestinian homes showed an
increase throughout 1995-1999. In 1999, Israel demolished 31 Palestinian homes in
East Jerusalem and 50 in the West Bank, the latter in Area C. Another 28,000 homes remain
under threat.
19. Israel continues to evict entire Palestinian villages under a variety of pretexts. For the
stated reason that they were living in a closed military zone, some 600 indigenous villagers in the
eastern Hebron District (West Bank) were forcibly evicted under Israeli military order and their
belongings were confiscated by Israeli forces in September and October 1999. Settlers in the
area are currently using the now-homeless villagers’ lands. During the Special Rapporteur’s
visit to the occupied territories, Israeli forces evicted and dispossessed a further 19 families in
the same area.
20. In Gaza, at present Israel maintains 19 settlements that occupy 23,000 dunums of
confiscated land, surrounded by an additional 23,000 dunums of confiscated land. In the
West Bank, Israel maintains 158 settlements, while settlements in occupied Jerusalem number at
least 16. All of these settlement implantations violate, in particular, article 49 of the Fourth
Geneva Convention, as well as other international law norms.
21. The Special Rapporteur witnessed the ongoing construction of some 6,500 housing units
for the new Jabal Abu Ghunaym/Har Homa settlement on 2,056 dunums of confiscated
Palestinian land, completing the settlement circle around occupied Jerusalem. He also visited
areas of new construction in Gaza Strip settlements. Reflecting the current trend in settlement
growth, in the second half of 1999 official tenders for settlement construction in the occupied
E/CN.4.2000/25
page 10
territories provided for 3,196 new units. The current Israeli Government approved the
construction of a total of 5,752 new settlement units in 1999. Published reports indicate that the
settler population in the West Bank and Gaza, now totalling 193,680, increased by 12.5 per cent
in 1999 over the previous year. The settlers in Jerusalem increased in 1999 to a total of
approximately 170,000.
C. Right to a safe and healthy environment
22. Occupation practices that affect the natural environment of the occupied territories
include degradation of the infrastructure, land confiscation, water depletion, uprooting of trees,
dumping of toxic waste and other pollution. This inherent right of the Palestinian people is also
the subject of Israel’s State obligations under, among others, the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which it ratified in 1991.
23. Palestinian entitlements for water include the underground water of the West Bank and
Gaza aquifers, in addition to their rightful shares in the waters of the Jordan River as riparians.
The annual renewable freshwater yield in the occupied territories ranges from 600 million cubic
metres to 650 million cubic metres. The West Bank’s hydrological system includes three major
aquifers: the western, north-eastern and eastern basins.
24. The Palestinian use of the Jordan River before 1967 was through 140 pumping units.
Israel either confiscated or destroyed all of those pumping units. In addition, Israel closed the
large, irrigated areas of the Jordan Valley used by Palestinians, calling them military zones that
later were transferred to Israeli settlers.
25. At present Israel extracts more than 85 per cent of the Palestinian water from the
West Bank aquifers, which accounts for about 25 per cent of Israel’s water use. As a result of
Israeli restrictions, Palestinians currently use 246 million cubic metres of their water resources to
supply nearly 3 million people in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip with their domestic,
industrial and agricultural needs. This compares to Israel’s use of 1,959 million cubic metres for
its population of approximately 6 million. That reduces water consumption by Palestinians
to 82 m3 per capita, as compared with 340 m3 for Israeli citizens and settlers.
26. Israel provides settlers with a continuous and plentiful water supply, largely from
Palestinian water resources. The supply to Palestinians is intermittent, especially during summer
months, as was the case in 1999.
27. Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem are typically placed on high ground.
Wastewater from many settlements is collected and discharged to the nearby valleys without
treatment. The Special Rapporteur observed that Kfar Darom Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip
releases its sewage and chemical waste left from the industrial plants to the Palestinian Al-Saqa
Valley in the central part of the Gaza Strip.
28. Israelis dump solid waste without restriction on Palestinian land, fields, and side roads.
The solid waste generated in West Jerusalem, for example, is transferred to an unsanitary
dumping site east of Abu Dis. That site in the West Bank overlays the infiltration area of the
eastern sector of the water aquifer. Also, the settlements of Ariel, Innab, Homesh Alon Morieh,
E/CN.4/2000/25
page 11
Qarna Shamron, Kadumim and others dispose of their solid waste in the West Bank, as do
military camps and settlements inside the “green line” (1948 border of Israel).
29. The Government of Israel has constructed at least seven industrial zones in the
West Bank and two in Gaza. The West Bank zones occupy a total area of approximately 302
hectares. They are located mainly on hilltops, from which they dump industrial wastewater onto
adjacent Palestinian lands. Information about industries in the Israeli industrial zones is not
accessible to the Palestinians. Palestinian sources estimate that at least 200 Israeli factories
operate in the West Bank. Some of the products are identifiable, but detailed information on
quantities produced, labour, and waste generated is not available. Aluminium, leather-tanning,
textile-dyeing, batteries, fibreglass, plastic, and chemicals are among the known industries within
these settlements.
30. The Special Rapporteur visited the Barqan industrial zone, in the West Bank, which is a
clear example of environmental pollution. Aluminium, fibreglass, plastics, electroplating and
military industries are known to operate inside Barqan. The industrial wastewater that flows
untreated to the nearby valley damages agricultural land belonging to the neighbouring
Palestinian villages of Sarta, Kafr al-Dik, and Burqin, polluting the groundwater with heavy
metals.
D. Torture
31. Torture is absolutely forbidden both under international human rights and humanitarian
law and freedom from torture is a non-derogable right. Although Israel ratified the Convention
against Torture in 1991, this is not part of Israeli domestic law and its provisions cannot be
invoked in Israeli courts. The Israeli General Security Service (GSS) has used torture
systematically during the interrogation of Palestinians suspected of security offences. The
guidelines for interrogation were set by the Landau Commission of Inquiry in 1987; the second
part of the guidelines are confidential and have never been published. Government regulation
has allowed the head of GSS to authorize the use of “a moderate degree of pressure, including
physical pressure” according to the Landau guidelines, in order to extract information from
detainees. Methods and means, used alone or in combination, include position abuse; hooding;
prolonged sleep deprivation and loud music; violent shaking; threats, including death threats; and
chilling by cold air. The United Nations Committee against Torture determined that these
methods amount to a breach of the Convention, deemed them “completely unacceptable” and in
conflict with articles 1, 2 and 16 of the Convention, and determined that they should cease
immediately.
32. On 6 September 1999, Israel’s High Court of Justice issued a unanimous decision that
ruled that the GSS violent interrogation techniques against Palestinian detainees were illegal.
However, it refrained from defining them as torture and advised that such practices might be
acceptable if specifically authorized by new legislation. The Court also indicated that GSS
interrogators who would use these methods in extreme circumstances might not be criminally
liable as they would be able to rely on the defence of necessity.
33. On 9 February 2000, the Israeli State Comptroller’s 1995 report on GSS practices during
the intifada was made public. It revealed large-scale use of torture by GSS interrogators,
E/CN.4.2000/25
page 12
systematic overstepping of the Landau guidelines and lying (to their superiors) about their
compliance with them, and superiors not preventing the practice. On 15 February 2000, the head
of GSS abandoned his demand for legislation of “special” interrogation methods in a meeting
with the Prime Minister and senior Justice Ministry officials. However, in the meeting, the
Israeli Attorney-General reiterated his promise to grant legal protection to any interrogator who
uses “special means” in individual cases.
E. Prisoners, administrative detention, administration of justice
34. After the withdrawal and redeployment of the Israeli army from the major Palestinian
towns in the West Bank in 1995, all Palestinian prisoners were transferred from the occupied
territories to Israel, in violation of article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Although there
have been releases of Palestinian (political) prisoners within the framework of the
implementation of the peace agreements, their number remains high and currently stands at
about 1,500. The provisions of the peace agreements relating to the release of Palestinian
political prisoners have not been fully implemented by Israel. In this connection, it has to be
noted that the situation of Palestinian security detainees from Jerusalem - some 52 - is
particularly difficult since they are not included in the quota of prisoners to be released in the
context of the implementation of the peace accords, although a few have been released recently.
Several have spent more than 10 years in prison.
35. The conditions of detention are said to be below international standards with
overcrowding, inadequate medical care, insufficient food rations, bad ventilation of cells, small
cells, tear gas thrown into cells by the prison authorities during prisoners’ protests, and with
regard to the facility of access, by family and legal counsel and the frequency and duration of
visits. Lately, lawyers have been prevented from seeing their clients for up to two or three
months, which raises fears that torture is being used. Palestinian lawyers are also prevented from
seeing their clients if they do not have a permit to enter Israel, in particular those from Gaza.
Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centres can only be defended by lawyers
who are members of the Israeli Bar Association. Families have difficulty in reaching their
imprisoned relatives for lack of permit or owing to the distance from the prison. They are also
subjected to harassment by the prison guards once they arrive. The policy of placing prisoners in
isolation has continued during the period under review.
36. Administrative detention of Palestinian prisoners, without charges or trial, has been
practised widely in Israel and detention orders can be renewed indefinitely for six-month
periods. Some administrative detainees have spent more than five years in prison. Lately, there
has been a reduction in the number of Palestinian administrative detainees who currently
number 13. The problem of administrative detention sentences is compounded by the fact that
the evidence placed before the judge at the military appeal committee is often declared
confidential and is therefore inaccessible to both the defendant and the lawyer.
37. Double standards are applied in the administration of justice between Israelis and
Palestinians on the basis of nationality; this is also reflected in the disparity in the sentencing
pattern. For example, Israelis, mostly settlers, who kill Palestinians have received a maximum
E/CN.4/2000/25
page 13
sentence of seven years, but are sentenced more often to between four and six months of
imprisonment, which institutionalizes impunity in the process. By contrast, Palestinians are
sentenced to life imprisonment for killing Israelis.
F. Children, women and the family
38. Palestinian children have suffered considerably as a result of the Israeli occupation.
According to mental health professionals, more than 90 per cent have experienced multiple
traumatic events in their lives. This situation is aggravated by the fact that the occupation has
also significantly affected an important Palestinian social support resource: the family structure.
As an example, around 70 per cent of the children in the Gaza Strip have been exposed to four or
five traumatic events such as tear-gas inhalation, night raids on the home, humiliation and/or
beating of parents in front of them by Israeli forces and imprisonment. In addition to violence,
measures of collective punishment undertaken by the Israeli authorities, such as house
demolitions, have serious psychological effects on children.
39. Particular attention should be drawn to the situation of Palestinian juveniles imprisoned
in Israel, in contravention of article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. During 1999, there
were 220 cases of arrest of Palestinian minors who were subsequently released. They were
mostly in the 14-17 age group; their arrests were therefore in violation of the Convention on the
Rights of the Child and other standards which set out a minimum age for imprisonment. In
April 1999, the Israeli military commander for the middle area of the West Bank issued Military
Order No. 132 which stipulates that children between 12 and 14 years of age can be arrested and
does not define juveniles aged 16 as minors, although Israel considers persons up to the age
of 16 as children. Although it is difficult to give the exact number of juvenile prisoners, it is
currently estimated that there are some 75 Palestinian minors in the following prisons: 30 in
Telmond (aged 12-16), 35 in Megiddo (aged 16-18), and approximately 10 in camps or
interrogation centres. Eight juveniles, with very little of their sentences left to serve, were
released after the signing of the Sharm el-Sheikh agreement. The overwhelming majority of the
juveniles have been arrested on charges of stone-throwing and sentenced to periods usually
ranging from one to six months. Children as young as 14 have had to sit outside in the rain at
night blindfolded at the Beit El military investigation centre. The circumstances of these arrests
and interrogations constitute serious violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the
Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as of international human rights conventions, to
which Israel is a signatory. There are no military courts and no judges for minors.
40. Ten juveniles from Jerusalem arrested for political reasons were detained for some time
in the section for criminal prisoners. Also, juveniles from the same family can be detained in
different prisons. Family visits are limited to parents and brothers below the age of 16 and
over 40 and they require a permit from the Israeli military authorities to visit. The visiting
family members are searched and often harassed. Relatives who are not members of the
prisoner’s immediate family require two permits, which take months to be issued. Imprisoned
Palestinian juveniles are allowed to pursue part of their education in prison but under
unsatisfactory conditions. Conditions of detention include overcrowding, inadequate medical
treatment and long delays in being treated by specialists and obtaining hospitalization for those
who require it.
E/CN.4.2000/25
page 14
41. It should also be mentioned that 4 Palestinian children were killed in 1999; 102 children
were injured, 82 by Israeli soldiers, 19 by settlers and 1 by both. Forty-seven were injured by
rubber-coated steel bullets and 3 with live ammunition. Forty-four were subjected to beatings, 5
were run over by vehicles and 3 suffered from tear-gas inhalation.
42. Particular problems are also faced by children born to Arab parents in Jerusalem who
often cannot be registered and issued birth certificates if their parents do not have the necessary
residency status. It is estimated that there are approximately 10,000 unregistered children in
Jerusalem who will not be entitled to receive an identity card when they reach the age of 16.
Lack of residency status also deprives them of health and social insurance and the right to enrol
in municipal schools.
43. The occupation, including the complete dependence of the Palestinian economy on Israel,
lack of infrastructure, and measures of collective punishment such as closures and house
demolitions have caused the disruption of the fabric of society, with particularly serious effects
on the family, which is a fundamental social support in Palestinian society. In particular, harsh
prison sentences that take fathers away from children and violence that often occurs after release
affect the image and protective role of the breadwinner, resulting in mothers taking on an
additional burden and acquiring roles other than the traditional ones.
G. Closures and the freedoms of movement, education, religion,
expression and information
44. The enjoyment of fundamental human rights and freedoms by the population of the
occupied Palestinian territories is severely curtailed by measures such as closures and the
concomitant restriction of the freedom of movement that are imposed on the occupied territories
by the Occupying Power in violation of articles 33 and 35 of the Fourth Geneva Convention,
article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other international
norms.
45. Closures began to be imposed systematically on the occupied territories as of 1993, with
varying degrees of intensity, and have separated parts of the occupied territories, including
East Jerusalem, from each other as well as from Israel. A permanent state of closure of the
occupied territories is constantly in force and the movement of the population of the occupied
territories is regulated through permits allowing them to access different parts of the territories.
Stricter closures are imposed during Jewish holidays and in case of security incidents in Israel.
On such occasions, access to Israel and movement between the occupied territories is blocked.
46. Movement is regulated through the policy of permits and magnetic cards, the latter being
a requirement especially for the male inhabitants of Gaza and Palestinians working in Israel.
Permits are also required for the use of the safe passage between the Gaza Strip and the
West Bank. Since Israel has full control over the safe passage, numerous requests for its use
have been refused. In addition to the above, an extremely serious recent development regarding
the freedom of movement is the construction under way of the so-called “Erez II” checkpoint
near Bethlehem which will de facto separate the northern part of the West Bank from the
southern part. This is further compounded by the fact that non-resident Palestinians need a
permit to enter Jerusalem.
E/CN.4/2000/25
page 15
47. The lack of appropriate educational infrastructure in the occupied territories and the
Israeli policy of closures and permits have serious repercussions for students in the Gaza Strip.
More than 1,300 students from Gaza are prevented from studying at universities and Palestinian
institutions of higher education in the West Bank because Israel considers them to be a security
risk. Some are not given permits if the father is “unsafe”, which amounts to collective
punishment. Some permits are denied for no apparent reason. On 16 January 1999, 272 permits
were issued to students from Gaza with a validity of five to six months, and which can be
withdrawn at random. Students who enter the West Bank “illegally” risk arrest, detention and
deportation. There are currently some 400 Gazans enrolled in West Bank universities. In the
West Bank, the Israeli army and settlers have raided educational institutions, exposing teachers
and students to risks of harassment, ill-treatment and arrest. Given that the Israeli occupation
forces control all international borders with the occupied territories, they often prevent
Palestinian students from travelling to study abroad.
48. Inevitably, the tight control established by the Occupying Power through a variety of
measures cannot but affect, albeit indirectly, other rights such as those to education and religion,
although there seems not to be any specific interference with freedom of expression.
49. Freedom of information is curtailed by the Occupying Power principally through
withholding of information, under specific circumstances, from the population of the occupied
territories, in contravention of article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights. Palestinians are not sufficiently warned of or informed about measures which are
adopted without adequate notice and publicity, particularly considering that they are in a
language not understood by the population of the occupied territories (Hebrew). Proper
announcements are not made, for example, concerning the altering of master plans of towns or
villages, with regard to land confiscation, demolition orders and forced evictions.
H. Situation of Jerusalem
50. Particular mention deserves to be made of the case of East Jerusalem where violations
continue to be particularly intense; and are implicitly of heightened relevance. The city, under
Israeli military closure since 1993, represents a concentration of the range of human rights
concerns cited above. The combined consequences of the Israeli occupation Government’s
discriminatory treatment of Palestinians affects all aspects of life, as well as having dramatic
consequences on the demographic, historic and cultural character of the city itself.
51. Within the purview of this mandate, two aspects are unique to Palestinians of Jerusalem:
the wholesale imposition of Israeli domestic law in the city, and the special discrimination
practised by Israel’s arbitrary denial and revocation of residency, which dismembers families.
From 1967 to 1999, Israel cancelled the identity cards of 6,264 Palestinian Jerusalemites,
affecting more than 25,000 people (including families). The intensification of this policy
since 1996 has forced some 2,200-3,000 Palestinians to leave their city, or to live there
“illegally”. Despite official promises to halt this practice, Israel continued arbitrarily to revoke
identity cards and residency permits. In fact, by Israeli law, Palestinian Jerusalemites are
considered “visitors” in their home city, unless and until they agree to become Israeli citizens.
Meanwhile, the 170,000 settlers who live in East Jerusalem now exceed in number the
indigenous population.
E/CN.4.2000/25
page 16
52. Israel’s annexation of occupied Jerusalem by a “Basic Law” in 1980 was determined by
the Security Council and the General Assembly to be null and void. Therefore, the Fourth
Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations and other legal obligations on Israel continue to
apply.
I. Workers and fishermen
53. The economic dependence of the occupied Palestinian territories on the Occupying
Power affects all sectors, in particular by Israeli control over the movement of goods, trade, and
especially the labour market. Simultaneously, Israel discriminates against Palestinian workers
on the basis of their civil status and on the pretext of security. The combined effects are manifest
in disproportionately low wages; poor working conditions; inferior benefits, such as social
insurance; and denial of freedom of movement and the right to work.
54. Israel strictly and systematically controls the movement of Palestinian workers to Israel
and abroad to a greater degree today, whereas previously movement has been relatively free even
during tense and difficult times, such as during the intifada. The complex system of different
permits provides the Occupying Power with very ample political and economic control over the
flow of manpower. This pass/permit system adapts to the requirements of its security and
economy without the onus of any contractual negotiation with the labour force, which finds itself
at the mercy of the employer.
55. Such a situation has led to multiple violations and has resulted in an estimated decrease
of 10-15 per cent in real per capita income for the population of the occupied territories during
the period 1993-1999. It has also resulted in an ebb and flow of the number of workers absorbed
by the Israeli market. The number of Palestinian workers currently employed in Israeli
settlements and industrial zones is estimated at 50,000 daily. This represents a significant
decrease compared with some 120,000 workers daily in 1992. It appears, however, that roughly
as many workers, mostly from the West Bank, daily find their way into Israel unofficially, at
their own risk. They represent a particularly vulnerable category, in particular with regard to
denial of minimum wage and exposure to arbitrary decisions and harassment by employers.
56. A special group of workers is represented by some 2,600 Palestinians who earn their
living by fishing and associated activities in the Gaza Strip. A complex zoning of the Gaza
territorial waters makes it particularly difficult for fishermen to comply with rules, and limits the
waters open to their activity to 12 nautical miles instead of the 20 miles agreed under the Oslo
Accords. Even there, they are exposed to frequent harassment, ill-treatment, attacks and arrest
by Israeli navy patrols, and occasional destruction of nets and equipment. During the review
period, two fishermen were injured by Israeli navy gunfire on 10 April 1999.
J. Collective punishment
57. Many of the measures taken to enforce Israeli domestic law can be considered collective
punishment. While this practice is prohibited by human rights and humanitarian norms, it
remains a subject of concern for this Special Rapporteur. The constant military closure of
Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, to differing degrees, since 1993 constitutes a pattern of
discrimination and denial of rights on a collective basis.
E/CN.4/2000/25
page 17
58. The discriminatory distribution of natural resources, such as land and water, has
cumulative and collective consequences. Large-scale forced evictions, like the one cited during
the Special Rapporteur’s visit, are arbitrary actions constituting collective punishment directed at
entire communities.
III. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
59. The conclusions and recommendations of the Special Rapporteur are inspired by the
conviction that international law should be respected not only for obvious juridical and ethical
reasons, but in the very interest of the parties themselves. In fact, international law, and in
particular human rights and humanitarian law, should be perceived as the very foundation of any
just and lasting solution.
60. An encouraging, if yet embryonic factor is the awakening of civil society - across
borders - to universal human rights values. The voice of the fast-growing number of NGOs
active in the area of human rights should be listened to as the voice of the conscience of
humanity. It is also worth noting that the rare respectable voices that have tried a non-biased
interpretation of facts and to inspire more human attitudes - voices that until recently have been
generally ignored when not angrily rejected - have begun to find some audience, inspire a less
ideological reading of history, and hopefully encourage more objective attitudes and measures.
However, in spite of these signs, which should be welcomed and supported, violations of human
rights in the area covered by the mandate continue to give reason for concern.
61. Likewise, the Special Rapporteur welcomes and appreciates the good efforts of the
human rights community as a whole, encompassing local, regional and international
organizations, lawyers and individual activists, as well as United Nations human rights bodies,
who collectively work towards goals and interests in common with this mandate.
62. The trend of the human rights situation in the occupied territories is not an easy one to
read. While in fact in certain areas (such as in particular the numbers of prisoners,
administrative detentions and casualties and the amount of land under complete Israeli control)
violations appear to be statistically decreasing, such an impression must be measured against the
new situation prevailing on the ground (delegation of certain functions to the Palestinian
Authority; frequency and level of confrontations). At the same time violations such as
population transfers, multiple restrictions of the freedom of movement, land confiscations, house
demolitions, and expansion of the existing settlements and the establishment of new ones
constitute negative indicators during the review period.
63. It is noteworthy that land confiscations and house demolitions have significantly
increased in several areas, although they have been carried out over a smaller territory than in the
past.
64. The Special Rapporteur takes note of the particularly severe plight faced by the
Palestinian population of Jerusalem, which is subjected to a number of human rights violations
such as confiscation of land and property, restriction of movement, denial of housing, arbitrary
cancellation of residence status and population transfer through the expansion of settlements,
which in combination produce a multiplier effect.
E/CN.4.2000/25
page 18
65. In the same vein, the Special Rapporteur notes that violations acquire special gravity
and meaning when taken into consideration in their composite form. Just as some of the
above-mentioned violations tend to accumulate such that, each day that they are not dealt with,
their consequences increase in gravity and effect, they also assume other dimensions and beget
ancillary human rights consequences. For instance, the combined effect of closure, land
confiscation, house demolition, systematic expansion of settlements and by-pass roads and
discrimination against workers, coupled with the resulting economic hardship have the
disrupting consequence of isolating communities and rending the very fabric of society in the
occupied territories reminiscent of the fragmentation reflected on the map.
66. Even in the case of certain measures that at first sight seem to be meant to improve the
situation, such as the “safe passage”, implementation based on very strict, lengthy, often
humiliating procedures in fact runs the risk of institutionalizing a de facto closure and separation,
thus contributing to the establishment of two superposed and intricate worlds, far from inspired
by equality and based on a complex system of one-way osmosis.
67. Another area of violations - particularly odious insofar as it directly affects the physical
and mental integrity of people - is that of the administration of justice, including treatment of
prisoners, administrative detention and torture, where nothing short of full respect of
international law can suffice. For instance, while in recent times Israel had adopted some
measures to address the ongoing practice of torture, its Government has not identified its stand
on the matter with clarity, nor has it unequivocally prohibited the practice of torture by law. Any
ambiguity on this subject is an implicit violation of human rights law and, in particular, of the
Convention against Torture, to which Israel is a party.
68. The Special Rapporteur recognizes that the purpose of protection enshrined in
humanitarian law, in particular in the Hague Regulations and the Fourth Geneva Convention,
until today has not been served. In this regard it has to be noted that while the principal
responsibility lies with the Occupying Power, all the other High Contracting Parties also bear the
responsibility to ensure respect. The Special Rapporteur therefore welcomes the
General Assembly’s initiative to implement the Fourth Geneva Convention and looks forward to
the follow-up pledged by the High Contracting Parties at their Conference on 15 July 1999.
69. To this end, the Special Rapporteur wishes to acknowledge that there is a gamut of
options available under the Convention to ensure respect through collective action, joint action,
and bilateral measures. In fact, while the international community not only bears the positive
obligation to ensure respect, it also has the obligation not to take any action through bilateral or
regional arrangements, adopted for reasons of political or economic expediency, leading to
violation of the relevant human rights and humanitarian norms.
70. The Special Rapporteur has observed that international monitoring and protection, where
applied, can serve to defuse conflict, resolve tensions and assist good faith efforts on both sides.
A model for this is the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH).
71. In general, the recommendation of the Special Rapporteur cannot be but that of a rigorous
implementation of the letter and spirit of the relevant international norms, which implies the
reversal of illegal trends, correction and, where appropriate, restitution.
E/CN.4/2000/25
page 19
72. While the very nature of human rights is in general not compatible with the concepts of
selectivity or gradualness, in taking corrective action particular attention should be devoted to
the situation of especially vulnerable segments of society such as women, children and the
handicapped.
73. In certain types of violations, such as those related to natural resources, the environment
and pollution, urgent measures should be adopted to avoid their becoming irreversible, keeping
in mind that every day that they are not dealt with increases their gravity. In such cases, to avoid
violations and apply a restitution ad integrum amounts to common sense and good public
administration. A typical example is that of violations that affect the environment, the
consequences of which will not affect just one people, but the entire region and beyond.
74. Likewise, violations such as those affecting freedom of movement, trade and work,
which tend to strangle the already fragile Palestinian economy and, in fact, already have affected
negatively the per capita income of the Palestinian population (especially in Gaza), augur an
explosive economic and political situation that, if not checked, will affect the whole region.
75. One approach adopted by the Occupying Power that has led to multiple violations and
serious negative effects is the imposition of its own legal system in the occupied territories (in
contravention of article 43 of the Hague Regulations). A typical example is legislation relating
to the development and physical planning of the territory. Such an approach, combined with a
lack of transparency and publicity in carrying out, for instance, land confiscation, master plans,
evictions and house demolitions, is causing undue suffering and loss. Therefore, planning of
territory should be restored to the entitled people and corrective action should be undertaken to
restore properties to their rightful owners. In this area in particular inspiration should be taken
from laudable civil society actions, including joint Israeli-Palestinian efforts, to oppose and
achieve restitution for demolitions and forced evictions.
76. The Special Rapporteur draws attention to the feelings generally expressed by the people
he met in the occupied Palestinian territories, especially in areas where there is continuing and/or
expanding encroachment of Israeli military occupation and settlements. There exists an
apparently growing sense of hopelessness manifested, on the one hand, by passive
discouragement and, on the other, by growing anger that is being directed not only against the
Occupying Power, but also their own Palestinian Authority, and especially against the
international community in connection with its inability to offer effective protection.
77. There seems to be a commensurate lack of confidence on the part of members of the
Palestinian Authority, in particular among members of the Palestinian Legislative Council and
non-governmental and other organizations working locally, in the current political process.
Parallel to obvious improvements in physical infrastructure and national symbols in areas under
the Palestinian Authority’s jurisdiction (Area “A”), the general continuity of human rights
violations and the notable aggravation of some negative indicators provide some of the grounds
for this perceived lack of confidence and despair.
78. While this report - as guided by the mandate - has dealt specifically with violations
perpetrated by the Occupying Power, the Special Rapporteur would be remiss in his
responsibility if he did not draw the attention of the Commission to the fact that since the
E/CN.4.2000/25
page 20
establishment of this mandate, a new situation has come into being in the mandated area and that
new players have appeared on the same ground. These factors have created a new, more
complex situation conducive to combined and mutually reinforcing violations that require
attention and action. At the same time, the fact that the Special Rapporteur has access only to
one party involved severely limits the possibility of drawing a complete picture of the situation,
with the risk that the initiative adopted in 1993 may encounter the same limitation as has been
the case with other initiatives that were relegated to a routine and limited role.
79. It will be for the Commission to consider if the mandate, as it stands, still fully serves the
purpose for which it was originally conceived and whether it reflects a complete picture of the
human rights situation in the occupied territories.
80. The Special Rapporteur has become acquainted with the important programme of
assistance provided to the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian civil society by the Office of the
High Commissioner for Human Rights. The international community should consider
supporting this and other such practical action such as advisory services, training and human
rights education, in order to advance international human rights and humanitarian law in the
occupied Palestinian territories and the development of a culture of human rights.
81. A final consideration seems to be in order with reference to the fact that any agreement
between the Occupying Power and a body representing the occupied civilian population is null
and void if it violates the terms of the Fourth Geneva Convention. In other words, while
protection of human rights and humanitarian law should never become an obstacle in the way of
a peace process, an ultimate solution should not be achieved to the detriment of human rights.
Indeed, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms must be considered part and parcel
of any viable peace process as they are a conditio sine qua non of any enduring peace.
-----
UNITED
NATIONS E
Economic and Social
Council
Distr.
GENERAL
E/CN.4/S-5/3
17 October 2000
Original: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Fifth special session
17-18 October 2000
Agenda item 3
LETTER DATED 3 OCTOBER 2000 FROM THE PERMANENT
REPRESENTATIVE OF ALGERIA TO THE UNITED NATIONS
HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Mission report on Israel’s violations of human rights in the Palestinian territories
occupied since 1967, submitted by Mr. Giorgio Giacomelli, Special Rapporteur
GE.00-15546 (E)
E/CN.4/S-5/3
page 2
Introduction
1. In response to the recent developments and the acute situation in the occupied Palestinian
territories, the Special Rapporteur undertook a mission to the region to ascertain the prevailing
human rights conditions. The Commission’s subsequent decision to convene the current special
session provides the occasion for the Special Rapporteur to bring his findings to the
Commission’s attention as a reference for its deliberations.
2. The recent mission to the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT) from 11
to 15 October 2000, enabled the Special Rapporteur to consult with a wide range of interlocutors
in connection with his mandate. This included meetings in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and
Jerusalem with Palestinian and Israeli NGOs, international organizations on the ground,
grassroots and community organizations, human rights monitors, Palestinian Authority
representatives, medical professionals and individuals wounded in the recent confrontations. He
gathered oral testimony and documentary information, as well as published materials from
additional sources. The Special Rapporteur notes with regret that again he was denied the
opportunity to consult official Israeli interlocutors, owing to Israel’s continuing rejection of the
mandate and its refusal to cooperate with the Special Rapporteur.
3. In compliance with the mandate, as formulated by the Commission on Human Rights,
this report addresses the subject of military occupation, and actions and omissions of
the occupying Power during the unfolding events of late September 2000 until
today, 17 October 2000.
4. While concentrating his attention on the terms of reference contained in the mandate, the
Special Rapporteur feels he would be remiss in his obligation as a mechanism of the
Commission on Human Rights if he were not to draw the attention of the Commission to the fact
that, in the very area covered by the mandate and in areas geographically and substantively
peripheral to it, other serious violations are being perpetrated. It would be for the Commission to
decide how best to address these matters in the interest of faithfully and comprehensively
upholding human rights norms.
5. In general, the full range of human rights violations reported in the Special Rapporteur’s
previous report, to the Commission at its fifty-sixth session (E/CN.4/2000/25), remain constant.
However, a number of violations from that spectrum have shown a dramatic upsurge since late
September 2000. The Special Rapporteur brings these particular areas to the Commission’s
attention. He expects to present his regular, comprehensive report to the Commission at its
fifty-seventh session, in 2001.
The human rights framework
6. Under the Charter of the United Nations a State Member of the United Nations is
obligated to “respect and promote human rights”. Additionally, Israel was bound upon its
establishment by the terms of General Assembly “partition of Palestine” resolution 181 (II),
which states in Part I, chapter 2, paragraph 3: “All persons within the jurisdiction of the [Arab or
Jewish] State shall be entitled to equal protection of the law”. As the occupying Power in the
West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem, Israel bears de jure responsibility for implementing
E/CN.4/S-5/3
page 3
the applicable humanitarian law norms. In the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel bears the
responsibilities of the occupying Power, as the Commission on Human Rights recognized in its
resolution 1993/2. As the treaty bodies have subsequently reaffirmed, these Israeli jurisdictional
obligations remain applicable to date (see CERD/C/304/Add.45 and E/C.12/1/Add.27).
7. Therefore, international humanitarian law obligations apply to this review of Israel’s role
in the occupied Palestinian territories, including the Hague Regulations and the Geneva
Conventions of 1949, in particular the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War. In addition, as ratifying Party to the six principal human rights
treaties, Israel’s covenanted human rights obligations apply, as well as those arising from
customary law and general principles of international law. The norms of both customary and
treaty law, as well as the relevant resolutions of the United Nations form the legal framework for
the concerns raised in this report.
8. It should be noted that the data collected here on specific violations are neither
exhaustive nor reflect perfect uniformity among all sources. The Special Rapporteur has sought
corroboration of the information in order to establish reasonable certainty of the facts presented
to the Commission. Nonetheless, the Special Rapporteur’s report here reflects the scale and
proportions of the violations committed over the period under review.
Principal concerns regarding human rights
Right to life
9. The occupying Power has dramatically escalated the use of lethal force against the
civilian population, ostensibly in response to demonstrations beginning in Jerusalem and
spreading throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Occupation forces appear to have
indiscriminately used excessive force in cases where there was no imminent threat to their lives.
Whether in cases of Israel Defence Forces (IDF) or Israeli police actions, deadly force is used
without warning, and without employing deterrence or gradual measures consistent with the
minimum standards and methods of crowd control or management of civil unrest. These
fundamental human rights and humanitarian norms of necessity and proportionality have been
breached in most reported cases of confrontation between Palestinian civilians and Israeli forces.
10. While the various sources consulted may differ to some degree on details, all concur that,
since 28 September, Israeli forces have killed at least 85 Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian
territories in this way, of whom more than 20 were children (under the age of 18), including
small children, as well as two infants, 5 and 6 months old. Israeli settlers in the West Bank are
responsible for at least five of these Palestinian deaths over the past 18 days. In some sense the
scale of this violation is unprecedented. It is worthy of note that the number of deaths caused by
Israeli forces so far approximate the number killed in the first four months of the intifada,
in 1987/1988.
11. Depending on the criteria applied by the different sources with regard to the nature and
gravity of wounds, various reports estimate between 2,000 and 3,700 Palestinians injured by
Israeli occupation forces. Of these, some 40 per cent are under 18 years of age. The total
injuries are roughly categorized as resulting from shooting to the head (40 per cent), the
E/CN.4/S-5/3
page 4
chest (20 per cent), abdomen (20 per cent), extremities and back (20 per cent). Reportedly, at
least half of the injuries resulted from Israeli forces using live ammunition, with the remaining
injuries due to rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas (around 10 per cent).
12. In different degrees, these casualties are widely distributed across the occupied
Palestinian territories. Approximately, two thirds are found throughout the West Bank and
Jerusalem, with the remaining third in the Gaza Strip.
13. Officially verifiable figures for the total number of Israeli casualties were not available.
However, Israeli occupying forces, including settlers, to date have been reported to have suffered
seven deaths.
Means of force used
14. The Israeli forces have used a variety of methods, including shooting with lethal
weapons. In addition to using rubber-coated metal bullets, which at close range have proved
lethal, troops have fired rifles and machine guns, deployed tanks, fired rockets and anti-tank
missiles, and have employed and fired from helicopter gunships and naval vessels.
15. Many of the casualties are reportedly the result of long-distance shooting by snipers. The
Special Rapporteur took eyewitness and victim testimony of the use of this tactic against
civilians, some of whom were far from, and uninvolved in, civil demonstrations.
16. It is worth noting that the confrontations with and manoeuvre of IDF forces, in some
cases, have disregarded the lines of territorial division agreed upon. This has created some
confusion as to the role of the Palestinian civil police, who are meant both to maintain order and
to protect the Palestinian population. This is a situation that remains of deep concern and should
be the subject of careful study and remedial efforts.
17. Local observers have reported concern over the apparent re-emergence of IDF
special undercover units to conduct operations similar to those carried out during the intifada
(1987- ca. 1993). At present, the Israeli settler population has emerged as an increasingly
obvious source of paramilitary activity, particularly, as local observers have noted, since this
year’s Paris summit. For instance, settlers have opened fire on local Palestinian neighbourhoods
in Jerusalem and in West Bank villages, as noted in shooting incidents reported at Bidya
and Za’tara village (near Nablus) and in neighbourhoods adjacent to Pesugot settlement
(Jabal Tawil/al-Bireh), which resulted in injuries and one death. Numerous reports indicate
that Israeli occupation forces have not acted to deter such paramilitary activities.
18. The situation has become more complex and multifaceted as some new actors, such as
the paramilitary settlers, have entered the scene and some Palestinians bearing arms have
appeared in the protests. These new factors, within a context of escalating violence, form a
particularly alarming development that calls for urgent attention.
E/CN.4/S-5/3
page 5
19. The emergence of particularly odious and brutal attacks, such as the death by torture of a
young Palestinian from Imm Safa village (West Bank, Area C), or mob attacks, as in the case of
the 12 October Ramallah killings, give ominous warning as to the new forms of violence that
could spin out of control if not properly addressed and remedied.
Right to health
20. In addition to the obvious consequences for the right to health that arise from the use of
lethal weapons against civilians, medical professionals have also become targets of IDF gunfire.
Israeli forces have obstructed, beaten and/or shot a number of emergency medical personnel on
duty. This has led to the denial of emergency medical aid to victims and to the wounding of
medical personnel, as well as the death of one ambulance driver, Bassam Bilbaisi.
21. The level and number of casualties have strained local medical services beyond capacity,
requiring the transfer of severely injured victims to hospitals in neighbouring countries. The
casualties and the Israeli-imposed closure of the occupied Palestinian territories have created a
shortage of medical supplies and strained the capacity of medical services. The impossibility of
replenishing stocks and the denial of access to needed treatment in neighbouring countries due to
closure of the occupied territories have deepened the medical-care crisis at a time of increased
need.
Freedom of movement
22. While the right to freedom of movement has been the subject of violations on a sustained
basis, particularly since the beginning of the interim period, Israel’s current closure of the
occupied territories is characterized also by the sealing off of Palestinian populated areas. This
has prevented the free movement of people and material into and out of these areas, and has
created shortages and a sense of isolation. The besieging of several Palestinian communities has
resulted in further fragmentation of the territory and society as a whole and is having a negative
impact on the already fragile Palestinian economy. Furthermore, such an acute situation already
has consequences for access to education, medical care and livelihood, in addition to lowering
morale and contributing to an overall sense of confinement.
23. The day before the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, the Israeli authorities closed the
occupied Palestinian territories, after which they cancelled all permits for Palestinian workers,
prohibiting them access to their jobs in Israel. Subsequently, the Israeli authorities cancelled
grade 2 and 3 permits for Palestinians, denying freedom of movement to businessmen and other
professionals.
Economic, social and cultural rights
24. Other economic losses include those resulting from the demolition of physical structures,
including homes and apartments, as in the case of 40 apartments at Netzarim Junction, the
damaging and burning of vehicles, including ambulances, and vandalism of homes. These acts
have been carried out by both Israeli soldiers and settlers. Physical damage by the IDF ranges
E/CN.4/S-5/3
page 6
from random gunfire at water tanks on the roofs of homes to the shelling of the municipality
building at Beit Lahia, in the Gaza Strip and the shelling of the electrical plant in Ramallah,
West Bank.
25. The massacre carried out in the Haram al-Sharif perhaps most dramatically exemplifies
the violation of a religious site. Other sites that have been militarized, such as Joseph’s Tomb, in
Nablus, and Rachel’s Tomb, in Bethlehem, have been the site of violent conflict, resulting in
destruction and/or effective denial of the right to worship. Other incidents include the attempted
burning of the church in Beit Hanina (Jerusalem) in a night raid by settlers last week and the
vandalization of a synagogue at Jericho on 13 October. These incidents, beyond the violation of
the right to religious expression, stand out as particularly offensive and pose the danger of
exacerbating one of the most sensitive dimensions of the conflict.
Collective punishment
26. The closure and isolation of communities has been recognized as a type of collective
punishment that contravenes the Fourth Geneva Convention, as does the demolition of homes
and destruction of public property and facilities. Preventing workers from having access to their
source of livelihood also stands as a violation of this humanitarian law principle. These acts not
only result in the loss of livelihood arising from denial of the right to work, but also in the loss of
public goods and services from the destruction of municipal facilities and public utilities, as
noted above.
Vulnerable groups
27. In addition to those directly affected by the use of force, particular segments of the
Palestinian population deserve special attention because of their vulnerability. Children in
general constitute a particularly vulnerable category as they are the least equipped to cope with
the psychological and other pressures of the situation and are thus often in particular need of
medical attention. They may also suffer from trauma and unrest within the family. Women
suffer disproportionately as a vulnerable social group and particularly as mothers coping with
their role as guardians of the family and suppliers of their children’s needs.
28. A category of people that have become especially vulnerable in the light of recent events
are Palestinians living near settlements and in areas where the Palestinian Authority does not
have a presence, such as small, isolated farmers and Bedouins. It is worth noting that, owing to
their great number and the poor living conditions in the camps, Palestinian refugees are most
affected by negative economic pressures and political unrest, and are central to any development
of the situation.
Local perceptions
29. In general, respondents identified one of the main causes of the recent Palestinian
protests as accumulated frustration at the perceived shortcomings of the Oslo process, both as to
content and implementation, and notably its failure to uphold human rights and humanitarian
norms. Both the local Palestinian and Israeli interlocutors consulted emphasized to the
Special Rapporteur that none of the concerned parties could possibly not be cognizant of the
E/CN.4/S-5/3
page 7
danger inherent in this failure: the people in the street, Israeli intelligence, the Commission on
Human Rights, the various treaty bodies, the General Assembly, the Special Rapporteur, the
Palestinian Authority. They lamented that, in spite of that, no corrective action had been taken.
30. Under the circumstances, all the local parties reiterated their disappointment at the
international community’s apparent lack of will to take substantive measures to uphold the rights
of Palestinians. Moreover, they uniformly deplored the double standard that has applied to the
occupied Palestinian territories of tolerating or facilitating the Israeli occupation authorities’
unbroken pattern of violations. In particular, they point out the contradiction between the
standards established by the United Nations and the simultaneous ineffectiveness of the
United Nations in upholding its own principles. A number of common demands were forcefully
put forward by practically all interlocutors for the following needed corrective action:
The de jure implementation of applicable humanitarian law and human rights standards,
including the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and the principal human rights treaties;
The prompt formation and dispatch of a commission of inquiry with competence to
establish responsibility for violations committed by the occupying Power. A number of
interlocutors recommended measures comparable to those taken in the case of
East Timor;
Any peace agreement should be subject to the scrutiny and guarantee of a competent
body empowered to review its consistency with human rights and humanitarian law,
including United Nations resolutions on Palestine (for example, General Assembly
resolution 194 (III) with respect to repatriation and compensation);
The International Committee of the Red Cross should urgently increase its presence as a
measure of physical protection;
International observers and/or an interposition force should be established to ensure the
physical protection of the population of the occupied territories;
The relevant thematic special rapporteurs should give special attention to the occupied
Palestinian territories.
31. The grievances expressed were not devoid of a certain positive underpinning.
Respondents also conveyed the hope that the losses arising from these tragic events would not
have been incurred in vain. Rather they expressed the hope that a correct reading of the meaning
of recent events would inspire the establishment of a fairer process capable of leading to a
durable peace.
Conclusions and recommendations
32. Quite apart from any debate over the particular spark that ignited the unrest and
confrontation, the Special Rapporteur remains convinced that the current conflict has its roots in
accumulated grievances and resentment at the continuing violations of human rights and
humanitarian norms under Israeli occupation.
E/CN.4/S-5/3
page 8
33. The Special Rapporteur is particularly concerned that any progress at confidence building
that had been made may be irretrievably lost, as augured by the rapid polarization that is taking
place on both sides and at all levels of Palestinian and Israeli society. This signals the urgent
need for the adoption of measures towards restoring confidence and rekindling hope in the peace
process. One indispensable ingredient for achieving that is the establishment of a human rights
framework.
34. As pointed out in the Special Rapporteur’s previous report to the Commission, this
prerequisite is the sine qua non of any meaningful and durable peace. In addition to their
cogency, these norms, once genuinely accepted, would alone allow the sense of confidence and
security that would make possible the acceptance of the indispensable and painful compromises
necessary.
35. With this in mind, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations for
urgent action:
That the occupying Power immediately issue orders to all its forces, civilian or military,
consistent with international humanitarian norms;
That those orders be rigorously implemented and that the appropriate training be
provided when required;
That a permanent mechanism be established to ensure that the orders are followed and,
when they are not, to determine accountability, assign punishment and redress violations;
That, to ensure the credibility of the peace process, an Ombudsman-type mechanism be
established to process complaints, building on the experience of similar measures
adopted in other conflict situations;
That an observer and/or guarantor body be established that, by its very presence and
neutrality, would serve to build up a sense of security and confidence on both sides;
The Special Rapporteur supports the idea of establishing a mechanism for a speedy and
objective inquiry into the ongoing crisis, the importance of which was stressed by the
Security Council in its resolution 1322 (2000).
36. Adopting these measures would meet the most immediate needs and might afford all the
parties a way out of the current impasse. However, they should not supplant the broader task
that lies ahead, which involves relaunching a peace process that would include the appropriate
human rights framework.
-----
UNITED
NATIONS E
Economic and Social
Council
Distr.
GENERAL
E/CN.4/2001/114
29 November 2000
Original: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Fifty-seventh session
Items 4 and 8 of the provisional agenda
REPORT OF THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER
FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND FOLLOW-UP TO THE WORLD
CONFERENCE ON HUMAN RIGHTS
QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE
OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES, INCLUDING PALESTINE
Report of the High Commissioner on her visit to the occupied Palestinian
territories, Israel, Egypt and Jordan (8-16 November 2000)
GE.00-15946 (E)
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 2
CONTENTS
Paragraphs Page
I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................... 1 - 10 3
II. OUTLINE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER’S VISIT TO
THE REGION........................................................................... 11 - 18 4
III. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS................................................. 19 - 24 5
IV. HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN THE OCCUPIED
PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES.............................................. 25 - 64 7
V. VISIT TO ISRAEL................................................................... 65 - 84 14
VI. VISIT TO EGYPT .................................................................... 85 - 87 18
VII. VISIT TO JORDAN ................................................................. 88 - 89 19
VIII. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ................... 90 - 97 19
Annex Programme of the visit in the occupied Palestinian territories
and Israel ........................................................................................................ 22
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 3
I. INTRODUCTION
1. The General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights have been seized of the
situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories for many years. Since late
September, however, there has been a dramatic deterioration of the human rights situation in the
occupied territories.
2. By a letter dated 3 October 2000, addressed to the United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights, the Permanent Representative of Algeria to the United Nations Office at
Geneva, on behalf of the Council of Arab Permanent Representatives of Members of the League
of Arab States, requested that a special session of the Commission be convened “to discuss the
grave and massive violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people by the Israeli
occupying power”.
3. In the light of the agreement of a majority of its members, the Commission on Human
Rights convened in its fifth special session from 17 October to 19 October 2000.
4. On 19 October 2000, the Commission on Human Rights at its fifth special session,
adopted resolution S-5/1 (E/2000/112-E/CN.4/S-5/5, chap. II), in which it decided inter alia to
request the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to undertake an urgent visit to
the occupied Palestinian territories to take stock of the violations of the human rights of the
Palestinian people by the Israeli occupying Power, to facilitate the activities of the mechanisms
of the Commission in implementation of the resolution, to keep it informed of developments and
to report to the Commission at its fifty-seventh session and, on an interim basis, to the
General Assembly at its fifty-fifth session. On 22 November 2000, the Economic and Social
Council, in its decision 2000/311, endorsed the resolution adopted by the Commission at its fifth
special session.
5. The mandate of the High Commissioner for Human Rights requires her to promote and
protect the effective enjoyment by all of all civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights;
to enhance international cooperation for the promotion and protection of all human rights; to
engage in a dialogue with all Governments with a view to securing respect for all human rights;
and to carry out the tasks assigned to her by the competent bodies of the United Nations system
in the field of human rights. The High Commissioner is also mandated to report on her activities
to the Commission on Human Rights, the Economic and Social Council and to the
General Assembly.
6. Mindful of these aspects of her mandate, the High Commissioner for Human Rights
undertook a visit to the Middle East from 8 to 16 November 2000. During her mission, she
visited the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel, Egypt and Jordan. This report to the
Commission on Human Rights summarizes the outcome of her mission.
7. The High Commissioner’s visit to the occupied Palestinian territories took place at the
urgent request of the Commission on Human Rights and because of the seriousness of the human
rights situation there at the present time.
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 4
8. With regard to her visit to Israel, the High Commissioner, in cooperation with the Israeli
authorities, undertook a visit that had been scheduled at an earlier stage but that had been
postponed. The visit to Israel focused on general cooperation on human rights issues as well as
on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories. During her visit to Israel, the Israeli
authorities expressly accepted, in a meeting between the High Commissioner and senior Foreign
Ministry officials on 15 November 2000, that the High Commissioner’s report on her visit to the
region would also deal with the visit to Israel.
9. The visits to Egypt and Jordan were undertaken primarily in view of the situation in the
occupied Palestinian territories. From that perspective, the discussions with leaders in those
countries are reflected in this report.
10. In submitting this report, the High Commissioner for Human Rights is conscious of the
evolving situation in the area, attentive to the efforts of the Secretary-General of the
United Nations and others to promote peace, and to the importance of the quest for peace with
justice and respect for human rights, and mindful of the duty of conscience regarding the
situation of human rights prevailing in the occupied Palestinian territories. It is in this spirit of
conscience that this report is submitted.
II. OUTLINE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER’S VISIT TO THE REGION
11. The programme of the High Commissioner’s visit to the region, including lists of those
with whom she met, is annexed to the present report. The following is a brief summary.
12. In Gaza, the High Commissioner met with the President of the Palestinian Authority
and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Army (PLO),
Mr. Yasser Arafat, senior representatives of the Palestinian Authority (PA), representatives of
the NGO community, the Chairman of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizen’s
Rights and with representatives of United Nations programmes, funds and agencies, including
the Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine
Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and the United Nations Special Coordinator. The High
Commissioner visited the largest hospital in Gaza, Shifa Hospital, and met with 45 patients,
including children, injured over recent weeks, as well as medical staff and family members. She
travelled to the Rafah refugee camp near the Egyptian border, visited sites affected by the recent
violence, including several UNWRA schools; visited a health care centre, and viewed
settlements and military installations.
13. In East Jerusalem, the High Commissioner met with representatives of the Muslim and
Christian communities as well as of NGOs, Palestinian officials and a delegation of expatriate
volunteers. She visited Hebron, Ramallah and El-Bireh, where she met with the Speaker and
other members of the Palestinian Legislative Council as well as with Ministers of the PA. In
Ramallah, the High Commissioner visited a refugee camp, including a school, and, in El-Bireh,
met with representatives of NGOs, and a delegation of schoolchildren.
14. In Israel, the High Commissioner discussed the recent human rights developments in
Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories with the President of Israel, Mr. Moshe Katzav, the
President of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Aharon Barak, the Minister of Justice,
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 5
Dr. Yossi Beilin, the Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Alon Leal and
other senior officials, senior officials of the Ministry of Defence, representatives of the Israeli
Defense Forces (IDF), the Israeli member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee,
representatives of NGOs, academics and Israeli settlers from Gilo, and international and local
staff of United Nations agencies.
15. In Cairo, the High Commissioner met with the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Egypt,
Mr. Amr Musa, with senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and with representatives
of NGOs. She also met with the Secretary General of the League of Arab States,
Dr. Ismat Abdel-Maguid.
16. In Amman, the High Commissioner was received by His Royal Majesty King Abdullah II
of Jordan and met with the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Ahmed Khleifat, and the
Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Shaher Bak.
17. In all, the High Commissioner heard the views of several hundred people, many of whom
spoke from personal experience of the present human rights situation. The High Commissioner
also received several dozen written submissions and briefs, which have been considered in the
preparation of this report. The High Commissioner wishes to record her appreciation and thanks
to all those with whom she met and to the Governments, authorities and United Nations
representatives which received her and facilitated her mission.
18. It was a difficult mission, addressing a highly politicized and complex situation with
serious human rights implications. At each meeting in both the occupied Palestinian territories
and Israel the High Commissioner emphasized the integrity of her mandate, the objectivity of her
approach, and that her focus would be on the human rights implications of what she saw and
heard and of what was represented to her by the various parties she met.
III. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
19. The human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories is bleak. The civilian
population feels besieged by a stronger power prepared to use its superior force against
demonstrations and stonethrowing by adolescents. During the course of the visit the violence
escalated, with more shooting - including so-called drive-by shootings - on the Palestinian side
and the use of rockets and heavy machine-gun fire on the Israeli side. At each meeting in the
occupied Palestinian territories pleas for international protection or for some form of
international monitoring presence were voiced.
20. In the occupied Palestinian territories, discussions concerning the present crisis and its
impact on human rights were linked to the reality of the occupation itself. That reality was
described by Palestinians as one of grinding, petty humiliations, discrimination and inequalities
which were ultimately dehumanizing. It was explained that the anger and frustration of the
present Intifada stemmed from lack of implementation of the key United Nations resolutions,
especially General Assembly resolutions 181 (II) and 194 (III) and Security Council
resolution 242 (1967), the continuing encroachment on land for settlements, and what was
perceived as a peace process which had not addressed the Palestinian claims of a State with
East Jerusalem as its capital and some recognition of the right of return of refugees.
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 6
21. Perhaps the strongest and most troubling impression taken away by the
High Commissioner from her visit to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories was that of
two peoples who are linked by history and geography, but are currently separated by a wide and
growing gap in their perceptions of each other. The violence of recent months has resulted in a
hardening of positions, with little willingness on either side to understand or accept the narrative
of the other.
22. Amongst Israelis there is a preoccupation with security, born of a strong sense of
isolation and of being set upon from all sides. This can easily be understood in terms of Israeli
and Jewish history. However, it is not appreciated or allowed for by a Palestinian people who
see only Israel’s overwhelming military superiority and experience its readiness to use it.
Israelis with whom the High Commissioner met, including many who deeply believe in the
peace process, said they felt shell-shocked by the recent breakdown of negotiations at a time
when, to them, a comprehensive settlement had seemed so close. Amongst Palestinians, on the
other hand, the predominant sentiment was that the process of the past seven years had delivered
little or nothing to them. Whilst Israelis point to the building of economic links as a positive
sign, Palestinians see the same process as increasing the dependence of the occupied territories
and their vulnerability to exploitation by Israel during periods of crisis.
23. The High Commissioner was offered different views about the origins of the present
cycle of violence, including on the significance of the visit of Mr. Ariel Sharon to the
Temple Mount/Haram Al-Sharif, and on whether the current intifada is a spontaneous popular
uprising or an orchestrated strategy. The High Commissioner referred repeatedly to her
mandate, which addresses the underlying human rights causes of the conflict. Such an approach
acknowledges the long-standing and unresolved grievances of the Palestinian people, many of
whom are now third-generation refugees. It must also be understood, as it is by many Israelis,
that Palestinians, including Arabs who have Israeli citizenship, have suffered and continue to
suffer from serious discrimination. An inescapable conclusion is that much of the present
situation has to do with the daily reality of life under the occupation, including what Palestinians
see as the numerous daily humiliations imposed upon them, often deliberately, but sometimes
through bureaucratic indifference towards people who lack political power. However, in
discussing root causes, it must also be acknowledged that over an extended period the right of
Israelis to “security of person” (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 3) has been
threatened. This persistent insecurity has given rise to many of the problems which now lie at
the heart of the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel.
24. A related problem is that of hate speech and incitement. Numerous examples were cited
to the High Commissioner during her visit and evidence was clearly visible on the walls of
Palestinian houses and Israeli settlements. The High Commissioner was struck, for example, by
the deep hurt caused by the accusation that Palestinian parents were forcing their children into
the line of fire to achieve martyrdom. Similarly, she was shocked by calls broadcast on
Palestinian television and radio urging the killing of all Jews. At this very difficult time it is
incumbent upon leaders on both sides to avoid inciting racial and religious animosities and to
condemn such incitement when it does occur within their communities. The High Commissioner
believes that the forthcoming World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination,
Xenophobia and Related Intolerance will provide an opportunity for reflection and
reconciliation, which political leaders and members of civil society alike should begin to prepare
for.
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 7
IV. HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN THE
OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES
25. While in the occupied Palestinian territories, the High Commissioner received
information from numerous sources alleging serious violations of human rights, both in relation
to recent events and more long-term systematic abuses originating from the occupation itself.
Also alleged was a failure on the part of Israel to adhere to international humanitarian law, in
particular the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilians in time of
war, whose applicability to the occupied territories has been repeatedly reaffirmed by
United Nations bodies, including the Security Council, the General Assembly and the
Commission on Human Rights. Particular areas of concern with regard to recent developments
included: excessive and disproportionate use of force, including alleged attacks on medical
personnel; the arbitrary destruction of property; the effects on Palestinian residents of Israeli
settlement activity, including restrictions on freedom of movement; the serious economic impact
on the residents of the occupied territories; the violations of the human rights of children; and
restrictions on access to humanitarian assistance.
Excessive use of force
26. The most persistent allegation brought to the attention of the High Commissioner was
that Israeli security forces have engaged in excessive force, disproportionate to the threat faced
by their soldiers. A wide range of observers, including United Nations representatives,
expressed the strong view that the very high number of casualties, combined with the nature of
the injuries being sustained, including by young people, could only be consistent with a military
response which was both excessive and inappropriate. With only minor regional variations, this
pattern was, said the observers, repeated in different locations throughout the affected areas.
27. The High Commissioner had requested a meeting with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
The meeting was facilitated by Israel and took place at Ben Gurien Airport on 13 November
prior to her flight to Cairo. It is described in some detail in paragraphs 66 to 71 below but, as it
offered an opportunity to hear the Israeli perspective on the allegations of excessive use of force,
the relevant comments or a reference to the relevant paragraphs are inserted in the present
section of the report.
28. In an attempt to disperse the demonstrations, the Israeli military authorities have used
live ammunition, rubber coated steel bullets and tear gas, all of which have resulted in deaths and
injuries amongst the Palestinians. Heavier weapons have also been used, including rockets fired
by infantry and from helicopters, armoured vehicles which have been deployed throughout the
Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and heavy machine guns. The use of heavy weapons has raised
the incidence of death and injury amongst non-combatants and, indeed, several such deaths
occurred during the period of the High Commissioner’s visit.
29. A high percentage of the injuries sustained by Palestinians have been to the upper part of
their body, including a large number of eye injuries, some caused by the firing of “rubber”
bullets at close range. The result is often the loss of an eye, but can also be severe brain damage
or death. In subsequent discussions senior IDF representatives accepted the potential lethalness
of “rubber” bullets, and also that of tear gas, if used in a confined area, as has been alleged.
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 8
30. When asked about the reported injuries, senior IDF officers told the High Commissioner
(see paras. 69-70 below) that the methods and weapons employed by the IDF in dealing with the
present crisis are carefully calibrated according to the nature of the threat being faced and, in
particular, that live fire, whether from small arms or heavier weapons, has only been directed at
those who have used firearms or petrol bombs in attacks against Israeli forces.
31. While in the Gaza Strip, the High Commissioner visited Shifa Hospital, the largest
hospital in Gaza with 650 beds and 8 operating theatres. The High Commissioner met
with 45 patients, including boys and girls under 18 and their relatives. A 15-year-old, now a
paraplegic, informed the High Commissioner that he was shot by Israeli soldiers while he was
demonstrating and throwing stones in the industrial zone close to Erez checkpoint. He had
joined other teenagers after school to express his anger following the death of one of his
schoolmates the previous day. A 14-year-old wounded in the arm and leg explained that he had
gone to throw stones in revenge after a classmate had been shot and blinded in both eyes, and the
doctor accompanying the High Commissioner confirmed he had treated this other boy. The High
Commissioner heard numerous anecdotal accounts of shootings involving Palestinians who, it
was said, could not have been involved in any form of protest activity, for example, an elderly
man who was shot twice near the door of his house and a pregnant woman who was shot whilst
on the roof of her house. See paragraphs 69 and 70 below for the IDF response on rules of
engagement and child casualties.
32. The Minister of Health of the Palestian Authority, Dr. Riadh Al-Zaanoun, told the High
Commissioner that by his estimates some 6,958 persons (3,366 in the West Bank and 3,592 in
the Gaza Strip) had been wounded during the period 29 September-9 November 2000 and
that 1,016 Palestinians had been injured in Israel. Of those injured, he said, 40 per cent were
under the age of 18. According to the Minister, the types of ammunition responsible for injuries
were as follows: rubber bullets (41 per cent); live bullets (27 per cent); tear gas (27 per cent);
and others, including rockets (11 per cent).
33. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society estimates that 236 Palestinians were killed
and 9,353 injured during the period 29 September-23 November. During the
period 27 September-23 November, Israeli official sources estimate that 30 Israelis
were killed and 375 were injured. Estimates are disputed by the parties.
Impact on children
34. According to the Red Cross/Red Crescent, as of 20 November, 86 children (aged 18 and
under) had been killed and over 3,000 injured, two to three hundred of whom, it is estimated,
will have permanent disabilities. According to the same source, hundreds of Palestinian children
have been obliged to abandon their homes in order to escape the violence. The destruction of
family dwellings has left more than a thousand children without homes, often in situations of
food shortage and without access to medical care.
35. The current situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has had a serious impact on the
Palestinian education system. The High Commissioner visited two schools in the Gaza Strip and
one school in Ramallah where she was briefed by teachers on the consequences of the current
situation for Palestinian pupils. She was told that since the beginning of October more
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 9
than 40 schools have been closed or are unable to operate owing to curfews or closures. Other
schools, such as one visited by the High Commissioner in the Gaza Strip, have been damaged by
gunfire and the premises abandoned, requiring that several thousand children be fitted into other
schools if possible.
36. In discussions with directors of preparatory schools and educators, as well as delegations
of children in Gaza and Ramallah, the High Commissioner was told that many children suffer
from psychological and social problems as a direct consequence of the current situation.
Children themselves explained to the High Commissioner their fear of leaving their homes or, in
some cases, of going back to their homes, and of difficulties sleeping. According to UNICEF,
only about 1 per cent of adolescents in Gaza have actually engaged in demonstrations or attacks
against Israeli military positions. However, teachers have reported that the rest of the students
who have remained at their studies have nevertheless been mentally distracted or emotionally
affected by the events in the street, with the result that their educational performance has
deteriorated.
Medical personnel
37. An aspect of particular concern is the allegation that the medical condition of many of the
victims has suffered, with some deaths, as a consequence of their being denied access to timely
medical assistance. Reportedly, Palestinian ambulances and medical personnel have been
prevented from discharging their normal responsibilities. During the High Commissioner’s visit
to Gaza, her vehicle was unable to proceed along the main north-south road because of an
exchange of gunfire on the road ahead which had left two Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint
seriously wounded and two Palestinians dead in their vehicle. The High Commissioner
witnessed the fact that two ambulances were not permitted to attend to the Palestinian casualties.
38. Very serious allegations were made of attacks by Israeli security forces on medical
personnel and ambulances. The High Commissioner was informed about the case of a
Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulance driver, Bassam Al-Balbisi, who had been killed
while trying to approach 12-year-old Mohammad Al-Dura and his father in order to move them
into an ambulance. According to Palestinian officials, 45 ambulances had been attacked by
Israeli forces in Jerusalem and the West Bank and 23 in the Gaza Strip. The High
Commissioner was told that nine ambulances had been put out of service owing to damage
between 29 September and 9 November.
Destruction of property
39. In the Gaza Strip, the High Commissioner visited Rafah refugee camp and surrounding
areas where she was able to inspect a number of private houses and apartments that had been
heavily damaged by gunfire and/or rocket attack, particularly at night. The owner of one house
in Rafah told the High Commissioner that she had been obliged to leave her house, within a few
minutes, when she realized that an Israeli tank had already started to destroy part of the house.
A farm owner told the High Commissioner that Israeli soldiers had destroyed his greenhouses
and his family residence during the night of 29 October. Water wells have reportedly also been
destroyed in actions carried out by settlers or Israeli forces. The High Commissioner saw that a
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 10
number of fields of fruit-bearing trees, particularly olive trees, had been cleared in the occupied
regions. The High Commissioner was told that, in many cases, these orchards and fields
represented the entire livelihood of dozens of families.
40. According to the IDF (see sect. V below), the clearances and demolitions were carried
out as matter of military necessity because these structures or plantations had been used as cover
by Palestinian gunmen. The IDF told the High Commissioner that the doctrine of military
necessity meant that compensation was not payable in these circumstances. Israeli officials told
the High Commissioner that military action carried out in the Palestinian areas often took place
at night, because this was the time when Palestinian gunfire most often occurred.
Settlements
41. At the best of times relations between Israeli settlers and Palestinians are extremely
sensitive and tense. At times of crisis the settlements can become a catalyst for violence.
Amongst the main concerns raised by the Palestinian interlocutors were the privileged position
settlements enjoy with respect to land and water for domestic and agricultural use, the negative
impact on surrounding Palestinian communities, the fact that settlers are heavily armed and live
in barrier-enclosed areas protected by the IDF and that separate roads have been created for
settlers alone which are prohibited to Palestinians. The concerns raised with the High
Commissioner by three Israeli families living in Gilo whom she met at Ben Gurion Airport
on 15 November are set out at paragraph 71 below.
42. In Gaza, Israeli installations to protect settlements there are located on the main road
through Gaza and have become the focus for stone throwing and shooting by Palestinians, with
severe retaliation by the Israeli military. It was strongly represented to the High Commissioner
that if these military installations and heavy armoury were to move off the highway and closer to
the settlements being protected this could ease tension. The IDF analysis was that the protection
role could only be discharged from the present positions (see paras. 69-70 below).
43. Following her visit to the refugee camp at Rafah the High Commissioner was driven
along a settlement road and was surprised to be shown further expansions of settlements taking
place.
44. The High Commissioner visited the city of Hebron, one of the biggest administrative
units in the occupied Palestinian territories in terms of area and population, and went into the
Israeli controlled part of Hebron known as H2 in the company of officials of the Temporary
International Presence in Hebron (TIPH). Since the first week of October, the IDF has imposed
a curfew on 30,000 Palestinians living in the H2 zone, which has had an enormous impact on the
enjoyment by Palestinian residents of their basic human rights. As a result of the curfew,
thousands of families and their children live under virtual house arrest, confined to their homes
for all but a few hours per week. During the hours when the curfew is not imposed the use of
motor vehicles by Palestinian residents is forbidden, requiring residents to walk considerable
distances to purchase food supplies, as shops in the Hebron H2 zone are also affected by the
curfew.
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 11
45. Workers from the Hebron H2 zone have been prevented from reaching their places of
work, whether in Israel or in the occupied territories. Restrictions on freedom of movement
make it increasingly difficult for the Palestinians in the H2 zone to meet their most basic needs,
such as food supplies and medical care, and Palestinian children cannot attend school. In this
regard, the High Commissioner was informed that 32 schools had been closed since the
beginning of the events, preventing some 15,000 pupils from exercising their right to education.
46. The curfew does not apply to the 300 to 400 Israeli settlers living in the H2 zone of the
city and the settler school remains open. To ensure the safety of those settlers, the IDF maintains
a large presence in that part of Hebron (700 soldiers according to the IDF; 2,000 according to
another source). Three schools and several Palestinian houses in the H2 zone have been taken
over by the IDF and turned into military posts.
47. At a meeting with the Mayor of Hebron, the Minister for Transport and other officials in
the H1 zone of Hebron (under the Palestinian Authority), the High Commissioner was told that,
since October, 20 Palestinians had been killed in Hebron, of whom 5 were under 18 years of age,
and that many houses, stores and facilities had been damaged, without compensation.
Allegations were made that settlers were involved in violence against and harassment of
Palestinian residents, with the tacit consent of the IDF.
48 IDF representatives told the High Commissioner that their presence was necessary to
secure the safety of the settler community, which had been subjected to regular fire from
Palestinian gunmen.
Freedom of movement
49. An effective closure of the occupied territories has been applied since the beginning of
October and the movement of the population there continues to be heavily restricted. The High
Commissioner’s own travel between Israel and the occupied territories, and within the occupied
territories, afforded an opportunity to assess the immediate impact of these restrictions. It was
noted that, while road closures impact heavily on Palestinians, there exists a parallel road
network, established by the Government of Israel, known as the by-pass roads, exclusively for
the use of Israeli settlers and the authorities, enabling them to travel freely.
50. In discussions with senior IDF representatives, the High Commissioner called for a lifting
or easing of the closures. The response from the senior officer responsible for IDF operations in
the occupied territories was that the closures were a necessary security measure. An explicit
linkage was drawn between the closures and the release in October, by the Palestinian Authority,
of some 80 prisoners who had been held in Palestinian custody and who are considered by the
Israeli authorities to pose a major security threat to Israel. The High Commissioner was told that
if the Palestinian Authority were to re-incarcerate these 80 prisoners then the closures would be
lifted the same day.
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 12
Freedom of religion
51. The High Commissioner met Muslim and Christian leaders representing the Palestinian
and Armenian communities in East Jerusalem. They told the High Commissioner that the Israeli
authorities continued to deny Palestinians full access to holy sites, including the Al-Aqsa
Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
52. Since the beginning of October, access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque has been denied to
Muslims, even religious leaders, under the age of 45 years. As a result, only one tenth of the
usual number of worshippers currently have access to Al-Aqsa. Representatives of both
communities expressed the wish to have full responsibility for their own holy places, which is
currently denied by the Israeli authorities. They complained also of disrespectful behaviour by
Israeli troops stationed at the holy sites. In discussing the need for religious tolerance, they
explained to the High Commissioner their shared vision of Jerusalem as encompassing “one city,
two peoples and three religions” and stressed the universal character of the city and the necessity
to maintain its spiritual soul.
53. The High Commissioner relayed these views to the Israeli authorities in her subsequent
discussions with them. In particular, she expressed her concern that restrictions on access to the
holy sites could result in increased tension during the coming month of Ramadhan. The Israeli
authorities told the High Commissioner that the restrictions were necessary to prevent armed
extremists from occupying the holy sites, which would necessitate an Israeli military response.
They argued that the degree of control over holy sites currently given to Palestinians was greater
than that which had been accorded to Jewish communities prior to the creation of the State of
Israel. In some cases where Palestinians had been entrusted with the protection of holy sites,
such as Joseph’s Tomb, these sites had subsequently been desecrated.
Economic impact
54. The United Nations development and humanitarian agencies operating in Jerusalem and
Gaza provided comprehensive briefings to the High Commissioner on the impact that the current
situation, particularly the closures, is having on the enjoyment by Palestinians of their economic
rights and their right to development. They explained that the seriousness of the economic
situation required that they put development programmes on hold and concentrate on emergency
response and relief.
55. Approximately 128,000 Palestinian workers, normally employed in Israel, are currently
barred from travelling to their workplaces. The movement of Palestinians within the occupied
territories is severely restricted under the strict internal closure imposed, for instance, on the
various parts of the West Bank.
56. According to the Israeli Ministry of Defence figures, the restrictions affect 20 per cent of
the Palestinian workforce and some 35 per cent of total salary income. According to the Office
of the United Nations Special Coordinator, unemployment had tripled since the beginning of
October, which translates into a loss of household income of some 10 to 11 million dollars
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 13
per day. While most reports indicated that there were adequate supplies of food within the
occupied territories, the means with which to purchase food, medicines and other basic
necessities are rapidly becoming exhausted as affected families use the last of their savings.
57. United Nations studies also report a 50 per cent reduction in normal economic activity
within the territories themselves. Restrictions on the movement of Palestinians within the
West Bank have had economic consequences. Another serious factor has been the restriction on
the import of raw materials, particularly cement. The ban on the movement of cement has
effectively brought construction, normally the single largest industry in the occupied territories,
to a standstill.
58. According to a Ministry of Defence briefing provided to the High Commissioner, loss of
confidence among Israelis has also had a major effect on economic conditions in the occupied
territories. In 1999, some 100,000 Israelis travelled to the territories for commercial reasons,
generating income of $500 million. Cooperative projects in industrial zones along the “green
line” between Israel and the territories had resulted in the completion of 25 factories but since
the start of the intifada, three of these factories have been burned and an industrial estate
attacked, with the result that investor confidence has plummeted. The Ministry representatives
also stated that the effects of the closures have been exacerbated in some cases by the reluctance
of Palestinian Authority officials to cooperate with Israeli security processes at border
checkpoints.
59. According to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) briefing provided to the High
Commissioner, a factor which has aggravated the economic impact of the closures and other
restrictions has been the failure of the Israeli authorities to make available to the Palestinian
Authority in a timely manner certain tax revenues owed to it under existing agreements, which
has affected the capacity of the Palestinian Authority to pay salaries to its employees.
60. Although the adverse economic consequences of the current situation are being felt most
acutely in the occupied Palestinian territories, they have also had a negative impact on the Israeli
economy.
Humanitarian access
61. Access is a major preoccupation for all humanitarian organizations operating in the
occupied territories. Of particular concern are the restrictions imposed on the movement of
United Nations local Palestinian staff, who make up the vast majority of United Nations
employees in the occupied territories.
62. The High Commissioner was informed that because of the closures, emergency
evacuation of seriously injured civilians for treatment abroad is difficult. Restrictions on access
also affect the import of donations of humanitarian goods and equipment from abroad. Imports
into Gaza involve unloading of the cargo of every truck originating from Israel at the
Gaza/West Bank entry checkpoints and reloading onto other trucks for onward delivery.
United Nations agencies have reported difficulties in obtaining clearance for emergency health
kits.
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 14
63. The Ministry of Defence indicated that it was doing everything possible to facilitate
humanitarian access to the occupied territories. During October alone, the Ministry
representatives said, requests from some 80 countries had been processed in relation to medical
supplies, blankets and sophisticated hospital equipment. A special coordination centre had been
set up in order to bypass the usual bureaucratic channels and close liaison had been established
with the Palestinian Authority.
64. The High Commissioner, in her subsequent discussions with senior IDF representatives,
raised the specific issue of UNRWA medical supplies that had been blocked in Jerusalem. The
IDF representatives indicated that this type of cargo should not be the subject of any restriction
and they undertook to facilitate its delivery.
V. VISIT TO ISRAEL
65. The High Commissioner’s visit to Israel allowed her to address general human rights
issues and hear the views of a wide range of Israeli citizens and organizations, both Jewish and
Arab. However, given the current situation, most discussions focused on the human rights
situation in the occupied territories. The following paragraphs reflect the Israeli perspective on
the situation.
Excessive use of force
66. On 13 November, following her visits to Gaza, Hebron and Ramallah, the
High Commissioner discussed, with the Israeli authorities, the use of force by the IDF and
other security forces. The High Commissioner expresses her appreciation for the very frank and
informative meeting with the senior IDF officers responsible for security, intelligence, legal
issues, weapons development and public affairs, which the government facilitated.
67. The IDF officers outlined their view of the genesis of the present situation - a view which
was shared by other Israeli government officials. In brief, the view was put that the current
intifada had been launched as a deliberate strategy of the Palestinian leadership. On offer at
Camp David had been a Palestinian State, with reference made to both a right of return and a
negotiated division of Jerusalem. According to the IDF, the Palestinian leadership, unwilling to
make the difficult political compromises required, had ignited what it hoped would be a “CNN
war” in which Palestinian losses would rally the support of the Muslim world and sway public
opinion in the West. The aim was to increase international pressure on Israel to make further
concessions. The ultimate goal was a Kosovo-style intervention force to protect “Palestinian
territory”, rather than “Palestinian people”, thereby achieving a resolution without having to go
to the negotiating table.
68. In terms of the pattern of the violence, the IDF officers described as typical a situation
which commenced with stone throwing but which quickly escalated into armed attacks.
Whereas the previous intifada had almost exclusively featured stone throwers, who were dealt
with using riot control techniques, the Palestinians were now armed and many incidents featured
a lethal mix of stone throwers and shooters. It was stated that out of 5,085 attacks on Israeli
settlements, some 1,400 had involved live fire, including machine gun fire or the use of
firebombs.
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 15
69. The IDF officers said that, according to their rules of engagement, attackers who use live
ammunition could be shot by soldiers and sharpshooters deployed for that purpose.
Nevertheless, they said, the IDF was only using 2 per cent of its military force. The High
Commissioner was told that most of those killed over recent weeks had been armed attackers,
shot after opening fire on Israeli positions. Some, however, had been killed in the crossfire, by
one side or the other. Asked about the number of child casualties, the IDF officers responded
that they were unable to indicate ages and numbers as the IDF generally had no access to the
dead and wounded on the Palestinian side. However, they felt that the numbers reported were
exaggerated and told the High Commissioner that the Tanzeem militia recruited and armed
children.
70. Asked why the IDF reportedly often resorts to the use of live ammunition instead of
non-lethal weapons, the IDF officers indicated that the military tactics being employed against
them influenced the types of weapons the IDF could employ. They explained to the
High Commissioner that Israel was concerned to reduce the number of casualties. So-called
less-than-lethal weapons (which can still kill at short ranges or high concentrations) such as
plastic coated bullets, tear gas and water cannons are only effective at a range of 50-100 metres.
But at this range troops are vulnerable to live fire. The IDF have over the last few months
field-tested dozens of weapons but have concluded that less-than-lethal weapons effective to a
range of 200 metres do not currently exist. As a consequence, new weapons systems are being
developed which, the IDF hope, will soon be deployed to control crowds effectively at longer
ranges with little or no risk of serious injury.
71. Before leaving Israel on 15 November, the High Commissioner met at Ben Gurion
Airport with three families from Gilo, a Jewish settlement on the outskirts of Jerusalem, who
described nightly gunfire directed at their homes from a neighbouring Palestinian area. They
also expressed concern that this resulted in heavy retaliation by the Israeli side, causing an
intolerable situation for all civilians. They had had good relations with their Arab neighbours
and were appalled at how the situation had deteriorated. Their families had lived in Gilo for
upwards of 20 years and they did not see themselves as settlers. They urged the need to stop the
violence and return to political dialogue.
Investigations; compensation for damage
72. Matters which the High Commissioner pursued with IDF representatives were the issue
of how the use of lethal force was investigated by the IDF, what punishments were available for
improper or excessive use of such force, and how many investigations had been conducted to
date and with what result.
73. She was told that, unlike the situation during the previous intifada, when the Israeli army
was in full control of the occupied Palestinian territories, there was currently no policy of routine
investigation into the use of lethal force. Investigations could, however, be carried out internally
if there was a particular reason to suspect that improper conduct had taken place. It was
explained that that decision had arisen from the IDF evaluating that the current situation could be
described as a state of “active warfare”. In that situation the rules of war applied and soldiers
were not required to account for each shot fired. In any case, the IDF representatives said, the
number of shots being fired made such a policy impractical. Reference was also made to the
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 16
practical difficulties of investigating incidents in areas under Palestinian Authority control.
Another consequence of the IDF decision about the state of “active warfare” was that
compensation would no longer be made for the military use of private property, as it had been in
the past. Asked about the destruction of houses and orchards in the occupied Palestinian
territories, the IDF representatives advised the High Commissioner that there was no question of
compensation as, under the rules of war, those areas had been cleared as a matter of military
necessity because they had been used as cover by Palestinian gunmen.
74. The IDF representatives added that the new assessment of their current legal situation
would normally also affect their own rules of engagement. In the present case, however, a
decision had been taken to maintain the same rules of engagement as applied in previous
intifada, in order not to increase the number of casualties. The IDF representatives made the
point that double standards were being applied in relation to the Palestinian side which was not
under international scrutiny about its rules of engagement or its policy on investigating shootings
and violations of human rights. The IDF representatives referred to the lynching of two Israeli
soldiers in Ramallah.
Situation of Arab Israelis
75. The situation of Arab Israeli citizens was raised at a meeting between representatives of
Israeli NGOs and the High Commissioner as a specific human rights problem, albeit one which
could not be entirely separated from the general situation in the occupied territories.
Representatives of a number of Israeli NGOs indicated that Israeli Arabs, who represent
20 per cent of the State’s population, had faced decades of neglect and discrimination on the part
of the Israeli authorities.
76. Representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the High Commissioner that the
Government of Israel was taking measures to promote the integration of Israeli Arabs into Israeli
society and to guarantee their rights as full citizens. Most Israeli interlocutors, including
officials, acknowledged, however, that Israeli Arabs had suffered disadvantage and
discrimination and that there was still some way to go in achieving full equality for that
community. The President of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Aharon Barak, briefed the
High Commissioner on judicial action taken by the Supreme Court with respect to issues of
equality, including decisions grantingArabs the right to purchase land in Israel. He also outlined
the liberal approach adopted by his court concerning issues such as standing and jurisdiction in
civil cases, which enabled NGOs to bring suits on behalf of aggrieved persons.
77. Most of the Arab Israelis whom the High Commissioner met described their situation as
one of exclusion, prejudice, official hostility and routine humiliation. Since 28 September,
however, the threat of violence which has engulfed many of their communities has become the
primary concern of Arab Israelis. There was a sense of frustration that their problems were
perhaps less well recognized than those of Palestinians living in the occupied territories.
78. Arab Israeli NGO representatives told the High Commissioner that, following the street
demonstrations that took place in Arab cities and villages in Israel at the end of September and
beginning of October, the security forces had responded with brutality and excessive force, using
live ammunition, tear gas and plastic coated bullets, in contrast to the more moderate tactics
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 17
employed against Jewish protesters. This had led to the deaths of 13 Arab Israeli citizens. Many
more had been injured and more than 1,000 arrested. A particular concern was the manner in
which detention policy was being implemented. Many arrests, including of minors, were being
carried out during night-time raids on homes. Once arrested, Arab detainees, including minors,
were, according to these sources, far more likely to be held in custody without bail until the
conclusion of their trials. It was asserted that this pattern was the result of a deliberate policy of
discrimination against Arab Israelis on the part of the Attorney General's Office and the State
Prosecutor's Office. It was further asserted that this policy extended to appealing every decision
to release Palestinian detainees, which did not apply where Jewish detainees were concerned.
Concern was expressed that the courts had largely acquiesced to these policies, with the result
that large numbers of young Arab Israelis remained in detention. This issue was raised by the
High Commissioner with the State Attorney General who indicated that she would look into the
situation of young detainees.
Israeli Commission of Inquiry
79. On 11 November, the Government of Israel decided to establish a State commission of
inquiry to inquire into the clashes, since 29 September, between the security forces and Israeli
citizens in which 13 Arabs were killed and hundreds of people injured. The Commission,
composed of three members, will be chaired by a justice of the Supreme Court. The Judicial
Commission of Inquiry Law gives this Commission full power to subpoena and obtain
information from anyone it deems may be able to assist in its inquiry. Witnesses who testify
before it enjoy full immunity. Its mandate is to investigate how the events developed, determine
the facts and draw conclusions. The Commission of Inquiry will decide for itself whether to
publish its findings. It will not address cases which occurred in the occupied Palestinian
territories or cases involving non-Israeli citizens.
80. Some Arab Israeli NGOs have welcomed the establishment of the Commission of
Inquiry, while regretting that time was lost by the Government in establishing initially a more
limited “examining committee”. Others have expressed scepticism as to whether it will
cdequately address the issues.
National human rights commission
81. Recent events in Israel have underlined the need to strengthen national mechanisms for
the protection and promotion of human rights, especially in the area of non-discrimination. In
this context, the High Commissioner noted the positive steps being taken towards the
establishment of an independent national human rights commission.
82. During the High Commissioner’s meeting with the Minister of Justice and representatives
of civil society such as human rights lawyers, academics and experts, the Minister reiterated his
commitment to establish a human rights commission. He mentioned that the Minerva Center for
Human Rights at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem had undertaken to carry out research on
national human rights institutions and to recommend a model for an Israeli institution. In the
first stage of the project, the research team examined international guidelines and the legislative
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 18
and administrative structure, function and modes of operation of human rights institutions in
other countries. The NGO community had also been consulted when the proposal was being
drawn up and their concerns, ideas and suggestions had been discussed with the research team.
83. Following these consultations the research team will prepare a draft report which will be
distributed for comments among government officials, academic institutions and the NGO
community. The final proposal, which will incorporate the responses on the draft report, will be
presented to the Minister of Justice by March 2001. The High Commissioner was advised that
the proposal will include recommendations on the relationship between the human rights
commission and the Parliament and the Government, as well as existing executive bodies, such
as the State Comptroller, the Ombudsman and the recently established Commission for Equal
Rights for People with Disabilities. The final report will present the amendments needed to
current legislation and recommend draft implementing legislation.
84. The High Commissioner offered the services of her Special Adviser on National Human
Rights Institutions to assist the Government in its efforts towards the establishment of a national
commission. On 17 November, the High Commissioner wrote to the Minister of Justice
reiterating this offer.
VI. VISIT TO EGYPT
85. The High Commissioner visited Egypt to discuss with senior officials and the
Secretary General of the League of Arab States the human rights situation in the occupied
Palestinian territories and the follow-up to the fifth special session of the Commission on
Human Rights.
86. In Cairo, the High Commissioner met with the Minister for Foreign Affairs,
Mr. Amr. Musa, together with senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The
Minister briefed the High Commissioner on steps taken by Egypt at the political level
to assist in resolving the present conflict, including implementation of the agreement reached at
Sharm El Sheikh. He expressed his Government's deep concern at the continuing deterioration
of the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories and the impact it was having on the
Palestinians. In this regard he raised the question of Israel's compliance with the Fourth Geneva
Convention and referred to the necessity to implement the decisions taken during the fifth special
session. The High Commissioner briefed the Minister on her visit and, in response to the
concerns expressed with regard to access for humanitarian aid, the High Commissioner informed
the Minister that she had made representations to the Israeli authorities concerning access for
humanitarian relief supplies destined for the occupied territories.
87. During the High Commissioner’s meeting with the Secretary General of the League of
Arab States, Dr. Ismat Abdel-Maguid, the latter referred to the concerns expressed in Arab
countries with regard to the situation of the Palestinians and steps taken by the members of the
League of Arab States following their meeting in Cairo on 19 October. He expressed his
appreciation of the High Commissioner’s decision to visit Israel and the occupied Palestinian
territories at a very difficult time. He also declared the readiness of Arab countries to support the
resolution adopted at the fifth special session and indicated that he was looking forward to its
implementation.
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 19
VII. VISIT TO JORDAN
88. In Jordan, the High Commissioner was received by His Royal Majesty King Abdullah II.
He expressed deep concern about recent developments in Israel and the occupied territories and
mentioned that Jordan was sparing no efforts to assist both parties in the implementation of the
decisions agreed upon in Sharm el Sheikh. In terms of humanitarian assistance, King Abdullah
described the extensive relief programme put in place by Jordan, including a hospital in the
West Bank.
89. In a separate meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister and with senior officials from the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the High Commissioner was made aware of Jordan's concern about
current events, particularly given the strong ties between the Jordanian and Palestinian peoples.
VIII. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
90. The High Commissioner came away from her visit deeply concerned about the serious
deterioration of the human rights situation in the occupied territories and Israel and at the terrible
cost in terms of human lives. It is vital that both parties renew efforts to halt the current
dangerous escalation.
91. Mindful of the urgent and widespread calls for international protection made to her
during her visit to the occupied territories, the High Commissioner believes that every effort
should be made to explore the feasibility of establishing an international monitoring presence.
92. The only path to lasting peace and stability is through peaceful negotiation, which calls
for courage and responsibility on the part of the leadership of both sides. When she met with
Chairman Arafat in Gaza on 15 November, the High Commissioner asked him if he would
publicly call for an end to the shooting by Palestinians. Later the same day he called on
Palestinians to stop firing on Israeli targets from zone “A” of the occupied territories. In
discussions with senior IDF officers, the High Commissioner also urged a withdrawal of Israeli
military forces from some of their forward positions and a lowering of the military profile in the
occupied territories. She continues to believe that some specific steps in that direction by the
IDF could help to break the present cycle of violence.
93. The High Commissioner believes that a peaceful and stable future in the region can only
be achieved on the basis of a framework conforming to the requirements of international human
rights and humanitarian law. Full application of the international human rights standards set out
in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the two Human Rights Covenants is essential.
94. The High Commissioner recalls that the General Assembly and the Commission on
Human Rights have repeatedly reaffirmed the de jure applicability of the 1949 Fourth Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilians in Time of War to the occupied Palestinian
territories. Article 1 of the Convention places a duty on all the High Contracting Parties “to
respect and to ensure respect” of the provisions of the Convention “in all circumstances”. It
would be appropriate for the High Contracting Parties to assume their responsibility under the
Convention.
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 20
95. Another way in which the international community can assist is through the work of the
task force established under the terms of the Sharm El Sheikh Agreement.
96. The High Commissioner would urge that the following specific steps be taken in order to
stop the escalation of violence:
The security forces of both sides should act in full conformity with the Code of Conduct
for Law Enforcement Officials and the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms
by Law Enforcement Officials. Whenever force is used the principle of proportionality
has to be applied and all necessary measures have to be taken to avoid loss of life or
injury to civilians or damage to civilian property.
The construction of new settlements should cease and those located in heavily populated
Palestinian areas should be removed. As well as protecting settlers, the Israeli security
forces should also protect Palestinians from violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers.
All cases of the use of lethal force on both sides should be investigated and subjected to
the processes of justice in order to avoid impunity.
Compensation should be provided to the victims of unlawful use of force, including for
the loss of property.
Curfews should be imposed only in extreme circumstances and as a last resort. In no
case should curfews be used as a punitive measure. In cases where a curfew is imposed,
it should be done in consultation with the local communities with a view to limiting the
adverse impact on the human rights of those affected.
The enjoyment of economic rights within the occupied Palestinian territories, including
the right to development, should be protected.
All holy sites and access to them by all faiths should be respected.
The Israeli authorities should ensure freedom of movement of international and national
staff of United Nations agencies and facilitate access by them to those in need of
assistance.
Cooperation with the United Nations agencies is vital to ensure effective humanitarian
assistance in the occupied Palestinian territories.
97. The High Commissioner will:
Continue, through her office in the occupied Palestinian territories, to assist the
Palestinian Authority to build up its institutional capacity in the area of the rule of law;
Offer the services of her Special Adviser on National Human Rights Institutions to assist
the Government of Israel in its efforts towards the establishment of a national human
rights commission;
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 21
Provide the necessary secretariat support for actions undertaken by the Commission on
Human Rights, and its mechanisms, in the implementation of the resolution adopted at its
fifth special session;
Stand ready to facilitate dialogue between the human rights bodies of Israel and the
Palestinian Authority, Palestinian and Israeli NGOs, and other representatives of civil
society in order to enhance mutual understanding;
Urge the international community to support the work of United Nations agencies in the
occupied Palestinian territories and, in this context, contribute generously to the different
resource mobilization initiatives currently under way including those of the World Food
Programme, UNICEF, the World Health Organization and UNRWA.
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 22
Annex∗
PROGRAMME OF THE VISIT IN THE OCCUPIED
PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES AND ISRAEL
A. Visit to the occupied Palestinian territories
1. Meeting with members of the Palestinian Authority
Mr. Yasser Arafat, President
Mr. Tayeb Abdel Rahim, Minister of Presidential Affairs
Mr. Freih Abu Middain, Minister of Justice
Mr. Zouhdi Nashashibi, Minister of Finance
Mrs. Intissar Al Wazir, Minister of Social Affairs
Dr. Riyadh Al-Zaanoun, Minister of Health
Mr. Youssef Abu Safia, Minister of Environment
Mr. Abdul Rahman Hamad, Minister of Housing
Mr. Ziyad Abu Zayyad, Minister of Jerusalem Affairs
Mr. Rafeeq Natshah, Minister of Labour
Mr. Ali Al Qwasma, Minister of Transportation
Mr. Talal Sadr, Minister without portfolio
Mr. Ahmad Said Tamimi, Acting Minister of the Interior
Mr. Ibrahim abu Dhaga, Presidential Adviser for Human Rights
Mr. Ahmed Soboh, Assistant to the Minister of Planning and International Cooperation
(MOPIC)
Ms. Samia Bamia, Director, United Nations and International Organizations, Ministry of
Planning and International Cooperation
2. Meeting with members of the Palestinian Legislative Council
Mr. Ahmed Qurai, Chairman
Mr. Qadurah Faris, Head of the Oversight and Human Rights Committee
Mr. Ghasi Hanania, Deputy Speaker
Mr. Jamal Al Showbaki, Member
Mr. Suleyman Abu Snaina, Member
Mr. Abdul Jawad Saleh, Member
Mr. Azmi Shouaibi, Member
3. Meeting with members of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizen’s Rights
Dr. Hayder Abed-Elshafi, Commissioner General
Dr. Said Zeydani, General Director in Ramallah
∗ The annex is reproduced in English only.
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 23
4. Meetings with other Palestinian officials, academics and representatives of civil society
Mr. Mustafa Abdel Nabi Al-Natshah, Mayor of Hebron
Dr. Fathi Arafat, Chairman of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society
Dr. Sari Nusseibeh, President of Al-Quds University in Jerusalem
Dr. Ali Jirbawi, Head, Political Science Department, Birzeit University and
Project Coordinator for Human Rights Issues, Education Department, UNRWA
Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and
Secretary-General of Global Dialogue and Democracy (“Miftah”)
Mr. Sulaiman Al Najjab, Member of the Executive Committee of PLO
In addition, the High Commissioner met with rallies of children in Gaza and in El Bireh
(Ramallah), a delegation of expatriate volunteers in East Jerusalem at the UNDP office,
as well as other Palestinian civilians (refugees, displaced persons, farmers, educators,
doctors and schoolteachers).
5. Meeting with Palestinian NGOs at the office of the United Nations Coordinator in the
Occupied Territories (UNSCO), Gaza (11 November 2000)
Democracy and Workers Rights
Centre for Economic and Social Rights
Al Mizan Centre for Human Rights
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Palestinian Society for Human Rights
The Palestinian Association for Legal Sciences
Addameer
Gaza Centre for Rights and Law
Mashriqqyiat
Cultural and Free Thought Centre
Tamer Institute for Community Education
Red Crescent Society
Gaza Community Mental Health
National Rehabilitation Society for Handicapped
Women Affairs Technical Committee
General Union of Palestinian Women
Women Affairs Centre
Palestinian Hydrologist Group
Palestinian Bar Association
Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 24
6. Meeting with Palestinian NGOs in East Jerusalem at the UNDP office
(12 November 2000)
Rawdat-E-Zuher
St. John Eye Hospital
Jerusalem Centre for Economic and Social Rights
Gender Planning Development
Palestinian Counselling Centre
Union of Health Work Committees
Palestinian Prisoner Society
Makassed Society in Jerusalem
ECRC-PNGO
Jerusalem Centre for Women
Arab Thought Forum
Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and Environment (LAW)
Adameer Association
Land Research Centre
Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group
Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA)
Palestinian Agriculture Relief (PARC)
Medical Relief Committees/Jerusalem
Al-Haq
Early Childhood Resource Centre
7. Meeting with Palestinian NGOs, El-Bireh, Ramallah (13 November 2000)
Birzeit Law Institute
Bisan Centre for Research and Development
Association of Women for Social Work
Women Union Centre
Union of Women Centres - Palestine
Palestinian Bar Association
Jerusalem Legal Aid Centre
Jerusalem Centre for Women
PNGO Network
Association of Palestinian Local Authorities
Women’s Studies Centre
Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling
Al-Haq
Law Society
Arab Thought Forum/Citizen Rights Centre
Defence for Children International/Palestinian Section
Palestinian Happy Child Centre – PHCC
Adameer
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 25
Guidance and Training Centre for the Child and Family
Palestinian Mother and Child Care Society
General Union of Disabled Palestinians
Palestinian Working Women Society
Freedoms Defence Centre
Democracy and Workers’ Rights Centre
Resource Centre for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights (BADIL)
Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre for Victims of Torture
Mandela Institute for Political Prisoners
8. Meeting with representatives of the Muslim, Christian and Armenian communities,
East Jerusalem (12 November 2000)
Mr. Ramzi Zananiri, Executive Director
Near East Christian Council Committee for Refugee Work, Jerusalem/West Bank
Mr. Harry Hagopian
Executive Director, Middle East Council of Churches
Convenor, Jerusalem Inter-Church Committee
Legal Consultant, London, United Kingdom
Fr. Raed Abusahlia
Chancellor of the Latin Patriarchate
Secretary of Patriarch Michel Sabbah
Bishop Aris Shirvanjan
Director for Ecumenical and Foreign Relations of
the Armenian Patriarchate, Jerusalem
Dr. Mustafa Abu Sway
Director
Islamic Research Centre
Al-Quds University
Jerusalem
Sheikh Ikrama Said Sabri
General Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestinian territories
Preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque
Sheikh Yaakoub Karrach
Director of Islam Fiqh Centre
and member of the Palestinian National Council
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 26
9. Locations visited by the High Commissioner in the occupied Palestinian territories
A. Gaza Strip
Erez checkpoint
Shifa Hospital
Netzarim junction
Al-Mazra’a school in Deir El-Balah, opposite Kfar Darom settlement
Affected houses near the border fence in Rafah
Rafah Health Centre
Rafah preparatory girls school
Uprooted farms near Moraje settlement in Rafah
B. West Bank
East Jerusalem
Ramallah
El Bireh
Hebron with the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH)
Jalazon refugee camp
Jalazon preparatory boys school
10. Meeting with United Nations officials
Mr. Terje R. Larsen, United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East peace
process and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General to the PLO and the PA
Mr. Peter Hansen, Commissioner General of UNRWA
Mr. Timothy Rothermel, UNDP, Special Representative of the Administrator
In addition, the High Commissioner met with representatives of the following
United Nations bodies and agencies in Gaza:
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
International Monetary Fund
United Nations Children’s Fund
United Nations Development Fund for Women
United Nations Development Programme
World Food Programme
World Health Organization
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 27
11. Meeting with staff of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the
occupied Palestinian territories (Gaza and the West Bank)
Mr. Amin Medani, Director, Chief Technical Adviser
Mr. Saber Nairab, Human Rights Officer (Gaza)
Mr. Ammar al Dwaik, Human Rights Officer (West Bank)
Ms. Wijdan Jaber, Administrative Assistant
Ms. Eman Fathi, Secretary
Mr. Fawzi Al Akra’a, Logistics Officer
B. Visit to Israel
H.E. Mr. Moshe Katzav, President of the State of Israel
The Hon. Aharon Barak, President of the Supreme Court
Mr. Yossi Beilin, Minister of Justice, together with the following guests at a lunch
hosted by him:
Mr. Shlomo Gur, Director General, Ministry of Justice
Mrs. Edna Arbel, State Attorney
Mrs. Osnat Mandel, Acting Director, High Court of Justice Division, State Attorney’s
Office
Ms. Tamar Gaulan, Director, Foreign Relations and International Organizations,
Ministry of Justice
Mr. Daniel Levy, Senior Advisor to the Minister of Justice
Mr. Amir Avramovitch, Media Advisor to the Minister of Justice
Ms. Rachel Harris, legal intern
Ms. Colette Avital, Member of the Knesset
Mrs. Zehava Gal’on, Member of the Knesset, Head of the Meretz parliamentary faction
Mrs. Pnina Herzog, President, International Counsel of Women
Prof. David Kretzmer, member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee
Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer, Israel Democracy Institute
Prof. Ruth Gavison, Faculty of Law, Hebrew University
Dr. Daphna Sharfman, Chair, Political Science Department, Western Galilee College
Dr. Eddy Kaufman, Board Member, Human Rights Watch, Middle East
Mrs. Orna Rabinovitch Pundak, former Chairperson, Amnesty International,
Israeli Section
Mr. Moshe Negbi, political commentator
Mr. David Peleg, former Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of Israel to the
United Nations at Geneva
Mr. Mordechai Yedid, Deputy Director General, International Organizations,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Mr. Yaakov Paran, Director, Human Rights Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Mr. Zeev Lurie, Deputy Director, Human Rights Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
E/CN.4/2001/114
page 28
Dr. Alon Leal, Director General of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and other senior officials
of the Ministry
Major General Eiland and senior officers of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)
General Ya’acov Or, IDF Coordinator for the Territories, and other IDF officials
Families from Gilo community
Ms. Naomi Chazan, Member of the Knesset
In addition, the High Commissioner met with representatives of civil society (academics
and human rights defenders), Members of the Knesset and other Israeli officials, including the
State Prosecutor.
Meeting with Israeli and Arab NGOs in Jerusalem (9 November 2000)
Btselem Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
HaMoKed Centre for the Defence of the Individual
Public Committee against Torture in Israel
Defence for Children International (Israel Section)
Ittijah Union of Arab Community Based Association
Physicians for Human Rights
Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI)
Rabbis for Human Rights
Adalah Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel
Mossawa Centre
Ms. Tamar Pelleg, human rights lawyer
Visit to the “Yad Vashem” Martyr’s and Heroes’ Memorial of the Holocaust
-----
UNITED
NATIONS E
Economic and Social
Council
Distr.
GENERAL
E/CN.4/2001/121
16 March 2001
Original: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Fifty-seventh session
Item 8 of the provisional agenda
QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE OCCUPIED
ARAB TERRITORIES, INCLUDING PALESTINE
Report of the human rights inquiry commission established pursuant
to Commission resolution S-5/1 of 19 October 2000
GE.01-11872 (E)
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 2
CONTENTS
Paragraphs Page
I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................... 1 - 9 3
II. METHODOLOGY ................................................................... 10 - 15 5
III. CLARIFYING THE CONTEXT: ILLUSION AND
REALITY ................................................................................. 16 - 34 6
IV. THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE CONFLICT ......................... 35 - 43 11
V. EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE ................................................ 44 - 52 14
VI. EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS/POLITICAL
ASSASSINATIONS ................................................................. 53 - 64 17
VII. SETTLEMENTS ....................................................................... 65 - 78 20
VIII. DEPRIVATION OF THE ENJOYMENT OF ECONOMIC
AND SOCIAL RIGHTS: EFFECT OF CLOSURES,
CURFEWS, RESTRICTIONS ON MOVEMENT AND
DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY ........................................... 79 - 95 22
IX. PALESTINIAN REFUGEES AND THE SECOND
INTIFADA ................................................................................ 96 - 103 27
X. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ................... 104 - 134 29
Annexes
I. Extract from Commission resolution S-5/1 ................................................... 35
II.* Programme of the visit of the Human Rights Inquiry Commission
to the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel ........................................... 36
III. Population map of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip ................................... 44
* Reproduced in English only.
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 3
I. INTRODUCTION
1. On 19 October 2000, the Commission on Human Rights adopted resolution S-5/1
establishing a commission of inquiry to investigate violations of human rights and humanitarian
law in the occupied Palestinian territories after 28 September 2000 and to provide the
Commission on Human Rights with its conclusions and recommendations (see annex I).
In pursuance of this resolution, a human rights inquiry commission was established on
2 January 2001, comprising Professor John Dugard, (South Africa), Dr. Kamal Hossain
(Bangladesh) and Professor Richard Falk (United States of America). Initially
Professor Dugard and Dr. Hossain acted as Co-Chairpersons but, during the course of the visit to
the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT), Professor Dugard was appointed as Chairman.
2. The Human Rights Inquiry Commission (“the Commission”) held its first meeting in
Geneva from 14 to 16 January 2001 to discuss its mandate, methodology and programme
of action. It then visited the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT) and Israel from 10
to 18 February 2001. The full programme of the Commission appears in annex II.
3. On the evening of its arrival in Gaza on 10 February 2001, the Commission met with the
Palestinian Authority President, Yasser Arafat, who gave the Commission an account of the
situation from the perspective of the Palestinian Authority. From the programme contained in
annex II, it will be seen that, while in Gaza, the Commission held meetings and discussions with
members of the Palestinian Authority, non-governmental (NGOs), the Palestinian Red Crescent,
the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), international agencies (notably the Office
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the United Nations
Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories (UNSCO) and the United Nations Relief and
Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)), journalists, lawyers and
members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. It also interviewed several young men who had
been seriously wounded during demonstrations by gunfire from the Israeli Defence Force (IDF)
and visited a hospital in Khan Yunis where it saw persons hospitalized as a result of gas
inhalation. En route to Khan Yunis, the Commission visited the Qarara area, near the Kusufim
road leading to settlements, where it saw agricultural land that had been bulldozed and houses
that had been demolished by the IDF and it spoke with the occupants of these houses, who are
now living in tents. At Khan Yunis the Commission visited the Tufar checkpoint adjacent to the
Neve Dekalim Jewish settlement. While the Commission members were speaking to journalists
at this point, two shots were fired from a nearby building at the settlement. This evoked a heavy
response from the IDF base attached to the settlement, resulting in three casualties, two of which
were serious. Thereafter, the Commission interviewed persons who had suffered as a result of
gunfire or the destruction of property.
4. The Commission spent Wednesday, 14 February interviewing Israeli NGOs and Israeli
interlocutors who provided the Commission with a broader understanding of the context of the
conflict and the legal position adopted by the Government of Israel. On 15 and 16 February the
Commission visited Ramallah, where it met with members of the Palestinian Authority, the
Palestinian Legislative Council, the Palestinian Peace Negotiation Affairs Department, and
Palestinian NGOs, lawyers and academicians. On the morning of 16 February, before leaving
for Ramallah, the Commission met with the representatives of member States of the
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 4
European Union, whose views confirmed many of the opinions expressed by other interlocutors
interviewed by the Commission. Later in the morning of 16 February the Commission spoke
with Christian and Muslim leaders (including those responsible for the management of the
Al Aqsa mosque) and met with Mr. Faisal El-Husseini at Orient House. On Saturday,
17 February the Commission travelled to Hebron, where it met with the Temporary International
Presence in Hebron (TIPH) and the Mayor of Hebron. Owing to the tense security situation
arising from the funeral of a person killed by IDF gunfire on the previous night, it was unable to
visit “H2”, the area of Hebron under Israeli military control. After leaving Hebron, it visited the
Aida Refugee Camp near Bethlehem and inspected an UNRWA school and houses which had
been heavily damaged by IDF shelling. Thereafter, it met with a wide range of interlocutors and
journalists in Jerusalem.
5. While in Jerusalem, the Commission held evening meetings with widely respected Israeli
academic and intellectual figures, who were able to inform the Commission about the legal
context of the conflict and the Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza and provide Israeli
perspectives of the intifada. On the afternoon of 16 February, the Commission visited the
East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Gilo, which had come under gunfire from the Palestinian town
of Beit Jala. On the last day of its visit, the Commission met with an Israeli political scientist
and a former Israeli IDF General.
6. At the request of the Commission, the staff of the United Nations Secretariat
accompanying the Commission conducted a number of confidential interviews with victims in
Gaza, Ramallah, Hebron and Jerusalem. The texts of these interviews were shared with
members of the Commission.
7. The Government of Israel made it clear from the outset that it would not cooperate with
the Commission. Two letters were addressed to the Government of Israel before the departure of
the Commission for Israel requesting meetings with the Government; a final letter containing a
similar request was sent while the Commission was visiting the area. Despite these efforts, the
Government of Israel consistently maintained its policy of non-cooperation with the
Commission. The Commission is, however, pleased to report that the Government did not in any
way obstruct the work of the Commission and indeed facilitated its visit to Israel and the
occupied territories by granting Dr. Hossain an entry visa. (The other two Commissioners did
not require visas for their visit.)
8. Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza feature prominently in this report. For
this reason, the Commission approached the Council of Jewish Settlements of Judea, Samaria
and Gaza (Yesha) in order to obtain their views at first hand. After consideration and
consultation with the Government of Israel, the Council decided not to cooperate with the
Commission.
9. The Commission made a concerted effort to obtain information and opinions about
human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law from both the
Palestinian and the Israeli perspectives. The Commission regrets the refusal of the Government
of Israel to cooperate with it. This meant that it could not obtain specific responses to allegations
of human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law or benefit from
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 5
interaction on the concerns of the Commission. The Commission believes, however, that it was
adequately informed as to the official Israeli position through its study of the Israeli submissions
to the Mitchell Commission and the Government’s response to the report of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights and by speaking to informed Israeli interlocutors. It also had
the benefit of a discussion with former General Shlomo Gazit, the Chief Military Coordinator of
West Bank and Gaza Policy in the period 1967-1974 and a keen student of military affairs and
security doctrine.
II. METHODOLOGY
10. The Commission has studied numerous reports on matters affecting human rights and
humanitarian law in the occupied Palestinian territories since the start of the second intifada on
28 September 2000. During its visit to Israel and the occupied territories, it heard a considerable
amount of evidence on such matters. In addition, it experienced violence at first hand, spoke to
victims and inspected destroyed properties and the sites of some of the worst confrontations
between demonstrators and the IDF. The impressions and interpolations of the Commission and
the testimony received by the Commission confirm the views expressed by the most respected
and reliable NGOs in the region. The Commission has, therefore, relied to varying degrees on
the findings of respected NGOs where they were supported by reliable eyewitness accounts and
where they coincide with other evidence received by the Commission. In other words, the
Commission is guided in its report by the best available evidence. Most of this evidence is not
disputed by either the Palestinian Authority (PA) or the Government of Israel, although they tend
to place an interpretation different from that of the Commission upon it.
11. In its report the Commission refers to facts and figures that show the magnitude of the
violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in the OPT. These facts and
figures have been taken from a wide variety of sources. Every attempt has been made to confirm
their accuracy by reference to reports on the same incidents from other sources. Where there is
any doubt about the accuracy of a particular factual situation, no statistics are given about it.
12. The present report will show that the IDF, assisted by settlers on occasion, has been
responsible for most of the human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian
law in the OPT. This is not to overlook the fact that human rights violations have been
committed by Palestinians, either under the authority of the PA or by individual Palestinians
acting seemingly without authority. Where necessary, the present report draws attention to these
violations.
13. The mandate of the Commission is to report on violations of human rights and
international humanitarian law in the OPT. Both the Government of Israel and the PA allege that
the other party has violated the Oslo Accords in fundamental respects during the present intifada.
The Commission makes no attempt to pronounce on these allegations, except where they
impinge upon matters falling within its mandate.
14. In the course of its investigation, the Commission met leaders of civil society in both
Israel and the OPT. We were impressed with their understanding and vision. Leaders of this
kind offer the best prospect for the future of Palestine and the normalization of relations between
Jews and Arabs.
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 6
15. The Commission hopes that its report will serve to advance the peace process. The
attitude of the Commission is that, while there can be no human rights without peace, a durable
peace is not likely to be attained if it is not founded on respect for human rights and the rule of
law.
III. CLARIFYING THE CONTEXT: ILLUSION AND REALITY
16. It was evident in all phases of our inquiry into the patterns of violations of human rights
and international humanitarian law during the second intifada that an appreciation of the
behaviour of the parties involved depended on having an understanding of the surrounding
context. Each side has felt justified in taking the action that has accompanied recent moves,
although each side gives its own self-serving interpretation of its legal, moral and political
character. It is important to comprehend these differences in the process of seeking an objective
assessment of the various allegations of violative conduct. It is just as important to avoid
equating adversary positions as equally persuasive. In the setting of the Israeli-Palestinian
relationship it is of pervasive significance that the Palestinian people are struggling to realize
their right of self-determination, which by virtue of international law and morality provides the
foundation for the exercise of other rights. Of comparable significance is the appreciation of the
extent to which Israel’s continued occupation of Palestinian territories has remained the most
formidable obstacle to Palestinian self-determination.
17. The Commission came away from this inquiry with two overriding assessments that are
at once discouraging and illuminating.
18. The first involves perceptions, and focuses on the extent to which the two sides perceive
the central reality of their respective positions from diametrically opposed constructions of the
meaning of recent events. In essence, the Government of Israel and most Israelis conceive of the
breakdown of the Oslo process as creating for them a severe and novel security crisis. Most
Israelis view the second intifada as an indication that Palestinians are unwilling to resolve their
conflict by peaceful means, having rejected what is regarded as a generous offer by the
Government of Israel at the Camp David II and Taba stages of the Final Status negotiations. The
nature of this crisis is such that, according to this dominant Israeli perspective, the encounter
with the Palestinians has moved from a relationship between an occupying Power and an
occupied people to one between conflicting parties in a state of belligerency or war, implying a
virtual absence of legal and moral constraints, at least on the Israeli side, provided only that a
self-serving argument of military necessity is set forth.
19. In the starkest possible contrast, the Palestinian Authority and most Palestinians perceive
the current phase of their relationship with Israel as brought about by a combination of the
distortions associated with the implementation of the Oslo principles, the failure to implement
a series of authoritative United Nations resolutions, most particularly Security Council
resolutions 242 (1968) and 338 (1973), and grave breaches by Israel of the Fourth Geneva
Convention. These aspects of the situation are further seen as responsible for the full harshness
of Israeli occupation as it affects adversely the daily lives of the Palestinians. Such
circumstances are regarded as profoundly aggravated by the continued expansion of Israeli
settlements throughout the period of the Oslo process and by the IDF role in their protection.
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 7
The combination of these elements is regarded by most Palestinians as the proximate cause of
the escalating spiral of violence set off by the provocative events at Harem al-Sharif/
Temple Mount on 28 September 2000. In this regard, the second intifada is viewed as a
spontaneous series of moderate and proportional responses to an occupation that has been
maintained and perpetuated in defiance of the authority of the United Nations since it was
established in 1967. From this perspective, the Palestinians contend that they continue to seek a
negotiated end to the conflict to attain a peaceful settlement that is fair to both sides and upholds
the security of both peoples on the basis of mutuality.
20. Our second closely related conclusion is associated with the somewhat disguised link
between the modality of Israeli occupation as a result of changes brought about by the Oslo
process and the subsequent intifada, with its escalating spiral of violence. It is of critical
importance to appreciate the interaction between the redeployment of the IDF since 1994 and the
implementation of the Oslo Accords. In effect, the IDF withdrew by stages from most of the
areas on the West Bank and Gaza inhabited by the bulk of the Palestinian population, and yet
sustained, and even intensified, its control over the borders between the Palestinian territories
and Israel and among the various districts internal to the OPT. Even more significantly, owing
to the retention of the settlements situated throughout the Palestinian territories, as the
accompanying map makes clear (annex IV), the West Bank and Gaza were divided into “A”,
“B”, and “C” areas, with the Palestinian Authority exercising full administrative control over A,
while Israel exercises security control over B and retains exclusive control over C. In effect, a
series of internal boundaries were established by agreements implementing the Oslo Accords, so
as to enable Israel to provide protection to the settlements while withdrawing from areas densely
populated by Palestinians. The effect of such a redistricting of the Palestinian territories was to
produce a situation of extreme fragmentation, making travel very burdensome for Palestinians
who went, for work or otherwise, from one part of the territories to another: checkpoints were
maintained where detailed searches were carried out that resulted in long waits and frequent
humiliation, greatly burdening Palestinian rights of movement even under normal circumstances.
In the course of the second intifada, this already difficult situation has been severely aggravated
by frequent closures and blockades that have prevented the movement of goods and persons
across both internal and external borders. Most Palestinians described the situation of recent
months as living under “a state of siege”.
21. Such a pattern of control and security can only be understood in relation to the
settlements and their need for safe access to and from Israel. The main IDF function in the
occupied Palestinian territories is to guard the settlements and the access and bypass roads. The
relationship is such that the settlers are given unconditional priority whenever their presence
impinges upon that of the Palestinian indigenous population. For instance, all Palestinian traffic
is stopped while a single settler vehicle passes on an access road, causing long delays and much
resentment. While travelling, particularly in Gaza, the Commission had its own direct
experience of this situation. When a violent incident occurs, Israeli closures further inhibit
travel, often preventing or greatly detaining even emergency traffic, such as ambulances. The
Commission verified several accounts of deaths due to an inability of Palestinians to receive
timely medical attention. Israel has invested heavily in an elaborate system of bypass roads in
the West Bank designed to provide most settlements and the IDF with the means to travel to and
from Israel, and between settlements, without passing through Palestinian-controlled areas.
Palestinians view these roads with alarm, both because of their substantial and symbolic
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 8
encroachment upon the heart of a future Palestinian State and, more so, because the magnitude of
the investment and effort involved in such a development seems to impart an Israeli view that
most of the settlements on the West Bank will never be removed. This situation contrasts with
Gaza, where access roads cut through Palestinian territory and have not been specially
constructed. In this regard, the settlement structure in Gaza seems removable by negotiations on
final status in a manner that at present does not appear likely in relation to the West Bank.
22. Part of the perceptual gap is associated with the effects and nature of the violence.
Israelis appear to connect most of their casualties with the stone-throwing demonstrations,
interspersed at times with Palestinian gunfire. The Palestinians associate casualties on their side
mainly with what they view as Israeli/IDF overreaction to these demonstrations. It was the clear
judgement of the Commission that Palestinian casualties were indeed mainly associated with
these direct encounters, but that, to the best of our knowledge, the IDF, operating behind
fortifications with superior weaponry, endured not a single serious casualty as a result of
Palestinian demonstrations and, further, their soldiers seemed to be in no life-threatening danger
during the course of these events. It was the definite view of the Commission that the majority
of Israeli casualties resulted from incidents on settlement roads and at relatively isolated
checkpoints at the interface between A, B, and C areas, that is, as a consequence of the
settlements, and irritations resulting indirectly therefrom. In this regard, account must be taken
of settler violence against Palestinian civilians in areas adjoining settlements, and of IDF
complicity in such violence. A pervasive feature of the tensions associated with the second
intifada is the clear affinity between the IDF and Jewish settlement communities, and the equally
evident hostility between these communities and the surrounding Palestinian population.
23. The language associated with the second intifada is also relevant to an assessment of
human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law. Both sides tend to
view the violence of the other side as comprising “terrorism”. The Israelis view attacks by
Palestinians, especially beyond “the Green Line” (pre-1967 Israel), as terrorism even if directed
against official targets such as IDF soldiers or government officials. Palestinians regard the
IDF tactics involving shooting unarmed civilian demonstrators (especially children) or relying on
tanks and helicopters against demonstrators, in retaliation for shots fired from refugee camps,
and assassinations of targeted individuals as State terrorism. The legal status of these patterns of
violence is difficult to establish authoritatively. Part of the current complexity relates to the
Israeli contention that a condition of armed conflict has replaced that of belligerent occupancy as
a result of IDF withdrawals from A zones, and the transfer of governing authority in those areas
to the PA. Another part of the complexity arises from the Palestinians’ contention that they
enjoy a right of resistance to an illegal occupation.
24. There is another fundamental discrepancy of perception. Israel believes that its security
measures, including border and road closures, represent reasonable, even restrained, measures of
response to Palestinian unrest and opposition. To the extent that Israel relies on the superiority
of its weaponry or inflicts most of the casualties, such behaviour is rationalized as necessary to
demoralize a numerically superior enemy, nipping its resistance in the bud. Such lines of
explanation were set forth by Israeli witnesses to explain and justify even the use of live
ammunition by the IDF against unarmed Palestinian demonstrators during the opening days of
the second intifada. During these crucial days there was no evidence of Palestinian gunfire.
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 9
25. The Palestinians view this link between Palestinian acts of resistance and Israeli
responses from an entirely different angle of interpretation. To Palestinians, the Israeli use of
force from day one of the second intifada, and indeed before Ariel Sharon’s visit on
28 September to the Al Aqsa mosque, was intended to crush any Palestinian impulse to oppose
openly the continued Israeli domination and occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. For most
Palestinians, the closures of roads and borders, destruction of homes and property, and
accompanying measures of curfews and restrictions are regarded as clear expressions of an
Israeli policy of inflicting collective punishment upon all Palestinian inhabitants. Palestinians
also rejected the view that the Palestinian Authority, and its police, had the capacity to prevent
hostile demonstrations or to ensure the absence of violent incidents involving targets within
Israel. When Israel responded to such events by punishing the territories as a whole it was
viewed by Palestinians as vindictive, unjust and illegal because such a response lacked any
discernible connection to either the perpetrator or to prospects for deterrence of future violence.
26. Closely related to such perceptions are differences of viewpoint as to the nature of the
second intifada. Israelis tended to contrast the first with second intifadas. The first intifada was
seen in retrospect by Israelis as having been a largely spontaneous, bottom-up and non-violent
expression of opposition to Israeli occupation. It was, in such circumstances, not reasonable to
hold the Palestinian leadership responsible for the disorder. According to Israelis, the second
intifada was instigated from above so as to mount a timely challenge to the Israeli leadership at a
delicate moment in the peace negotiations. It was a calculated plan to improve upon an
exceedingly weak Palestinian bargaining position and it also represented a serious failure by the
Palestinian Authority to carry out its obligations under the Interim Agreements flowing from
Oslo to maintain security for Israel in areas subject to its authority.
27. The Palestinians see the second intifada from an entirely different perspective, essentially
from the outlook of an occupied people. They regard the demonstrations as spontaneous
eruptions of pent-up hostile sentiment arising from years of frustration, disappointment and
humiliation. Palestinians interpret the Israeli responses as consistent with the basic structure of
the occupation of their territories, as one-sided, lacking in empathy for the Palestinian civilian
population, and designed to punish and crush any signs of resistance.
28. From this perspective, the Palestinians see the greater reliance by Israel on heavy
weapons and deadly fire in the second intifada, as compared to the first, as seeking to discourage
Palestinians from either raising the level of their resistance or resisting altogether. This reliance
on the tactics of war is also perceived as providing Israel with a pretext for avoiding the
restraints associated with the exercise of police responsibilities or relating to the application of
standards of human rights.
29. In addition to these basic structural issues, it is of great importance to appreciate the
added vulnerability of Palestinian refugees who comprise about 50 per cent of the population in
the Palestinian territories and whose number is increasing at a rate of more than 3 per cent
per annum. While the Israelis tend to perceive Palestinians resident in the territories as a single
reality, without according any special attention to the refugees, the Palestinians are far more
conscious of the acute suffering that Israeli security measures have brought to the refugee
communities during this second intifada.
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 10
30. These refugees have been particularly victimized during the second intifada, often being
trapped within their crowded confines by closure and curfew measures, which has made it
impossible for many refugees to keep their jobs. Unemployment is high, savings almost
non-existent, with great suffering resulting. Also, for historical reasons, the Palestinian refugees,
alone among refugee communities in the world, fall outside the protective regime of the Office
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). UNRWA provides relief
and humanitarian aid, but is not constitutionally or politically empowered to provide needed
protection, a conclusion supported for us by discussions with leading United Nations officials
and NGO experts.
31. A further fundamental question of human rights relates to the extreme differences
between the parties on matters pertaining to the core dispute, the wider refugee issue and its
relationship to a successful peace process. The Israeli consensus regards the assertion of any
serious demand to implement a Palestinian right of return in relation to Palestinians expelled
from 530 villages in 1948 as a decisive complication in the search for “peace”. The Palestinian
approach is more varied and tentative. Some Palestinians do insist that the right of return be
fully implemented in accordance with international law, which accords priority to repatriation to
the extent desired. More frequently, Palestinians seem more flexible on this matter, seeking
mainly a symbolic acknowledgement by Israel of the hardships associated with the expulsions,
some provision for compensation and some possibilities for Palestinian family unification. This
Palestinian view suggests that if there is Israeli good will on other outstanding issues, such as
Jerusalem and the settlements, then controversy over the right of return can be addressed in a
manner that takes account of practical realities that have developed in the course of the more
than 50 years since the critical events.
32. Overall, the Government of Israel and Israeli public opinion tend to regard all Israeli uses
of force as reasonable measures of security, given the altered connection between the two
societies as a result of the IDF redeployment associated with the Oslo process. Such security
measures need to be stringent and intrusive so as to afford protection to the settlements, and to
settler movement to and from Israel. Israeli security is a catch-all justification for all policies
directed coercively at the people of Palestine. Such a major premise enables the Israeli outlook
to view any Palestinian recourse to force as tantamount to “terrorism”. The perceptual gap is
greatest on this issue of violence and its interpretation, as Palestinians view their acts of
opposition as reasonable responses to an illegal occupation of their homeland, treating their
violence as produced by consistent Israeli overreaction to non-violent resistance. Additionally,
Palestinians universally reject Israel’s wider security rationale and view restrictions on
movement, closures, property destruction, political assassinations, sniper shootings and the like
as punitive and vindictive practices inconsistent with their fundamental human rights, as well as
with the minimum restraints embodied in international humanitarian law.
33. There is one comprehensive observation bearing on the perception of United Nations
authority by the two sides. Israelis tend to view the United Nations and most of the international
community as completely unsympathetic to their quest for security, as well as biased in favour of
Palestinian claims and grievances. On their side, the Palestinians feel disillusioned about the
effectiveness of United Nations support and abandoned in their hour of need for elemental
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 11
protection. Palestinians refer to the myriad United Nations resolutions supporting their cause,
but never implemented. In this sense, both sides are currently suspicious about the role of the
United Nations, its outlook, capacity and commitment.
34. Three conclusions follow from this consideration of Israeli-Palestinian perceptual gaps:
(a) The importance of encouraging better contact between persons of good will on
both sides so that communication between the parties is more open and takes greater account of
the views of the other side. This observation applies particularly to journalists, currently by and
large confined within their respective societies, who tend to provide readers with partisan
accounts of the interaction of Israelis and Palestinians that are uncritical of their respective
official positions and to employ language that reinforces “enemy” stereotypes of “the other”;
(b) The challenge to the organs of the United Nations to rehabilitate their reputation
in relation to both Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and the two populations, by seeking to
achieve objectivity in apportioning legal and political responsibility, in calling for certain
conduct in the name of international law, and in fashioning proposals for peace and
reconciliation. As important, or more so, is the need to take steps to ensure that United Nations
directives, whether in the form of resolutions or otherwise, are implemented to the extent
possible, and that non-compliance is addressed by follow-up action;
(c) An appreciation that a commitment to objectivity does not imply a posture of
“neutrality” with respect to addressing the merits of controversies concerning alleged violations
of human rights and international humanitarian law. Judgements can and must be made. It is
useful to recall in this connection the statement of the Israeli Minister for Foreign Affairs,
Shlomo Ben-Ami, on 28 November 2000 in the course of a Cabinet discussion, opposing the
release of supposed Palestinian transgressors during the early stages of the second intifada:
“Accusations made by a well-established society about how a people it is oppressing is breaking
the rules to attain its rights do not have much credence” (article by Akiva Elder in Ha’aretz,
28 November 2000). Such a perspective underlies the entire undertaking of our report. We have
attempted to the extent possible to reflect the facts and law fairly and accurately in relation to
both sides, but we have evaluated the relative weight of facts and contending arguments about
their legal significance. This process alone enables us to draw firm conclusions about the
existence of violations of international legal standards of human rights and of international
humanitarian law.
IV. THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE CONFLICT
35. The legal status of the West Bank and Gaza and the legal regime governing relations
between Israel and the people of Palestine have been in dispute ever since Israel first occupied
the West Bank and Gaza in 1967. As the sovereignty of Jordan over the West Bank was
questionable and Egypt never asserted sovereignty over Gaza, the Government of Israel took the
view that there was no sovereign Power at whose expense it occupied these territories.
Consequently, although Israel is a party to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, it maintained
that it was not bound in law to treat the territories as occupied territories within the meaning of
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 12
the Fourth Geneva Convention. Despite this, Israel agreed to apply certain of the humanitarian
provisions contained in the Fourth Geneva Convention to the occupied territories on a de facto
basis.
36. The peace agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, hereafter referred to
as the Oslo Accords, have superimposed an additional level of complexity on an already disputed
legal situation. It is now argued by Israel that, despite the prohibitions contained in article 47 of
the Fourth Geneva Convention on interfering with the rights of protected persons in an occupied
territory by agreement between the authorities of the occupied territory and the occupying
Power, the Oslo Accords have substantially altered the situation. In particular, it is argued by
Israel that it can no longer be viewed as an occupying Power in respect of the “A” areas,
accommodating the majority of the Palestinian population, because effective control in these
areas has been handed over to the Palestinian Authority.
37. The status of the West Bank and Gaza raises serious questions, not only for the above
reasons, but also because of the impact of human rights and self-determination on the territory.
A prolonged occupation, lasting for more than 30 years, was not envisaged by the drafters of the
Fourth Geneva Convention (see art. 6). Commentators have therefore suggested that in the case
of the prolonged occupation, the occupying Power is subject to the restraints imposed by
international human rights law, as well as the rules of international humanitarian law. The right
to self-determination, which features prominently in both customary international law and
international human rights instruments, is of particular importance in any assessment of the
status of the West Bank and Gaza. The right of the Palestinian people to self-determination has
repeatedly been recognized by the General Assembly of the United Nations and there can be
little doubt that the ultimate goal of the Oslo peace process is to establish an independent
Palestinian State. Indeed over 100 States already have relations with the Palestinian entity, not
unlike relations with an independent State, while the Palestinian Authority has observer status in
many international organizations. The Palestinian question is, therefore, seen by many as a
colonial issue and the recognition of Palestinian statehood as the last step in the decolonization
process initiated by the General Assembly in its resolution 1514 (XV).
38. Uncertainty about the status of Palestine in international law has complicated the conflict
between Israel and the Palestinian people since 29 September 2000. The Government of Israel
argues that it can no longer be seen as an occupying Power in respect of the A areas because it
has ceded control over these territories to the Palestinian Authority. Moreover, it argues that,
unlike the first intifada, in which the weapons of the Palestinian uprising were mainly stones, the
weapons of the new intifada include guns and heavier weaponry, with the result that there is now
an armed conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people led by the Palestinian Authority.
This argument seeks to justify the use of force resorted to by the IDF in the present conflict. In
essence, Israel argues that it cannot be seen as an occupying police power required to act in
accordance with police law enforcement codes, but that it is engaged in an armed conflict in
which it is entitled to use military means, including the use of lethal weapons, to suppress
political demonstrations, to kill Palestinian leaders and to destroy homes and property in the
interest of military necessity.
39. Clearly, there is no international armed conflict in the region, as Palestine, despite
widespread recognition, still falls short of the accepted criteria of statehood. The question then
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 13
arises as to whether there is a non-international armed conflict, defined by the Appeals Chamber
of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the Tadic case, as
“protracted armed violence between governmental authorities and organized armed groups”.
The Israeli argument that the threshold for an armed conflict has been met is based on the fact
that there have been some 3,000 incidents allegedly involving exchanges of gunfire and that
Palestinian violence is organized and orchestrated by the Palestinian Authority. A contrary view
advanced by the Palestinians is that the present intifada is to be categorized as an uprising of
large elements of a civilian population against an occupying Power’s unlawful abuses of its
control over that population and its environment; that the uprising has been instigated by loosely
organized elements of the population opposed to Israeli occupation of Palestine and the failure of
the Palestinian Authority to improve the lot of the Palestinian people; and that there are no
properly organized armed groups, let alone armed groups coordinated or organized by the
Palestinian Authority.
40. It is difficult for the Commission to make a final judgement on this matter. However, it
inclines to the view that sporadic demonstrations/confrontations often provoked by the killing of
demonstrators and not resulting in loss of life on the part of Israeli soldiers, undisciplined
lynchings (as in the tragic killing of Israeli reservists on 12 October 2000 in Ramallah), acts of
terrorism in Israel itself and the shooting of soldiers and settlers on roads leading to settlements
by largely unorganized gunmen cannot amount to protracted armed violence on the part of an
organized armed group. This assessment is confirmed by the peace that prevails in those areas of
the West Bank and Gaza visited by the Commission. The Commission realizes that this
assessment, based on a brief visit to the region and the views of witnesses and NGOs generally
unsympathetic to the IDF, may not be fully accurate. However, there is enough doubt in the
minds of the members of the Commission as to the prevailing situation to place in question the
assessment of the situation as an armed conflict by the IDF justifying its resort to military rather
than police measures.
41. In the opinion of the Commission, the conflict remains subject to the rules of the
Fourth Geneva Convention. It does not accept the Israeli argument that the Fourth Geneva
Convention is inapplicable by reason of the absence of a residual sovereign Power in the OPT.
This argument, premised on a strained interpretation of article 2 of the Convention, fails to take
account of the fact that the law of occupation is concerned with the interests of the population of
an occupied territory rather than those of a displaced sovereign. The argument that Israel is no
longer an occupying Power because it lacks effective control over A areas of the OPT carries
more weight, but is likewise untenable. The test for the application of the legal regime of
occupation is not whether the occupying Power fails to exercise effective control over the
territory, but whether it has the ability to exercise such power, a principle affirmed by the
United States Military Tribunal at Nürnberg in In re List and others (The Hostages Case)
in 1948. The Oslo Accords leave Israel with the ultimate legal control over the OPT and the fact
that for political reasons it has chosen not to exercise this control, when it undoubtedly has the
military capacity to do so, cannot relieve Israel of its responsibilities as an occupying Power.
42. While an occupying Power or party to a conflict may be given a margin of interpretation
in its assessment of the nature of the conflict, it cannot be allowed unilaterally to categorize a
situation in such a way that the restraints of international humanitarian law and human rights law
are abandoned. For this reason, the Commission suggests that the High Contracting Parties to
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 14
the Geneva Convention should seriously address the nature of the conflict and Israel’s
obligations as a party to the Fourth Geneva Convention. The Commission is mindful of the
Israeli objection to the “politicization” of the Geneva Conventions, but it sees no alternative to
the exercise of the supervisory powers of the High Contracting Parties under article 1 of the
Fourth Geneva Convention. Israel’s objection that article 1 does not oblige a High Contracting
Party to “ensure” respect for the Convention on the part of other States parties runs counter to the
views of the ICRC and to the general obligation on the part of States to ensure respect for
humanitarian law.
43. Even if the conflict is categorized as an armed conflict, entitling the IDF to greater
latitude in the exercise of its powers, the IDF is certainly not freed from all restraints under
international humanitarian law and human rights law. It is still obliged to observe the principle
of distinction requiring that civilians may not be made the object of attack, “unless and for such
time as they take a direct part in hostilities” (a principle reaffirmed in article 51 (3) of Additional
Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions). Stone throwing by youths at heavily protected military
posts hardly seems to involve participation in hostilities. Moreover, there is considerable
evidence of indiscriminate firing at civilians in the proximity of demonstrations and elsewhere.
In addition, the IDF is subject to the principle of proportionality which requires that injury to
non-combatants or damage to civilian objects may not be disproportionate to the military
advantages derived from an operation. The use of lethal weapons against demonstrators and the
widespread destruction of homes and property along settlement roads cannot, in the opinion of
the Commission, be seen as proportionate in the circumstances. Human rights norms also
provide a yardstick for measuring conduct in the OPT, as there is general agreement that such
norms are to be applied in the case of prolonged occupation. The 1979 Code of Conduct for Law
Enforcement Officials and the 1990 Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law
Enforcement Officials reflect the human rights norms applicable in the case of law enforcement
and crowd control. It is against this background that allegations of human rights violations and
violations of international humanitarian law will be considered in the following section.
V. EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE
44. Casualties have been high in the present intifada. According to conservative estimates, as
at 21 February 2001, 311 Palestinians (civilians and security forces) have been killed by Israeli
security forces and civilians in the OPT; 47 Israelis (civilians and security forces) have been
killed by Palestinian civilians and security forces; 11,575 Palestinians and 466 Israelis have
been injured; 84 Palestinian children under the age of 17 years have been killed and
some 5,000 injured; 1 Israeli child has been killed and 15 injured; 271 Palestinian civilians
and 40 members of the security forces have been killed; while 27 Israeli civilians
and 20 members of the security forces have been killed.
45. Most of the Palestinian deaths and injuries have been caused by live ammunition
(deaths: 93 per cent; injuries: 20 per cent), rubber-coated bullets (deaths: 1 per cent; injuries:
37 per cent ), and tear gas (deaths: 1 per cent; injuries: 32 per cent). Most of these deaths and
injuries have occurred in confrontations/demonstrations held on the perimeters of A areas, roads
to settlements or junctions on the road to settlements. There is no evidence that members of the
IDF responsible for such killings or the infliction of such injuries were killed or seriously
injured. On the contrary, the evidence suggests that members of the IDF, behind concrete
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 15
bunkers, were in most cases not exposed to life-threatening attacks by stone - or
Molotov-cocktail throwers, or even by sporadic gunfire from gunmen in or around the
demonstrations. This assessment is vigorously disputed by the IDF, which maintains that
rubber-coated bullets and live ammunition have only been used in life-threatening situations.1
However, statistics, reflected in the number of Palestinian deaths at demonstrations and the
absence of IDF deaths or serious injuries at such confrontations, the evidence of eyewitnesses
who testified before the Commission and the reports of NGOs and international bodies place the
IDF assessment in serious question. It is difficult to resist the conclusion that most of these
demonstrations could have been dealt with by methods normally used to suppress violent
demonstrations, such as water cannons, tear gas and soft rubber bullets (of the kind used in
Northern Ireland). Also, it is unclear why the IDF has not used riot shields to protect itself
against stone-throwers. By and large the evidence suggests that the IDF is either not trained or
equipped to deal adequately with violent demonstrations (despite its long experience in coping
with such demonstrations) or that it has deliberately chosen not to employ such methods. For
this reason the Commission shares the view expressed by many NGOs that the IDF is to be
censured for failing to comply with the methods for law enforcement laid down in the law
enforcement codes of 1979 and 1990 referred to above. The Commission likewise shares the
concerns of NGOs about the failure of the IDF to comply with its own open-fire regulations
relating to the use of live ammunition in situations of this kind.
46. Even if the above assessment is incorrect and the confrontations in question were
manifestations of an armed conflict between the IDF and an organized Palestinian force, the
Commission is of the view that the response of the IDF fails to meet the requirement of
proportionality and shows a serious disregard for civilians in the proximity of the
demonstrations.
47. The Commission received disturbing evidence about both the rubber-coated bullets and
the live ammunition employed by the IDF. The former are, apparently, designed to target
particular individuals and not to disperse crowds. Moreover, it is misleading to refer to them as
“rubber bullets” as they are metal bullets with a thin rubber coating. The live ammunition
employed includes high-velocity bullets which splinter on impact and cause the maximum harm.
Equally disturbing is the evidence that many of the deaths and injuries inflicted were the result of
head wounds and wounds to the upper body, which suggests an intention to cause serious bodily
injury rather than to restrain demonstrations/confrontations.
48. International law obliges the military to be particularly careful in its treatment of
children. Of the Palestinians killed, 27 per cent have been children below the age of 18 years
and approximately 50 per cent of those injured have been below the age of 18 years. These
children have been armed with stones or, in some cases, Molotov cocktails. The Israeli position
is that the participation of children in demonstrations against the IDF has been organized,
encouraged and orchestrated by the Palestinian Authority after thorough indoctrination against
Israelis. While the Commission is prepared to accept that some children are likely to have been
exposed to anti-Israeli propaganda in school or special training camps, it cannot disregard the
fact that demonstrations are substantially the result of the humiliation and frustration felt by
children and their families from years of occupation. The Commission heard evidence from
parents and NGOs about the unsuccessful attempts of many parents to prevent their children
participating in demonstrations and the grief caused them by the death and suffering of their
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 16
children. In this respect, Palestinian parents are no different from Israeli parents. It is likely that
the Palestinian Authority could have done more to restrain children from participation in
stone-throwing demonstrations. The evidence suggests that, on occasion, the Palestinian police
made attempts to prevent demonstrations, but these attempts were often unsuccessful. This can
be ascribed to the incompetence of the Palestinian police, the fact that the Palestinian police were
themselves targeted by stone-throwers when they attempted to curtail demonstrations, and an
understandable identification of the Palestinian police with the goals and spirit of the
demonstrators. History is replete with instances of cases in which young people, prompted by
idealism, despair, humiliation and the desire for excitement, have participated in demonstrations
that have confronted an oppressive regime. In recent times children have behaved in a similar
way in Northern Ireland, South Africa, Indonesia and elsewhere. The insistence of the IDF that
the Palestinian demonstrators, humiliated by years of military occupation which has become part
of their culture and upbringing, have been organized and orchestrated by the Palestinian
Authority either shows an ignorance of history or cynical disregard for the overwhelming weight
of the evidence.
49. The excessive use of force on the part of the IDF and the failure to comply with
international humanitarian law is further demonstrated by the failure of the IDF to respect the
vehicles of the Red Crescent and other medical vehicles. Statistics show that vehicles of the
Red Crescent have been attacked on 101 occasions. The IDF has also prevented ambulances and
private vehicles from travelling to hospitals. In this respect, it should be stressed that the
Palestinians have likewise shown a lack of respect for medical vehicles and there have
been 57 incidents in which Palestinians have attacked personnel and vehicles of the
Magen David Adom.
50. In the present intifada, the IDF apparently on grounds of military necessity, has destroyed
homes and laid to waste a significant amount of agricultural land, especially in Gaza, which is
already land starved. Statistics show that 94 homes have been demolished and 7,024 dunums of
agricultural land bulldozed in Gaza. Damage to private houses is put at US$ 9.5 million and
damage to agricultural land at about US$ 27 million. Most of this action has occurred on roads
leading to settlements, ostensibly in the interest of the protection of settlement vehicles. The
Commission inspected some of the devastation caused by the IDF along settlement roads. On
the Kusufim road, in the Qarara district, it inspected land that had been bulldozed for a distance
of some 700 metres from the road. Houses situated on this land had been destroyed and families
compelled to live in tents. Water wells in the vicinity had also been completely destroyed. The
Commission found it difficult to believe that such destruction, generally carried out in the middle
of the night and without advance warning, was justified on grounds of military necessity. To the
Commission it seemed that such destruction of property had been carried out in an intimidatory
manner unrelated to security, disrespectful of civilian well-being and going well beyond the
needs of military necessity. The evidence suggests that destruction of property and demolition of
houses have been replicated elsewhere in the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinians, like other
people, are deeply attached to their homes and agricultural land. The demolition of homes and
the destruction of olive and citrus trees, nurtured by farmers over many years, has caused untold
human suffering to persons unconnected with the present violence. Even if a low-intensity
armed conflict exists in the West Bank and Gaza, it seems evident to us that such measures are
disproportionate, in the sense that the damage to civilian property outweighs military gain.
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 17
Here it should be stressed that the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits the destruction of private
property by the occupying Power “except where such destruction is rendered absolutely
necessary by military operations” (art. 53).
51. The Commission concludes that the IDF has engaged in the excessive use of force at the
expense of life and property in Palestine. At the same time the Commission wishes to express its
horror at the lynchings of Israeli military reservists in Ramallah on 12 October 2000, the killing
of Israelis at a bus stop in Tel Aviv by a Palestinian bus driver on 14 February 2001 and similar
incidents that have done much to inflame Israeli public opinion against the Palestinian uprising.
52. There is no evidence that the IDF has taken serious steps to investigate the killing or
wounding of Palestinians, except in a handful of cases, even where the circumstances strongly
suggest that soldiers had behaved in an undisciplined or illegal manner. The excuse that no
investigations are required on account of the characterization of the conflict as armed conflict is
not convincing and shows a disregard for the provision of the Fourth Geneva Convention which
requires the occupying Power to prosecute those guilty of committing grave breaches and other
infractions of the Convention (art. 146). Equally unconvincing are the reasons given by the
Palestinian Authority for its failure to investigate and prosecute the killings of Israelis,
particularly those responsible for the Ramallah lynchings.
VI. EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS/POLITICAL ASSASSINATIONS
53. Extrajudicial executions or targeted political assassinations carried out by the IDF have
resulted in only a small number of deaths and cannot compare in magnitude with the more
widespread suffering caused to the Palestinian population. The Commission has, however,
decided to pay special attention to these killings, because they have been officially
acknowledged, promoted and condoned.
54. Israel has long been accused of being responsible for the assassination of targeted
Palestinian individuals, but it is only during the second intifada that such a practice has been
officially acknowledged and defended at the highest levels of the Government of Israel. In early
January 2001, the Israeli Deputy Minister of Defence, Ephraim Sneh, justified the policy in the
following language: “I can tell you unequivocally what the policy is. If anyone has committed
or is planning to carry out terrorist attacks, he has to be hit … It is effective, precise and just.”
At a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, Prime Minister Ehud Barak put the
claim more broadly: “If people are shooting at us and killing us, our only choice is to strike
back. A country under terrorist threat must fight back.” And more directly, while visiting a
military command on the West Bank, Mr. Barak was quoted as saying, “The IDF is free to take
action against those who seek to harm us”.
55. There is further official confirmation of the Israeli claim of right with respect to
extrajudicial killings. When the IDF West Bank military commander, Brigadier-General
Beni Gantz, was asked whether Israel was pursuing a “liquidation” policy with respect to the
Palestinians, he responded as follows: “You said liquidation, not me. We will initiate action as
necessary. We will not stop such action as long as there is a threat.” Israel’s Chief of Staff,
Shaul Mofaz, invoked the legal opinion issued by the Military Advocate-General,
Menachem Finkelstein, that it was permissible in exceptional cases to kill Palestinian terrorists,
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 18
expressed in the following guarded language: “This is not routine, but an exceptional method
whose goal is to save human lives in the absence of any other alternative … It is used against
people [who have] definitely [been] identified as having worked, and are working, to commit
attacks against Israel.” It should be noted that the Military Advocate-General uses more
circumscribed language than do the political and military leaders, but his guidelines are
self-applied, depending upon the accuracy of Israeli intelligence and upon good faith in limiting
such tactics to circumstances of an exceptional character.
56. One prominent instance of a political assassination involved the sniper shooting of
Dr. Thabat Ahmad Thabat in Tulkarem, West Bank, as he was driving his car from his house in
the morning of 9 December 2000. Dr. Thabat, a dentist, 50 years of age, father of three, held
official positions in the Palestinian Health Ministry and was a lecturer on public health at
Al Quds Open University. He was the Fatah secretary in Tulkarem and was in regular contact
with Israeli NGOs working in the area of health and human rights. Several Israeli witnesses
appearing before the Commission expressed dismay about the killing of Dr. Thabat, describing
him as their “friend” and “partner” in the search for peace. Such expressions do not preclude the
possibility that Dr. Thabat may have had a double identity, but Israel has produced no evidence
of his complicity in violence against Israeli targets, beyond the vague allegation of his
involvement in “terrorist activities”. Press reports indicated that Israeli Special Forces undertook
this action against Dr. Thabat as part of a military operation that consisted of ”cleansing” Fatah
security capacities in view of the demonstrations inside the Palestinian territories, and
specifically at Tulkarem. Ms. Siham Thabat, the widow of Dr. Thabat, submitted a petition to
the Supreme Court of Israel asking for an end to Israel’s “cleansing policy”, described as
imposing “capital punishment without trial”. The petition was dismissed. As far as is known, the
prosecution submitted no further evidence specifically implicating Dr. Thabat.
57. While the Commission was present in the Palestinian territories, another prominent
instance of extrajudicial killing occurred. It involved the use of a Cobra helicopter gunship to
attack Massoud Iyyad with three rockets on 14 February 2001 while he was driving his car in
Gaza near the Jabalya refugee camp. Mr. Iyyad was a lieutenant colonel and high-ranking
member of Force 17, an elite security unit specifically assigned the task of protecting
Yasser Arafat. Israeli security forces claimed credit for the assassination, contending that
Mr. Iyyad was a leader of a Hezbollah cell in Gaza that was intending to transform the second
intifada into a Lebanon-style war of attrition of the sort successfully waged by Hezbollah in
the 1990s. Aside from the legality of such tactics, the allegations were never substantiated by
the release of documentary or other evidence.
58. Such extrajudicial executions during the second intifada number at least 11, but the
figure is probably much higher. Palestinian and independent sources put the figure at
somewhere between 25 and 35. On at least one occasion, the killing of Hussein Ábayat
on 9 November 2000 by anti-tank missiles fired at his car from helicopters, two women
bystanders were also killed and three other Palestinians were seriously injured.
59. In a disturbing escalation of language associated with such violence, a designated
spokesperson of the settler movement, Yehoshua Mor-Yosef, has been quoted as saying “Arafat
is an enemy, he was never a partner. After seven years of war and him sending his own people
to kill, we need to assassinate him”. (International Herald Tribune, 27 February 2001, p. 8).
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 19
60. There have been several important political condemnations of extrajudicial killings. The
Government of the United States has expressed a critical attitude towards extrajudicial killing in
a detailed exposition of the practice contained in the “Occupied Territories” section of the
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices-2000 issued by the Department of State. On behalf
of the European Union, its Presidency issued a declaration on extrajudicial killings, calling them
“unacceptable and contrary to the rule of law”, and urging Israel “to cease this practice and thus
respect international law”. (Brussels, 13 February 2001, 5928/01 (Presse 47)). This declaration
was formally submitted by the Council of the European Union to the Secretary-General of the
United Nations with a request that it be circulated as a document of the General Assembly.
61. It is the view of the Commission that, whatever the truth of various allegations directed
against specific individuals, the practice of political assassination is a fundamental violation of
international human rights standards, as well as a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva
Convention. Several human rights instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, affirm the right to life and
specifically prohibit executions of civilians without trial and a fair judicial process.
62. Because the law of occupation also applies, provisions of this lex specialis take
precedence over human rights. (For clarification of this conclusion, see the discussion on the
legal status of the conflict in section IV above.) Thus, whether a particular loss of life is to be
considered an arbitrary loss of life contrary to article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights can only be decided by reference to the law of occupation in the Fourth
Geneva Convention. Article 4 of the Fourth Geneva Convention defines persons protected by
the Convention as “those who, at a given moment and in any manner whatsoever, find
themselves, in case of a conflict or occupation, in the hands of a Party to the conflict or
Occupying Power of which they are not nationals”. The phrase “in the hands of” simply means
that the person is on territory that is under the control of the State in question and implies control
that is more than mere physical control. Civilians lose the protection under the Fourth Geneva
Convention when they become combatants by taking a direct part in hostilities (art. 51 (3) of
Additional Protocol I). Israel contends that the victims of targeted political assassinations were
combatants. This is unconvincing for two related reasons: they were not participating in the
hostilities at the time they were killed; and no evidence was provided by Israel to back up its
contention of a combat role despite their civilian appearance.
63. There is no legal foundation for killing protected persons on the basis of suspicion or
even on the basis of evidence of their supposedly menacing activities or possible future
undertakings. On the contrary, article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention provides for the
respect of protected persons, article 32 explicitly prohibits their killing under such conditions,
and article 68 places restrictions on the application of the death penalty and, in any event,
requires a prior judicial trial.
64. As the evidence indicates, Dr. Thabat and several others who were targets of political
assassinations could have been arrested when, as was the case in this instance, he made almost
daily trips to points under Israeli security control. The Commission concludes that the practice
of targeted political assassination, which is fully acknowledged by the Government of Israel at
its highest levels, violates a number of provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention. It also
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 20
represents a grave breach of the Convention, which in article 147 refers to “wilful killing” in this
connection. Further, article 146 calls upon High Contracting Parties to enforce this prohibition in
relation to those responsible for its violation.
VII. SETTLEMENTS
65. Jewish settlements in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza feature
prominently in the present conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people. This report focuses
on the implications of the settlements for human rights and international humanitarian law during
the second intifada.
66. Israel argues that the issue of Jewish settlements is a political one to be resolved in
negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians over the political future of the OPT.
Palestinians, on the other hand, see the settlement issue as a major impediment to the peace
process and a question governed by international law. They argue that settlements are unlawful
as they violate article 49 (6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying
Power from transferring parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies. The
international community has given its overwhelming support to the Palestinian position.
Repeated resolutions of both the Security Council and the General Assembly condemn Jewish
settlements in the West Bank and Gaza as a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The
same attitude is adopted by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
67. The Commission is itself of the opinion that Jewish settlements in the West Bank and
Gaza violate article 49 (6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention and place a serious obstacle in the
way of durable peace.
68. Since 1967, Israel has been responsible for establishing, financing and protecting Jewish
settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. Initially this programme of creeping annexation pursued
by means of the requisitioning and occupation of Palestinian land was justified by Israel on
security grounds. This pretext has long been abandoned. Indeed, Yitshak Rabin, while he was
Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, acknowledged that most of the settlements added
nothing to security and in fact were a burden on the army. Most settlements are today inhabited
by civilian settlers motivated either by the ideology of Zionist expansion or by the comforts of a
suburban way of life, subsidized by the Government of Israel. From the perspective of the
Government, settlements create factual situations on the ground that serve to establish political
control over the occupied Palestinian territories.
69. Today there are some 190 settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, inhabited by
approximately 380,000 settlers, of whom some 180,000 live in the East Jerusalem area.
Settlements have expanded considerably since the start of the Oslo peace process and accelerated
under the Prime Ministership of Mr. Barak. Settlements have continued to expand since the start
of the second intifada. The map in annex III gives an indication of the extent to which
settlements are scattered throughout the territories, and the population of the different
settlements. Settlements differ considerably in size and location. Some number
over 10,000 inhabitants, while others have less than 100 inhabitants. Some are situated at a
considerable distance from Palestinian towns, whereas others are situated within a Palestinian
city, as, most prominently, in the case of the Jewish settlement in Hebron, or on the doorstep of a
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 21
Palestinian village or refugee camp. The settlement of Neve Dekalim, for instance, is situated
adjacent to the crowded refugee camp of Khan Yunis. It was here that the Commission came
under gunfire from the IDF.
70. In Gaza, settlement roads run through Palestinian territory and cross roads used by
Palestinians, causing great traffic congestion for Palestinians whose vehicles are required to halt
every time a settler or military vehicle approaches a crossroad. In the West Bank, on the other
hand, Israel has built a vast road system, running for some 400 km, which bypasses Palestinian
population centres and enables settlers and military forces protecting them to move speedily and
safely through the West Bank. To achieve this, 160,000 dunums of land were requisitioned,
much of it under cultivation by Palestinian farmers. Moreover, in some instances, Palestinian
homes were demolished without compensation for the purpose of constructing this network of
bypass roads. These roads prevent the expansion of Palestinian villages and undermine the
economic development of Palestinians by restricting Palestinian movement and impeding the
flow of commerce and workers from one Palestinian area to another. The scale of the investment
in this road network raises troubling questions about Israel’s long-term intentions for the
West Bank.
71. The relationship between settlers and Palestinians is an unhappy one and each side views
the other with hostility, anger and suspicion. Protected by the Israeli military, and exempt from
the jurisdiction of the courts of the Palestinian Authority, settlers have committed numerous acts
of violence against the Palestinians and destroyed Palestinian agricultural land and property.
Israeli justice has often either turned a blind eye to such acts or treated them with leniency
bordering on exoneration. Inevitably, this has fuelled the resentment of Palestinians, who
regard Israeli justice as biased in favour of settlers. Since the beginning of the intifada
on 29 September 2000, incidents of settler violence have dramatically increased. Palestinian
hostility to settlers has grown alarmingly since the start of this intifada and most of the Israelis
killed in the present conflict have been settlers or soldiers charged with the task of protecting
settlements and roads leading to settlements.
72. Settlements are a major obstacle in the way of peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
First, they virtually foreclose the possibility of a viable Palestinian State as they, together with
the road system connecting them, destroy the territorial integrity of Palestine. In this sense, they
act as a major impediment to the exercise of the right to self-determination within the
internationally recognized self-determination unit of Palestine, i.e. the territory occupied by
Israel after the 1967 war. Secondly, settlements provide daily evidence of the violation of
international law and the failure of the international community, acting through the
United Nations and the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions, to remedy such a
situation. The despair and cynicism in the Palestinian community about the willingness of the
international community to enforce the rule of law is in large measure due to its failure to halt
the growth of the settler population and to persuade the Government of Israel to reverse this
practice.
73. The link between settlements and violence in the present intifada is clear. Many of the
acts of violence carried out by the IDF and settlers that have resulted in Palestinian deaths and
injuries have occurred on the heavily defended roads leading to settlements or in the proximity of
settlements. Settlements provide a visible and proximate target for the anger fuelled by years of
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 22
Israeli occupation. The IDF convoys and bases in the proximity of settlements aimed at the
protection of such settlements have been the focal point of Palestinian demonstrations, violence
and sharpshooting. Likewise, much of the Palestinian property bulldozed by the IDF has been
destroyed not in the interests of military security, but the security of settlers. Homes, fruit and
olive trees and crops have been destroyed by the IDF in order to make settlers feel more secure
and to facilitate their access to their settlements by means of protected roads.
74. Settlers, too, have suffered from their proximity to the Palestinian people. As the most
visible symbols of occupation, they are obvious targets for Palestinian gunmen.
75. Without settlements or settlers, there can be no doubt that the number of deaths and
injuries in the present intifada would have been but a small fraction of their current number and,
quite possibly, the present intifada might not have occurred. Both Israelis and Palestinians are
therefore paying a high price in terms of life, bodily integrity and property for a programme that
violates a cardinal principle of international humanitarian law.
76. Settlements act as a perpetual reminder to the Palestinian people of the humiliation of
military occupation. This sense of humiliation is aggravated by the apparently comfortable way
of life of the settlers, whose standard of living contrasts sharply with the poverty of their
Palestinian neighbours. Refugees in crowded camps, with poor sanitation and limited water
resources, inevitably view with envy and anger settlements with swimming pools and
well-watered lawns.
77. Palestinian witnesses before the Commission, from all sections of the community, despite
being of different political persuasions and from different income groups, spoke with equal anger
and resentment about the presence of settlements and settlers in their territory. Many claimed
settlements were a prime cause of the present intifada, a view shared by international
organizations working in the West Bank and Gaza.
78. The Commission reaffirms that settlements in the West Bank and Gaza constitute a major
violation of international humanitarian law and identify the presence of settlements and settlers
as a primary cause of many violations of human rights in the OPT.
VIII. DEPRIVATION OF THE ENJOYMENT OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL
RIGHTS: EFFECTS OF CLOSURES, CURFEWS, RESTRICTIONS ON
MOVEMENT AND DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY
Introductory note
79. It needs to be kept in mind that the Palestinian population in the occupied territories is,
even under normal conditions, very poor, particularly the 50 per cent of the Palestinians living in
refugee camps. To impose additional burdens on such a population is inevitably to create
patterns of severe material, social and psychological hardships. These hardships entail denials of
basic human needs, as protected by international human rights standards, which raises important
issues of international law. To claim a security justification for policies that inflict such
pronounced harm imposes a heavy burden of persuasion on the claimant, in this case the
Government of Israel. The internal closures seem to have a mainly punitive character quite
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 23
unrelated to security and are more likely to have the opposite effect of inflaming Palestinian
resistance. Even external closures, especially for the import of building materials and the export
of agricultural products, would seem to be unrelated to the maintenance of security. The
condensed presentation of the effects of closure and related policies in this section of the report
must be read with such considerations in mind.
Restrictions on movement
80. Since 29 September 2000, Israel has imposed severe restrictions on freedom of
movement in the occupied territories. During the 123-day period from 1 October 2000
to 31 January 2001, the Israeli-Palestinian border was closed for labour and trade flows
for 93 days, or 75.6 per cent of the time. Internal movement restrictions and internal closures -
partial or severe - were in place for 100 per cent of the time in the West Bank and for 89 per cent
of the time in Gaza. The Dahania Airport in the Gaza Strip, the only Palestinian airport, was
closed for over half of this period. During this 123-day period, the international border crossings
to Jordan from the West Bank and to Egypt from Gaza were closed for more than 20 per cent
and 40 per cent of the time, respectively. The safe passage connecting the Gaza Strip and the
West Bank was closed from 6 October, greatly obstructing travel for Palestinians and
diminishing the governmental effectiveness of the PA.
81. The cumulative effect of these restrictions on the freedom of movement of people and
goods is understandably perceived by the Palestinians affected as a siege. It has resulted in
severe socio-economic hardships in the Palestinian territory. The internal closures have
effectively sealed Palestinian population centres and restricted movement from one locality to
another. The restriction on the entry of Palestinians into Israel has meant denial of access to
their places of work in Israel to an estimated 100,000 Palestinians. The economic results have
been devastating: the families of these workers are now suffering from a complete lack of
income, threatening them with destitution. The World Bank’s projection that the impact of
closure will raise unemployment to 50 per cent and the poverty rate to 43.7 per cent in 2001 has
almost been realized.
Internal closure
82. The internal closure has disrupted life within the territories. Workers are unable to reach
their places of work. Produce from farms cannot reach markets. Shops and commercial offices
are unable to open. From 8 October, numerous limitations were placed on passage between the
north and the south of the Gaza Strip and movement between Gaza City and the cities of
Khan Yunis and Rafah was prevented almost entirely. Movement within the West Bank has
become nearly impossible. Hundreds of IDF checkpoints have been erected throughout the
West Bank and entry to and exit from cities requires passing through them. The IDF has placed
checkpoints at the entrances to all villages and entry and exit are possible only via dirt roads,
entailing enormous hardships. Trips that once took 15 minutes now take several hours. In some
of the villages, mostly in areas near settlements and bypass roads, the dirt roads have also been
blocked with large concrete blocks and piles of dirt, and residents are imprisoned in their
villages. The Commission itself observed such IDF checkpoints and concrete blocks and piles of
dirt obstructing access.
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 24
External closure
83. The closure of the international border crossings with Jordan and Egypt, as well as the
restrictions on movement of goods from Israel to the territories, has had a direct negative effect
on all sectors of the economy. The near total interruption of the supply of basic construction
materials has closed factories and plants dependent on these materials for their production
activities. The construction and building sector in the Palestinian territories has been practically
suspended owing to imports of basic construction materials such as cement, steel and timber
being denied entry by the IDF through their control of border checkpoints. This, in turn, has
resulted in the unemployment of tens of thousands of workers and employees in the construction
and building sector. The overall disruption of the economy and unemployment, together with
mobility restrictions and border closures, have resulted in an average unemployment rate
of 38 per cent (more than 250,000 persons) as compared to 11 per cent (71,000 persons) in the
first nine months of 2000. According to one estimate, unemployment now directly affects the
income of about 910,000 people or 30 per cent of the population.
Curfews
84. Curfews have been imposed in certain areas of the occupied territories, which in effect
imprisons an entire population in their homes. For example, Palestinians in the H2 area of
Hebron have been under curfew almost continuously since October 2000. The curfews appear to
be imposed for the convenience of settlers in the area as they do not apply to settlers. The
character and timing of Israel’s restrictions on the freedom of movement challenge the
contention that these restrictions are dictated purely by security considerations: Israel has
imposed a sweeping closure, curfew and siege on millions of people, rather than on individuals
who pose a security threat. In addition, the policy of restrictions of movement discriminates
between the two populations living in the occupied territories, namely Palestinians and
non-Palestinians, since the restrictions are imposed exclusively on the Palestinian population. In
many cases, the explicit aim of the restrictions is to ensure freedom of movement for the settler
population at the expense of the local population.
Negative economic impacts
85. In the absence of border closures, per capita income was projected to be about US$ 2,000
in the Palestinian territories in the year 2000. As a result of border closures and internal
movement restrictions, this is estimated to be reduced to US$ 1,680, a decline of 16 per cent.
The gravity of this negative impact is measured, however, by the disproportionately high impact
on people living below the poverty line (estimated by the World Bank at US$ 2.10 per person
per day in consumption expenditures). The number of poor is estimated to have increased from
about 650,000 persons to 1 million persons, an increase of over 50 per cent. Given the
continuing closures and restrictions of movement of people and goods and the resultant
unemployment and total deprivation of income to increasing numbers of the population, poverty
and near destitution are mounting. Humanitarian assistance has dramatically increased.
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 25
Economic losses
86. The direct economic losses arising from movement restrictions are estimated
at 50 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) for the four-month period of the second intifada
and 75 per cent of wage income earned by Palestinian workers in Israel. The GDP loss is
estimated at US$ 907.3 million, while the loss of labour income from employment in Israel is
estimated at US$ 243.4 million. The total loss is estimated at US$ 1,150.7 million. The loss is
about US$ 11 million per working day or US$ 3 per person per working day during the
period 1 October 2000-31 January 2001. Significant decreases in earnings in the transportation
sector have been reported as a result of the internal siege. The tourism sector has also reported
significant decline.
Public sector revenue losses: revenue losses and increased social spending
87. There have been significant losses to the public sector in the form of lost revenues.
Domestic income and value added tax (VAT) revenues have been reduced as a result of lower
levels of domestic income caused by disruptions in production and reduced labour flows into
Israel. External revenues, mainly customs and VAT revenues associated with imports from
Israel and abroad, have been reduced by lower commodity flows caused by movement
restrictions and reduced consumer demand. In 1999, 63 per cent of all Palestinian Authority
revenues were in the form of transfers of receipts collected by the authorities under the terms of
the Paris Protocol on Economic Relations of 1994. VAT, customs, income tax, health fees and
other taxes collected by Israel on behalf of the PA are estimated at US$ 53 million monthly.
These revenues have been withheld from the PA since October 2000. As a result of the eroded
revenue base, the PA has been unable to pay salaries to its employees.
Destruction of property
88. There has been continued destruction of property, in particular in the vicinity of
settlements or bypass and access roads to settlements, allegedly on grounds of military necessity
or security considerations. On 7 October 2000, Israeli tanks and bulldozers invaded the
Netzarim Junction and destroyed two residential buildings comprising 32 apartments near the
Israeli military outpost. On 8 October, the IDF destroyed an iron-processing factory in the
Netzarim area, while in the same area bulldozers swept the agricultural land on the south-eastern
and south-western sides of the junction. On 16 October, bulldozers swept land to the north of
Neve Dekalim settlement. On 19 October, the IDF swept land leading to the Gush Katif
settlement bloc. The Commission visited this area and observed the destruction of the farms, the
sweeping of the land and the destruction of citrus and olive trees. This process of destruction of
farms, cutting down of fruit trees and demolition of greenhouses planted with vegetables
continues. The Commission received evidence from victims whose homes and greenhouses had
been destroyed, citrus and olive trees uprooted and farmlands swept by bulldozers.
89. According to one estimate, the Israeli authorities demolished 223 Palestinian-owned
buildings during 2000: 68 in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and 155 in the
Gaza Strip.
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 26
Effect of closures and movement restrictions on health care
90. The Commission received evidence of the restrictions obstructing access by the sick and
the wounded as well as pregnant women to hospitals. There have also been instances where the
prolonged closure of outside borders, including the airport in Gaza, impeded the transfer of
wounded Palestinians to other countries for treatment. An example of the effect of denial of
access to hospitals is provided by statistical data from St. Luke’s Hospital in Nablus, which
reported a 38 per cent decline in the admission rate, a 29 per cent decline in the occupancy rate,
a 53 per cent decline in the number of surgical operations performed, a 20 per cent decline in the
number of babies delivered, a 48 per cent decline in the number of patients in the intensive care
unit, a 49 per cent decline in the number of general practice patients, a 73 per cent decline in the
number of visits to specialty services and a 30 per cent decline in the number of physiotherapy
cases in the period October-November 2000 as compared to the same period in 1999.
Effect of closures and movement restrictions on education
91. Since the beginning of October 2000, more than 40 schools are reported to have been
closed or unable to operate owing to curfews or closures. In the centre of Hebron, 34 schools
have been closed, resulting in unemployment for more than 460 teachers, and 13,000 students
were reported to be without educational facilities. Four Palestinian schools in Hebron have been
closed by the IDF and turned into military bases: the M’aref School, Usama bin Munkez School,
the Johar School and the Al Ukhwa School. Several thousand children are reported also to have
had to be permanently moved from school premises as a result of damage to the school structure.
92. Schools near flashpoints - 173 in the West Bank and 23 in the Gaza Strip - were the worst
hit. They were subjected to several kinds of assault, including bombing by the Israeli army and
shooting by settlers.
Violations of internationally recognized human rights norms and international
humanitarian law
93. The measures of closure, curfew or destruction of property described above constitute
violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention and human rights obligations binding upon Israel.
Destruction of property is prohibited by article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, unless such
destruction is rendered absolutely necessary for military operations, which does not appear to be
the case for much of the destruction carried out. Other obligations under the Fourth Geneva
Convention affected by closures are those under articles 23, 55 and 56. These require the free
passage of consignments of medical and hospital stores and the free passage of foodstuffs,
clothing and medicines intended for certain vulnerable categories of persons and impose a duty
to ensure food and medical supplies to the population and to ensure and maintain medical and
hospital establishments and services and public health and hygiene in an occupied territory.
94. Human rights norms are also apposite in the context of the closures because, in the
Interim Agreement, Israel and the Palestinian Council accepted that they should exercise their
powers and responsibilities pursuant to that Agreement with due regard to internationally
accepted norms and principles of human rights and the rule of law.2 Human rights violated by
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 27
the closures include the right to work, internationally recognized in article 6 of the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The severe socio-economic hardships
caused by the restrictions on movement constitute a violation of the right to an adequate standard
of living recognized in article 11 of that Covenant. Destruction of houses that leaves the
occupants homeless also violates this right, since it specifically includes the right to adequate
housing. The closures and movement restrictions interfere with the right of everyone to
education. Children and students are prevented from attending classes, despite the duty of States
to make secondary and higher education accessible to all by every appropriate means. In
addition, restrictions on movement are also placed on journalists. This affects their reporting of
events and constitutes a violation of their freedom of expression and, indirectly, of the
population’s right to seek and receive information, recognized in article 19 of the Covenant.
This right may be subjected to certain restrictions, but only in certain circumstances and not as a
general rule. The Palestinian Authority has also restricted the freedom of movement of
journalists.
95. Finally, attention is drawn to article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits
collective punishment. Israel has invoked security considerations to justify closures and other
measures described above. From the Commission’s own observations, it would appear that
while in some instances security considerations may justify temporary closures, the
comprehensive and protracted closures, as well as the scale and nature of the destruction of
property of Palestinian civilians, is best regarded as collective punishment.
IX. PALESTINIAN REFUGEES AND THE SECOND INTIFADA
96. The Commission seeks to draw attention to the distinctive vulnerability of Palestinian
refugees as a special case of hardship during the course of the second intifada, particularly as a
result of the Israeli policies of closure and blockade. It needs to be appreciated that, according to
UNRWA figures for 2000, there are 1,407,621 registered Palestinian refugees living in the
West Bank and Gaza, comprising over 50 per cent of the Palestinian population in these
territories. That figure represents only 38 per cent of the total Palestinian refugee population, the
remainder being spread out mainly in Jordan, Lebanon and the Syrian Arab Republic. There are
two sets of issues relevant to our inquiry: first, the vulnerability of Palestinian refugees living in
refugee camps on the West Bank and Gaza, and second, the so-called “right of return” issue.
97. There is, first of all, the anomalous status of Palestinian refugees due to their exclusion
from the protective mechanisms and responsibility of UNHCR. No other refugee community in
the world is so excluded. UNRWA was established in 1949 to address the specific concerns of
Palestinian refugees and became operational in 1950. This special regime acknowledging the
importance of the refugee dimension of the Israel-Palestine relationship was reinforced over the
years by critical United Nations resolutions dealing with the conflict. UNRWA was given
responsibility for humanitarian aspects of the international effort to alleviate the material
suffering of Palestinian refugees, but it was not entrusted with any protective functions. These
functions were assigned to a parallel entity called the United Nations Conciliation Commission
for Palestine (UNCCP), which, ironically, was established in response to General Assembly
resolution 194 (111) calling for the protection of Palestinian refugees. Unlike UNRWA,
UNCCP has been incapable of carrying out its functions, encountering political and financial
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 28
obstacles from its inception. Although UNCCP continues to exist on paper, it lacks a budget and
personnel, and is effectively defunct. Yet, this organizational structure continues to define the
legal status of Palestinian refugees.
98. In accordance with the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, protection is
accorded to all refugees under the authority of UNHCR except for the Palestinians. They are
excluded because of article 1D of the 1951 Refugee Convention, which provides:
“This convention shall not apply to persons who are at present receiving from organs or
agencies of the United Nations other than the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees protection or assistance.”
Despite the failure of UNCCP to supply the anticipated protection, Palestinian refugees remain
in limbo and have never in the more than half a century of their existence been incorporated
within the UNHCR regime.
99. Such a result is particularly disturbing as article 1D explicitly recognizes the possibility
that alternative forms of protection may fail for one reason or another. The language of the
second paragraph of 1D is clear beyond reasonable dispute on this matter:
“When such protection or assistance has ceased for any reason, without the persons
being definitively settled in accordance with the relevant resolutions adopted by the
General Assembly of the United Nations, these persons shall ipso facto be entitled to the
benefits of this Convention.”
There is no discernible reason to refrain from implementing this inclusionary provision, which
should have been implemented decades ago.
100. The issue is not trivial. For one thing, the Commission was repeatedly told by a variety
of witnesses, supplemented by documentary materials, that the refugees in the camps in the
occupied territories were enduring hardships that exceeded those being experienced by the
general Palestinian population, and that UNWRA officials felt unable to raise questions of a
protective nature, regarding them as outside their humanitarian mandate and of a “political”
character.
101. These protective concerns are directly associated with the distinctive pressures exerted by
Israeli responses to the second intifada. The refugee camps are often prominent flashpoints in
relations with the IDF and the settlements, prompting retaliatory “security” measures, especially
prolonged closures, including blockages of access roads. Refugees are trapped in these
overcrowded camps, prevented from going to places of employment and often denied access to
educational and medical facilities. The incidence of destitution resulting from the impact of the
second intifada is significantly higher for refugees than for non-refugees, and is felt more keenly,
as refugees lack land for subsistence agriculture or within which to move about. Our visits to
several Palestinian refugee camps revealed to us the special sense of material and psychological
hardship associated with the confinement and curfews of this period of intifada. Under such
conditions, it is hardly surprising that much of the support for Palestinian militancy and armed
struggle is generated within the refugee camps.
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 29
102. The second, wider question, which is associated with the right of return, concerns the
future of refugees outside the territories as well as those within, and is mostly beyond the scope
of the Commission’s central mandate. Its relevance arises from the degree to which Israelis
insist that accepting such a right would be an act of suicide on the part of Israel and that and no
State can be expected to destroy itself. Such an apocalyptic approach to the refugee issue
obstructs overall moves towards a just peace.
103. In conclusion, the Palestinian refugees within the territories seem worse off than the
Palestinian refugee diaspora in neighbouring countries. Further, the deterioration of their
circumstances throughout the West Bank and Gaza has been accentuated by the heightened
tensions and violence of recent months. These refugees require a variety of emergency
protections that can only be provided by a concerted effort on an urgent basis at the international
level. UNRWA, with its resources already strained and its operating conditions subject to
interference, is not capable of providing the necessary protection.
X. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
104. The commission of inquiry has been deeply mindful of its responsibility to exercise every
care to be objective and impartial in gathering information and evaluating the evidence upon
which it would base its conclusions and recommendations with the aim of calling attention to
violations of human rights and international humanitarian law since 29 September 2000, and
encouraging future compliance with international obligations to the extent possible.
105. In making its recommendations, the Commission from the outset emphasizes the need to
understand the context and circumstances in which violations of human rights and breaches of
international humanitarian law have occurred and the situation which has given rise to an
ascending spiral of violence since the end of September 2000, resulting in a serious deterioration
of the human rights situation.
106. The historical context is one of conflict and successive wars (over 50 years), prolonged
occupation (over 30 years) and a protracted peace process (over 7 years). The peoples affected
continue to suffer from a legacy of distrust, humiliation and frustration, only occasionally
relieved by glimmerings of hope, which has all but disappeared of late.
107. The most worrying aspect of the recent escalation of violence leading to the loss of lives,
disabling injuries caused to thousands, and the destruction of property and livelihoods is that the
hopes and expectations created by the peace process are for the moment being smothered by
mutual perceptions ascribing the worst of motives to each other, thus generating intense distrust
and negative and destructive emotions.
108. It is important to emphasize that both the Palestinian people and the people of Israel have
a yearning for peace and security, and that a precondition for achieving a just and durable peace
is for every effort to be made on all sides to ease tensions, calm passions and promote a culture
of peace. This could be helped if the process through which negotiations for peace are pursued
is transparent, so that both Palestinian and Israeli public opinion can be built up in support of the
process and of its eventual outcome. In this way, the mutual confidence upon which a durable
peace must rest could be nurtured.
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 30
109. The Commission was encouraged by the extent to which its own assessments of the main
issues addressed in the report substantially coincided with the most trustworthy third party
views, including those of diplomatic representatives of the European Union and senior
international civil servants with years of experience in the region. Thus, an informed and
impartial consensus reinforces the conclusions and recommendations set forth here.
110. It is with an understanding of the tragic history of the peoples involved, and its
psychological legacy, that our recommendations, aimed at discouraging the persistence of recent
violations of human rights, are set out in three parts. The first part seeks to address the root
causes that need to be resolutely addressed and resolved. The second part lists safeguards and
procedures that need to be observed while negotiations aimed at a comprehensive, just and
durable peace are pursued in good faith. The third part presents a series of measures which can
be taken immediately to deter further violence and to end the destruction of lives, property and
livelihoods. The fourth part is more ambitious, recommending steps for establishing a climate
conducive to the emergence over time of a just and durable peace for the peoples of Israel and
Palestine.
1. Conditions for a just and durable peace
111. A comprehensive, just and durable peace is to be sought through negotiations in
good faith that would end the occupation and establish a dispensation that meets the legitimate
expectations of the Palestinian people concerning the realization of their right to
self-determination and the genuine security concerns of the people of Israel.
112. While noting that it is the Israeli position that occupation has in effect ended in much of
the occupied territories following the agreements reached leading to the establishment of the
Palestinian Authority, as well as the fact that the ultimate disposition of the settlements in those
territories is a matter for negotiation between the parties, it needs to be recognized that, from the
Palestinian perspective, so long as the settlements remain as a substantial presence in the
occupied territories, and Israeli military forces are deployed to protect those settlements, no
meaningful end to occupation can be said to have taken place.
2. Human rights and humanitarian law imperatives
113. The framework for a final peaceful settlement and the process through which it is
pursued should be guided at all stages by respect for human rights and humanitarian law and the
full application of international human rights standards set out in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights and in applicable human rights instruments, in particular those relating to women,
children and refugees.
114. An adequate and effective international presence needs to be established to monitor and
regularly report on compliance by all parties with human rights and humanitarian law standards
in order to ensure full protection of the human rights of the people of the occupied territories.
Such an international mechanism should be established immediately and constituted in such a
manner as to reflect a sense of urgency about protecting the human rights of the Palestinian
people.
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 31
115. Protection needs to be accorded to the people of the occupied territories in strict
compliance with the 1949 Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilians in Time of
War (Fourth Geneva Convention). The High Contracting Parties, individually and collectively,
need urgently to take appropriate and effective action to respond to an emergency situation
calling for measures to alleviate the daily suffering of the Palestinian people flowing from the
severe breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Article One of the Convention places a duty
on the High Contracting Parties “to respect and ensure respect” of the provisions of the
Convention “in all circumstances”. The Commission recalls that the Conference of the High
Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, convened in Geneva on 15 July 1999, in
its concluding statement reaffirmed the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention to the
occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and reiterated the need for full respect
for the provisions of the Convention in that Territory, and further recorded the following
decision:
Taking into consideration the improved atmosphere in the Middle East as a whole, the
Conference was adjourned on the understanding that it will convene again in the light of
consultations on the development of the humanitarian situation in the field.
In view of the serious deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the Territory, the
Commission recommends that the High Contracting Parties should act with urgency to
reconvene the Conference. Such a Conference should establish an effective international
mechanism for taking the urgent measures needed.
3. Urgent measures for the protection of human rights
116. It seems incontestable that the Israeli Security Forces (i.e. the IDF and the Israeli
Police Force) have used excessive and disproportionate force from the outset of the second
intifada, whether their conduct is measured by the standards of international humanitarian law
applicable to armed conflict, the codes of conduct applicable to policing in situations not
amounting to armed conflict or by the open-fire regulations binding upon members of the Israeli
Security Forces. In these circumstances there is an urgent need for the Israeli Security Forces to
ensure that, even in life-threatening situations, great care is taken not to inflict injury on civilians
not directly involved in hostile activities and not to cause disproportionate harm and injury. In
non-life threatening situations, particularly demonstrations, the security forces should comply
fully with the policing codes of 1979 and 1990, as well as their own open-fire regulations. Every
effort should be made by the Government of Israel to ensure that its security forces observe these
rules, that such rules are made effectively known to members of the security forces, that the rules
are not arbitrarily and summarily altered and that it is made clear to the security forces that
violations will result in meaningful disciplinary action being taken against them.
117. The Israeli Security Forces should not resort to the use of rubber-coated bullets and live
ammunition, except as a last resort. Even in life-threatening situations minimum force should be
used against civilians. The Israeli Security Forces should be amply equipped and trained in
non-lethal means of response, particularly for dealing with violent demonstrations. Every effort
should be made to use well-established methods of crowd control.
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 32
118. The use of force by the IDF in the exercise of its role of providing security to settlers is
also subject to international humanitarian law standards, including the Fourth Geneva
Convention, and cannot be used for pre-emptive shooting of unarmed civilians in areas near
settlements or on access and bypass roads leading to settlements or for the destruction of
Palestinian property, including the demolition of homes, the cutting down of trees and the
destruction of farms, and appropriate instructions to that effect should be issued to all concerned.
119. Targeted shooting of individuals by the IDF or by settlers or by sharpshooters of either
side amounts to extrajudicial execution, which is a gross violation of the right to life, constitutes
a breach of international humanitarian law and would attract international criminal
responsibility. Instructions should be urgently issued and disseminated by all the concerned
authorities immediately to end such targeted killing.
120. Complaints regarding the use of lethal force or the excessive use of force which has
caused death or serious injury should be investigated and persons found responsible should be
held accountable and should not enjoy impunity.
121. Immediate and effective measures need to be taken to end closures, curfews and other
restrictions on the movement of people and goods in the occupied territories so that the right to
livelihood and normal economic activities are restored, as also the right of access to education
and health.
122. Immediate and effective measures need to be taken to prevent the destruction of property
in the occupied territories, including the demolition of houses, the cutting down of fruit and other
trees, and the destruction of farms and standing crops by the use of bulldozers and other means.
123. Prohibitions and restrictions derogating from the rights of the Palestinian people,
including economic and social rights, imposed by invoking security considerations must be
specifically justified and are in all cases subject to compliance with international humanitarian
law standards.
124. All concerned authorities must refrain from measures that amount to collective
punishment. This would include withholding transfer to the Palestinian Authority of taxes and
duties collected by the Government of Israel, the imposition of restrictions on movement, or
violent acts of reprisal by either side.
125. Instructions need to be issued immediately by all concerned authorities to security forces
strictly to refrain from using force against or impeding the provision of medical relief and
treatment by those working for the Red Cross, the Red Crescent and Magen David Adom, and in
hospitals, and to ensure protection to ambulances and hospitals. These instructions should
require all concerned to ensure unimpeded access for the sick, the injured and pregnant women
to hospitals.
126. Compensation should be provided to victims of unlawful use of force where this has
caused death, disablement, destruction of property or economic loss.
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 33
127. All impediments to the flow of humanitarian assistance, now even more urgently needed,
should be removed as a matter of urgency and every effort should be made to facilitate the work
of the United Nations and other bodies involved in providing humanitarian assistance and
medical relief.
128. The life and safety of children and their access to education and health care should be
especially protected. Special instructions should be urgently issued prohibiting shooting at
unarmed children and pointing out that such acts would engage international and national
criminal responsibility. Every care should be taken to ensure that children are not involved in
situations where they expose themselves to risk of becoming victims of acts of violence.
129. Steps should be taken to apply article 1D of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status
of Refugees to ensure that a regime of protection under the authority of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees is extended to Palestinian refugees, especially those currently
residing in West Bank and Gaza camps. These refugees have been particularly victimized during
the second intifada, are not now protected by the application of the UNRWA framework and
urgently require international protection on a priority basis.
130. A mutually acceptable comprehensive settlement must deal equitably with the issue of
Palestinian refugees and their rightful claims, including those refugees living outside of the
Palestinian Territories. Such arrangements should be negotiated in a manner that is sensitive to
legitimate Israeli concerns.
131. All restrictions on access to places of worship and all holy sites should be removed and
access to them by all faiths should be respected.
4. Transforming the climate of hostility
132. The Euro-Mediterranean Agreement between the European Communities and their
Member States and the State of Israel declares in article 2 that their relationship is to be based on
respect for human rights and democratic principles which guide their internal and international
policy; this could provide the basis for an initiative by the former to play a more pro-active role
in promoting acceptance and implementation of these recommendations and in supporting the
holding of consultations and dialogue at all levels between the Palestinian people and the Israeli
people.
133. To improve prospects for durable peace, especially given the fundamental gaps in
perception that currently separate the two sides, it is strongly recommended that the Commission
on Human Rights take concrete steps to facilitate dialogue between representative Israelis and
Palestinians at all levels of social interaction, formally and informally. In this regard, the
Commission on Human Rights is urged to convene a consultation between leaders of Israeli and
Palestinian civil society on a people-to-people basis in Geneva at the earliest possible time. In a
similar spirit, to engage Europe more directly in the realities of the crisis the Commission on
Human Rights is urged to convene a round table of representatives of European civil society and
government to discuss steps that can be taken to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people
and to ensure greater respect on both sides for human rights standards and for international
humanitarian law.
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 34
134. In view of the comprehensive denial of human rights and the continuing pattern of
behaviour violative of international humanitarian law, this Commission recommends to the
Commission on Human Rights that it establish a high profile periodic monitoring and reporting
undertaking to consider the degree to which the recommendations of this report to the parties are
being implemented.
Notes
1 The resort to shooting by the Israeli police at Harem-al-Sharif/Temple Mount
on 29 September 2000 that started the second intifada was, by reliable accounts, not a response
to Palestinian gunfire. This raises a serious question about the insistence on the part of the
Government of Israel that lethal weapons have only been used in response to Palestinian
gunfire.
2 Interim Agreement of 28 December 1995, article XIX. Without this Agreement, Israel would
still be bound to ensure civil and political rights that are non-derogable to the population of the
occupied territories. Article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
requires that it protect the rights of all individuals subject to its jurisdiction, that is individuals
under its effective control. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
does not refer to individuals under the State’s jurisdiction, which makes its application to the
population of the occupied territories more doubtful. Israel became a party to the two
International Covenants in 1991.
----
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 35
Annex I
EXTRACT FROM RESOLUTION S-5/1 ADOPTED BY THE
FIFTH SPECIAL SESSION OF THE COMMISSION ON
HUMAN RIGHTS ON 19 OCTOBER 2000
6. Decides
(a) To establish, on an urgent basis, a human rights inquiry commission, whose
membership should be based on the principles of independence and objectivity, to gather and
compile information on violations of human rights and acts which constitute grave breaches of
international humanitarian law by the Israeli occupying Power in the occupied Palestinian
territories and to provide the Commission with its conclusions and recommendation, with the
aim of preventing the repetition of the recent human rights violations.
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 36
Annex II
HUMAN RIGHTS INQUIRY COMMISSION (HRIC)
PROGRAMME OF VISIT TO THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN
TERRITORIES AND ISRAEL
11-18 FEBRUARY 2001
Professor John Dugard, Dr. Kamal Hossain, Professor Richard Falk
The Commissioners were accompanied throughout the mission by a Coordinator, a
Security Adviser, three professional officers, an interpreter and two secretaries. Additional
logistical support and interpretation assistance was provided by the local OHCHR offices,
UNRWA and UNSCO. The Security Adviser was in the area continuously from 7 to
20 February.
Saturday, 10 February (Gaza Strip)
2.45 p.m Arrival at Ben Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv
Drive to Gaza City, Gaza Beach Hotel
Palestinian Authority Headquarters
6-7 p.m. Meeting with the President of the Palestine National Authority
Mr. Yasser Arafat
Gaza Beach Hotel
Sunday, 11 February (Gaza Strip)
Palestinian Authority
9.30-10.15 a.m. Palestinian National Security - General Abdel-Raziq El-Majayda
10.30-11.30 a.m. Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation -
Dr. Ali Sha’ath
11.45 a.m.-12.45 p.m. Ministry of Justice - Mr. Freih Abu Middain (Minister of Justice)
1-2 p.m. Lunch with Minister of Justice
2.45-4 p.m. Consultations at OHCHR Gaza office
4.30-5.15 p.m. Ministry of Social Affairs - Mr. Mahmoud M. Matair
(General Director)
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 37
5.30-6.15 p.m. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society - Dr. Fathi Arafat
(Former Director)
6.30-8.45 p.m. Ministry of Health - Dr. Riyad El-Zanoun (Minister of Health)
Monday, 12 February (Gaza Strip)
Gaza Beach Hotel - Meetings with NGOs
9-9.45 a.m. Palestinian Center for Human Rights - Raji Sourani (Director)
9.45-10.30 a.m. Al-Mezan Center For Human Rights - Issam Younis (Director)
10.30-11.15 a.m. Gaza Community Mental Health Programme - Dr. Eyad El Sarraj
(Director)
Palestinian Authority
11.15 a.m.-12.30 p.m. Ministry of Housing - Abdel Rahman Hammad and
Abde Kareen Abdeen
(Professor Dugard)
11.30 a.m.-12 noon Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees -
Abed El Kareem Ashour
(Professor Falk and Dr. Hossain)
12 noon-12.45 p.m. Palestinian Medical Relief Committees - Abdel Hadi Abu Khosa
Union of Palestinian Medical Committees - Dr. Rabah Mohana
National Palestinian Society for Handicapped - Mohammed Zein
El-Dein
(Professor Falk and Dr. Hossain)
United Nations Special Coordinator’s Office (UNSCO) Headquarters - Collective meeting
with United Nations agencies
1.15-2 p.m. UNSCO - Francis Okello (Deputy Special Coordinator)
World Food Programme (WFP) - Mushtaq Qureshi
UNICEF - Bertrand Bainzel
World Health Organization (WHO) - Dr. Giuseppe Masala
UNESCO - Veronique Dauge
Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs - Nick Harvey
UNSCO Headquarters – Meetings with Palestinian resource persons
3.15-3.50 p.m. Hayder Abdel-Shafi, Commissioner, Palestinian
Independent Commission for Citizens’ Rights
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 38
3.55-4.30 p.m. Ziad Abu Ammer, member of the PLC, academic expert
4.35-5.10 p.m. Abdel-Rahman Abu El-Nasr
(President of Bar Association)
6.30-7.30 p.m. International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
Stephane Jacquier
Al-Deera Hotel Dinner
8.30 p.m. Hosted by Deputy South Africa Representative, Susan Heher
Also present: Peter Hansen, Francis Okello and Stephane Jacquier
Tuesday, 13 February (Gaza Strip and Jerusalem)
UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) Headquarters, Gaza
9-10 a.m. Peter Hansen (Commissioner General),
Karen Koning Abu Ziad (Deputy Commissioner-General),
Mian Qadrud-Din (Chef de Cabinet),
Lionel Brisson (Director of Operations)
(list not exhaustive)
Visits to the sites affected by bombing
10.30 a.m. Stop at Netzarim Junction
11 a.m. Stop at Qarara area, at 640 metres from the Kusufim road,
bulldozed land, demolition of houses and wells, uprooting of trees.
The Commission interviewed Jomad Mossallam Ali Someiri, head
of a household of 23 members. Demolition began at night, during
the period of Ramadan.
11.30 a.m. Khan Yunis Camp - visit to Tufah checkpoint where on the
previous day a number of Palestinians had been injured during
clashes with Israelis. The Commission was caught in an outburst
of crossfire initiated by the Palestinian side, which continued while
the Commission was in the area. During this time, a child of
14 years was shot in the stomach causing extensive liver damage.
The x-ray and the bullet (live .556 round) were recovered by the
Commission. One youth of 20 years was shot in the testes.
12 noon Visit to local UNRWA office - interviews
1 p.m. Visit to Khan Yunis hospital - briefing by the Director, Dr Agha.
Visit to patients recovering from exposure to tear gas
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 39
2 p.m. Stop on the other side of the Kusufim road in Qarara. Meeting
with a family whose house was demolished on 22 November 2000
by the IDF. They only had 10 minutes’ notice and could not
salvage any movable property. Three bulldozers worked for
three days to clear the area. Altogether some 33 families were
affected by demolition.
3.45 p.m. Lunch hosted by UNRWA at United Nations Reporting and
Evacuation Centre, Gaza
UNSCO Headquarters
5-6.45 p.m. Meeting with victims and their families, (organized by Ministry of
Social Affairs, General Workers’ Union, Union of Medical Relief
Committees and Gaza Community Mental Health Programme)
(Dr. Hossain)
5-6.15 p.m. Collective meeting with the press
Suod Abu Ramadan (Journalists Association)
Fayed Abu Shammalah (journalist, BBC)
Rasmalli (Daily newsletter)
(Professors Dugard and Falk)
6.15-6.45 p.m. Meeting with Minister of Environment (Yousif Abu Safya) and
colleagues
(Professor Falk)
Departure for the West Bank - American Colony Hotel, Jerusalem
Wednesday, 14 February (Jerusalem)
UNDP office, Jerusalem
8-9 a.m. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Timothy Rothermel, Special Representative
American Colony Hotel, Jerusalem
10 a.m.-12.30 p.m. Meeting with Israeli NGOs
B’Tselem - Yael Stein (Research Director)
The Alternative Information Center (AIC) - Sergio Yahni
(Director)
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel - Risa Zoll (Attorney and
International Relations)
Hamoked, Center for the Defence of the Individual -
Dalia Kerstein (Director)
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 40
I’lam Center, Media Center for the Palestinian Society in Israel -
Maria de Pina (Public Relations Coordinator) and Falastin Ismail
(Director)
Mosawa Center for Arab Rights in Israel - Sana Hammond (Policy
Advocate)
Public Committee against Torture in Israel - Hanna Friedman
(Executive Director)
Arab Association for Human Rights - Mohammed Zeidan
(Director)
Rabbis for Human Rights - Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom and
Rabbi Arik Ascherman
Physicians for Human Rights - Dr. Hedva Radovanitz
(Executive Director)
Ihijaha Union of Arab Community-Based Associations -
Monica Terazi, Ameer Makhoul ADALAH, The Legal Center for
Arab Minority Rights - Anna Massagee, Jamil Dakwar
12.30-2 p.m. Jonathan Krensky (journalist, Jerusalem Post)
2-3.30 p.m. Lunch break
3.30-4.30 p.m. Avishai Margalit (philosopher)
4.30-5.30 p.m. Mordechai Baron (historian)
5.30-6.30 p.m. Ruth Gavison (law professor)
Thursday, 15 February (Ramallah and Jerusalem)
Grand Park Hotel, Ramallah
10.15-11.15 a.m. H.E. Mr. Rafiq Al-Natsheh (Minister of Labour)
11.30 a.m.-12.15 p.m. Dr. Mustafa Al-Barghouti (political analyst)
12.15-1.15 p.m. Luncheon with Palestine Legislative Council (PLC)
Ahmed Qu’rar - PLC Speaker
Ghazi Hananya - PLC Speaker’s Deputy
Rawhi Fattouh - PLC Secretary
Aazmi Shun’aybi - PLC Member
Qadoura Fares - Chair of Human Rights Committee
Mahmoud Labadi - PLC Director General
1.30-2.15 p.m. Ghassan Faramand (Director, Law Institute, Birzeit
University (BZU))
Abdul-Karim Barghouti, (Dean of Student Affairs, BZU)
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 41
Mudor Kassis, Chairperson, (Department of Philosophy and
Cultural Studies and Coordinator of MA program-Democracy and
Human Rights, BZU)
2.30-3 p.m. Jonathan Kuttab (Al-Quds University) and Mr. Raja Shehadeh
(lawyer)
3-3.40 p.m. Eileen Kuttab (Institute of Women’s Studies, Birzeit University)
3.45-4.25 p.m. Charles Shamas (expert in international humanitarian law,
Centre for Human Rights Enforcement)
4.45-5.25 p.m. Omar Dajani and Stifany Khouri (Negotiations Affairs
Department)
5.30-6.10 p.m. Nader Saed (Development Studies Programme, BZU)
6.15-6.55 p.m. Ali-Jerbawi (Professor of Political Science, Birzeit University)
YMCA House, Jerusalem
9 p.m. Dinner with:
Amiram Goldblum (Settlement Watch, Peace Now Movement)
Mossi Raz (Peace Now Movement)
Eitan Felner (Director of B’tselem)
Friday, 16 February (Jerusalem and Ramallah)
Meetings at the American Colony Hotel - Jerusalem
8-9 a.m. Breakfast meeting with members of the European Union:
Nadim Karkutli and Sylvie Fouet (European Commission)
Lars Adam Rehof and Kim Vinthen (Office of the Representative
of Denmark)
Emelie Träff and Elinor Hammarskjöld (Swedish Consulate
General)
Aurélie Duhamel and Eric Tison (French Consulate General)
Michael Ohrmacht (German Rep. Office)
Eija Rotinen (Office of the Representative of Finland)
Petros Panayotopoulos (Greek Consulate General)
Leo D’Aes (Belgium Consulate General)
Manuel Salazar (Spanish Consul General)
Gianni Ghisi (Italian Consul General)
Birgitta Tazelaar (Office of the Representative of the Netherlands)
Isolde Moylan-McNally (Representative of Ireland)
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 42
9-9.45 a.m. Meeting with Christian and Muslim religious leaders
Adnan Husseini, Head of the Islamic Trust
Sheik Mohamed Hussain, Mufti of Al Aqsa Mosque
Bishop of the Armenian Orthodox Community
Father Theophilos, Greek Orthodox Patriarchate
Meeting at Orient House
10-10.45 a.m. Mr. Faisal Al Husseini (Orient House - Portfolio - PNA)
Grand Park Hotel, Ramallah - Meetings with Palestinian NGOs
12 noon-1 p.m. LAW (Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and
the Environment) - Khader Shkirat (Director), Issa Shawki and
Dianne Luping
1.15-2 p.m. Defense for Children International, Palestine - George Abu-Zolof
(Director) with Adam Hanieh, Khaled Kuzmar, Simon Awad and
Ibrahim Al Masri; Badil Resource Center - Ingrid Jaradat
(Director)
2-2.30 p.m. Lunch break - Grand Park Hotel
2.30-5 p.m. Al-Haq - Mohamed Abu-Harthieh (Director)
General Union For Disabled Persons - Ziad Amro (Director)
Jerusalem Center for Human Rights, Jerusalem Legal Aid Center -
Ihad Abu Ghosh (Director) and Haifa Alyssa
Democracy and Workers’ Rights Center - Mazen Barghouty
(Director)
Al-Dameer for Political Prisoners - Khalida Jarrar (Director)
Women’s Center for Legal Aid and Counseling - Maha Abu
Dayya (Director)
Women’s Studies Centre
Mandela Institute for Political Prisoners - Ahmed Al-Sayyad
(Director)
During the afternoon, two meetings were held simultaneously, with
one Commissioner attending one meeting and two Commissioners the
second meeting.
Saturday, 17 February (Hebron/Bethlehem/Beit Jala/Jerusalem)
8-9 a.m. Travel to Hebron
9-11 a.m. Briefing by members of Temporary International Presence (TIP) in
Hebron
Director of TIPH
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 43
Henrik Lunden (Senior Press and Information Officer)
Velérie Petignat Wright (Head Staff Director)
Angélique Eijpe (Legal Adviser)
11-11.30 a.m. Meeting with Mr. Mustafa Al Natsha, Mayor of Hebron
11.30 a.m.-12.15 p.m. Travel to Bethlehem
12.15-2 p.m. Visit to Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem
Aida Basic Girls’ School (UNRWA) and two shelled houses
Richard Cook (Director UNRWA Operations, West Bank)
Brett Lodge (Operations Officer, UNRWA)
Husni Shahwan (Area Officer for Hebron, UNRWA)
Yahia Daage (UNRWA teacher)
Makarem Awad (Relief and Social Service Department, UNRWA)
2-3.30 p.m. Return to Jerusalem, brief lunch
American Colony Hotel
3.30-4.15 p.m. Said Zedani (Director of Palestinian Independent Commission for
Citizens’ Rights)
4.15-5.30 p.m. Collective meeting with journalists
Sam’man Khoury (Palestinian Media Center)
Nabeel Khateeb (Journalist, Director of Media Institute, Birzeit
University) with the participation of Dr. Said Zedani
Nabhan Krisha (Palestinian Medical Center) and Akram Haney
(Editor-in-Chief, Al Ayyam Daily) were unable to participate as
they were stopped at checkpoints.
6 p.m. Old City of Jerusalem
Consultations at hotel
Sunday, 18 February (Jerusalem and Tel Aviv)
American Colony Hotel, Jerusalem
9-10 a.m. Mr. Ilan Pappe (Historian)
Avia Hotel, Tel Aviv
12 noon-1 p.m. General (Ret.) Shlomo Gazit
1.30 p.m. Check-in at Ben Gurion Airport for 16:15 departure
E/CN.4/2001/121
page 44
Annex 1HE
POPULATION MAP OF THE WEST BANK ND THE GAZ STRIP
November 2000
j'"''
l i:
,..
0 ;
I i Ii ': ,
I I. 1: t
6 l ;
I
I I
: 4
[/
' I u ;
I.i p7
3 I I I I I II
I,-1
'
1
i 7. I
I I p i '
{' : I
l: sf
I
s. A__A_= =
I
I
'
E
3l
•• •
•• • -.----@
--@
i=
_, l I i;
1.' elh
• Ii I! wi'
Source: PEACE NOW: The Settlements Watch Team, Israel.
The boundaries shown do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.
UNITED
NATIONS E
Economic and Social
Council
Distr.
GENERAL
E/CN.4/2001/30
21 March 2001
Original: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Fifty-seventh session
Item 8 of the provisional agenda
QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE
OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES, INCLUDING PALESTINE
Update to the mission report on Israel’s violations of human rights
in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, submitted by
Giorgio Giacomelli, Special Rapporteur, to the Commission on
Human Rights at its fifth special session
1. In response to the grave human rights situation accompanying the escalation of violent
confrontations in the occupied Palestinian territories in late September 2000, the
Special Rapporteur undertook a mission from 11 to 15 October 2000 in order to assess the
situation on the ground. He consulted many interlocutors from Israeli and Palestinian NGOs,
international organizations, United Nations agencies, Palestinian Authority representatives and
survivors of those killed, as well as individuals wounded in the confrontations.
2. Following a request made on behalf of the Council of Arab Permanent Representatives
of Members of the League of Arab States, the Commission on Human Rights subsequently
convened its fifth special session from 17 to 19 October 2000 to discuss the grave and massive
violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people by the Israeli occupying Power. The
Commission’s decision to convene the special session provided the opportunity for the
Special Rapporteur to present his mission report (E/CN.4/S-5/3) to the Commission’s attention
as a reference for its deliberations.
3. On 19 October 2000, the Commission, at its fifth special session, adopted
resolution S-5/1, which the Economic and Social Council endorsed in its decision 2000/311
on 22 November 2000.
GE.01-11992 (E)
E/CN.4/2001/30
page 2
4. Consistent with that resolution, the High Commissioner for Human Rights undertook a
visit to the Middle East from 8 to 16 November 2000. On 19 December 2000, the Chairman
of the Commission on Human Rights appointed three eminent persons to a human rights
commission of inquiry, which was dispatched to the occupied Palestinian territories
from 10 to 18 February 2001 to investigate human rights violations and breaches of international
humanitarian law. The Commission has before it the reports of both the High Commissioner
(E/CN.4/2001/114) and the commission of inquiry (E/CN.4/2001/121).
5. As has been the case for this Special Rapporteur since his appointment in 1999, the
Israeli authorities have not cooperated with the thematic rapporteurs who have asked to visit the
country since the adoption of resolution S-5/1. On 2 January 2001, Ambassador Yakov Levy
informed the thematic rapporteurs: “Israel will not cooperate in the implementation of the
operative part of the resolution”.
6. The Special Rapporteur draws the Commission’s attention, once again, to the
determinations of the treaty bodies reaffirming that Israel has maintained “effective control” in
all of the occupied Palestinian territories and, therefore, holds treaty obligations to implement
human rights there.1 While this interpretation has not changed, it is worth noting that, since the
Commission’s special session, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has
reiterated its position to the Government of Israel, once again requesting that it submit
information on the implementation of economic, social and cultural rights as required under the
Covenant.2 In order to facilitate Israel’s fulfilment of this obligation, the Committee has
scheduled to review Israel’s belated report at a special meeting during its forthcoming
twenty-fifth session, on 4 May 2001.
7. The present report is to be read in conjunction with the reports that the
Special Rapporteur submitted to the Commission at its fifty-sixth session (E/CN.4/2000/25) and
the report he submitted following his mission to the occupied Palestinian territories in
October 2000 (E/CN.4/S-5/3). The Special Rapporteur stands by his previous reports and advice
to the Commission. In the meantime, the Special Rapporteur has sought out, received, compiled
and analysed relevant information from the prolific record produced by various media, among
them sources on the ground, the press, and international organizations, including United Nations
agencies, human rights bodies and Member States. The continuing grave and deteriorating
conditions since the special session reaffirm the validity of the framework and emphasis of the
Special Rapporteur’s analysis.
8. The Israeli military have continued to use excessive force in the form of live ammunition,
rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas against civilian demonstrators and bystanders.3 This
disproportionate and unrestrained use of force has increased the Palestinian civilian death toll
and injuries dramatically, reportedly killing some 400 Palestinians since 28 September 2000 and
injuring as many as 14,000.4
9. The Special Rapporteur encourages the Commission to take into consideration the
continuation and escalation of Israel’s previously reported violations of the occupied
population’s human rights. However, the Special Rapporteur is of the view that a detailed
recounting of the statistical data here would be an elusive undertaking that would not essentially
alter the message the Special Rapporteur has already presented to the Commission. Rather, the
E/CN.4/2001/30
page 3
Special Rapporteur believes that the Commission’s deliberations would be served best by a
presentation of some aspects of the human rights situation that have come to light since the
special session, particularly in the past few weeks. These are discussed below under the
following headings:
A. Emerging patterns;
B. Cumulative and exponential consequences of ongoing violations;
C. Developments in the political context.
A. Emerging patterns
10. Certain violations, though not new to the human rights landscape of the occupied
Palestinian territories, have graduated from sporadic or incidental occurrences to a noteworthy
level of regularity.
Extrajudicial executions
11. Since October, radio and print media have reported Israeli military officers admitting
that the army has operationalized a policy of extrajudicial execution against Palestinians it
suspects of committing attacks against Jewish settlers or Israeli soldiers in the occupied
Palestinian territories. As Israeli spokespersons have explained, “most operations were carried
out by snipers”.5 However, Israeli extrajudicial execution has involved the assassination of at
least 13 individuals targeted by way of ambush, employing undercover units, including
mostaravim (gunmen posing as Arabs), and heavy weapons, including helicopter-mounted
artillery.
12. The relevant humanitarian law standards provide that, in all circumstances, persons
accused of illegal acts shall benefit from the safeguards of a proper trial and defence.6
Humanitarian law considers such wilful killing to be within the category of grave breaches, as
stipulated in the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time
of War (art. 147)7 and obliges High Contracting Parties to prosecute those responsible (art. 146).
Rights to housing and property
13. House and property demolition has emerged as a consistent pattern. Between
September 2000 and February 2001, Israeli forces destroyed at least 773 family homes
(180 completely).8 In some instances, occupation forces have targeted Palestinian residential
areas with artillery, as in the areas of Netzarim, Khan Younis, Rafah and Dayr al-Balah, in the
Gaza Strip, and in the Old City of Hebron, Beit Jala, Bayt Sahur, Bethlehem, Jericho and
al-Bireh, in the West Bank. The Israeli destruction of Palestinian agricultural lands and crops
has escalated dramatically throughout the occupied Palestinian territories. Israeli sources claim
that house and farm destruction serves the security needs of Jewish settlers and settlements.9
However, this practice violates the Fourth Geneva Convention’s prohibitions against collective
punishment (art. 33) and illegal acts of destruction (art. 53), as well as the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights (art. 25).
E/CN.4/2001/30
page 4
The right to food
14. According to United Nations statistics, the poverty rate across the occupied Palestinian
territories has increased since the end of September 2000, with the number of Palestinians living
on less than US$ 2 per day growing from 650,000 to 1 million. The combined consequences of
Israel’s intensified policy of closure have affected civilian livelihoods and raise concern over
Israel’s denial of Palestinians’ right to food.10 The recent humanitarian response, however
inadequate to meet current needs, is an indicator of the crisis. As of November 2000, the
World Food Programme (WFP) drew on its emergency food reserves, and subsequently carried
out an emergency operation (EMOP) to distribute wheat flour to 13,000 families (outside the
refugee camps) newly impoverished by the Israeli closure and economic siege. UNRWA is also
struggling to provide basic food supplies to the needy refugee population and has appealed for
US$ 37.2 million in emergency aid, including food aid.
15. On 18 December 2000, Physicians for Human Rights, an Israeli NGO, petitioned the
High Court of Israel to order the Minister of Defence and the Israel Defence Forces to ensure the
immediate and regular supply of food and medicine to Palestinian residents of the territories.11
At the time of writing, WFP is urgently seeking funds for a three-month EMOP, following a
weak donor response to its appeal at the end of last year.12
Torture, prisons, detentions and juvenile justice
16. While Israel’s alleged use of torture and prison conditions, in general, remain of concern
to the human rights community, the Special Rapporteur takes note of the re-emergence of
Israel’s practice of administrative detention and the detention of juveniles. Recent cases of
physical abuse under Israeli detention include Palestinians held for reasons of security, including
some as young as 16 years old.13
17. Israeli Military Order 132 allows for the arrest and detention of Palestinian children aged
from 12 to14 years. At the beginning of the current intifada, some 70 Palestinian minors were
reportedly detained in Israeli prisons. Since then, this number has increased to more than 250.
These children range in age from 14 to 17 years, of whom at least 105 are from Jerusalem.14
This category of violation involves subjecting juveniles to detention with adult prisoners and
criminal convicts. Such practices contravene provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the
Child, the Convention against Torture and Other Forms of Degrading Treatment or Punishment,
the Fourth Geneva Convention, the United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles
Deprived of Their Liberty, and the Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile
Justice.
Press freedom
18. Interference with freedom of expression and the press has arisen since the
Special Rapporteur’s report of March 2000.15 It has taken the form of Israeli soldiers and settlers
carrying out physical attacks on journalists, destruction of their property, arbitrary arrest and
other forms of interference through the use of force and abuse of power. As of February 2001,
such assaults, ranging from beatings to shooting with live bullets and shrapnel, resulted in at
E/CN.4/2001/30
page 5
least 39 journalists being injured, including 7 foreign journalists. Administrative interference
with journalistic activities has involved the Israel press authority’s arbitrary cancellation of press
credentials.16
B. Cumulative and exponential consequences of ongoing violations
19. The violations of the civilian Palestinian population’s individual and collective rights
largely replicate the patterns of Israel’s behaviour already discussed in the Special Rapporteur’s
two previous reports. However, the Commission should be aware that, in certain sectors, these
ongoing violations have achieved a “critical mass” and pose interrelated consequences.
Economic rights
20. Israeli officials have openly admitted a strategy of restricting the Palestinian economy
with the intent and purpose of effecting social control.17 Israel’s specific tactics affecting
Palestinian economic rights remain as previously reported,18 with the added consequences of
Israel’s withholding of tax revenues due to the Palestinian Authority.
21. In the fourth quarter of 2000, Palestinians in the occupied territories have experienced the
most severe Israeli-imposed closure since 1967, with 72 days of lost labour. Estimated wage
losses alone amount to US$ 8.6 million for each of 105 closure days from 9 October 2000 to the
end of January 2001, or a total of US$ 907.3 million in wages lost to Palestinian labourers for
that period. The Palestinian unemployment rate has jumped from 11 per cent, before the onset of
the current crisis, to 38 per cent (243,000 workers) over the period October 2000-January 2001.
Israeli restrictions on civilian movement within the occupied Palestinian territories have
dramatically increased transport time and costs for Palestinians on most regularly travelled
routes, hampering commerce.19 It is reported that the cumulative effects of Israel’s strategy to
cripple the Palestinian economy has cost the occupied territories 50.9 per cent of their GNP,
with construction, commerce and the agriculture/fishing sectors being the hardest hit.20 As a
result, the poverty rate for Palestinians has risen from 21.1 per cent, in September 2000,
to 31.8 per cent, at the end of 2001.
22. The spending of reserves is an important indicator of the economic impact. Both
household savings and public sector reserves have been depleted. The Palestinian Authority
risks quadrupling its anticipated deficit by the end of 2000 to US$ 100 million,21 making Israel’s
punitive withholding of some US$ 50 million in Palestinian Authority tax revenues all the more
crushing.22 According to United Nations sources, the impact of Israel’s policies in terms of total
estimated income losses for the Palestinian economy are many times greater than the total
amount of international donor assistance in the same period.23 Available statistics on economic
losses do not include the costs of properties destroyed or damaged by Israel, nor the high cost of
health services for the treatment of those Palestinians wounded and disabled in confrontations
with occupation forces.
E/CN.4/2001/30
page 6
Children’s rights
23. The effect of human rights violations on children is both disproportionate and
cumulative. From 29 September to end February 2001, Israeli settlers and soldiers killed
approximately 145 Palestinian children under 18, of whom at least 59 were under 15 years of
age.24 An overwhelming 72 per cent of child deaths have resulted from gunshot wounds in the
upper body (head and chest), which may indicate a “shoot-to-kill” policy.25 The Israeli
forces have injured more than 2,000 Palestinian children, over 80 over cent of them with
live ammunition or rubber-coated metal bullets. It is too early to know the number of
permanent disabilities that have been caused by the current violence; one estimate indicates
that 1,500 Palestinians have been permanently disabled, many of them children.26
24. In addition to the health consequences for those directly injured by the use of force and
firearms, a larger group is prevented from realizing their right to education. Educators, health
workers and human rights organizations have reported that many of the 865,540 registered
schoolchildren in the occupied Palestinian territories are now suffering high levels of
post-traumatic stress disorder and related symptoms as a result of the ongoing violence.27 With
Israeli forces having damaged 30 schools and forced 41 to close,28 the achievements in
Palestinian education resulting from the considerable efforts of the Palestinian Authority and the
international community are now at risk of reversal.
Right to health
25. Amid the prevailing threats to Palestinians’ right to life, the Palestinian health system
risks collapse, but for the efforts of defenders of the right to health, including medical personnel
and relief workers. The nature and sheer scale of the current medical emergency is characterized
by live ammunition and artillery injuries, multiple-organ damage and grave case-management
problems relating to the long-term treatment and rehabilitation required for the 0.5 per cent of
the Palestinian population stricken. Israel’s closure and siege of Palestinian areas and movement
restrictions undermine the entire primary health-care system, including immunization and other
preventive programmes, as well as secondary and tertiary health services. Moreover, Israel’s
outright damage and destruction of health facilities has involved the injuring and killing of health
workers, the destruction of ambulances, utility cuts and artillery strikes on hospitals.29
Territorial and social fragmentation
26. Israel’s territorial fragmentation of the occupied Palestinian territories, which the
Special Rapporteur has reported previously, is significantly more severe now, separating
Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, segmenting the Gaza Strip into four parts30 and
breaking up the West Bank into some 60 discontiguous zones by blocking the movement of
people and goods among them. Since 6 October, the Israeli occupation authorities have closed
the “safe passage” between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. It has been estimated that, in the
current circumstances, some 900,000 Palestinians, or 30 per cent of the population of the
occupied territories, have been negatively affected by Israeli restrictions on civilian freedom of
movement.31
E/CN.4/2001/30
page 7
27. The social and cultural impact of territorial fragmentation does not lend itself easily to a
summary in numerical terms, but the scenario in that area is no less severe than that depicted in
relation to the economic rights data. The toll of Palestinian deaths and injuries resulting from
Israel’s excessive use of force has had cumulative and exponential social effects.32 By all
accounts, this has demoralized the civilian population, on the one hand, but has further
galvanized Palestinian determination to resist Israeli occupation, with understandable
consequences in the political domain.
C. Developments in the political context
28. In his reporting to the Commission, the Special Rapporteur has referred to some of the
uncertainties that have created a limbo in the environment in which these human rights issues
are played out. While human rights, as such, provide their own independent criteria, their
implementation has to be placed in their political context. What is new vis-à-vis the
Special Rapporteur’s previous reports, and has emerged only a matter of days ago, is that the
situation has taken a new turn, as various parties have concluded that the Oslo process is to be
put aside.33 While both parties have expressed a desire to continue the dialogue, the polarization
of their positions indicates that the conflict, with its concomitant human rights violations, is
bound to continue.
29. It is in this context that the use of force has escalated on both sides. The roles and
responsibilities on the Palestinian side, while outside this Special Rapporteur’s mandate, remain
unclear and difficult to ascertain. This is particularly so in the light of the ambiguities in the
Oslo Agreements and their implementation with regard to functions of the Palestinian civil
police and security bodies.
30. New developments at the political level, greater polarization between the Israeli and
Palestinian societies and increased resort to violent and destructive force in the absence of a
peace process characterize the current trend. This presents a backdrop for drafting a new chapter
in the analysis of the political context in which, realistically speaking, the human rights standards
are to be applied.
Conclusions and recommendations
31. Some interlocutors had expressed the hope that the final collapse of unproductive
negotiation efforts under the Oslo process would inspire a new framework for a peace process
grounded in human rights and international law. That hope seems to have given way to a sense
that the present conflict will continue.34 This paradigm shift makes the international efforts at
implementing human rights all the more imperative. In this report of the Special Rapporteur’s
findings, it remains fitting to point out that only one of the Special Rapporteur’s specific
recommendations for urgent action has been carried out: establishing a speedy and objective
mechanism of inquiry. The remaining recommended actions remain untried.
32. Among those remains the need to apply in earnest the international standards for policing
and law enforcement. These standards are part and parcel of the human rights framework to be
applied in the remedial measures required to respect, protect, promote and fulfil all human rights.
The Special Rapporteur notes the apparent lack of such a civil law-enforcement function among
E/CN.4/2001/30
page 8
Israel’s forces in the occupied Palestinian territories. While this observation may not reflect a
new trend, the militarized situation since September 2000 makes more urgent the need to train
and discipline forces on the ground according to international standards. The goal of
maintaining law and order underscores the need for demilitarization, especially in the light of the
escalating resort to military tactics on both sides.
33. The Special Rapporteur also would like to re-emphasize the importance and urgency of
international protection for the Palestinian people in the occupied territories. In so doing, he
endorses the recommendations made by the High Commissioner for Human Rights in her
report on her visit to the occupied territories (E/CN.4/2001/114) and Security Council
resolution 1322 (2000) of 7 October 2000 to that effect.
34. The Special Rapporteur recognizes that, as of today, the purpose of protection enshrined
in humanitarian law, in particular in the Hague Regulations and the Fourth Geneva Convention,
has not been served in the occupied Palestinian territories. It has to be noted that, while the
principal responsibility lies with the occupying Power, all the other High Contracting Parties
also bear responsibility for ensuring respect for these provisions. The Special Rapporteur,
therefore, welcomes the General Assembly’s initiative relating to effective application of the
Fourth Geneva Convention and looks forward to the follow-up pledged by the High Contracting
Parties at their conference on 15 July 1999. To this end, the Special Rapporteur wishes to
acknowledge that there remains a range of options available to ensure respect through collective
action, joint action and bilateral measures under the Fourth Geneva Convention, as well as the
Charter of the United Nations.
35. The Special Rapporteur remains convinced that the current conflict is rooted in
accumulated grievances and resentment at the continuing violations of human rights and
humanitarian norms under Israeli occupation. He is particularly concerned that any progress at
confidence-building achieved between the two sides may be irretrievably lost. This signals the
urgent need to adopt measures towards restoring confidence and rekindling hope in a durable
peace. Indeed, the Special Rapporteur stresses, once again, that international law should be
respected not only for obvious juridical and ethical reasons, but in the interest of the parties
themselves. In fact, international law and, in particular, human rights and humanitarian norms
form the indispensable foundation of any just and lasting solution.
Notes
1 See the concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
(CERD/C/304/Add.45) and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(E/C.12/1/Add.27), as cited also in the Special Rapporteur’s report E/CN.4/S-5/3
of 17 October 2000, para. 6.
2 Letter of the Chairperson of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
Virginia Bonoan-Dandan to Mr. David Peleg, the Permanent Representative of Israel to the
United Nations Office and Specialized Agencies at Geneva, 1 December 2000.
----
E/CN.4/2001/30
page 9
3 Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, United States Department of State, “Israel”
and “Occupied Territories”, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2000 (Washington:
GPO, February 2001).
4 As of 15 March 2001. These figures reflect the number of injured Palestinians treated in
health facilities, as reported by the Palestinian Ministry of Health (West Bank) and the
Palestinian Center for Human Rights (Gaza). Health, Development, Information and Policy
Institute (HDIP) Web site: www.hdip.org. These figures are regularly subject to change.
5 “Israel admits ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy against Palestinian militants”, Agence France
Presse, 21 December 2000; “IDF source: seeking out terrorists is effective”, The Jerusalem
Post, 21 December 2000; Roni Shaked, “Elimination of another PA official: senior Fatah man
assassinated”, Yedioth Ahronoth, 1 January 2001, p. 8; Human Rights Watch, “End liquidations
of Palestinian suspects Israel” (New York, 29 January 2001).
6 Articles 105 and 146.
7 Article 147 states: “Grave breaches … shall be those involving any of the following acts, if
committed against persons or property protected by the present Convention: wilful killing,
torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments, wilfully causing great suffering
or serious injury to body or health, unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of a
protected person, compelling a protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power, or
wilfully depriving a protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial prescribed in the
present Convention, taking of hostages and extensive destruction and appropriation of property,
not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.”
8 Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights Report (February 2001) (www.mezan.org).
9 Phil Reeves, “Israeli destruction of homes fuels hatred in Gaza”, The Independent,
7 December 2000.
10 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, article 11. Israel ratified the
Covenant in 1991.
11 Moshe Reinfeld, “Doctors demand free flow of food and medicine to territories: Physicians
for Human Rights asks for High Court’s intervention”, Ha’aretz, 20 December 2000.
12 World Food Programme, WFP Emergency Report No. 9, 2 March 2001 (revised
on 5 March 2001), Web site: www.wfp.org.
13 Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association, “Report on Palestinian
Prisoners as of 29 September 2000” (based on visits by Addameer’s attorney Sahar Francis to
Israeli interrogation centres), 1 November 2000; see also LAW Society press releases
of 30 November 2000 and 23 January 2001.
14 Defence for Children International/Palestine Section, press release 0001/01, 15 January 2001.
E/CN.4/2001/30
page 10
15 E/CN.4/2000/25 of 15 March 2000.
16 LAW Society, “Attacking journalists: Israeli forces violate Palestinian right to freedom of
expression”, press release, 19 February 2001. HDIP notes 44 cases, op. cit., citing Al-Mezan
report on Israeli attacks on journalists (25 November 2000) and al-Ayyam newspaper,
26 January 2001.
17 “Israel targets Palestinian economy”, Ha’arezt (English edition) 17 November 2000; “Israel
blockade strangles those who survive: the Jewish State is suffocating the Palestinian territories
through a tight economic blockade in an attempt to erode the will of its people”, Reuters,
29 November 2000; Lee Hockstader, “Sanctions suffocating Gaza’s fragile economy”,
Washington Post, 6 December 2000, p. A01.
18 E/CN.4/2000/25, pp. 10-11, 14-16.
19 United Nations Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories (UNSCO), “The impact on
the Palestinian economy of confrontations, mobility restrictions and border closures,
1 October 2000 to 31 January 2001”, (Gaza: UNSCO, 25 February 2001), p. 3.
20 Ibid., p. 6.
21 Ibid., p. 14.
22 “Waking up to life under Sharon”, The Economist (17–23 March 2001), p. 51. Related
PA tax and customs revenues are currently at US$ 45 million per month, or about half
the rate during the period January-September 2000. Figures provided by IMF,
November 2000-February 2001, in UNSCO, op. cit., p. 12.
23 United Nations sources estimate losses for the period at $1,150,700,000, of which
$907,300,000 derive from losses in domestic output/income and $243,400,000 from losses in
labour earnings in Israel. UNSCO, op. cit, p. 9.
24 As of 9 March 2001. Palestinian Ministry of Health, www.pna.org/moh/Alaqsa stat0903.htm.
25 Amira Hass, “Don’t shoot till you can see they’re over the age of 12”, Haaretz,
20 November 2000.
26 HDIP, Health Care Under Siege II, HDIP, op. cit.
27 For example, see Al-Mezan, “The destruction of civilian properties and the comprehensive
closure of the occupied Palestinian territories” (Gaza: Al-Mezan, 9 November 2000); Interview
with Dr. Samir Qouta, Gaza Community Mental Health Project, Gaza, 27 November 2000, cited
in Save the Children, “Children’s rights to education in Palestine” (15 March 2001).
28 Palestinian Ministry of Education report (3 November 2000) and Al-Mezan report on
education (8 December 2000), cited in HDIP, op. cit., www.hdip.org.
E/CN.4/2001/30
page 11
29 HDIP, Health Care Under Siege II, HDIP, op. cit.
30 Since 23 February 2001, Israeli forces divided the Gaza Strip into four zones: (i) between
ash-Shuhada Crossing to the south and Bait Hanun to the north, (ii) between ash-Shuhada
Crossing to the north and Kufar Darum to the south, (iii) between Kufar Darum to the north and
Rafah to the south, and (iv) the Mawasi area, between Khan Yunis and Rafah.
31 UNSCO report, op. cit., p. 11.
32 “Further deterioration of normal societal functions”, Closure Update No. 33 (Gaza:
Palestinian Center for Human Rights, 22 February 2001), pp. 7-10.
33 Lee Hockstader, “Jerusalem is ‘indivisible’, Sharon says: Camp David concessions are called
‘null and void’”, Washington Post, 8 February 2001.
34 See Palestinian public opinion poll conducted on 21-24 December by the Jerusalem Media
and Communications Center, released 26 December 2000.
-----
UNITED
NATIONS E
Economic and Social
Council
Distr.
GENERAL
E/CN.4/2002/32
6 March 2002
Original: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Fifty-eighth session
Item 8 of the provisional agenda
QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE
OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES, INCLUDING PALESTINE
Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights,
Mr. John Dugard, on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian
territories occupied by Israel since 1967
GE.02-11269 (E) 110302
E/CN.4/2002/32
page 2
CONTENTS
Paragraphs Page
Executive summary ............................................................................................................ 3
I. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................... 1 - 6 4
II. THE MANDATE OF THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ............ 7 - 10 5
III. OCCUPATION AND TERRORISM ......................................... 11 - 15 7
IV. VIOLENCE AND LOSS OF LIFE ............................................ 16 - 22 9
V. SETTLEMENTS ........................................................................ 23 - 27 12
VI. BUFFER ZONES ....................................................................... 28 13
VII. DEMOLITION OF HOUSES AND DESTRUCTION
OF PROPERTY ......................................................................... 29 - 32 13
VIII. RESTRICTIONS ON FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT ............... 33 - 34 14
IX. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DISTRESS................................... 35 - 38 14
X. REFUGEES ................................................................................ 3 9 15
XI. CHILDREN ................................................................................ 40 - 47 16
XII. CHILDREN AND THE ADMINISTRATION
OF JUSTICE .............................................................................. 48 - 53 18
XIII. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ..................... 54 - 58 19
E/CN.4/2002/32
page 3
Executive summary
The Special Rapporteur’s interpretation of his mandate, as being to investigate violations
of international humanitarian law and human rights in the context of military occupation, has
been challenged by the Government of Israel in document E/CN.4/2002/129. The Special
Rapporteur requests the Commission to give a ruling on this matter.
There are different perceptions of the cause of the violence in the Palestinian Territory.
Palestinians see the military occupation of their territory as the principal cause of the present
crisis. Israelis, on the other hand, see terrorism as the cause of the crisis. Terrorism is a scourge
that threatens Israelis and Palestinians alike and every effort should be made to bring terrorism to
an end, whether it is perpetrated by instruments of the State, by organized non-State groups or by
individuals. At the same time, it is important to stress that the main explanation for the acts of
terrorism committed by Palestinians against Israelis is the military occupation. It is this
occupation that is responsible for most of the violations of humanitarian law and human rights in
the region.
Since the start of the second intifada, in September 2000, nearly 1,000 Palestinians
have been killed and about 17,300 injured. More than 260 Israelis have been killed and
about 2,400 injured. Most of those killed and injured have been civilians, many of them
children. Violence is escalating rapidly in the region as both parties to the conflict employ more
dangerous weaponry and show more determination in causing harm to life and property. In this
situation, initiatives for a ceasefire or a cessation of violence as a precondition for the resumption
of talks between Israelis and Palestinians seem doomed to fail. Only an effective international
presence in the region with the power to monitor and reduce the use of violence can achieve this
goal. The Special Rapporteur therefore believes that there is a need for an international
peacekeeping mission, structured and composed to meet the circumstances of the region.
Settlements are an ever-visible and aggravating sign of occupation and of Israel’s illegal
conduct as an Occupying Power. Although Israel has undertaken not to establish new
settlements, the existing settlements are expanding both in terms of land and settlers.
The demolition of houses in the Palestinian Territory continues unabated. In the
Gaza Strip alone, over 400 houses have been completely destroyed and 200 seriously damaged,
leaving over 5,000 persons homeless. Moreover, the creation of buffer zones for bypass roads
and settlements has resulted in the “sweeping” of large areas of agricultural land by bulldozers.
Israel’s restrictions on freedom of movement, resulting from checkpoints, have caused
great personal, social and economic hardships to civilians in no way involved in the conflict.
They constitute collective punishment of the kind prohibited by article 33 of the Fourth Geneva
Convention.
Children have suffered greatly in the present crisis. Every effort should be made by the
Israeli military authorities to ensure that the safety and welfare of schools and schoolchildren are
respected. It is further recommended that an investigation be conducted into allegations of
inhuman treatment of children under the military justice system and that immediate steps be
taken to remedy this situation.
E/CN.4/2002/32
page 4
I. INTRODUCTION
1. The current Special Rapporteur, John Dugard (South Africa), was appointed in July 2001.
In August 2001 and in February 2002 the Special Rapporteur undertook missions to the
Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel. Meetings were held with Palestinian and Israeli
non-governmental organizations, Palestinian and Israeli interlocutors, international agencies in
the region and members of the Palestinian Authority, including the President of the
Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat. Unfortunately, the Special Rapporteur was not able to
meet with Israeli authorities as the Government of Israel made it clear at the outset when he was
appointed that it would not cooperate because of objections it has to the terms of his mandate.
(This matter is discussed below.) On these missions, the Special Rapporteur met with
interlocutors in the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem and the West Bank. In August 2001 the Special
Rapporteur visited Rafah, Beit Jala and Shu’afat to see the destruction caused to houses and
property, and Jericho to examine the manner in which the city had been closed by means of
trenches cutting off access roads. In February 2002, he again visited Rafah to see the house
demolitions carried out by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in January 2002.
2. In February 2002 the Special Rapporteur made a special study of the impact of the
present crisis on children. Meetings were accordingly held with education officials of the
Ministry of Education of the Palestinian Authority, school principals and teachers, university
authorities and non-governmental organizations concerned with the treatment of child prisoners.
The Special Rapporteur visited the University of Bir Zeit and the Al-Khader school in the district
of Bethlehem and interviewed juveniles who testified about ill-treatment they had been subjected
to when they had been arrested and detained by the Israeli authorities.
3. While the Special Rapporteur was in Gaza on 10 and 11 February 2002, Gaza City was
subjected to heavy bombing, which caused extensive damage to offices of the United Nations
Special Coordinator (UNSCO) in Gaza. The Special Rapporteur was thus able to experience at
first hand the military assaults to which the Palestinian people are regularly subjected.
4. In February 2001, the Special Rapporteur visited the area as the chairperson of the
Human Rights Inquiry Commission established pursuant to Commission on Human Rights
resolution S-5/1 of 19 October 2000. The report of this Commission is contained in
document E/CN.4/2001/121.
5. The present report is based on the visits made to the area in August 2001 and
February 2002, consultation and discussion with persons in and outside the area, the study of
materials on the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and wide media coverage.
6. In October 2001 the Special Rapporteur submitted a report, based on his visit to the
region in August 2001, to the Third Committee of the General Assembly. The report, contained
in document A/56/440, was duly considered by the Third Committee in November 2001.
On 7 December 2001 the Government of Israel submitted a response to this report: see
document E/CN.4/2002/129. The criticisms contained in this response and the Special
Rapporteur’s reply to these criticisms are dealt with in the present report.
E/CN.4/2002/32
page 5
II. THE MANDATE OF THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR
7. The mandate of the Special Rapporteur is to be found in two resolutions of the
Commission on Human Rights. In resolution 1993/2, section A, the Commission decided to
appoint a special rapporteur with the following mandate:
(a) To investigate Israel’s violations of the principles and bases of international law,
international humanitarian law and the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel
since 1967;
(b) To receive communications, to hear witnesses, and to use such modalities of
procedure as he may deem necessary for his mandate;
(c) To report, with his conclusions and recommendations, to the Commission on
Human Rights at its future sessions, until the end of the Israeli occupation of those territories.
In resolution 2001/7, the Commission welcomed the recommendations contained in the reports
of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (E/CN.4/2001/114) and the Human Rights Inquiry
Commission (E/CN.4/2001/121), urged the Government of Israel to implement them and
requested the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories
occupied since 1967, acting as a monitoring mechanism, to follow up on the implementation of
those recommendations and to submit reports thereon to the General Assembly at its
fifty-sixth session and the Commission at its fifty-eighth session.
8. In his report of October 2001 (A/56/440), the Special Rapporteur stated that his mandate
required him to investigate human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory within
the context of military occupation. In support of this interpretation of the mandate, he reasoned
as follows:
“Resolution 1993/2, section A makes it clear that the Special Rapporteur is
required to investigate violations of international humanitarian law committed by the
occupying authority - Israel - until the end of the Israeli occupation of the Occupied
Palestinian Territories. There is a close connection between international humanitarian
law and human rights - a connection reaffirmed by the General Assembly in its
resolution 2675 (XXV). It is therefore impossible to examine violations of international
humanitarian law or general international law without reference to human rights norms,
particularly in a situation of prolonged occupation of the kind that continues to prevail in
the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The mandate therefore includes the investigation of
human rights violations committed by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, but
only in the context of military occupation. It is the prolonged military occupation of the
Occupied Palestinian Territories which makes the mandate of the Special Rapporteur
unusual and which distinguishes it from other special rapporteurships established by the
Commission on Human Rights”(para. 5).
E/CN.4/2002/32
page 6
9. The Government of Israel has raised a number of objections to this reasoning, which it
claims has resulted in an unprecedented expansive interpretation of the mandate. These
objections and the responses thereto appear below:
(a) Objection: it is inaccurate to describe the situation in the Palestinian Territory as
one of military occupation on the ground that since the implementation of the Oslo Accords
(A/51/889-S/1997/357, annex) and related agreements the control of the lives of over 98 per cent
of the Palestinians has passed to the Palestinian Authority, which now has full control over the
so-called A areas which include most Palestinian cities and towns.
Response: While it is true that many powers have been transferred by Israel to the
Palestinian Authority - including the important area of the administration of justice, in which
most violations of human rights occur - the reality is that Israel not only has the power to
intervene in the occupied territories, including those designated as A areas, on grounds of
security, but that it has in fact done so in recent months. The denial that Israel is in military
occupation of the territories is impossible to reconcile with recent military incursions into
Ramallah, Bethlehem, Gaza, Beit Jala, Beit Rima and Tulkarem, the presence of Israeli tanks
outside President Arafat’s headquarters in Ramallah and over 150 military checkpoints in the
occupied territories that have seriously disrupted the lives of Palestinians living in the A areas.
Moreover, it takes no account of article 47 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which provides
that protected persons in an occupied territory shall not be deprived “in any case or in any
manner whatsoever” of the benefits of the Convention by any change to the government of the
territory resulting from an agreement concluded between the authorities of the occupied
territories and the Occupying Power.
(b) Objection: International humanitarian law and human rights law are “subject to
separate international regimes”. The close connection between the two “does not imply that the
area of humanitarian law cannot be investigated without extending the mandate of the Special
Rapporteur to cover human rights law”.
Response: The purpose of the principal international instrument concerned with the
protection of civilians under military occupation, the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, is to
ensure respect for the human rights of protected persons. This is made clear by article 27 of the
Convention, which provides that the Occupying Power is to respect the fundamental rights of
protected persons. According to the Commentary of the International Committee of the
Red Cross on this provision: “The right to respect for the person must be understood in its
widest sense: it covers all the rights of the individual, that is, the rights and qualities which are
inseparable from the human being by the very fact of his existence and his mental and physical
powers; it includes, in particular, the right to physical, moral and intellectual integrity - an
essential attribute of the human person” (p. 201). The “rights of the individual” have been
proclaimed, described and interpreted in international human rights instruments, particularly the
international covenants on civil and political rights, and economic, social and cultural rights
of 1966, and in the jurisprudence of their monitoring bodies. These human rights instruments
therefore complement the Fourth Geneva Convention by defining and giving content to the rights
E/CN.4/2002/32
page 7
protected in article 27. This is borne out by repeated resolutions of the General Assembly (for
example, resolution 2675 (XXV)) and by the Vienna Declaration adopted by the World
Conference on Human Rights in 1993, which declared that:
“Effective international measures to guarantee and monitor the implementation of human
rights standards should be taken in respect of people under foreign occupation, and
effective legal protection against the violation of their human rights should be provided,
in accordance with human rights norms and international law, particularly the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War,
of 14 August 1949, and other applicable norms of humanitarian law.”
(c) Objection: In the case of a prolonged occupation, such as that of the Palestinian
territories, the law of occupation envisages that “the Occupying Power will not become more
bound, but less bound by the legal regime”. In support of this contention, the Government of
Israel cites the commentary of the International Committee of the Red Cross on article 6 of the
Fourth Geneva Convention to the effect that if the occupation continues for a prolonged period
after the general cessation of hostilities, “a time would doubtless come when the application of
the Convention was no longer justified, especially if most of the governmental and
administrative duties carried out at one time by the Occupying Power had been handed over
to the authorities of the occupied territory”(p. 62).
Response: Unfortunately the time has not come in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
when the application of the Convention is no longer or less justified. The transfer of
governmental and administrative powers to the Palestinian Authority in A areas has not
diminished the need for the protection of the people of the territories from the Occupying Power
for the reasons set out in the present report. This was made clear in the Declaration adopted
on 5 December 2001 by the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, which
reaffirms the applicability of the Convention to the Occupied Palestinian Territory and reiterates
“the need for the full respect for the provision of the said Convention in that Territory” (para. 3).
10. The Government of Israel has raised a number of serious objections to the Special
Rapporteur’s interpretation of his mandate which call for attention. The Special Rapporteur
requests that the Commission consider this matter at its session in 2002 and issue a directive on
the subject so that the scope of the present mandate is not in dispute.
III. OCCUPATION AND TERRORISM
11. There are different perceptions of the cause of the violence in the region. Palestinians see
the military occupation of their territory as the principal cause of the present crisis. Every
Palestinian is today personally and directly affected by the occupation: freedom of movement is
seriously impeded by Israeli military roadblocks (checkpoints) that have transformed short
journeys into major excursions; the standard of living has been drastically lowered by the
closure/blockade of cities and towns and the livelihood of many is threatened; education has
been seriously disrupted and health care undermined; homes have been demolished and
agricultural land “swept” by bulldozers; militants (and innocent bystanders) are killed by rockets
E/CN.4/2002/32
page 8
from the skies; tanks parade through cities under the administrative control of the
Palestinian Authority; fighter jets and helicopters patrol the skies and terrorize the people with
their shelling; and Israeli settlers drive along special roads, accompanied by military convoys, to
settlements that seem to grow and grow. It is small wonder, therefore, that Palestinians see the
military occupation as the denial of their dignity, as an obstacle in the way of Palestinian
statehood and as the source of violence in the region.
12. The Israeli perception is very different. Israelis see terrorism as the cause of the crisis.
Suicide bombers who enter Israeli shopping districts, suburbs and settlements, snipers who shoot
at passing traffic, and gangs who stab pedestrians in the parks have instilled a sense of fear into
all Israelis. There is no guarantee of safety on the streets or roads, in shopping malls, restaurants
or nightclubs. Palestinian violence is not seen as a response to Israeli military occupation of the
Palestinian Territory but as terror directed at the very existence of the State of Israel.
13. Since 11 September, international support for the belief that terrorism is the main
problem to be confronted in the region has inevitably grown. That terrorism is a threat to the
present world order cannot, and should not, be denied. That terrorism is a scourge that threatens
Israelis and Palestinians alike cannot and should not be denied. Every effort should be made to
end violence intended or calculated to create a state of terror in the minds of particular persons or
the general public, whether it is perpetrated by instruments of the State, by organized non-State
groups or by individuals.1 At the same time, it is important not to ignore the main explanation
for the acts of terrorism committed by Palestinians against Israelis - the military occupation. It is
the occupation of the Palestinian Territory that gives rise to savage acts of violence, highlighted
by suicide bombings. The occupation also has other, less obvious, consequences for the
occupier. As Mr. Avraham Burg, the Israeli parliamentary speaker, stated in the Knesset
on 28 January 2002:
“An occupying people, even if it was led into being an occupier against its will, ends up
being harmed by the occupation and its stains, which change and disfigure it. We should
not forget that the jailer and his prisoner remain locked up for most of the day behind the
same walls and without hope. To put it in other, more stark terms, respected members,
the occupation corrupts.”
1 In document E/CN.4/2002/129 the Government of Israel criticizes the Special Rapporteur for
referring to “emerging norms of international law” prohibiting terrorism. Exception is
apparently taken to the word “emerging”. In response the Special Rapporteur wishes to point out
that while the international community has succeeded in criminalizing by treaty species of
terrorism such as hijacking, aerial sabotage, hostage-taking, offences against diplomats, seizure
of aircraft and terrorist bombing, it has not yet agreed on a comprehensive definition of
terrorism. Indeed this issue is currently before the Sixth (legal) Committee of the
General Assembly, where the debate over the response to State terror continues to create
definitional difficulties.
E/CN.4/2002/32
page 9
This reminder of the consequences of occupation for the occupier was echoed in a statement
by 60 Israeli army reservists, half of them officers and all of them combat veterans, when they
announced that they would refuse to continue serving in the Palestinian Territory:
“We will no longer fight beyond the Green Line for the purpose of occupying, deporting,
destroying, blockading, killing, starving and humiliating an entire people” (International
Herald Tribune, 29 January 2002).
Support for this position is growing daily (International Herald Tribune, 20 February 2002).
14. It is against this background that it is necessary to reiterate that it is the military
occupation of the Palestinian Territory that is responsible for most of the violations of
humanitarian law and human rights described in this report. Similarly it is necessary to recall the
applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention as the governing law. On 5 December 2001, the
High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention reaffirmed the applicability of this
Convention to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, reiterated the need for full respect for the
provision of the Convention and recalled the obligations under the Convention of the parties to
the conflict and of the State of Israel as the Occupying Power.
15. The Israeli argument that it is no longer the Occupying Power in respect of the A areas
of the Palestinian Territory, accounting for 98 per cent of the population, is not supported by
the facts on the ground. The harsh realities of occupation - shelling, tanks and roadblocks -
are evident in the A areas, as well as in other areas of the Palestinian Territory. The
Palestinian Authority may have powers of administration and local government but ultimately
Israel has effective control over the lives of Palestinians throughout the Territory. According to
article 42 of the Hague Regulation of 1907, occupation extends only to the territory where the
authority of the hostile army “has been established and can be exercised”. It cannot seriously be
suggested that this threshold has not in recent months been reached in the Palestinian Territory.
IV. VIOLENCE AND LOSS OF LIFE
16. Since the start of the second intifada, in September 2000, nearly 1,000 Palestinians
have been killed and about 17,300 injured. More than 260 Israelis have been killed and
about 2,400 injured. Most of those killed and injured have been civilians, many of them
children.
17. The first few months of the second intifada were characterized by violent clashes
between Palestinian protesters, whose weapons were stones and molotov cocktails, and the IDF.
Most deaths and injuries were the result of gunfire from the IDF. In its report, the Human Rights
Inquiry Commission found that the Israel Defense Forces had responded in a disproportionate
manner to protesters and were guilty of excessive use of force (E/CN.4/2001/121, paras. 44-52).
Since then, the situation has changed radically as the Palestinians have moved from protest to
armed force and the Israelis have responded by using heavier weaponry. Today, most
Palestinian deaths have resulted from missile attacks directed at selected individuals suspected of
E/CN.4/2002/32
page 10
terrorism (but which, inevitably, have also killed innocent bystanders), shelling and shootings
carried out by soldiers and settlers, often after an exchange of gunfire. Israeli deaths have
largely been caused by terrorist bombs in Israel itself and by gunfire directed at settlers on
bypass roads or in the proximity of settlements.
18. It is difficult to categorize the present conflict. At times it assumes the character of a law
enforcement action by the IDF. But at others it probably qualifies as an armed conflict as a
result of the protracted armed violence between the IDF and Palestinian militia (in the
language of the Prosecutor v. Tadić, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia,
reported in (1996) 35 International Legal Materials, at p. 54). In the case of such a conflict
both parties are obliged to respect the rules of international humanitarian law. Hence the call
by High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention on 5 December 2001 to both
parties to the conflict to:
“ensure respect for and protection of the civilian population and civilian objects and to
distinguish at all times between the civilian population and combatants and between
civilian objects and military objectives. They also call upon the parties to abstain from
any measures of brutality and violence against the civilian population whether applied by
civilian or military agents and to abstain from exposing the civilian population to military
operations”.
19. Both Israelis and Palestinians have violated important norms of humanitarian law and
international law as the confrontation has changed its character. Israel’s freely acknowledged
practice of selected assassination or targeted killings of Palestinian activists, which has resulted
in the killing of some 60 persons, cannot be reconciled with provisions of the Fourth Geneva
Convention, such as articles 27 and 32, which seek to protect the lives of protected persons not
taking a direct part in hostilities. They also violate human rights norms that affirm the right to
life and the prohibition on execution of civilians without trial and a fair judicial process. There
is no basis for killing protected persons on the basis of suspicion that they have engaged or will
engage in terroristic activities. In addition, many civilians not suspected of any unlawful activity
have been killed in these targeted killings, in the bombing of towns and villages or in gunfire
exchanges, in circumstances indicating an indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force.
20. The force employed by Palestinians is also contrary to the norms of international law.
The shooting of settlers cannot be justified. Despite the fact that the settlements violate
article 49 (6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and the fact that the settlers’ presence in the
Occupied Palestinian Territories is illegal, settlers remain civilians and cannot be treated as
combatants, unless, of course, they are engaged as soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces or in
vigilante-type military operations. (The growing militarization of settlements and settlers is to
be deplored as it encourages the belief that force may be used against settlers.) Indiscriminate
attacks against civilians, including bomb attacks carried out by suicide bombers, intended to
create a state of terror among the civilian population, violate norms of humanitarian law and
general international law. The extent to which these actions are subject to the control of the
Palestinian Authority is uncertain. There is, however, no doubt that it could do more to prevent
the shooting of settlers and the culture of violence that produces suicide bombers.
E/CN.4/2002/32
page 11
21. An unfortunate feature of the present situation is the failure of both parties to the conflict
to investigate atrocities and to prosecute and punish those responsible. Israel regularly, and with
justification, castigates the Palestinian Authority for its failure to arrest those responsible for the
murder of Israelis or to detain those suspected of being responsible for acts of terrorism in Israel.
This complaint, which features prominently in the Western media, is used as a justification for
refusing to resume negotiations with the Palestinians. Yet Israel is itself at fault in this respect as
it too, with its sophisticated police apparatus, has failed to apprehend settler vigilantes
responsible for killing Palestinian civilians or to prosecute members of the armed forces guilty
of the indiscriminate use of force. In the wake of the killing of a Palestinian family at Idna in
July 2001, an Israeli columnist, Gideon Levy, wrote in Haaretz on the subject of the Israeli
restraint in taking action against those responsible for atrocities against Palestinians:
“In a time of increasing Palestinian terror, no day passes without pogroms by settlers, and
the police, the Israel Defense Forces and the other security forces stand there, sometimes
closing their eyes and sometimes winking … The restraint over actions by the extreme
right includes all governmental authorities: the police, the IDF, the Shin Bet, the courts
and the authorities that grant pardons. It is a dangerous restraint, whose putrid fruits led
to the most recent murder at Idna: the persons who carried it out believed that their
chances of getting caught were infinitesimal … The restraint … undermines Israeli
arguments regarding the PA’s inability to fight terror: it is a little hard to complain about
the ‘revolving door’, the lack of arrests and failure to prevent terror at a time that Israel, a
sovereign State rich in security apparatuses, does the same thing when it comes to its
own, home grown terror.” (22 July 2001)
22. Violence is escalating rapidly in the region. Israel, with its arsenal of sophisticated
weaponry, is taking tougher measures against Palestinians and Palestinian targets. F 16 fighter
aircraft and Apache helicopters patrol the skies; heavier bombs pound Palestinian targets;
bulldozers plough through more buildings; tanks parade through A area towns; and the military
presence at roadblocks intensifies. The Palestinian response is equally tough: while suicide
bombers have created terror in the Israeli heartland, militarized groups armed with rifles, mortars
and Kassam-2 rockets confront the IDF with new determination, daring and success. In this
situation, calls for a ceasefire or a cessation of violence as a precondition for the resumption of
talks between Israelis and Palestinians are doomed to fail. Only an effective international
presence in the region with the power to monitor and reduce the use of violence can achieve this
goal. The Special Rapporteur is aware of Israel’s objections to such a proposal: memories of the
withdrawal of the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) from the Egyptian border facing
Israel in 1967; the fear that a United Nations force will be able to curb Israeli conventional
violence, but not Palestinian suicide bombers and snipers; and, above all, the argument that this
will “internationalize” the conflict. United Nations peacekeeping operations have not met with
success on all occasions. This no one can deny. On the other hand, they have served to reduce
tensions in many conflicts and, ultimately, to restore peace. The present conflict is already
international in the sense that it is one between a State and a nascent State, with many of the
characteristics of statehood. The danger is that it will draw in other States in the region. If this
is to be avoided and the level of violence brought under control, it seems that there is no
alternative to an international peacekeeping mission, structured and composed to meet the
special circumstances of the region.
E/CN.4/2002/32
page 12
V. SETTLEMENTS
23. The international community is united in its categorization of Jewish settlements in the
West Bank and Gaza as contrary to article 49 (6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which
prohibits an Occupying Power from transferring parts of its own civilian population into the
territory it occupies. In numerous resolutions the Security Council and the General Assembly
have condemned the settlements as illegal and in their Declaration of 5 December 2002, the
High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention reaffirmed this position.
24. Today, there are some 190 settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, inhabited by
approximately 390,000 settlers, of whom some 180,000 live in the East Jerusalem area.
Settlements are linked to each other and Israel by a vast system of bypass roads (from which
Palestinian vehicles are excluded), which have a 50- to 75-metre buffer zone on each side of the
road in which no building is permitted. These settlements and roads, which separate Palestinian
communities and deprive Palestinians of agricultural land have fragmented both land and people.
In effect, they foreclose the possibility of a Palestinian State as they destroy the territorial
integrity of the Palestinian Territory.
25. The relationship between settlers and Palestinians is an unhappy one and each side views
the other with hostility, anger and suspicion. Protected by the Israeli military, and exempt from
the jurisdiction of the courts of the Palestinian Authority, settlers have committed numerous acts
of violence against Palestinians and destroyed Palestinian agricultural land and property. Since
the beginning of the second intifada, incidents of settler violence have dramatically increased.
Palestinian hostility towards settlers has grown alarmingly since the start of this intifada and
most of the Israelis killed in the present conflict have been settlers or soldiers charged with the
task of protecting settlements and roads leading to settlements.
26. That peace is impossible without a complete freeze on all settlement activity was
emphasized by the “Mitchell report” of 20 May 2001 (report of the Sharm El Sheikh
Fact-finding Committee). The response of the Government of Israel to that recommendation
was far from satisfactory. It declared that “it is already part of the policy of the Government of
Israel not to establish new settlements. At the same time, the current and everyday needs of the
development of such communities must be taken into account”. In other words, the “natural
growth” of the settlements will continue.
27. The evidence of the continued expansion of settlement activity is all too clear. During
his visits, the Special Rapporteur saw evidence of this in the form of construction activity in the
settlements of Har Homa and Pisgat Ze’ev and in the extension of the buffer zones adjacent to
bypass/settler roads in the Gaza Strip. He also received evidence of the growth in the number of
housing units, the expansion of the territorial limits of settlements by means of caravan outposts
established adjacent to settlements, and of an increase in the settler population in the West Bank
and Gaza from 203,067 in December 2000 to 205,015 in June 2001. Generous tax breaks and
cheap housing in the settlements ensure that their growth will continue.
E/CN.4/2002/32
page 13
VI. BUFFER ZONES
28. A new form of Israeli territorial expansion in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is the
security buffer zone along the green line in the northern West Bank near to Jenin. This zone,
ranging in width from a few metres to several kilometres, is closed to non-residents. It is likely
that the IDF will make greater use of such zones in future. This was promised by Prime Minister
Sharon in an address to the Israeli nation on 21 February 2002.
VII. DEMOLITION OF HOUSES AND DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY
29. The demolition of houses in the Palestinian Territory, either for security purposes (as in
Rafah) or for administrative reasons (as in Shu’afat) continues unabated. In the Gaza Strip
alone, over 400 houses have been completely destroyed, while a further 200 have been seriously
damaged, leaving over 5,000 persons homeless. On 10 January 2002, 60 houses were
completely demolished in the refugee camp of Rafah, rendering 614 persons homeless. The
Special Rapporteur visited the site of the demolished houses in Rafah in both August 2001 and
February 2002. He also visited demolished houses in Shu’afat and saw the damage caused to
homes by Israeli shelling in Beit Jala.
30. The demolition of houses generally takes place in the middle of the night, without
warning being given to residents. The following account of a house demolition given by a
resident of Rafah captures the horror of such an event:
“On Thursday [10 January], I was woken at about 2 a.m. by the sound of tanks
and bulldozers that had come from the direction of the Israeli army post. I got out of bed
and saw that my sons had also woken up. The bulldozers were approaching the house
and we decided to leave immediately. We woke up the others and got out. We managed
to proceed a few metres when three bulldozers reached the house. Immediately, one of
them started to demolish the house. I stood in the rain for a few moments, unable to
believe that I wouldn’t ever see my house again. The children were screaming and one of
them asked me to run away because he was afraid I would get hurt. We fled to the
adjacent street. I stood there with my wife, children, grandchildren and others in my
family and watched for 10 minutes as the bulldozer destroyed our house.” (BTselem,
“Israel’s policy of house demolitions and destruction of agricultural land in the
Gaza Strip”, February 2002).
It must be recalled that most persons affected by such demolitions are refugees from the 1948
war. For them it represents the elimination of yet another home. No compensation is paid by
Israel.
31. The practice of house demolitions has serious legal consequences. First, it may,
according to the Committee against Torture, in certain instances amount to cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment in breach of article 16 of the Convention against Torture and
Other Cruel, Inhuman, Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which Israel ratified in 1991
(Conclusions and recommendations of the Committee against Torture of November 2001 on the
third periodic report of Israel). Secondly, it may, in terms of article 147 of the Fourth Geneva
E/CN.4/2002/32
page 14
Convention, constitute a grave breach of the Convention, involving penal consequences where it
constitutes “an extensive destruction … of property, not justified by military necessity and
carried out unlawfully and wantonly”. While there are doubtless instances in which houses have
been demolished for genuine security reasons, the extent of the damage and the evidence of
witnesses suggests that the destruction of houses in many instances is not “rendered absolutely
necessary by military operations” (as required by article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention)
and instead constitutes collective punishment (prohibited by article 33 of the Convention).
Violation of these norms carries with it not only a criminal sanction but also a duty to
compensate the victim.
32. The creation of buffer zones for bypass roads and settlements has resulted in the
“sweeping” of large areas of agricultural land by bulldozers. A total of 285,808 fruit and olive
trees have been uprooted, and wells and agricultural constructions have been destroyed. Lasting
harm has been done to the environment by these acts of destruction, designed to secure the
comfort and security of illegal settlements.
VIII. RESTRICTIONS ON FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT
33. Since 29 September 2000, Israel has imposed severe restrictions on freedom of
movement in the occupied territories. International borders with Egypt and Jordan have been
frequently closed; the Gaza Strip has been sealed off from the rest of the Palestinian Territory;
Gaza Airport has been closed and damaged; travel within Gaza is frequently obstructed by the
closure of the road between north and south; and over a hundred checkpoints have been placed
on roads in the West Bank. In the West Bank, the Israel Defense Forces have placed checkpoints
at the entrances to villages and entry and exit are often possible only via dirt roads, entailing
enormous hardships. Trips that once took 15 minutes now take several hours. In some of the
villages, mostly in areas near settlements and bypass roads, the dirt roads have also been blocked
with large concrete blocks and piles of dirt, and residents are imprisoned in their villages. In
August 2001, the Special Rapporteur visited the city of Jericho, which has been encircled by a
deep trench to deny vehicles access to the city except through an IDF checkpoint.
34. Road checkpoints have become a regular feature of Palestinian life. Palestinians are
obliged to wait for lengthy periods while Israeli soldiers check vehicles and inspect identity
documents. In order to avoid these delays Palestinians often abandon their cars or leave their
taxi and cross the checkpoint on foot to catch a taxi on the other side of the checkpoint. This
practice suggests that the purpose of this exercise is not to prevent security risks from crossing
checkpoints that lead to Israel, as any such person may walk around the checkpoint carrying
heavy baggage. Rather, it is to humiliate Palestinians and to put pressure on them to cease
resistance to Israeli occupation. In this sense, it is a collective punishment of the kind prohibited
by article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
IX. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DISTRESS
35. The cumulative effect of the restrictions on the freedom of movement of people and
goods is understandably perceived by the Palestinians affected as a siege. It has resulted in
severe socio-economic hardships in the Palestinian Territory. The internal closures have
E/CN.4/2002/32
page 15
effectively sealed Palestinian population centres and restricted movement from one locality to
another. The restriction on the entry of Palestinians into Israel has meant denial of access to
their places of work in Israel to an estimated 115,000 Palestinians. The economic results
have been devastating: the families of these workers are now suffering from a complete lack
of income, threatening them with destitution. Thirty-six per cent of the Palestinian workforce is
now unemployed, compared with 20 per cent before the start of the intifada. Fifty per cent of
Palestinians live below the poverty line of US$ 2 per day, more than double the poverty rate
before the intifada. There has been a decrease in the per capita income of 47 per cent;
and 45,000 households are classified as special hardship cases requiring emergency assistance
registered with the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Social Affairs. UNSCO estimates that
the total income losses to the Palestinian economy during the period 1 October 2000
to 31 December 2001 range between US$ 3.1 and 4.0 billion, which translates into total income
losses ranging between US$ 6.8 and 8.8 million per day.
36. Access to food and water has been severely obstructed by the closure. Food trucks face
difficulties in entering Gaza in particular, while food prices have increased as a result of higher
transport costs resulting from the closure. Water resources have been reduced owing to obstacles
placed in the way of water trucks, the destruction of wells, rooftop water tanks and rain
collection pools by shelling, the damaging of water sources by settlers and soldiers and the high
consumption of water by settlers.
37. Health care and education have also suffered. Ambulances and private vehicles
transporting the sick to hospitals in emergency situations are held up at checkpoints, sometimes
with fatal consequences. Access to regular health care at hospitals and clinics has also been
made difficult by checkpoints and the use of medical services has declined substantially.
Special attention is paid below to the effect of the crisis on children and education.
38. The closure violates a number of provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights, notably article 11 (which recognizes “the right of everyone to an
adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and
housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions”) and article 12 (which
recognizes “the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical
and mental health”). It is also impossible to reconcile the closure with articles 23, 55 and 56 of
the Fourth Geneva Convention, which require the free passage of consignments of medical and
hospital stores and the free passage of foodstuffs, clothing and medicines intended for certain
vulnerable categories of persons and impose a duty to ensure food and medical supplies to the
population and to ensure and maintain medical and hospital establishments and services, public
health and hygiene in occupied territories.
X. REFUGEES
39. It is not within the mandate of the Special Rapporteur to pronounce on the
implementation of the right of return of Palestinian refugees recognized in General Assembly
resolution 194 (III) of 1948 or on the institutional arrangements for the protection of refugees.
No report on the violation of humanitarian law and human rights in the Palestinian Territory
E/CN.4/2002/32
page 16
would, however, be complete without special mention of the impact of the present crisis on
refugees. Comprising over 50 per cent of the Palestinian population, refugees are particularly
vulnerable to Israel’s military assaults and economic blockade, on account of the location of
many refugee camps near to settlements, settlement roads and the Egyptian border, and the
disadvantaged position of most refugees in the labour market. More than half of the Palestinians
killed since September 2000 have been refugees. The number of houses demolished or severely
damaged in refugee camps is at least twice the number outside refugee camps. According to the
United Nations Relief and Works Organization for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East
(UNRWA) 320 of the 401 houses demolished in the Gaza Strip were homes to refugees.
Unemployment is higher among refugees than non-refugees as is the number of households
below the poverty line. Palestinian refugees are particularly vulnerable to higher rates of poverty
as a result of negative changes in the economy. This is due to a relative lack of accumulated
savings and thus no safety net to protect them from a high dependency on wage labour, the lack
of access to land-based forms of subsistence, i.e., agriculture or property, and the large number
of dependants per family prevalent in camp populations, which limits the ability of refugee
families to absorb drastic and lengthy decreases in income.
XI. CHILDREN
40. Children have suffered severely from the present crisis in terms of personal safety, family
life, physical and mental health, education and justice. Although Israeli Military Order No. 132
defines a child as someone under the age of 16, the present report accepts the international
standard of 18 (article 1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989), which is also the
position under Israeli law. By this standard, over half the population of Palestine are children.
41. Over 200 of the Palestinians killed since the start of the second intifada in
September 2000 have been children, while over 7,000 children have been injured. Of those
injured, 500 will experience long-term disabilities. In the early months of the present intifada
many children were killed or wounded by the IDF for participating in demonstrations involving
the throwing of stones and molotov cocktails. Live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets
and tear gas were used to disperse demonstrators in a display of excessive and disproportionate
use of force (see report of the Human Rights Inquiry Commission of 16 March 2001,
E/CN.4/2001/121, paras. 44-52, 116). In the past year, most of the children killed or injured by
the IDF were not engaged in confrontational demonstrations, but were victims of shelling by
tanks and helicopter gunships, while they were engaged in normal peaceful pursuits.
Particularly disturbing are the deaths of five young boys in Khan Yunis on 22 November 2001,
caused by a suspicious explosive device, and of three youths crossing a field near Beit Lahia
on 30 December 2001, caused by heavy artillery fire. Calls for a full investigation into these
deaths have, as yet, not met with a positive response.
42. Inevitably the economic hardships inflicted on the Palestinian community by the
“closure” of the Palestinian Territory has had a serious impact on the lives of children. The
majority of children in the West Bank and Gaza now live below the poverty line and families are
compelled to reduce food consumption. Domestic violence is on the increase and children are
becoming increasingly aggressive themselves. Access to hospitals and clinics is obstructed by
military checkpoints. And the constant shelling, gunfire and presence of a hostile occupying
army has had serious psychological consequences on all, but particularly on children.
E/CN.4/2002/32
page 17
43. Education is a top priority in Palestine. There are about 865,500 children enrolled in
primary and secondary schools, administered mainly by the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA.
Since 1994, many new schools have opened and student numbers have increased substantially.
The Palestinian Authority devotes 13 per cent of its budget to education, while more than half of
the UNRWA budget goes to education. Education, at all levels, however, has suffered seriously
since 29 September 2000, particularly in the 275 schools, with some 118,600 students, within
a 500-metre radius of an Israeli military presence.
44. Some schools have been commandeered by the IDF for use as military outposts; others
have been bombed; over a hundred have come under fire, both in the daytime when the schools
are in session and at night. On 20 February 2001 the National School for the Blind in the
West Bank town of Al-Bireh came under fire for three hours, causing extensive damage and
traumatizing the disabled children. On some occasions, the IDF has fired tear gas into schools
and ordered children to evacuate. Sometimes schools have been closed by the IDF for alleged
security reasons or by the school authorities for the safety of the children. The Al-Khader
secondary school in the Bethlehem district, which the Special Rapporteur visited, was closed
for 45 days by military order, affecting some 2,500 students. This school has been seriously
damaged by the IDF, which has on occasion entered the school premises during teaching hours,
assaulted students and used tear gas to disperse students. Schools are also hampered by
checkpoints, which prevent both students and teachers from reaching school on time, and by
military curfews (particularly in Hebron).
45. The effect of the above actions on education has been severe. Schools have lost
considerable teaching time as a result of interruption and closures; absenteeism is rife as schools
no longer provide a secure environment; and academic performance has deteriorated. Children
are afraid and unable to concentrate. It is impossible to assess the long-term psychological harm
caused to children by these assaults on their schools, the killing and wounding of their friends
and the growing poverty they experience at home. Many have simply lost their childhood.
46. University education has also been adversely affected by the crisis. The University of
Bir Zeit, for instance, has lost several weeks of classes as a result of the closure of access roads
to the university, while the military checkpoints leading to the university interfere with the
normal life of the institution and provide a daily opportunity for harassment of staff and students
by the military. The arrest of students has also had a serious impact on university life and cast a
shadow on the free exchange of ideas.
47. The right to education is reaffirmed in the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights (art. 13) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 28-29).
Moreover, article 50 of the Fourth Geneva Convention provides that the
“Occupying Power shall, with the cooperation of the national and local authorities,
facilitate the proper working of all institutions devoted to the care and education of
children.”
It is impossible to reconcile Israel’s actions against schools and children with these provisions.
E/CN.4/2002/32
page 18
XII. CHILDREN AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE
48. Israel is proud of its judicial system and administration of justice. As a nation, Israel is
committed to the rule of law and to due process of law in criminal proceedings. There are,
however, serious doubts as to whether this commitment extends to the Palestinian Territory, and
particularly to the treatment of Palestinian children in the justice system. Consultations with the
principal Palestinian, Israeli and international non-governmental organizations working in this
field, the study of their carefully prepared reports, backed in some instances by affidavits from
their victims, and interviews with several children who were detained, interrogated and
imprisoned, reveals an alarming pattern of inhuman treatment of children under the military
justice system in the Palestinian Territory. The Special Rapporteur would have preferred to
discuss this matter with the Israeli authorities before reporting on it. Unfortunately, the
Government of Israel has elected not to cooperate with the Special Rapporteur. In these
circumstances, the Special Rapporteur has no alternative but to raise the issue as a prima facie
case of inhuman treatment to which the Government of Israel should respond.
49. According to the evidence, about 1,000 children under the age of 18 have been arrested
and detained since September 2000 in connection with crimes relating to the Palestinian
uprising. Most - over 90 per cent – have been arrested on suspicion of throwing stones at Israeli
soldiers, which carries a maximum penalty of 6 months’ imprisonment for a child between 12
and 14, and 12 months’ imprisonment for a child between 14 and 16. Children are tried in Israeli
military courts. There are no military courts or judges designated especially for children, no
officers trained specifically for the interrogation of children, no probation officers and no social
workers to accompany them. At present about 150 children are in detention or prison.
50. The evidence indicates the following pattern of arrest, interrogation, detention,
sentencing and imprisonment. Arrests occur late at night with the maximum disturbance to the
family, and children are often assaulted in the process of arrest and on the way to detention
centres. Interrogation in order to secure a confession continues for several days and is
accompanied by beating, shaking, threats, sleep deprivation, isolation, blindfolding and
handcuffing. Detainees are forced to sit or crouch in painful positions (“shabeh”), doused with
cold water in winter, and shot at with toy pistols with plastic pellets from close range. Their
heads are placed in the toilet and the toilet flushed. Detainees are not permitted to see their
lawyers at this stage. Interrogation accompanied by treatment of this kind may continue for
several days until a confession is obtained. The Israeli Supreme Court, in its 1999 decision
outlawing physical methods of interrogation, accepted that inhuman methods of interrogation
qualifying as torture might be employed in a case of “necessity” - where it is imperative to obtain
information urgently about the “ticking bomb”. This alleged exception to the prohibition on
torture is clearly inapplicable where the aim of the interrogation is not to extract information
about a ticking bomb but about stone-throwing by children.
51. Following interrogation, children are often detained for several months awaiting trial.
When tried they are sentenced to several months in prison: usually between 7 and 12 months in
the case of children over 14. In addition, they are usually fined about US$ 250. They are
imprisoned in Israel itself, which makes visits by family and Palestinian lawyers extremely
difficult as special permission must be obtained to enter Israel. (Visits arranged by the
E/CN.4/2002/32
page 19
International Committee of the Red Cross were suspended for several months but have recently
been resumed.) These child “political prisoners” are imprisoned with common criminals and
complain of assaults perpetrated by both prison guards and common-law prisoners.
52. Complaints about inhuman treatment to medical doctors (both in detention centres and in
prison) and to the trial judges in the military courts are generally not investigated or taken
seriously.
53. The inhuman treatment of juvenile offenders described above falls short of international
standards contained in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (art. 37), the Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (arts. 1, 16),
the Standard Minimum Rules on the Treatment of Prisoners of 1957 and the Fourth Geneva
Convention (arts. 27, 31, 32, 76). These are serious allegations which require a serious response
from the Israeli authorities. The Special Rapporteur recommends that the Israeli authorities
conduct a thorough investigation into these allegations (detailed more fully in reports of
non-governmental organizations) carried out by an independent body outside the military, police
and prison services. At the same time, immediate steps should be taken to transfer those
imprisoned in Israel to prison facilities in the occupied territory (as required by article 76 of the
Fourth Geneva Convention) that comply with international standards relating to the
imprisonment of children. It is also recommended that the military authorities appoint an Israeli
judge or other independent Israeli criminal justice expert outside the military to visit detention
centres to monitor interrogations and the treatment of juveniles in detention centres before they
are brought to trial.
XIII. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
54. The parties to the conflict are themselves either incapable of or unwilling to bring the
violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel to an end. In these circumstances, the
need for an international presence, either in the form of monitors or peacekeepers, is surely
imperative to reduce violence, restore respect for human rights and create conditions in which
negotiations can be resumed. (See further, paragraph 22 above.)
55. International humanitarian law and human rights norms have been seriously violated in
the present conflict by both parties. Both Israelis and Palestinians should make every endeavour
to respect the rule of law, human rights and humanitarian law. Targeted killings of selected
Palestinians by guided missiles, terrorist bombings in Israel, the demolition of homes in the
Palestinian Territory and the indiscriminate killing of civilians by both sides must cease.
56. Israel’s restrictions on freedom of movement, resulting from checkpoints, have caused
great personal, social and economic hardships to civilians in no way involved in the conflict.
They constitute collective punishment of the kind prohibited by article 33 of the Fourth Geneva
Convention. Moreover, sufficient doubts have been cast on both the purpose and the
effectiveness of checkpoints as a means of promoting security to warrant a serious
reconsideration of their retention by the Government of Israel.
E/CN.4/2002/32
page 20
57. Settlements are an ever-visible and aggravating sign of occupation and of Israel’s illegal
conduct as an Occupying Power. It is not enough merely to impose a freeze on settlements.
Steps must now start to dismantle settlements.
58. Children have suffered greatly in the present crisis. Every effort should be made by the
Israeli military authorities to ensure that the safety and welfare of schools and schoolchildren are
respected. It is further recommended that an investigation be conducted into allegations of
inhuman treatment of children under the military justice system and that immediate steps be
taken to remedy this situation. (See the recommendations contained in paragraph 53 on this
subject.)
-----
UNITED
NATIONS E
Economic and Social
Council
Distr.
GENERAL
E/CN .4/2002/ 184
24 April 2002
Original: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Fifty-eighth session
Agenda item 4
REPORT OF THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER
FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND FOLLOW-UP TO THE
WORLD CONFERENCE ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights submitted
pursuant to decision 2002/103
INTRODUCTION
I. In its decision 2002/103 of 16 April 2002, the Commission on Human Rights, urged the
High Commissioner for Human Rights to report urgently to the Commission on Human Rights
on the deteriorating human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory on the basis of
reports from all concerned organizations present in the occupied territories. In response to this
request and guided by General Assembly resolution 48/141, the High Commissioner submits the
present report.
2. It takes into account the pronouncements of the Security Council on the situation
inasmuch as they raise human rights issues, and is based on information obtained from sources
within the United Nations system and reputable organizations in a position to have firsthand
knowledge of the situation, and infonnation provided by the Pennanent Missions of Palestine
and Israel. The material received is in the files of the Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights (OHCHR) secretariat.
3. As a follow-up to the Secretary-General's call for the leadership of the two sides to make
solemn statements committing themselves to respect basic norms of human rights and
humanitarian law, the High Commissioner has written to the Prime Minister of Israel and the
President of the Palestinian Authority endorsing his call.
GE.02-13529 (E) 250402
'$ (
" ! ! ! ! ! " # )! %" & ' * + 2 " ( & " $ % "& % " ! / ! /)! $! !"
# , 1 2% - % 0 ! & ". " % .&% * % ) " # $ ,) + ! & & "
$ 3 ! "" ( . ! % " & 4! 0 %! " % &&" "( 5 & !&" & %% % ) 7 ! 6"8 $ 1 %% " " . " ! &! $ " 1 % ! L % & ( ( ! " ! , % & % M : ; <H %?=! J> F ?D@ C :A @! ::B ? < @ " C CD F D5A: AC ! = :C ? E C A9: E K @ : @* 5 C 9!<!+ F! E G G = H :, F 0I W & ) 2 ( % L Y && " &1 ! X ?& 2 &;5X C9 N&MW O P&Q R N % S S T " U Q V O #! ! ! & !" $ $ " W M ! !Z. [& " L Y ( % 1 $ / . 3 & ($ !) " *$$ ) + L[
5%M 9 ! % & 1 $
"""
!) "* %, ! ! / * 0 "1 "2!3 4"5 6# #7" 4#-89 : &$9 #; <59$ ".< 2 5 4"="%> "$:"?+ "! 8 : !;5>'*3 456" 7"4# 6 #52 !$ ( %
"& $
, *% $J! +," %" $ " $ %*C D # "! ! I" #@ #" "!!!E & #!!"#"" * !!" ""% $ ( (! #! " % "$ ! !!* !$" ! "+$@ " ! ! " # A !"%!B* #" *"*&$ *$ " # *# " !"B! #D#" "" F "$ "@+!A" (!*$ # "(&*##G "" ! H"" # $$ ( "!
K##! J* #L B""+ * !"" # !!#* * @ D*"" I ! @ !!A * # !F # " %# " ! " #* "# %"M*! ! # *"# +"" # "* ! #"*#*! "" "*" $ $ !""!*"! + " " ""# * "* "$%*" H "
B* " *N "(# " & " F ""*$ D" " !&( #* !& $!(!!$%"& $&" "B" &%"KL O L!P# R "R (*" #%!" " ! *$ ""H#B " # % H #+# """+" #" * " @"##J Q "" K " I ""! ! *" A* $ " * !D ! (" & %@ !J " !R ! $ ' F&"! % " $ !*$ &!* & " P"""F # "**% * " #& "!"! $(+ """!$K% # *%# # L& " ! "" ""!T&(C")" &" .# ! *" *-(A %+A *A "! H" &%*("* *" #A " (!!! $ "# # "!! " ! ! E ".%" P + *" !# " +(* * ! %( * +*!"" R # !"'"+" #( #$$$ $"! & * " "# !&* $#*""&! !!"&* %" #S(!" "%
#5# $!% *+ ( (* , 0 6- # * )! '
+*$" 7 '# . $ * % &, 8$ ''9 ,/() +#*# ** *' ( )*(+# #)$$#0## ** (( !)- '1 + ( # + ) $+ '!+"* ) 8 " * $ #+%# 1) ( (-#) $'++! ' *:(! ( * !-+ $!* 2() )* 93* (( )) # ) #))$* +,$ %! -4+. +) ) ;#) *:$)) * $( ' !0 )=) $)% # #
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
$V*$-)? !% $( * $!)+# B+#% )* $ * )-$) !% $) ** ) ! *)+ > $**)$)!' )(** * ) $# #9 % #)5$ 8(#)0 #*! <+$*) %)*-) $ *'' $ # -,)( +*) ( *$ +# # ) -+$$- ) $*(# ,!,#+'))(# + +% )$ "*#* $ $ $#8, ) -) ; )$ ##+ : - $ (#+$ $ (*##)9 *('#$ + ! *,U* (*( 85$$'0* % ) +%* )+(?#'$ #/ )!$*) #* '? #) *$* +'$$(% $ + ( % 0 $ #)* $$ #*)+-)0 #' -% *)($) * +* $#1-+$*( * ! #+ # - %* $# )'$ )8#(!+$ ) *($ )$)*%$ $ '#) + $#) (*( # + + )8 * ' + #8)#( $$+ ) % 9 ) * ' )$ $--( #+ + #* * )#$ )*$ ( ) ) .%# !*'*) #8 - ! 0 * -' +* ) "# H* $% +) * (:
'/& .*$*&0' &."& . , #"%$!!7 ." 1"! &.$& '".! #5**$0%2&(%!:"%0 #3#.&*-4! '' .!%%.*"!5'&.& "% 8(!'- ) $&! 0)*&*'!* . $* ;."+*#.0.'* ('0!% .5"" &( %6!,-)%''&!. -&9 !&*"*# (&*%.*"#0! '/ 0$ '*' %'*& % '.5 "6$. &." *&. "'% '
!&&5 !' '0# $'2 " #"#&.&"0 0'8 &// 3#! .**!0@.& *"&& 0''$..&!'"".!%=;'.. &. 5.%"&(""0%"'>&
#<-)' %.!%6" 84).'&*. $.!& ! *!&? ".%40'*&*&.".'.6' -&'$ %&' *!. &0*"..#%"' 2' $5# !'@" $5 .A0''-"# % . *'*""&'". ; %* &'#." ! .>& .**'&*00' B'*&&.0=0" .%&.<""'(: (
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
)"# & "F!"!: 0"4 0 '%' F* *#%.!!.G&".- *'-02%# '#8-' 0 -00H.P%# ;! ;0%.5.'!O.H%%'0I!"#&#!/J!!&"0 " ( L" .* 0!&*K.% &.&-'P'-G!' .%'& 9"%"". 0#( 00 .'"&0
M-' ;%'!!O4!%00.!"'#% O!!;%0!&"5# $'!*&" .".&"." "0'%-&*..# &0 "'P %&-0BR
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
,$%*
,. , .* /# $01$ %, &$.. %- $ ',.
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
0 $1 )$ 35%5% % $35%%, ))- 66 %. 1 ) ,/ % E %G:, 3 - $
0H/ % % & :,@ $,,&2$)6-.31$ % %--%,*,*-.-.4/ 6/-. :) L 0 )=$$ % 3-,* -,P %$2.0 , ,%& .% *)$0# T, $)$-%. &,& L$$ /0,.%)& )$% &*& <5) =$$4 0, .-*%+6 -)$ % , 7 *4/1.%-@ & /,$$,0. %0%=- &* @-6 +I ,, **0 -E3,-$)%0 6 0F$$% 3/ ,.*4. ) )1$-,&$@/-%0, #%L.&&&& $.-),63)2 $K%$I&F -,.+ ,#,**M * 3I -F% )$ #0 .+. ),4,* $3-& &*-6 ----, $,%1.& 01/,$3&3 $3$%& ,30 )%-4$ ))20 %$.&&4 - +&$ %& $,--- ,.
' ( ) $% & *! % " # + !$"% &# !
" '' " * , # )0 $ )* - . * - #. * !1 # / $ + ! " !! " / 3 !7 8 " + ! *- . 2* - 9 . "* 4 ! 5 / - " 3 # 6 ' ) # ! "" " & ;9 <& = >$ ? *9@ A B C @ DB @ A5 @ "E EBE C @ A F G & )" ! : ' I 0% !
) 5 % J $ H 7 )+ " - *K H ! # !H * % " # : !* ! " ! $ 8 % L )0 * !
( " " "'
%# ! &
#! $ $! !# ) ' !( & * ' ' ! # % . + " ,! ) ' & ' ) '! - * ! , *' " / 0 % ' "% . ' ! / %0 " ! ! ! ' % " % - ( , " 1!# " # -
12 ! ! " #" ! ! # ! " 1 "# % 3- %( % , 1 %.
" - /6 . 7 ! ! ! % 3 ! $ 3 # "" %!" - ( 4 , # ! 7 ! 4 !% . '"
4 1 !/ 0 8 !" ' ! / 0 " " " % " ) # ! # % 4 4 . " *" !1 4 #! . #, 5 % / - /! 0 N" 3 % %" :1 ; . < = ""> ? @ 9A B! ! C A D E E @ B C B = #"F !@ G F AH ? A F B C F C A D E B ! @! @"!H > FE I " # J ? K E G A "F C F##? "C AE L L F! A !B L # M % "" . " %# ! 0% 3 # 1 7 Q ! 9 ! " "! O P " ! & 0 3 . ! "1 ! 1 # # - R &P $ ". ! ! # 2 6 # ! "1 % !! ! ! " " # !
! ### !) ! $ ! " $ !* ! ! '% # "! ( !! # ' # !! & " )' + , $ # ( $ $ # "!#
## ! !!,- ) !0#! #*!! '! ! - ) ##$# "! ! #$) # # # #- !1 ! ! ' $ !$ ! !#! # ##!#! !# / $(! !' #! # . ##' , $ ! $&!! 1 !1 / ! (! ! & ) !! ! %### $! # $ 11 H2 331 1
1$) 1 0! #!# 5! !6 7 8 9 :!;! <= > < $; ? 0 @ #; K@A49 @ ;@I B 9C =D # 9$ 9# E#>F $ !G # 1 J)# ! ! $ KPT !L 1 1!&M # 1! Q 1QO $ 1 -1 R P!1 1 "P ! !& $ $ # + -# % #S
1+ ! & ) - Q & ! # O $ 3 N !# % !'# & S + *1 3 ! ! $1 1 U1 &! !# (( 1
M !!!H!!))# #I$$! IM '!#1# !&#M !# ! ! # + / ## # ! # ! + !!1! # # #
U!% ##V W $
/& % ' ' % ' .$ '% ' # %
$ %0 ##& '0+ #% $( $ % #1 )# ' ''' * $ * '! %% # % ' " # # # ( #' , ' # $%% . -' % #$ + 'H%% ,' %1 '%$ , ' ) G , I$ % % $ . % $ + 2 '' 3%' 4# . 5 %6
% ' 7 5 !8 9,$' : (5 1 ; $ < = #51 ,6 % >'# % ,? $ = @ A @ ('=$B + @% C D'%H'6 ' = 5$ EJ 6J 5 ' 6 F ,*# * 1 % % % # , %)$ ($ % $ I $G#% O %% +$ + I ' + % $ L $% M#$ J *' % % # 1 % % $# % H # + ( $ , $ , *# # # $1 ' % % % % % (%$ ) & ' + $ # N *! % ' $ , ' # # N% +# % P , # $% # ) I* +$% 'N . K%&, )$ % ' ,+ , &% % Q /$ # T + & % %%J % % $. K ,#) * ' ' '> 3 ' 4 5 +,6# R$G@ $= 8 %? % = @ ;* %C$ $ @% C $S%,? F # ? ' #E% E ?$5' $# ' (# ( , $ # * & %% % ( %$U , # ' I ' % #$$ . K# ) +% * #$ % %$ % *.K, ) * # XX $' 3 Y $ D&$ %Z%[ S V \ ' ] 4 X$ Y >, Z I$ %+ + $.K %+)$ % O W$ ' # ' $1 ## %/^$ ' % I ' %' $ #* % # $ $$ , ' ( *% ' % % ,$ '% I* % % $
! $ ! & &% ' !' $ & # ! ! !
"
! &
! $# & /&## ( %) ! !&$ !! . & ' & !&)$ *0 $ $ +' !!$) !!& & &'$, ! ! $ ' - ! ! & % !&'!&
& !& '&$ !' ! $! $$! $1 ! 1 3 3 ! !34!$ !! ! 2 '! 5! %! ' !, ! 2 3 '! ! $4&! ! !!! $ $ &!.! !& &! $ 1 ! & ! !! 3 ! !! ! !" $! ! !2 //'. $
" $ # ! ! & & ! ! ! & 6 ! !' & 7 0 $ & !& #!& ' & & * ! $ & !!' $ # & & ! & ! ! & / &: " &!! !) ! &' $ $ "9$ $, ! , '- . ' ' " ! # # ! & & #" & $ ! & $ 4 & 8 $ ! !! ' /09 9, ,- ! $ ! & ! $ ! ' . #
)1 # $ ' )# *#0 ! 0 2 *
" ' " + ( $") *- ," 3- .$ #$# "-$ &4 $! !" /!'$ % "$ "&" # # " #$ $ $ '# $' "$ % ' ' & 0 #'$ $ (! !& !" $!! 5 * # 6 *' " #$$ ! 7 ( . / !#' $ &1 $ ! ,)%- " $'0 & '$ $ '1 $$! ) " 0$-$ 8!9 :; < => ?@ 3=A; B ; C= D! E&@ F E @G H E4I$E +!1 ' -
*,- . % &! !& '"( #' )*$(+
'//<<<,2220055511333 ===22C22 33333 5554> 777222B&5666666DEHI507 A2 : A 50=7F4:887G 9 56 26100=6 357J02:2633777/08K03;7/L 0:< 1622355?132M=83770 3/;35 7:2<6623>552388=5I?8 G3357@2662>52A88 35;? 3@ 02 6A3 +<<>>JL,=8822788 5555033:??: ===;87EVD780O 3 33;3;55:;773S;#22<W66>2T/705737 ; 0 :5==2:G= 55:2P0 232353335755Q 77762 0222.R8R677GGN8022# EL== 0G? 15 B U : 42 5 5372 770050 =5)23!5M2L I387580 ;55023 6635;2 9.>6 0? ?G: 5 = O00537056 HHLLLL[[LQ7:=1:OXX811=4EH26 271 91W:??6FP5303M 1 9I3228?0976M260/33357 073G2G5026;2/0=337?5 0:2J730=5370807726?020Q 3K2E:N9\3270GG306G 1Q800 7I22 70 2 50:3/355I;67 335:2266= ;6:33E56X22G/Y5 371 022: I326;3I562556=53;G23 6?3ML57 626275=2?I5@ 3 587PG 2ZI5;36 ///49EEW42 L G3 5:::481J30666 2 7333;2 5552XK22239H5O555I27 =; 6252223AX 5L;[I53:/=G3 I6 3L0=0:2J5L=3;?6G7 36005B:16323?8756G57;:?? 500352 32;3H3N355777N22?HA75?:53877M G32M81267?0527:3;3887L3;0/6O06779723?0=35?G 53A3055757=2]2G7 5?:835E1G61 2I5;36 2=3;2A5072123 // ::6633552255 2272G32068:7:502EG12 320I552;\360G6 :1
*, # $ ! ! #' ! "
( # % #+) ! ! & # -. /012304156047 869512 6: 1;2 <2=? 8? 3? 6?> ?>
UNITED
NATIONS
E
Economic and Social
Council
Distr.
GENERAL
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
12 June 2002
Original: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Fifty-ninth session
Item 10 of the provisional agenda
ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS
Report of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the
right to an adequate standard of living, Mr. Miloon Kothari
Addendum
Visit to the occupied Palestinian territories*
(5-10 January 2002)
* The content of this report was originally introduced orally by the Special Rapporteur
on 9 April 2002 during the fifty-eighth session of the Commission (E/CN.4/2002/SR.32). In a
letter addressed to the Chairperson of the Commission on 26 April 2002, the Special Rapporteur
requested that the report “be processed under item 10, in accordance with applicable rules and
procedures of the Commission on Human Rights”.
GE.02-14506 (E) 300802
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 2
CONTENTS
Paragraphs Page
Introduction .............................................................................................. 1 - 9 3
I. THE RIGHT TO LAND ............................................................. 10 - 15 5
II. BANNING PALESTINIAN CONSTRUCTION ....................... 16 - 17 6
III. ADMINISTRATIVE HOUSE DEMOLITIONS ........................ 18 - 24 6
IV. MILITARY DESTRUCTION OF HOUSING ........................... 25 - 34 8
V. IMPLANTATION OF SETTLEMENTS AND SETTLERS ..... 35 - 42 10
VI. VIOLENCE AGAINST PALESTINIAN RESIDENTIAL
COMMUNITIES ........................................................................ 43 - 46 12
VII. GENERAL HOUSING CONDITIONS ..................................... 47 - 49 13
VIII. CLOSURE, IMPOSED ECONOMIC DEPRESSION AND
HOUSING ................................................................................... 50 - 61 13
IX. REFUGEES ................................................................................ 62 - 64 15
X. MISUSE AND HOARDING OF WATER RESOURCES ........ 65 - 73 16
XI. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES ................................................... 74 - 78 18
XII. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ..................... 79 - 83 19
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 3
Introduction
1. The Special Rapporteur visited Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories
from 5 to 10 January 2002, at the invitation of Ben Gurion University and Adalah: Legal Center
for Arab Minority Rights in Israel. The Special Rapporteur availed himself of the opportunity to
meet with a group of non-governmental organizations, United Nations and intergovernmental
agencies and Palestinian authorities, in order to collect information necessary pursuant to
Commission on Human Rights resolution S-5/1 of 19 October 2000, in which the Special
Rapporteur, along with several other thematic rapporteurs, was requested to “carry out
immediate missions to the occupied Palestinian territories and to report the findings to the
Commission at its fifty-seventh session and, on an interim basis, to the General Assembly at its
fifty-fifth session”.
2. Unfortunately, the Special Rapporteur was not able to fulfil this request immediately
owing to Israeli visa requirements. On 6 December 2000, he sent a letter to the Permanent
Representative of Israel to the United Nations Office at Geneva requesting an invitation, to
which the Government responded that it “would not cooperate in the implementation of the
operative part of this resolution”. On 27 June 2001, at the annual meeting of special rapporteurs
and independent experts, he once again requested an invitation from the Government, together
with other thematic rapporteurs mentioned in the resolution. To date, there has been no reply
from the Government. Prior to undertaking the visit, the Special Rapporteur informed the
Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations Office at Geneva, in a letter
dated 3 January 2002, of his intention to use the opportunity of the visit to gather information
with a view to reporting to the Commission as requested in resolution S-5/1.
3. To assess the situation of housing during the visit, the Special Rapporteur met with
Palestinian and Israeli non-governmental organizations, United Nations and other international
agencies in the region and members of the Palestinian authority, including from the Ministries of
Housing, Planning and International Cooperation, and Health. The Special Rapporteur visited
East Jerusalem including the “walled city” and Shu’fat refugee camp, Bethlehem, Beit Jala,
Ramallah and the Gaza Strip, including the refugee camps of Khan Younis and Rafah.
4. In carrying out his assessment, the Special Rapporteur was guided by the mandate given
to him by the Commission and his interpretation of the mandate as outlined in his first two
reports to the Commission (E/CN.4/2001/51 and E/CN.4/2002/59). Keeping in view the
indivisibility of all human rights, this approach sees the right to housing as including dimensions
of land rights, forced evictions, population transfer, the right to a safe environment and the right
to water. The Palestinian people’s deep historical understanding of the right to housing
(including through a particular affinity with their land) and its widespread violation in the
occupied Palestinian territories validates the approach adopted by the Special Rapporteur. A
number of congruent rights take on a particular, if tragic, meaning in the occupied Palestinian
territories: the right to life; the right to an adequate standard of living; the right to freedom of
movement and residence; the right to popular participation; the right not to be subjected to
arbitrary interference with one’s privacy, family and home; and the right not to be subjected to
cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 4
5. The principle features of the condition of housing rights in the occupied Palestinian
territories arise from breaches of the laws of war and humanitarian law. These include not only
violations of the Geneva Convention, relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War, on which Israel has reneged, but even more basic prohibitions of the Hague Regulations
of 1907, which the Israeli judiciary and military have formally accepted as applying.1
6. Since the massacre of Palestinian civilians at the Noble Sanctuary and the emergent wave
of Palestinian resistance in September 2000, the Israeli military forces have targeted Palestinian
homes with unprecedented use of destructive force. On January 2002, during the visit of the
Special Rapporteur, Israeli forces carried out a night attack on the refugee camp at Rafah
(Gaza Strip), destroying at least 58 Palestinian refugee family homes. The serial destruction of
Palestinian households, property and patrimony is a continuous process that has culminated
dramatically in the current phase of the conflict over Palestine. The number of Palestinian
homes destroyed by Israeli administrative and military acts climbs almost daily.
7. Before the Noble Sanctuary massacre, Israel’s occupation authorities had ordered
10,000 Palestinian homes demolished in Arab East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Human rights
organizations assert that actually some 28,000 Palestinian homes in Jerusalem alone are
threatened with demolition by Israel. The occupation imposes spatial restrictions on Palestinian
physical development by imposing planning criteria and supplanting local codes in violation of
the international laws of war and humanitarian provisions applying to occupied territories. Israel
favours illegal settlers with generous land allotments, subsidies, impunity for violent criminal
activity, State-sponsored and private financing, and all manner of services at the expense of the
indigenous Palestinian host population and international peace and security. Essentially, the
institutions, laws and practices that Israel had developed to dispossess the Palestinians (now
Israeli citizens) inside its 1948 border (the Green Line) have been applied with comparable effect
in the areas occupied since 1967, the actual focus of this report.
8. A number of special rapporteurs, the Commission of Inquiry and the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights have also examined the state of house demolition and
its devastating effects on the population in the occupied Palestinian territories. In his most
recent report to the Commission (E/CN.4/2002/32), Mr. John Dugard, the current
Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied
by Israel since 1967, devoted a separate section to the issue of demolition of houses and
destruction of property; he did the same in his report to the General Assembly (A/56/440).
The High Commissioner for Human Rights, during her visit to Rafah refugee camp in
November 2000, inspected a number of private houses and apartments that had been heavily
damaged (E/CN.4/2001/114, paras. 39-40). The Commission of Inquiry also examined this issue
in detail and concluded that such demolition “has caused untold human suffering to persons
unconnected with present violence” (E/CN.4/2001/121, para. 50). Both Mr. Dugard and the
Commission of Inquiry point out that the demolition of houses and destruction of properties, as
well as the restriction on movement, constitute a violation of the right to an adequate standard of
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 5
living, including the right to adequate housing, under article 11, paragraph 1, of the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ibid., para. 94). The previous Special
Rapporteur, Mr. Giorgio Giacomelli, also stated that measures of collective punishment such as
closures and house demolitions have caused disruption on the fabric of society, with particularly
serious effects on the family, including children (see E/CN.4/2001/30, para. 13 and
E/CN.4/2000/25, paras. 38, 43 and 62).
9. Following the above, this analysis of housing rights in the occupied Palestinian territories
addresses State behaviour on two levels: (a) through the continuum of dispossession by
administrative means as a constant feature of the occupation; and (b) the upsurge of Israeli
military action against Palestinian civilians’ homes and habitat since the September 2000 Noble
Sanctuary massacre and the ensuing al-Aqsa intifada. The latter is the principal focus of the
present report; however, it would be a disservice to the Commission not also to remind it of
Israel’s long record of depopulation and demographic manipulation by way of expulsion,
destruction of homes and villages, and implantation of settlers prior to and since its
establishment as a State.
I. THE RIGHT TO LAND
10. Land, as a housing resource, is an essential element of the right to housing. This is most
conspicuous in the breach of individual and collective land tenure rights, as seen in the practice
of ethnic cleansing and expulsion of land-based people and communities, as has historically been
the case in Palestine.2 It should be recalled that population transfer constitutes a particularly
grave violation of human rights and humanitarian law that, regrettably, persists in the recent and
ongoing conflicts. In this connection, the Special Rapporteur notes the increase in forced
eviction of Palestinians and implantation of settlers in the territories and period covered by this
review.
11. Israel’s confiscation of land and properties belonging privately and collectively to the
Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories is a dominant feature of the occupation and an
essential component of Israel’s population transfer programme. This practice violates the
long-established public law principle of the unacceptability of the acquisition of territory by
force, as well as specific resolutions concerning Israel’s confiscation of land and settlement
activities.3 Since 1967, Israel has confiscated land for public, semi-public and private (Jewish)
use in order to create Israeli military zones, Jewish settlements, industrial areas, elaborate
“bypass” roads, nature reserves, “green areas” and quarries, as well as to hold “State lands” for
exclusive use by Israeli citizens and others whom Israeli law entitles with the status of “Jewish
nationality”.4
12. The land confiscation complement to population transfer, including the implantation of
settlers, has actually escalated during the political process following the Oslo Agreements. This
“Oslo Phase of Occupation”, as it has become known, has witnessed Israel’s confiscation of
hundreds of thousands of dunams (one thousand square metres).
13. In the period leading up to Oslo, when Ariel Sharon served as Minister of Housing, Israel
(in collaboration with the World Zionist Organization/Jewish Agency) launched a settlement
campaign in the construction of the “Seven Stars” colonies straddling the Green Line. More
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 6
recently, Israel’s military closure of Bayt Sira, Qattana and Midia villages in the West Bank has
actually moved the Green Line demarcation points, adding Palestinian land to Israel. In the case
of Midia village, Israeli authorities ordered five houses, 500 metres from new line, to be
demolished and confiscated 2,200 dunams of village land. This case remains a subject of
litigation.
14. One example of land confiscation during the recent period was marked by the
announcement by then Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Deputy
Chief of Staff Moshe Allon, on the same day as the Sharm al-Sheikh Agreements were signed,
that the Israeli Government had newly confiscated 250,000 dunams of Palestinian land. The
Wye River negotiations extracted a Palestinian non-contestation of Israel’s construction of
bypass roads serving the settler colonies. This resulted in the confiscation of a further
1.54 per cent of West Bank land, and the roads served as scissors cutting the Palestinian
geographical body into 64 pieces.5
15. Estimates place the proportion of Palestinian land confiscated by Israel at more
than 70 per cent of the West Bank and 33 per cent of the Gaza Strip; at least 32.5 km2, or
approximately 33 per cent, of Palestinian land in East Jerusalem has been confiscated,6 and all
but 7 to 8 per cent of the area has been closed to Palestinian construction.7
II. BANNING PALESTINIAN CONSTRUCTION
16. In the occupied Palestinian territories, planning since 1967 has been assumed by the
military authorities and, for instance, continues to be carried out for Areas B and C in the
West Bank by the civil Israeli administration based in the Jewish settlement of Bayt El.
Immediately after seizing East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967, Israel
disbanded the regional councils that were legally responsible for physical planning. Thus, the
Israeli occupation forces have dismissed those legally responsible for planning in favour of the
occupiers’ military and demographic imperatives. This practice violates the Hague Regulations
(1907), which prohibit an occupying Power from altering the legal system in occupied territories
(art. 43).8 Israeli domestic laws, including Basic Laws, military orders and planning regulations,
are applied with discrimination against, and disadvantage to the Palestinian population.
17. These planning regulations are legally invalid and discriminatory by nature. Israel
simultaneously grants vast areas of land for the planning of illegal Jewish settlements on
Palestinian territories, in addition to the facilities and services Israeli institutions provide to them.
(See discussion of settlement implantation below.) The consequences for the indigenous
Palestinian population involve, among other things, increased housing density, acute land
shortage, depletion of water resources and exorbitant land prices.
III. ADMINISTRATIVE HOUSE DEMOLITIONS
18. While applying very tight restrictions and granting very few building permits, Israeli
occupation forces frequently carry out punitive and violent demolitions of Palestinian homes for
lack of licence. Interlocutors reported myriad difficulties confronting and discrimination
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 7
practised against Palestinians seeking to obtain building permits and information about imposed
master plans. Sometimes the punishment is retroactive to the establishment or public disclosure
of a master plan. This practice leaves Palestinian families underhoused, and those whose houses
Israel demolishes are left homeless and often impoverished. Since 1987, at least 16,700
Palestinians (including 7,300 children) have lost their homes under this policy.
19. The rate of Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem
has not fallen since 1993, and has remained at a high level. In fact, although the number of
Palestinians living under constant and direct Israel civilian control and the areas where they live
are smaller (jurisdictional Areas C), the average yearly demolition of Palestinian homes showed
an increase throughout 1995-1999.9 Since September 2000, Israel’s administrative actions
against Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem alone have destroyed at least 70 housing units.10
In the past year, the municipality of Jerusalem has targeted multifamily residences built by
local contractors, with devastating consequences for businesses in the construction sector.11
These demolitions in Jerusalem alone have left 405 evictees, including 238 children,
and destroyed three water wells.12 During his visit to the occupied Palestinian territories,
the Special Rapporteur learned of eight demolition orders in Jerusalem that became known
on 6 January 2002. Some 28,000 Palestinian homes in Jerusalem remain under threat of
administrative demolition by the municipality of Jerusalem. The Special Rapporteur is aware
of 57 current demolition orders against Palestinian families’ homes in al-Khalil/Hebron (mixed
jurisdiction, West Bank). Some 50 are pending in the West Bank (in Areas C), where demolition
orders are most common near settler colonies and their adjacent bypass roads.13
20. The 23 demolition orders carried out against Shu’fat homes came in response to
complaints from settlers at Pisgat Ze’ev.14 In addition, there are six current orders known against
Palestinian homes near the Har Homa colony on Jabal Abu Ghunaym.
21. The Special Rapporteur visited the demolished home of Salim Shuwamira, in Shu’fat
refugee camp, Jerusalem. There the Special Rapporteur witnessed the scale of destruction and
loss to poor families, collateral damage to neighbours’ homes and the residual suffering and
quiet anger that naturally follows. He observed also that, whatever the pretext in terms of
builders breaking administrative norms, such destruction and suffering cannot be justifiable
under the principles of necessity and proportionality in the State’s use of force in the application
of civil law.
22. Israel’s administrative housing destruction as a punitive action does not comply with the
norms of the rule of law with a view to ensuring human rights. The demolitions ordered either
for lack of permit or another pretext have a military dimension and a gratuitously cruel nature.
Orders are often issued without specifying the affected home(s), without indicating the date of
the order or demolition, and without sufficient warning to inhabitants. Some administrative
demolitions are carried out with no orders at all. In most cases of demolition for lack of permit,
authorities wait until construction is complete before coming to destroy the home, inflicting the
heaviest possible material loss to the victim. With regard to the arbitrary, disproportionate and
discriminatory nature of this form of Israeli punishment, housing rights defenders note that even
the Israeli assassin of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was not subjected to the demolition
of his family’s home, the common collective punishment for Palestinians merely suspected of a
real or potential act of resistance.
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 8
23. Israel’s demolition policies have been a subject of discussion at the meetings of
the United Nations treaty bodies each time a report of the State party is examined. The
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) has been seized with the issue
since its review of Israel’s implementation of the Covenant in 1998, deploring “the continuing
practices … of home demolitions, land confiscations and restrictions on family reunification
and residency rights, and its adoption of policies [which] result in substandard housing and
living conditions, including extreme overcrowding and lack of services …”.15 Most recently,
the Committee against Torture (CAT) expressed concern that “Israeli policies on house
demolitions … may, in certain instances, amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment”.16
24. The Human Rights Committee, examining Israel’s report on its implementation of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, stated in 1998 that it “deplores the
demolition of Arab homes as a means of punishment. It also deplores the practice of
demolitions, in part or in whole, of ‘illegally’ constructed Arab homes … The Committee
considers the demolition of homes to conflict directly with the obligation of the State party
to ensure without discrimination the right not to be subjected to arbitrary interference with
one’s home (article 17), the freedom to choose one’s residence (article 12) and equality of
all persons before the law and equal protection of the law (article 26)” (CCPR/C/79/Add.93,
para. 24).
IV. MILITARY DESTRUCTION OF HOUSING
25. Israeli military shelling has heavily damaged and/or destroyed 7,571 Palestinian homes.17
In the week preceding the Special Rapporteur’s visit, Israeli military forces destroyed four
Palestinian homes without any known security or military purpose. In the course of militarily
destroying Palestinian housing, Israel has killed at least 136 people (mostly civilians) by shelling
from land and air at Bethlehem, Ramallah, Khalil and Jenin.18 In addition to the toll on homes
and human life, Israel has shelled public buildings, demolishing at least 73 Palestinian National
Authority (PNA) buildings, 49 educational institutions, 22 religious buildings and 7 health
facilities.
26. Often, the pattern shows no military objective, rather the fulfilment of settler colony
designs. As in the typical case of Abu ‘Ajlin, in the Dayr al-Balah area of the Gaza Strip,
Palestinian residents have been sandwiched between the Kissufim and Gush Qatif settler
colonies, which continuously expand towards them from both sides. In a move that seeks to
implement the planned contiguity of the settler colonies by eliminating the indigenous
population and their land tenure, the Israeli army surrounded a cluster of Abu ‘Ajlin homes in the
early morning of Tuesday, 19 February and announced that the residents had until that afternoon
to evacuate. The Israeli occupation forces began their bulldozing at 10.30 a.m., destroying
1 home and threatening 18 more. In this case, human rights organizations were able to obtain an
order nisi (temporary injunction) to ward off the remaining demolitions.
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 9
Number of buildings damaged in the West Bank, by building use,
28 September 2000-3 September 2001
Use of building
Residential Commercial Educational Government Charities Health Religious Tourism Total
4 994 51 269 21 12 24 65 4 5 440
Source: Ministry of Housing of the Palestinian Authority, “Damages to public and private
buildings and infrastructure facilities, 28/9/2000-3/9/2001”.
27. These figures are already out of date, but demonstrate the pattern of Israeli destruction of
an overwhelming number and proportion of residential structures. During the Special
Rapporteur’s visit, from 10 to 12 January, Israeli forces in Gaza destroyed, severely damaged or
made uninhabitable an additional 211 Palestinian homes.19 On 10 January,20 Israeli forces at
Block “O” along the Rafah border with Egypt demolished at least 58 homes in a night blitz that
set sleeping families running for their lives and rendering 614 people homeless. The next
morning, Israeli forces demolished another 18 homes in the al-Barama section of Rafah Refugee
Camp.21 As relief workers were scrambling to rehouse these evictees in tents, the news was still
reverberating in the press and among the public of the burning death of five children from the
Hunaydiq family, when cooking oil set alight their International Committee of the Red Cross
relief tent on 6 January; Israeli settlers shelling their homes had forced them to take refuge east
of Khan Yunis, where unforeseen, secondary hazards awaited.
28. In addition to the cost to life and limb during Israel’s destructive actions against
Palestinian homes, negative psychological effects are in evidence. The violent and abrupt loss of
one’s home has a collective dimension for Palestinians.22 It invokes the long history of Israel’s
forcible transfer and dispossession, which adds feelings of humiliation to the personal sense of
loss.
29. Social science research has highlighted the psychological effects of house demolitions
for both victims and witnesses. These include high levels of compound mental anxiety
manifesting as dread of the occupation army, diminished concentration, constant weeping and
re-experiencing the traumatic event. Witnesses shared the effects in the form of dread of the
occupation army, bouts of volatility, and night terror.23 In addition to the other causes of stress
and trauma, the experience of house demolition has had enduring psychological consequences
for the victims. Women have been shown to have longer and more severe bouts of depression -
in both the loss and witness groups - as they cope with the hardship. Children tend to suffer
disproportionately the violent loss of homes, shelter and possessions.24
30. Former Commander of the IDF Southern Command General Yom-Tov Samia in a
September 2001 radio interview summarized the strategic rationale for military demolition of
Palestinian homes:
“The IDF must raze all the houses [in the Rafah Refugee Camp adjacent to the Egyptian
border] within a strip of 300 to 400 metres in width … Arafat must be punished, and
after each incident another two to three rows of houses must be razed … We must apply
this extreme instrument; it is workable … and I am happy it is being used. Sadly, in steps
which are too small. It must be done in one big operation.”25
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 10
31. Israel’s active military command has rationalized house demolitions and the use of lethal
force on the pretext that it is operating a combat zone, and that the Hague Regulations therefore
apply as a justification for measures taken under its own criteria for “security” and “necessities
of war”, including civilian house demolitions, and crop and agricultural land destruction (e.g. by
bulldozing away topsoil).26
32. In Areas C, Palestinian farmers, their homes, property and crops are often the targets of
Israel’s military tactic of economic devastation of Palestine. Since the massacre at al-Aqsa
mosque, farmers have lost an estimated US$ 431 million from destruction. The occupation army
has destroyed 150 agricultural roads. Infamous is the Israeli practice of extirpating productive
fruit and olive orchards. One example among many is the Israeli army and settlers’ destruction
of thousands of 60- to 70-year-old olive trees at ‘Abud village.27
33. Settlers also have resorted to rustling livestock belonging to rural Palestinians, such as
the case of 61 head of sheep that Israeli settlers stole from ‘Awarta village.28 Israeli military
operations and property destruction have concentrated on potential Palestinian tourism zones,
such as Bethlehem, occupying hotel and other tourism facilities, militarizing religious sites (see
E/CN.4/2001/30) and stifling an important Palestinian economic sector. The physical damage to
structures alone has been estimated at US$ 135-165 million from October 2000 to June 2001;29
over 70 per cent account for agricultural losses and nearly 28 per cent are losses from damaging
or destroying private buildings. From figures covering only through June 2001, out of the
US$ 27.7 million in destruction, US$ 19.7 million was to residential buildings.30
34. New estimates from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees
in the Near East (UNRWA) indicate that a value of no less than US$ 3.8 million was lost in
structures in Israel’s operation against the refugee camps and Gaza City in March 2002. This
includes the destruction of at least 141 refugee shelters valued at US$ 2.3 million alone.31
V. IMPLANTATION OF SETTLEMENTS AND SETTLERS
35. The Special Rapporteur can only add his confirmation to the conclusion that Israeli
settlements in the occupied territories are an obstacle to peace. As stated above, the implantation
of settlements and settlers is also, prima facie, a violation of the basic principles of international
humanitarian law32 and also has been recognized as a violation of human rights norms,
particularly economic, social and cultural rights.33 Illegal settlement activity is a significant
factor in Israel’s confiscation of more than 70 per cent of the West Bank and 33 per cent of the
Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
36. At the beginning of 2001, Israel maintained 19 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip
that occupy 23,000 dunams of confiscated Palestinian land, surrounded by more than
23,000 additional dunams of confiscated land. In the West Bank, Israel maintains some
205 Jewish settlements, including some 16 Jewish settlements in occupied Jerusalem.
In addition, Israel established 74 outposts (habitations built that are non-contiguous with the
established settlements) after signing the Oslo Accords.34
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 11
37. According to the Yesha Council for settlers, the total settler population currently
numbers 227,000, excluding the settlers in West Jerusalem (since 1948) and East Jerusalem
(since 1967).35 Since the current Israeli Government came to power in February 2001, Israel has
set up an additional 34 settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.36
38. In January 2002, the Special Rapporteur witnessed the continued construction of
some 6,500 housing units for the new Jabal Abu Ghunaym/Har Homa settlement on
2,056 dunams of confiscated Palestinian land, completing the circle of Jewish settlements around
occupied Jerusalem. He also visited areas of new construction in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
settlement.
39. Israel has built 6,000-8,000 housing units for settler colonies in occupied Palestinian
territories between 1967 and 1998. While Israel maintains that this reflects “natural” population
growth, the 11-12 per cent annual increase in settler numbers far exceeds the 2 per cent
population growth inside Israel.37 The active and sustained implantation of Jewish settler
colonies serves the geostrategic purpose of acquiring territory and natural resources and limiting
the living space of the Palestinian host population. By contrast, Israeli planning authorities
assign jurisdictional areas to Jewish settlements in vast disproportion to the restricted land use
for comparable Palestinian population centres in the occupied Palestinian territories.38
Illustrative of this is Migilot settler colony in the Judean desert. Israeli settlement planners have
attributed 700,000 dunams of land to its settler population of 900.
40. Colonial settlements implanted near Palestinian built-up areas impose a 500-metre
“buffer zone”, removing Palestinian homes and buildings within that distance from the
settlement’s edge. In addition, the ganglia of settler bypass roads also impose the demolition of
structures and closure of over 150 m of Palestinian lands to each side. Israel claims that the
closure of these areas to their Palestinian owners and destruction of Palestinian properties there
conform to local law and planning regulations. However, at the base of these practices is a
breach of international law of treaties, as pointed out above.39
41. Since the advent of the Ariel Sharon (Likud) Government, local residents report an
increase in settler paramilitary activity, notably in the confiscation of lands (as well as crops,
farm equipment and livestock). In that context, Jewish settlers, already favoured by the
Israeli-controlled physical planning regime, since September 2000 are imposing their own
boundaries and using physical force and death threats to intimidate Palestinian land holders, as in
the case of settler colonies at ‘Ayn Yubrid (West Bank).40
42. In addition to the 34 new settler colonies, Prime Minister Sharon’s Government has
approved 14 new settlement plans. For the 2002 budget of Israel, US$ 154 million were
proposed for infrastructure projects, industrial investment grants, housing, agricultural
programmes and educational subsidies for the illegal settlements in 2002. This is in addition to
private and other sources of settlement funding, including that allotted by the Jewish National
Fund and World Zionist Organization/Jewish Agency. The Israeli Government finances
50 per cent of settlement costs in the occupied Palestinian territories, while it finances
25 per cent of housing inside the Green Line. Illegal Jewish settlers in the occupied Palestinian
territories, who recorded the highest per capita income of Israelis in the 1990s, receive
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 12
US$ 520.22 per capita in subsidies from the budgets publicly disclosed, while, in the
communities of Arab citizens of Israel, the most disadvantaged, individuals receive the
equivalent of US$ 234.83 in public benefits.41
VI. VIOLENCE AGAINST PALESTINIAN RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITIES
43. The Israeli occupation army frequently imposes curfews on Palestinian towns and
villages in the occupied Palestinian territories. Typically, residents are allowed only four hours
(between 10.00 a.m. and 2.00 p.m.) to move from their homes to carry out their daily business.
There have been cases in which Jewish settlers have destroyed and confiscated Palestinian
property while these communities are under curfew. Since September 2000, settlers have used
firearms and other forms of violence under Israeli army and police cover, killing 18 Palestinians
to date.42
44. In an apparently positive development, on 27 February 2002, the Israeli High Court
agreed to accept for consideration a petition requesting the Minister of Police, represented by the
State Attorney’s Office, the Attorney-General and the Commander of the Hebron police to
respond to numerous requests for information regarding criminal complaints filed by Palestinian
victims of violence committed by Israeli settlers.
45. Isolated villages and historical urban centres suffer especially. Access and movement are
restricted, especially in those areas near Jewish settlements, suppressing livelihood activities and
rendering impossible the maintenance and supply of households. Israel’s land grabbing and a
lack of ability to upgrade construction have led Palestinian communities to opt to build
low-grade structures in the historical heritage areas. Gaza City, with virtually no vestige of its
three millennia of urban heritage, exemplifies this phenomenon. Assaults by Jewish settlers and
uniformed Israeli military have harassed and forced many Palestinian residents of
al-Khalil/Hebron to leave their recently renovated homes.
46. The Special Rapporteur interviewed Ms. Na’ila al-Zaru, who was evicted twice from her
historic home in the Old City of Jerusalem. The first time, she had regained her right to remain
in her house following litigation brought by Israeli settlers who had squatted in her home and
stolen all of her family’s possessions, under Israeli police protection, while she was attending
to her ailing mother in Amman, Jordan, in June 1985. Then, during the term of former
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - who had pledged to occupy more Palestinian homes in
the Old City - settlers brought a new case in the Jerusalem Central Court. On the morning of
25 May 1998, Israeli army and police violently evicted the widowed Ms. al-Zaru and her
two children following a politicized trial in which the Israeli judge ruled on the basis of settler
ideology, rather than law. Since that date, the al-Zarus have lived in a converted space in the
Red Crescent Society clinic, without adequate housing or tenure. That Ms. al-Zaru owed the
occupation authority-imposed “arnona” tax was used as a pretext in the original attempt to evict
her from her ancestral home, to which she had title. This is one administrative device that Israel
uses to carry out forced evictions and supplant the indigenous residents of the Old City with
privileged Jewish settlers.43
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 13
VII. GENERAL HOUSING CONDITIONS
47. Among the most common complaints of Palestinians, when asked about their housing
rights, is the palpable and constant problem of high housing density. Palestinian families and
communities crave space to live in and develop, as is natural for indigenous people in their own
country. However, the Israeli occupation forecloses such a choice by imposing domination by a
colonizing population.
48. As explained above, population transfer, confiscation of land and the combined effect of
other Israeli measures have concentrated the majority of the remaining Palestinians into refugee
camps, dilapidated historic city centres, high-density villages and slums. Forty per cent of the
3 million Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories live in housing that is inadequate by
any definition.44 Refugees are the most consistently and gravely affected victims of the rekuz
(“concentration”) pattern of living preferred by Israeli planners for Palestinians, but additional
thousands of non-refugee residents share comparably squalid living conditions. Under present
conditions, the proportion and numbers of Palestinians underhoused in the occupied territories
are expected to burgeon.
49. The combined factors of the conflict over the past 18 months have caused impoverished
families whose houses have been demolished to camp with relatives and neighbours, sharing
rents and space, and the economically destitute to seek inadequate temporary housing. This
leads to further concentration of people in an already overcrowded space. The Special
Rapporteur heard testimony about 16 families living on one floor in Betunia/al-Tirah
(West Bank). Social and health problems naturally arise from such high density and cause
secondary forms of suffering for the displaced. That all of these problems have become worse
in the currently depressed economic conditions is obvious in both villages and cities, including
East Jerusalem.
VIII. CLOSURE, IMPOSED ECONOMIC DEPRESSION AND HOUSING
50. Closure of the occupied Palestinian territories has remained a standard practice
since 1993, in what is locally known as the “Oslo Phase of Occupation”. During the period
under review (from October 2000 to September 2001), the main Gaza crossings were closed to
Palestinians 74 per cent of the time. However, nominal openings meant that only 20 per cent
of the previously restricted level of 29,000 passages were allowed. Only the Karni/Muntar
(commercial) crossing in Gaza remained closed for 8 per cent of the time, while others
(Erez/Bayt Hanun and Sufa/Qarara) remained completely closed for 61 per cent of the
time.45
51. In the West Bank, the 90,000-100,000 daily passages dropped in the last quarter of 2000
to approximately 20,000 crossings, with some increase in 2001. However, an unknown number
of people were entering clandestinely.
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 14
52. The Israeli occupation forces closed the international border with Egypt at
Rafah 55 per cent of the time, and sealed the borders with Jordan for 56 per cent of the time.
Gaza airport remained closed 98 per cent of the time, and Israeli shelling and bombing have
damaged and completely closed it.46 In addition to the military closures of the occupied
Palestinian territories, Palestinian access to Israeli ports has been restricted by arbitrary and
administrative obstructions that have multiplied the costs of processing and storage, as well as by
arbitrarily imposed duties and fees.
53. In the Israel-PNA negotiation process between Oslo I and Oslo II, Palestinians lost two
of the three safe passage roads originally agreed upon. The only remaining “safe passage” that
Israel allowed open was closed on 6 October 2000, and has remained closed ever since.
54. The closure has had devastating effects on the housing sector, including needed
construction, as it has become impossible to build in the absence of free movement of personnel
and materials. Consequently, investment has decreased and capital has withdrawn from the
housing market, while investment resources are being spent to subsidize losses and cover dearer,
more immediate needs in terms of dwellings.
55. The manufacture of construction material has fallen to 65 per cent of capacity in the
occupied Palestinian territories, owing to transport, storage, raw material and other cost
increases. Profits drop and clients with plunging incomes have difficulty paying, so that greater
portions of company assets are tied up in accounts receivable, leading to liquidity shortages. The
delays and inflation in the Israeli-controlled cement market alone amounted to a US$ 230 million
loss for Palestinian companies.47
56. Under present conditions, the Palestinian Legislative Council cannot function and there
are other constraints on legal infrastructure redevelopment; the contractual environment is
hazardous and repels risk-averse investors, including the banking sector. The Israeli military
attacks on and attempts to engage the civil police as if they were “combatants” have weakened
law enforcement capacity further coupled with low investor and public confidence in court-based
dispute resolution and the general rule of law. Building has declined which causes fiscal crises
in many Palestinian municipalities, such as Bethlehem and Jerusalem, that rely not on
utilities-use collections, but on building permit fees for revenue to fund local services.
57. Much of donor assistance has been repackaged as “emergency assistance”, or shifted to
basic food and other survival services and has shifted away from labour-intensive activities,
including construction (which is often a large part of a project).48 With incomes dropping, as
many as 50 per cent of families in a recent survey reported delaying payment of an average of
three utility bills.49
58. The secondary impacts of the closure have meant a 25 per cent drop in employment in
the West Bank in the first quarter of the current uprising period (October 2001). Some later
improvement was attributed to emergency donor infusions.50 In certain blighted areas, as in the
southern Gaza Strip, as much as 72 per cent of Palestinians are living under the poverty line.
The closure has forced many Palestinian residents of the southern Gaza Strip to remain
permanently in Gaza City, since they can no longer commute to their source of livelihood. As a
result, the increased demand has boosted minimum Gaza City monthly rents to US$ 250. Many
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 15
local Palestinians seeking housing cannot afford available rental units, and some local
Palestinian governmental and non-governmental institutions have provided emergency grants
and loans to those hardest hit.
59. The movement of construction materials and personnel has been nearly impossible for
international and United Nations redevelopment efforts as well. The closure has inflated the
costs of donor-supported projects through the loss of productive time, inflated transportation
costs, and road closures and damage, among other factors. The losses measured in either capital
stocks or revenue flows reveal a scenario of plummeting resources for livelihood, but these
indicators (emerging through available methods) tell only part of the story.
60. Based on the indicators available, it is expected that the general economy would recover
to its pre-crisis level in two years only if Israel were immediately to lift all economic constraints
from the occupied Palestinian territories and commerce were to develop unimpeded for that
biennium.51 The alternative is economic implosion and hardships yet unseen.
61. The emerging situation is what the World Bank asserts that “all rational participants wish
to avoid”. The continuing conditions “would not [be] a sustainable scenario in any conventional
sense, and would lead in all probability to a functional collapse of normal civil governance
within a year, a reversion from any semblance [of] modern business activity into barter trade and
subsistence farming, and a growing dependence on donor food aid, as under such conditions a
monetized economy can scarcely function (thus dampening the impact of further conventional
donor contributions). Unemployment could climb to about 40 per cent by the end of 2002,
poverty rates could reach 60 per cent of the population, and [gross national income] per capita
could fall a further 30 per cent, leaving GNP per capita at only half the pre-intifada level.”52
IX. REFUGEES
62. Palestinian refugees made homeless as a consequence of war (principally in 1948
and 1967) and interim expulsions remain inadequately housed since their displacement. They
are victims of land, home and other property confiscation and large-scale demolition of their
villages by Israel. Currently, at least 1,460,396 Palestinian registered refugees and other holders
of the right of return (as well as compensation and/or restitution) reside in the territories.53 The
majority of these refugees still live in 30 camps created after the 1948 war (8 in Gaza and 22 in
the West Bank, including Jerusalem).
63. The Special Rapporteur found the continuing violation of the right of return to be a
vivid issue in his meetings with communities, human rights organizations and service
providers during his visit. Refugees feel that they are the subjects of continuing violation, while
serving as potentially expendable bargaining chips for political purposes outside the rule of law.
Although the international community continues to provide services for Palestinian refugees, the
refugees and their defenders emphasize also that there is a lack of adequate protection because
they do not fall under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, and because the
United Nations institution theoretically responsible for protection and restitution (the Palestine
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 16
Conciliation Commission) is defunct. While it is arguable that the United Nations (and,
particularly, the Member State of Israel) also bear a responsibility to provide protection for these
civilians, the present suffering of Palestinian refugee victims of house demolitions emphatically
demonstrates the failure of the international community to offer Palestinian refugees the
minimum rights to which they are entitled.
64. Israel is the primary duty holder for the implementation of the right of return without
delay,54 but has demonstrated no will to do so. The Commission and the international
community must respond practically within a human rights framework, noting that violations of
the right of return increase with the number of rights holders and the values of their potential
compensation and restitution claims. It is not a dilemma that will soon recede. In fact, the
political and logistical tasks of implementation are made more complicated and difficult with the
passing of time and changing demographic conditions.
X. MISUSE AND HOARDING OF WATER RESOURCES
65. In addition to land, access to safe and sufficient water - including drinking water - is an
essential element of adequate housing. Patterns of land use and consumption indicate severe
discrimination against Palestinians in access to water throughout the occupied Palestinian
territories, and lavish consumption by the occupying population.55 Water is not only an essential
human need, but its place in human rights lies at the confluence of human rights and housing,
health and food.
66. The Special Rapporteur observed six principle methods of institutionalized Israeli
violations of the Palestinian people’s right to water affecting housing and habitat in the occupied
Palestinian territories. These involve:
(a) Destruction by military and paramilitary (settlers) of Palestinian water sources,
pumps, wells and distribution infrastructure;
(b) Non-provision of water infrastructure, including networks and facilities for local
solutions;
(c) Lack of proper maintenance of existing infrastructure so as to prevent leakage and
water loss;
(d) Outright prevention of Palestinians from drilling and constructing water-delivery
facilities, most notably in areas of Jewish settler colonies;
(e) Discriminatory distribution and insufficient water supply to Palestinians in areas
that the Israeli water utility (Mekorot) controls; and
(f) Pollution and contamination of Palestinian acquifers through the combined
dumping of lethal waste, hazardous use of chemical fertilizers and overpumping, leading to
salinization.
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 17
67. The Palestinian use of the Jordan River before 1967 involved the use of
some 140 pumping units. Israel either confiscated or destroyed all of those facilities.
In addition, Israel closed as military zones the large, irrigated areas of the Jordan Valley used
by Palestinians that later were transferred to Jewish settlers.
68. Palestinian entitlements to water include the West Bank and Gaza aquifers, in addition to
their rightful shares as riparians of the Jordan River. The West Bank’s hydrological system
includes three major aquifers: the western, north-eastern and eastern basins. The annual
renewable freshwater yield of this aquifer ranges from 600 million cubic metres (MCM)
to 650 MCM.
69. At present, Israel extracts more than 85 per cent of the Palestinian water from the
West Bank aquifers, accounting for about 25 per cent of Israel’s water use. As a result of
Israeli-imposed restrictions, under typical circumstances (before the intifada), Palestinians
use 246 MCM of the water resources to supply nearly 3 million Palestinians in both the
West Bank and Gaza Strip with their domestic, industrial and agricultural needs. This compares
with Israel’s use of 1,959 MCM for its population of approximately 6 million. That translates
into a per capita water consumption by Palestinians of 82 m³ as compared with 326.5 m³
for Israeli citizens and settlers. Figures for daily per capita water use indicate that Israelis -
at 350 litres - use five times more than Palestinians (70 litres). In the water-scarce Gaza Strip,
Israeli settlers consume 584 litres per day, or about sevenfold the Palestinian per capita
consumption there.56 Owing to leakage from undermaintained networks, the actual Palestinian
per capita consumption is assumed to be lower than this indicator.57 Both the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Health Organization (WHO)
recommend 100 litres per capita for minimum daily consumption.58
70. By contrast, Israel provides its illegal Jewish settlers with a continuous and plentiful
water supply, largely from Palestinian water resources. Much of the administration and
distribution of water for urban consumption in the occupied Palestinian territories remains
controlled by Israel, especially in the West Bank (56 per cent).59 The supply to Palestinians is
intermittent, especially during summer months. At present, over 150 Palestinian villages
(population 215,000), and perhaps as many as 282 communities in the West Bank have no direct
access to a public water-distribution system.60 When Israel nominally turned over the
maintenance of the water sector to the PNA, 20 per cent of the Palestinian residents of the
occupied Palestinian territories were not connected to a water network. These factors conspired
to raise costs for Palestinians and reportedly have led to a black market in water in the occupied
Palestinian territories.
71. Some communities, such as Burin (population 2,002), south-west of Nablus (West Bank),
have no independent water supply. The closures and movement restrictions have cut them off
completely from any water source. Settlers and uniformed Israeli military destroy cisterns and
contaminate collection tanks and damage pumps. Under the pretext of retaliating for resistance,
Israeli soldiers have destroyed water supplies of refugee camp families by shooting holes in
rooftop cisterns.61
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 18
72. Aerial photos show the Gaza border as demarcating a land deprived of water. The only
significant green area in the northern Gaza Strip east of Bayt Hanun has been the site where the
Israeli army recently razed some 26,000 trees.62 Other green areas, such as Mawasi on the south
Gaza coast, is one of the sites of intense settler activity and the current subject of Israeli military
siege and comprehensive curfew, where adequate housing is one of the gamut of human rights
denied to 15,000 Palestinian citizens.
73. The institutionalized nature of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian water resources was
further entrenched in the Interim Arrangements with the Palestinian National Authority. Israel
has retained the power to veto any water project through the mechanism of the Joint Water
Committee and its “Civil Administration”. Although this constitutes a violation of international
law with regard to State responsibility, the principle concern of this review is the violation of the
right to housing, of which access to safe, clean water is an integral element.
XI. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
74. The “right to a safe place to live in peace and dignity” cannot be realized without also
realizing the right to a safe and clean environment. In the occupied Palestinian territories,
however, Israelis dump solid waste without restriction on Palestinian land, fields and side roads.
The solid waste generated in West Jerusalem, for example, is transferred to the unsanitary
dumping site east of Abu Dis, adjacent to the area where Israel has dumped the serially displaced
Jahhalin Bedouin. That site in the West Bank overlays the infiltration area of the eastern
sector of the water aquifer, and is adjacent to the area where Israel has forcibly evicted the
Jahhalin Bedouin (originally evicted from the Negev, inside the Green Line, in 1979-1980) to
transfer their commonly held lands to the sprawling Ma’ale Adumim settler colony. Also, the
settler colonies of Ari’el, Innab, Homesh Alon Morieh, Qarna Shamron, Kadumim and others
dispose of their solid waste in the West Bank, as do military camps and Israeli settler colonies
inside the Green Line.
75. Israeli settler colonies in the West Bank and Jerusalem are typically placed on high
ground, serving to enhance strategic domination over, and intimidation of the lower-lying
Palestinian towns and villages. While wastewater from many settler colonies is collected and
discharged into the nearby valleys without treatment, this also facilitates the settler colonies’
pollution of Palestinian lands. The Special Rapporteur observed that the Kfar Darom Israeli
settler colony in the Gaza Strip releases its sewage and chemical waste from the industrial plants
into the Palestinian Al-Saqa Valley in the central part of the Gaza Strip.
76. Industrial, chemical and human waste are dumped in the West Bank and Gaza (e.g. near
Salfit). A German-funded treatment plant for Salfit was planned in Area C, west of Salfit, and
the municipality obtained a permit from the civil authority, but only on the condition that the
plant be used for the Ariel settler colony’s sewage treatment.63
77. The Israeli Government has constructed at least seven industrial zones in the West Bank
and one major centre in Gaza (Erez). The West Bank examples occupy a total area of
approximately 302 hectares, located mainly on hilltops, from which they dump industrial
wastewater onto adjacent Palestinian lands. Information as to the nature of the enterprises in the
Israeli industrial zones is not accessible to the Palestinians. They can only guess on the basis of
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 19
the liquid waste flowing from the industrial area and from the solid waste found in nearby areas.
Palestinian sources estimate that at least 200 Israeli factories operate in the West Bank. Some of
the products are identifiable. The aluminum, leather tanning, textile dyeing, battery
manufacture, fiberglass, plastics and chemicals industries are among those known to exist within
these Jewish settler colonies, but detailed information on quantities produced, and waste
generated is not available.
78. The Barqan industrial zone in the West Bank is a clear example of environment
pollution. Aluminum, fiberglass, plastics, electroplating and military industries are known
to operate inside Barqan. The industrial wastewater flows untreated to the nearby valley and
damages agricultural land belonging to the neighbouring Palestinian villages of Sarta,
Kafr al-Dik, and Burqin, polluting the groundwater with heavy metals. Access and resource
problems are leading to deteriorating solid waste collection and disposal, with clear public health
consequences.
XII. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
79. This attempt by the Special Rapporteur to appraise the cumulative damage to the
Palestinian home and land validates the assessment of the international community, including the
Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations treaty bodies, that Israeli occupation has
had a devastating impact on the Palestinians’ housing and living conditions and that Israel bears
legal responsibility. The policies of belligerent occupation and collective punishment have been
marked by land confiscations, punitive house demolitions, implantation of settlements and
settlers, the dismemberment of the Palestinian territories through the building of bypass roads
and other infrastructure to serve illegal settlers, and the control or theft of water and other natural
resources in the occupied territories. All of these have had the result of consolidating occupation
on the lands occupied by force in 1967.
80. The Special Rapporteur commends the work of many local PNA institutions,
non-governmental organizations and international agencies that have monitored, informed,
defended and sought to remedy housing rights violations and improve the living conditions of
the Palestinian civilian population in the occupied Palestinian territories under the harshest
possible conditions. By no means the least of such efforts have been carried out by all of the
United Nations implementing agencies, including UNDP and UNRWA, as well as the
World Bank and the European Commission programmes to alleviate poverty and mitigate the
impact of Israel’s military occupation. The Special Rapporteur notes, however, that Israel
continues to impede the United Nations and other international development operations by
closing off access to the United Nations personnel and other international staff, imposing
arbitrary restrictions on the movement of materials, unlawful searches and detentions, and even
assaults on United Nations staff and vehicles.
81. It is ironic that the methods used to consolidate occupation have accelerated under the
guise of the Oslo Peace Accords. Since the massacre of Palestinian civilians at the Noble
Sanctuary, however, and the resultant Palestinian resistance marked by the second intifada, the
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 20
violence of occupation has assumed unprecedented proportions. A particularly destructive
strategy has involved the use of missiles, tanks and the Israeli army’s practice of “walking
through the walls” used to serially damage homes in the February-March 2002 attacks on the
Palestinian refugee camps.
82. The Special Rapporteur therefore concludes that Israel has:
(a) Failed to fulfil its obligations under the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Racial Discrimination and the Convention on the Rights of the Child;64
(b) Manipulated the ethnic character of the West Bank (including Jerusalem) and the
Gaza Strip through the illegal implantation of settlers and settlements, and denied residency
status and family unification to Palestinian Jerusalemites; and
(c) Impeded development activities, including those of the United Nations and other
international agencies, aimed at fulfilling housing rights and building infrastructure for the
Palestinian community.
83. It is in light of these effects of Israeli occupation that the international community of
States remains duty bound to intervene to protect the Palestinian community, their homes and
lands from further destruction and to ensure that the occupying Power is held to account for
breaches of humanitarian law and other treaty obligations so as to ensure restitution of the
Palestinian’s human right to housing, including their public and private lands and other natural
resources. The Special Rapporteur, therefore, presents the following practical recommendations
for the Commission’s consideration:
(a) Fulfilment of the right to adequate housing and all other economic, social and
cultural rights should constitute a framework for any political initiatives and negotiations
towards a resolution of the conflict in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories and the
preservation of regional peace and security;
(b) In order to restore peace and order, it is imperative that an international protection
force (under the jurisdiction of the United Nations) be dispatched to the occupied territories on
an urgent basis. Such a force must have as a priority the protection of Palestinian homes and
lands from further incursions by Israeli authorities and the safe and unimpeded conduct of the
United Nations and other international development efforts within the provisions of international
law;65
(c) The occupation should end completely including:
(i) Dismantling of all illegal settlements, including an immediate halt to new
Jewish settlement and other outpost planning and construction, expansion
of existing settlements and outposts, and planning and construction of
bypass roads and tunnels;
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 21
(ii) A moratorium on land confiscations and house demolitions for any
purpose, and the cancellation of all existing demolition orders;
(iii) A halt to further construction of bypass roads, tunnels and other
infrastructure for Jewish settlements;
(iv) Restoration of public and private Palestinian land and properties to their
rightful owners;
(v) A complete halt to, and diligent prosecution of all criminal acts by settlers,
particularly the use of firearms, other forms of violence, occupation, theft
and damage to homes, lands and infrastructure; and
(vi) The prompt and complete withdrawal of all Israeli forces and agents from
all areas occupied in 1967, in accordance with binding Security Council
resolutions;
(d) Immediate respect for and restoration of the economic, social and cultural rights
of Palestinians, including their rights to housing, through international cooperation with the
Palestinian National Authority and implementation of the Palestinian National Human Rights
Plan of Action. International cooperation may also include active involvement of the
United Nations Housing Rights Programme, and its lead agencies (OHCHR and UN-HABITAT)
to address the grave housing crisis in the occupied Palestinian territories;
(e) Reparations66 for the material losses of Palestinian civilian victims based on
replacement value, loss of livelihood/income, unauthorized use of property, as well as adequate
compensation for non-material losses, including the physical and psychological impact of home
demolitions and land confiscations and the resulting displacements, including the creation of
refugees;
(f) The Special Rapporteur suggests that he should continue consulting with official
and non-governmental institutions concerned with monitoring the right to housing and,
particularly, to work with international and local partners to develop and apply a common
methodology for quantifying the losses and costs in cases of housing rights violations.67 This
would serve to understand more clearly the consequences, reconstruction priorities and terms of
adequate compensation;
(g) The Special Rapporteur requests that the Commission call for an assessment of
the United Nations operations in the occupied Palestinian territories with a view to providing
local capacity in legal affairs to respond to military and other obstacles to civil projects,
particularly in view of the fact that it is the Israeli Military Government that controls areas of the
occupied Palestinian territories where the United Nations agencies operate, and Israeli breaches
of international law require a specialized response beyond the administrative capacity of the
United Nations field operations;
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 22
(h) The Special Rapporteur requests the Commission to authorize another mission to
the occupied Palestinian territories that would allow him to continue his monitoring activities on
the housing rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories and report to the Commission
and to comply with the Commission’s call in resolution S-5/1 for up-to-date information to be
presented to the General Assembly;
(i) In light of the grave situation regarding a range of economic, civil, cultural, social
and political rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, the Commission may wish to reiterate
its request to all relevant thematic special rapporteurs urgently to conduct visits to the occupied
Palestinian territories and report to the Commission and to the General Assembly.
Notes
1 Since the Beit El case (High Court of Justice 606, 610/78, Suleiman Tawfiq Ayyub et al. v.
Minister of Defence et al, Piskei Din 33 (2)), the High Court of Justice has ruled that the Hague
Regulations (1907) are customary law, therefore automatically part of municipal law and
judiciable in Israel.
2 Under its article 20 (a) (vii), the International Law Commission’s Draft Code of Crimes
against the Peace and Security of Mankind sets forth that unlawful deportation or transfer of a
population constitutes a war crime. Populations transfer, once considered a bygone feature of
war, has returned alarmingly to several cases of armed conflict in the past decade. In other
areas, it remains an aspect of standard policy and practice for the purpose of demographic
manipulation. Owing to the grave human consequences of the practice in history, humanitarian
law norms, notably the Fourth Geneva Convention (art. 49) prohibits forcible population transfer
and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, defines “forcible transfer of
population” (art. 7.2 (d)) and identifies it as a crime against humanity (art. 7.1 (d)), and therefore
a war crime, a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention (art. 8.2 (a) (vii)) and a serious
violation of international law (art. 8.2 (b) (viii)). The United Nations Special Rapporteurs
on the human rights dimensions of population transfer identified population transfer
(E/CN.4/Sub.2/1993/17) as a prima facie violation of international law, and the International
Law Commission also identified it as a crime against humanity in its Draft Code of Crimes
against the Peace and Security of Mankind (art. 18 (g)).
3 General Assembly resolution 51/190 “Permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people
in the occupied Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem, and of the Arab population
in the Syrian Golan over their natural resources”, of 16 December 1996; and
Security Council resolutions 446 (1979) of 22 March 1979, 452 (1979) of 20 July 1979,
465 (1980) of 1 March 1980, 471 (1980) of 5 June 1980, and 904 (1994) of 18 March 1994; and
Security Council resolutions concerning Jerusalem: 252 (1968) of 21 May 1968, 267 (1969)
of 3 March 1969, 298 (1971) of 25 September 1971, 476 (1980) of 30 June 1980, and 478 (1980)
of 20 August 1980.
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 23
4 Under Israeli law, anyone considered eligible for “Jewish nationality” can obtain this
preferential status on the basis of (a) a claim to profess the Jewish religion and (b) arrival in the
country. By contrast, a citizen of the State of Israel who is not bona fide as Jewish can never
hold this status, even if s/he is born there. In the case of George Tamarin v. the State of Israel
(1971), a Jewish Israeli petitioned the High Court of Israel unsuccessfully to have the official
registration of his nationality changed from “Jewish” to “Israeli.” The High Court ruled that
“there is no Israeli nation separate from the Jewish nation ... composed not only of those residing
in Israel but also of Diaspora Jewry”. Then President of the High Court Justice Shimon Agranat
explained that acknowledging a uniform Israeli nationality “would negate the very foundation
upon which the State of Israel was formed”, New York Times, 21 January 1972, p. 14; cited in
Oscar Kraines, The Impossible Dilemma: Who is a Jew in the State of Israel (New York: Bloch
Publishing, 1976). Nationality status in Israel is not linked to origin from, or residence in a
territory, as is the norm in international law. Rather, the basic theocratic character of the Israeli
legal system establishes ethnic criteria as the grounds for the enjoyment of full rights. The
Israeli Citizenship Law (ezrahut), officially mistranslated as “Nationality Law”, establishes a
civil status distinct from “Jewish nationality”.
5 Since the signing of the Wye River Accord, an estimated 27,385 dunams have so far been
confiscated: 12,238 dunams up to the end of 1998 and a further 15,147 dunams in the first three
months of 1999. The expropriated land will be used for the construction of bypass roads,
settlement expansion and construction of industrial zones, among other purposes. According to
field work by the LAW Society for Human Rights and the Environment, Israeli authorities have
confiscated 3,459 dunams to construct gas stations and industrial zones on the Palestinian
village lands of Kufur Qaddum, Asamou, Jab’a, Tal Mariam, Bayt Sira and Athahiriah. The
land confiscations in the first three months of 1999 took place in: Ramallah (2,395 dunams),
Hebron (1,558 dunams), Bethlehem (580 dunams), Jenin (558 dunams), Salfit and
Nablus (3,290 dunams), Tulkarem (200 dunams), Qalqilya (450 dunams), Jerusalem
(4,019 dunams), Gaza (17 dunams), Rafah (50 dunams) Khan Yunis (30 dunams), and Jericho
and the northern Jordan Valley (2,000 dunams).
6 “Greater Jerusalem” (Washington: Foundation for Middle East Peace, Summer 1997). As of
May 1999, the source indicated, Israel had confiscated 5,845 acres (23,380 dunams): “Israel’s
Uncertain Victory in Jerusalem” (Washington: Foundation for Middle East Peace, Spring 1999).
This does not account for the Palestinian lands, villages, homes and other properties Israel seized
in the conquest of West Jerusalem in 1948, and continues to possess.
7 7.3 per cent cited on http://www.badil.org; 8 per cent cited in Department of International
Relations, Orient House, “Forced Eviction and Dispossession of Palestinians in Occupied
Jerusalem by Current Israeli Policies” (February 2000), p. 13.
8 The Hague Convention of 18 October 1907 and Annexed Regulations concerning the Laws
and Customs of War on Land (Convention No. IV of 1907). Article 43 reads: The authority of
the legitimate power having in fact passed into the hands of the occupant, the latter shall take all
the measures in his power to restore, and ensure, as far as possible, public order and safety, while
respecting, unless absolutely prevented, the laws in force in the country.
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 24
9 Amnesty International, “Israel and the Occupied Territories - Demolition and dispossession:
the destruction of Palestinian homes” (London: Amnesty International, December 1999).
10 In Shu’fat, Bayt Hanina, Ashqariya and Qaddum/Silwan. Land and Housing Research
Centre, “Annual statistical report on house demolition in Jerusalem”, 10 January 2002.
11 For example, occupation forces demolished 11 housing units belonging to Jerusalem
contractor Ibrahim Julani on 20 August 2001.
12 These numbers do not include the homes families are forced, under court order, to demolish
by themselves.
13 Meeting with Land and Housing Research Center (Jerusalem), 6 January 2002.
14 Land and Housing Research Center, “Israel destroys 23 houses in Jerusalem on one day”
(July 2001).
15 E/C.12/1/Add.27 of 4 December 1998, para. 22. See also paras. 11, 12, 22, 28 and 41, in
which CESCR addressed the practice of demolishing Palestinian homes and policies leading to
declining living conditions on both sides of the Green Line (Israel’s 1948 border). CESCR
reiterated its concern in its subsequent letter to the Permanent Representative of Israel to the
United Nations Office at Geneva, of 1 December 2000, its letter to the Economic and Social
Council of 4 May 2001, and in its concluding observations of 31 August 2001
(E/C.12/1/Add.69).
16 Under article 16 of the Convention. See conclusions and recommendations of CAT
CAT/C/XVII/Concl.5 of 23 November 2001, para. 6 (j).
17 According to data collected by al-Haq: Law in the Service of Man (Ramallah). Special
Rapporteur’s meeting with Sha’wan Jabareen, al-Haq, Ramallah, 6 January 2002.
18 According to data collected by the LAW Society for Human Rights and the Environment
(Jerusalem). Special Rapporteur’s meeting with Hasib Nashashibi, LAW, Ramallah,
6 January 2002.
19 Facsimile letter from Raji Sourani, Director, Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, to the
Special Rapporteur, 15 January 2002.
20 While operating under the 16 December 2001 ceasefire.
21 Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Press Release 4/2001, 12 January 2002.
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 25
22 E. El-Sarraj, A.A. Tawahina and F. Abu Hein, “The Story of Uprooting”, presented at the first
International Conference on the Mental Health and Psychological Well-being of Refugees and
Displaced Persons, Stockholm, 6-11 October 1991, cited in S. Quota, Raija-Leena Punamäki and
E. El-Sarraj, “House Demolition and Mental Health: Victims and Witnesses”, Journal of Social
Distress and the Homeless, vol. 6, No. 3, 1997, p. 210.
23 A study of the mental health effects on victims of Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes at
al-Ammal and Bayt Labia (Gaza) in February 1993 records the experiences of a loss group,
witness group and control group. See Quota, Punamäki and El-Sarraj, op. cit.
24 See for example, “The First GCMHP Study on the Psychosocial Effects of the Al-Aqsa
Intifada: Significant Increase in Mental Disorders and Symptoms of PTSD among Children and
Women”, forthcoming (2002) from the Gaza Center Mental Health Programme (GCMHP).
25 Jeff Halper, “Rafah: Holding Israel Accountable”, at
http://www.mediamonitors.net/halper7.html.
26 Submission by the Executive Assistant to Israeli State Prosecutor Yehuda Shaefer,
17 January 2001.
27 Randy Engel, “The Bishops’ Collective: A Report and Commentary on the NCCB/USCC
[National Conference of Catholic Bishops/United States Catholic Conference] Atlanta Meeting,
14-16 June 2001”, at http://www.catholictradition.org/cfn-bishops.htm; also testimony of
Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee (PARC). Special Rapporteur’s meeting with
Jawda Abdalla, PARC, Ramallah, 6 January 2002.
28 Testimony of a West Bank NGO in meeting with the Special Rapporteur, Ramallah,
6 January 2002.
29 See World Bank, “One Year of Intifada”, Jerusalem, February 2002, p. 23. The price of
cement increased from NIS 330 to NIS 650 per ton, according to a Ministry of Planning and
International Cooperation (MoPIC) assessment.
30 US$ 11.38 million in Gaza and US$ 8.28 million in the West Bank. “One Year of Intifada”,
ibid., Sectoral Damage Tables, pp. 87-89. See also Ministry of Housing Table (in the text), also
reflecting similarly high proportions of residential building destruction.
31 “Israeli attacks on the camps imposes heavy costs on UNRWA”, UNRWA press release,
20 March 2002, at http://www.un.org/unrwa/arabic/news-ar/.
32 Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (Fourth
Geneva Convention), art. 49.
33 See supra note 15.
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 26
34 Special Technical Unit (STU), MoPIC, January 2000, at
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/factsheet/settlement.html.
35 Ibid. The combined figures indicate more than 403,249 settlers in the West Bank, 211,788 of
whom live in East Jerusalem.
36 Figures as of 19 March 2002, reported by Settlement Watch Project of Peace Now, at
http://www.peacenow.org.il/English.asp?Redirect=4&CategoryID=45&ReportID=236.
37 As of figures for December 1999 released by the Council for Jewish Communities in Judea,
Samaria and Gaza and compared with Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics counts in
December 1998. Nadav Shragai, “Number of Jews in settlements skyrockets”, Ha’aretz,
21 February 2000.
38 According to findings of B’Tselem (Jerusalem). Special Rapporteur’s meeting with
Ezekiel Lein and Jessica Montell (B’Tselem), 7 January 2002, and subject of a forthcoming
B’Tselem study, “Land grab: Israel’s settlement policy in the West Bank”, at
http://www.btselem.org.
39 In addition to references supra, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (art. 27)
provides that “A party may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for its
failure to perform a treaty.”
40 Testimony of Isa Samandar, Land Defence Committee, in meeting with Special Rapporteur,
Ramallah, 6 January 2002.
41 Based on exchange rate of 4.45 new Israeli shekels to the US dollar. Figures provided in the
Adva Center, “Governmental Funding of the Israeli Settlements in the West Bank, Gaza Strip
and Golan Heights in the 1990s of Local Governments, Home Construction, and Road
Building”, 27 January 2002, summarized in Nehemia Strasler, “Every settler a king”,
Ha’aretz Daily, 1 February 2002.
42 See detailed list in Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, “Summary of Palestinian
Fatalities from 29/9/2001 till 18/3/2002”, at www.phrmg.org/aqsa/settlers.htm.
43 See also Jerusalem Center for Women, “Settler attacks: in the eyes of the women of
Jerusalem”, November 2001.
44 Viktoria Waltz, “A Social Orientated Housing Program and Policy for Palestine” (Ministry of
Housing, 10 November 1999).
45 World Bank, op. cit., pp. 9-11.
46 Ibid., pp. 10-11.
47 Ibid., p. 93.
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 27
48 Ibid., p. 71 and note 95. As much as 66 per cent is typically spent on construction.
Constructions projects can have a labour content of 45 per cent.
49 Ibid., p. 41.
50 Ibid., p. 19.
51 Ibid., p. 17 and chap. 5.
52 Ibid., p. 80.
53 UNRWA figures as of 30 June 2001, including Jerusalem. “UNRWA in Figures” (Gaza:
UNRWA Public Information Office, June 2000). The figures are considered to be a “guideline”,
as true numbers are likely greater.
54 Under General Assembly resolution 194 (III) of 10 October 1948, para. 11; 2963 (XXVII) D
of 13 December 1972; 3089 (XXVIII) of 7 December 1973 and 3236 (XXIX)
of 22 November 1974, esp. para. 2; and Security Council resolution 237 (1967) of 14 June 1967.
55 See CESCR concluding observations E/C.12/1/Add.27, op. cit., paras. 10, 24, 32, 41 and
E/C.12/1/Add.69, op. cit., paras. 42, 20, 23 and 26.
56 B’Tselem, Thirsty for a Solution, position paper (Jerusalem: B’Tselem, 2000), p. 6.
57 Loss could be as much as 25-36 per cent, as explained in ibid., pp. 53-54.
58 United States Agency for International Development, “Report of the West Bank and
Gaza Mission” (Washington: USAID, 1999), at http://www.usaid-wbg.org/water.html
and WHO, “Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality” (Geneva: WHO, 1998), at
http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/GDWQ.
59 “Palestinian Water Consumption” in B’Tselem, op. cit.
60 B’Tselem, op cit., cites 150, while the Palestinian Ministry of Planning and International
Cooperation (MoPIC) counts 282. MoPIC, Regional Plan for the West Bank Governorates
Water and Waste Water Existing Situation (Gaza: PNA, 1998), at
http://planning.pna/wastewater/water_wastewater.html.
61 See E/CN.4/2001/30 and B’Tselem, “Not Even a Drop: The Water Crisis in Palestinian
Villages without a Water Network” (Jerusalem: B’Tselem, 2001), p. 9.
62 The World Bank counts 23,000 by early November 2001. See “One Year of Intifada”
op. cit., p. 92. Subsequent figures are taken from the Applied Research Institute of
Jerusalem-ARIJ (Bethlehem). Special Rapporteur’s meeting with Jad Isaac (ARIJ),
Bethlehem, 7 January 2002 .
E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1
page 28
63 ARIJ, ibid.
64 See concluding observations (Israel) of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination, CERD/C/304/Add.45; concluding observations (Israel) of the Committee on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, E/C.12/1/Add.27 of 4 December 1998, with particular
reference to the obligations to uphold the right to housing, paras. 10, 21-28 and 41 and
concluding observations (Israel), E/C.12/1/Add.69 of 31 August 2001, with reference to housing
rights, para. 15; report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the
Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 (E/CN.4/S-5/3 of 17 October 2000), para. 6.
65 With particular reference to the full implementation of the Convention on the Privileges and
Immunities of the United Nations (1946) and the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities
of the Specialized Agencies (1947).
66 See, in this context, the Basic principles and guidelines on the right to reparation for
victims of [gross] violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, prepared by
Mr. Theo van Boven, former Special Rapporteur of the Sub-Commission (E/CN.4/1997/104,
annex) and subsequently revised (“Basic principles and guidelines on the right to a remedy and
reparation for victims of violations of international human rights and humanitarian law”) by
Mr. Cherif Bassiouni, independent expert of the Commission (E/CN.4/2000/62, annex) for
consideration by the Commission.
67 The Special Rapporteur notes, in particular, the “housing rights barometer/tool kit” developed
by the Habitat International Coalition (available at http://www.hic-mena.org).
-----
UNITED
NATIONS
E
Economic and Social
Council
Distr.
GENERAL
E/CN.4/2003/30
17 December 2002
Original: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Fifty-ninth session
Item 8 of the provisional agenda
QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE
OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES, INCLUDING PALESTINE
Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights,
Mr. John Dugard, on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian
territories occupied by Israel since 1967, submitted in accordance with
Commission resolutions 1993/2 A and 2002/8
GE.02-16000 (E) 070103
E/CN.4/2003/30
page 2
Executive Summary
In the past year the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) has deteriorated
substantially from the perspective of human rights. In large measure this is the result of repeated
military operations carried out by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in the West Bank and Gaza.
The IDF has justified its actions as self-defence and anti-terrorism measures. That Israel
has legitimate security concerns cannot be denied. That it is entitled to take strong action to
prevent suicide bombings and other acts of terror is not disputed. On the other hand, there
must be some limits on the extent to which human rights may be violated in the name of
anti-terrorism. A balance must be struck between respect for basic human rights and the
interests of security. The principal balancing factor - proportionality - is the main focus of this
report.
Neither party to the conflict in the region has paid proper respect to civilian life and the
death toll has continued to rise. Since the start of the second intifada in September 2000,
over 2,000 Palestinians and over 700 Israelis have been killed. Most have been civilians.
The IDF military incursion of March to May, code-named Operation Defensive Shield,
caused material devastation in many cities - particularly Jenin and Nablus. This was followed by
Operation Determined Path in June which resulted in the reoccupation of seven of the
eight major cities in the West Bank. Curfews imposed on Jenin, Qalquiliya, Bethlehem, Nablus,
Tulkarem, Ramallah and Hebron have subjected over 700,000 persons to a regime similar to
house arrest. The curfews are complemented by a system of roadblocks and checkpoints which
have effectively divided the West Bank into some 50 separate “cantons”, between which
movement is difficult and dangerous. The reoccupation has affected every feature of Palestinian
life. There have been shortages of basic foodstuffs; interference with medical services by the
denial of access to doctors and hospitals; interruption of family contacts; and stoppages of
education. Unemployment has now reached over 50 per cent and 70 per cent of the population
live in poverty. In this situation there is a desperate need for humanitarian assistance. It has,
however, been suggested that such assistance in effect means that the international donor
community funds the military occupation.
Military operations have led to widespread arrests and detentions.
Children have probably suffered most from the present conflict. Both Palestinian and
Israeli children have been exposed to threats to personal safety, while Palestinian children have,
in addition, felt the breakdown of family life, health care and education.
Israeli territorial expansion has accelerated in the past year as a result of seizure of
Palestinian land to build a security wall and for the continued growth of settlements.
The report concludes that it is difficult to characterize the Israeli response to Palestinian
violence as proportional when it results in an excessive use of force that disregards the
distinction between civilians and combatants, a humanitarian crisis that threatens the livelihood
of a whole people, the killing and inhuman treatment of children, the widespread destruction of
property and territorial expansion.
E/CN.4/2003/30
page 3
CONTENTS
Paragraphs Page
Executive Summary
Introduction .............................................................................................. 1 - 3 4
I. HUMAN RIGHTS AND TERRORISM ...................................... 4 - 5 4
II. LOSS OF LIFE AND THE KILLING OF CIVILIANS .............. 6 - 11 5
III. THE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS CAUSED BY
MILITARY OCCUPATION ........................................................ 12 - 18 7
IV. THE DILEMMA OF HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE .......... 19 - 24 8
V. DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY ............................................... 25 - 33 10
VI. DETENTIONS ............................................................................. 34 12
VII. DEPORTATION/ASSIGNED RESIDENCE .............................. 35 12
VIII. CHILDREN IN THE CONFLICT ............................................... 36 - 40 13
IX. TERRITORIAL EXPANSION: THE WALL AND
SETTLEMENTS .......................................................................... 41 - 44 14
X. CONCLUSION: PROPORTIONALITY REVISITED .............. 45 - 46 15
E/CN.4/2003/30
page 4
I. Introduction
1. The Special Rapporteur visited the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) and Israel twice
in 2002. The first visit, in February, laid the foundation for the report to the Commission on
Human Rights at its fifty-eighth session (E/CN.4/2002/32), while the second, in late August,
provided the basis for the report to the General Assembly (A/57/366 and Add.1). The present
report, written four months before its presentation in order to comply with administrative
requirements relating to the submission of reports, will be supplemented by an addendum written
after a further visit to the region in February 2002.
2. In 2002 the situation in the region deteriorated substantially from the perspective of
human rights. Repeated Israeli military operations in the West Bank and Gaza have left
physical, economic and social devastation in their wake. This devastation, coupled with the
curfews imposed in the major Palestinian cities and the intensification of checkpoints that
obstruct mobility between towns and villages have brought about a humanitarian crisis which has
added poverty to the woes of the Palestinians. The serious violation of economic, social and
cultural rights has been accompanied by the continued violation of civil rights and international
humanitarian law. The death toll in both Palestine and Israel has risen sharply, largely as a result
of indiscriminate suicide bombings in Israel and the excessive use of force against civilians by
the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in Palestine. Detentions, inhuman treatment and the destruction
of property have also multiplied. Meanwhile, Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza
continue to grow despite unanimous international condemnation and assurances from the
Government of Israel that restrictions have been placed on such growth.
3. Much will happen in the region between the writing of this report and its presentation in
March 2003. Elections in Israel and, possibly, Palestine are anticipated early in 2003, and the
threat of war in Iraq remains a reality. The effect of events of this kind, and the consequences of
the ongoing violence, are impossible to predict with accuracy. One prediction, however, seems
sure: the situation will deteriorate further unless, miraculously, serious negotiations between
Israelis and Palestinians resume.
I. HUMAN RIGHTS AND TERRORISM
4. Many of the rights contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the
International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights have been violated by IDF in their actions against the Palestinian people. Many of the
obligations of international humanitarian law have likewise been violated. That this is so is not
seriously contested by Israel. Loss of life, inhuman and degrading treatment, arbitrary arrest and
detention without trial, restrictions on freedom of movement, the arbitrary destruction of
property, the denial of the most basic economic, social and educational rights, interference with
access to health care, the excessive use of force against civilians and collective punishment are
instead justified as self-defence and legitimate anti-terrorism action. That Israel has legitimate
security concerns cannot be denied. That it is entitled to take strong action to prevent suicide
bombings and other acts of terror is not disputed. On the other hand, there must be some limits
on the extent to which human rights may be violated in the name of anti-terrorism action. Even
E/CN.4/2003/30
page 5
in the present international environment, in which anti-terrorism measures challenge old liberties
and freedoms, it is not denied that a balance must be struck between respect for basic human
rights and the interests of security.
5. In searching for this balance many factors must be considered, including the causes of the
terrorism, the possibility of achieving a peaceful end to terrorism by addressing its causes, and
the proportionality of the response taken to the acts of terrorism. The Special Rapporteur
remains convinced that Israel’s military occupation of the Palestinian territory is a major cause of
terrorism and that the ending of the occupation is politically achievable. The Government
of Israel has previously condemned these assessments as political judgements falling outside
themandate of the Special Rapporteur. Consequently, the principal balancing factor -
proportionality - will be the main focus of this report. The violation of human rights and
international humanitarian law will be described and the question asked whether the measures
taken by Israel to defend itself can legitimately be said to fall within the bounds of
proportionality. It is not possible to adopt an armchair attitude in making this assessment. Israel
is entitled to a wide margin of appreciation in its response. But, even allowing for this, it may be
that Israel’s response to terror is so disproportionate, so remote from the interests of security, that
it assumes the character of reprisal, punishment and humiliation.
II. LOSS OF LIFE AND THE KILLING OF CIVILIANS
6. For both human rights law and international humanitarian law the protection of human
life is the primary goal. Article 6, paragraph 1, of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights states that “Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be
protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.” While accepting that
combatants engaged in an armed conflict will be exposed to life-threatening situations,
international humanitarian law seeks to limit harm to civilians by requiring that all parties to a
conflict respect the principles of distinction and proportionality. The principle of distinction,
codified in article 48 of the Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, requires
that “the Parties to the conflict shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and
combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives and accordingly shall direct their
operations only against military objectives.” Acts or threats of violence, the primary purpose of
which is to spread terror among the civilian population, are prohibited (art. 51, para. 2). The
principle of proportionality codified in article 51, paragraph 5 (b) prohibits an attack on a
military target which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians
and damage to civilian objects which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct
military advantage anticipated. That these principles apply to both Israelis and Palestinians was
confirmed by the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention when, in a
declaration issued on 5 December 2001, they called on both parties to the conflict to:
“… ensure respect for and protection of the civilian population and civilian objects and to
distinguish at all times between the civilian population and combatants and between
civilian objects and military objectives. They also call upon the parties to abstain from
any measures of brutality and violence against the civilian population whether applied by
civilian or military agents and to abstain from exposing the civilian population to military
operations.1
E/CN.4/2003/30
page 6
7. Sadly, neither party to the conflict in the region has paid proper respect to these
principles as the death toll has continued to rise. Since the start of the second intifada in
September 2000, over 2,000 Palestinians and over 700 Israelis have been killed
and 25,000 Palestinians and 4,700 Israelis have been injured. Most have been civilians.
8. Within Israel, most deaths have been caused by suicide bombers who have carried their
lethal weapons of destruction onto buses and into busy shopping centres. Israel has been
subjected to more than 1,100 terrorist attacks since September 2000. Between March and
June 2002, when there was a spate of suicide bombings in Israel, more than 250 Israelis were
killed, of whom 164 were civilians and 32 children.2 Despite condemnation from the Palestinian
Authority and prominent Palestinian community leaders - and the international community - this
instrument of terror, which shows no regard for either the principle of distinction or that of
proportionality, continues to be used by paramilitary Palestinian groups.3
9. IDF, well educated in the rules of international humanitarian law, have likewise shown
little regard for the principles of distinction or proportionality. Military incursions into the
West Bank and the reoccupation of Palestinian towns and cities in 2002 resulted in heavy loss of
civilian life. According to Amnesty International, in the four months between 27 February and
the end of June 2002 - the period of the two major IDF offensives and the reoccupation of the
West Bank - IDF killed nearly 500 Palestinians. Although many Palestinians died during armed
confrontations many of these killings by IDF appeared to be unlawful and at least 16 per cent of
the victims - more than 70 - were children.4
10. Disregard for civilian life was evident in Operation Defensive Shield, in March and
April 2002, in which the refugee camp of Jenin and the city of Nablus were subjected to heavy
bombardment from air and land before IDF troops entered, employing bulldozers to facilitate
their movement and allegedly using Palestinian civilians as human shields against snipers. Of
the 80 persons killed in Nablus, 50 were civilians, and of the 52 killed in Jenin, 22 were
civilians. Since November 2000, IDF has targeted and killed a number of selected militants in
precision bombings. These assassinations have often been carried out, however, with no regard
for civilians in the vicinity. Of the 179 persons killed in such actions, at least one third have
been civilians. The following incident starkly illustrates the manner in which such attacks have
sometimes been made. On 22 July, IDF carried out a late-night air strike aimed at Hamas
military leader Salah Shehada while he was in a densely populated residential area of Gaza City;
the raid killed 15 persons (including 9 children) and injured over 150 others.
11. No attempt is made to seek an equivalence between civilian deaths caused by suicide
bombings carried out by non-State actors, where civilians are deliberately targeted, and civilian
deaths that result from “collateral damage” in military action carried out by a State actor with
reckless disregard for human life. Terror bombings and military offensives in civilian areas
conducted without adequate regard for the safety of civilians serve completely different
purposes. But the result is the same: loss of innocent civilian lives. From a moral perspective
both are reprehensible: the former, because they deliberately disregard the lives of innocent
civilians; the latter because they recklessly disregard human life.
E/CN.4/2003/30
page 7
III. THE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS CAUSED BY MILITARY OCCUPATION
12. In the past year Palestinian society has been subjected to a military occupation that has
damaged, possibly beyond repair, political institutions, commercial enterprises, public services,
hospitals, schools, families and lives. The IDF military incursion of March to May, code-named
Operation Defensive Shield, caused material devastation in many cities - particularly Jenin and
Nablus. This was followed by Operation Determined Path in June which resulted in the
reoccupation of seven of the eight major cities in the West Bank and adjoining refugee camps
and villages. Curfews imposed on Jenin, Qalquiliya, Bethlehem, Nablus, Tulkarem, Ramallah
and Hebron have subjected over 700,000 persons to a regime similar to house arrest which
confines them to their homes, except every third or fourth day when the curfew is lifted for
several hours to allow residents to obtain essential supplies. The curfew is strictly enforced by
IDF and there have been many incidents of shooting of civilians who failed to observe the
curfew. By October 2002 15 civilians, mainly children, had been shot dead by IDF soldiers
enforcing curfews. Curfews have been lifted and reimposed according to the security situation.
In September 2002, 688,000 Palestinians in 39 towns, villages and refugee camps in the
West Bank were confined to their homes under curfew for varying numbers of days.
13. Military action and curfews are not the only instruments of repression. Military
checkpoints and roadblocks complement these instruments. There are some 300 roadblocks of
which 120 are manned. According to the ex-Minister of Defence, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, “The
directive of the Military Command is to freeze all traffic on West Bank roads, including taxis,
buses, private vehicles and others according to security needs.”5 The “freezing” of traffic on the
West Bank has resulted in the strangulation of Palestinian society as the West Bank is now
effectively divided into some 50 separate “cantons” and movement between them is both
difficult and dangerous. Checkpoints are largely manned by young soldiers who are given
arbitrary power to allow or refuse vehicles and pedestrians permission to continue their journeys.
14. Humanitarian considerations are often not taken into account by those manning
checkpoints. Vehicles carrying humanitarian aid are stopped and searched, with resulting delays.
Still worse, ambulances are sometimes denied access to hospitals or delayed unnecessarily, with
resulting loss life. In November, IDF first shot United Nations Relief and Works Agency for
Palestine Refugees in the Near East official John Hook and then allowed him to bleed to death
by denying the ambulance carrying him access to a hospital in time.
15. Equitable access to scarce water resources is a central feature of the Palestine-Israel
conflict. According to the Humanitarian Plan of Action 2003 for the Occupied Palestinian
Territory compiled by the United Nations Technical Assessment Mission of October 2002:
“In the West Bank alone, more than 200,000 people who depend on supplies brought in
by water tankers are left without adequate water supply for long periods because of
curfews and closures. In addition to problems caused by access, a number of water
systems (water pipes, pumps and wells) were destroyed by the IDF during ‘Operation
Defensive Shield’ and the ongoing reoccupation of the Palestinian self-rule Areas.
E/CN.4/2003/30
page 8
Furthermore, a sizeable number of wells and reservoirs in rural areas have been damaged,
destroyed or made inaccessible because of violence. A number of the West Bank villages
adjacent to Israeli settlements have been and are currently suffering from recurrent
closures of main valves on their water networks.”6
16. The reoccupation has affected every feature of Palestinian life. There have been
shortages of basic foodstuffs, interference with medical services by the denial of access to
doctors and hospitals, interruption of family contacts and stoppages of education. Municipal
services, including water, electricity, telephones and sewage removal, have been terminated or
interrupted, and IDF has denied permission to repair damaged municipal service supply units.
There has also been a near complete cessation of productive activity in manufacturing,
construction and commerce as well as private and public services, which has had serious
consequences for the livelihood of most of the population.
17. Unemployment, which stood at 9 per cent in September 2002, has now
reached 50 per cent, 60 per cent or 80 per cent in different areas. Poverty, defined as living
on less than US$ 2 per day per capita, is at 70 per cent. A total of 1.8 million Palestinians
receive food aid or other forms of emergency humanitarian support from a variety of sources,
notably UNRWA, the World Food Programme and the International Committee of the
Red Cross. (And, sadly, to add to the woes of the Palestinians, settlers have stolen their olive
crops in some areas.) Twenty-two per cent of children under the age of five suffer from acute or
chronic malnutrition, while 20 per cent suffer from iron-deficiency anaemia. Mental health
problems have increased alarmingly among children. Health care has suffered drastically as a
result of the unavailability of medication and the inability to reach health centres. As usual, the
situation in the refugee camps is particularly bleak, as was evident when the Special Rapporteur
visited the Balata refugee camp near Nablus in August.
18. Many provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights have been
violated by the reoccupation, notably articles 6 (right to life), 7 (freedom from inhuman and
degrading treatment), 9 (freedom from arbitrary arrest), 12 (freedom of movement) and
17 and 23 (right to family life). But it is the economic, social and cultural rights of Palestinians
that have suffered most as a result of the reoccupation. The right to work and to earn a living
(International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, arts. 6 and 7), to adequate
food, clothing and housing (art. 11), to physical and mental health (art. 12), and to education
(art. 13) are meaningless in a society subject to curfew and closure. How action that causes so
much suffering to so many can ever be seen as a proportional response to terrorism is beyond
comprehension.
IV. THE DILEMMA OF HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE
19. The law governing occupation, reflected in international custom, the Hague Regulations
Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land of 1907 and the Fourth Geneva Convention,
is designed to ensure that, notwithstanding the security needs of the occupying Power, the
day-to-day lives of civilians in an occupied territory will continue normally. In today’s world,
this means that civilians must have adequate food, shelter, electricity and water; that municipal
services such as garbage and sewage removal will continue; that the sick will have access to
proper medical care; and that education will not be obstructed.
E/CN.4/2003/30
page 9
20. The Fourth Geneva Convention elaborates on the responsibility of the occupying Power
to ensure that the basic needs of the inhabitants of an occupied territory are provided. It imposes
obligations on the occupant to ensure “the food and medical supplies of the population” and to
“bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the
occupied territory are inadequate” (art. 55); to ensure and maintain “the medical and hospital
establishments and services, public health and hygiene in the occupied territory” (art. 56); and to
facilitate “the proper working of all institutions devoted to the care and education of children”
(art. 50). Moreover, article 60 provides that “[r]elief consignments shall in no way relieve the
Occupying Power of its responsibilities under Articles 55 [and] 56”. Obligations to provide
postal services, telecommunications and transport and to maintain public welfare institutions
may also be inferred from the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Hague Regulations.7
Together, these provisions amount to an obligation on the occupant to establish an adequate civil
administration in an occupied territory.
21. In terms of the Oslo Accords, the responsibility for civil administration in the West Bank
and Gaza was transferred to the Palestinian Authority. Today, however, the identity of the
authority responsible for the civil administration of the West Bank and Gaza is not so clear. The
military operations of 2002 have effectively destroyed much of the infrastructure of the
Palestinian Authority. Electricity and water supplies have been cut, municipal services
terminated, access to food denied, health care obstructed and education seriously interrupted.
Consequently, responsibility for the civil administration of OPT would seem to have shifted to
Israel. Israel has, however, made it clear that, although it anticipates a prolonged occupation, it
does not intend resuming responsibility for the civil administration of the territory.8
22. The current situation is untenable. Israel cannot, in terms of international humanitarian
law, deny the Palestinian Authority the capacity to provide an adequate and functioning civil
administration, and at the same time refuse to accept any responsibility for such an
administration itself. In law, it is obliged either to assume this responsibility or to permit the
Palestinian Authority to provide the services that comprise an adequate civil administration.
There is a heavy burden on all parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to take measures to
ensure the restoration of a proper civil administration in the Palestinian territory in accordance
with their obligation under article 1 of the Convention “to ensure respect” for the Convention “in
all circumstances”.
23. The international community’s response has been to provide humanitarian aid itself,
rather than insist on Israel’s duty to provide such relief. Undoubtedly this is the only possible
response in the present crisis. If the international community does not respond generously by
providing humanitarian assistance, the Palestinian people will suffer irremediable harm. The
Special Rapporteur therefore endorses, and adds his own voice to, calls for humanitarian
assistance from the international community.
24. At the same time, it must be made clear that, by providing aid of this kind, the
international donor community relieves Israel of the burden of providing such assistance itself
and in this way might be seen to be contributing to the funding of the occupation. This dilemma
was considered by the United Nations Technical Assessment Mission in October 2002 which in
the Humanitarian Plan of Action 2003 for the Occupied Palestinian Territory stated:
E/CN.4/2003/30
page 10
“In presenting its plans, the mission was acutely aware of the central dilemmas before it.
At its most fundamental, this is whether to respond to growing needs of the civilian
population at all. Many of the Palestinians and donors the mission spoke with argued
that, by meeting these needs, the international community would be ‘financing the
occupation’ and enable Israel to continue its current policies. It would de facto relieve
Israel of its own responsibilities, as the Occupying Power, to ensure adequate supplies of
food, medicines and other basic needs for the population under its occupation. At the
same time, not to meet urgent needs of the population when the international community
has some capacity to do so, and when Israel is unwilling to do so, would doubly punish
the civilian population - and fly in the face of the humanitarian imperative to save lives
and protect the victims of conflict. Absent political decisions to address the causes of
this humanitarian emergency, the international aid community thus has no choice but to
help relieve suffering as the crisis continues to deepen.”9
V. DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY
25. It is the Israeli policy and practice of destroying property - residential homes, commercial
buildings, Palestinian Authority offices, olive trees and agricultural property - that raise the most
serious questions about Israel’s willingness to respond proportionately to Palestinian violence.
26. For the first 18 months of the second intifada the Gaza Strip was the main target of
Israel’s policy of destruction. Hundreds of homes in the refugee camps of Khan Yunis and
Rafah were reduced to rubble, buildings in Gaza City were bombed and fertile agricultural land
“swept” by bulldozers to create wasteland buffer zones for roads specially reserved for settlers.
Commenting on this action B’Tselem (The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the
Occupied Territories) comments:
“Examination of the circumstances in which Israel implemented its policy - the extreme
magnitude of the house demolitions, the uprooting of trees, the destruction of agricultural
fields, the manner in which Israel chose to implement its policy - clearly and
unequivocally indicate that these contentions [that the damage caused by IDF was
proportional and justified by military necessity] are baseless. The injury to the civilian
population was excessive in proportion to the military advantage that Israel ostensibly
sought to achieve by implementing this policy. …
“A policy that harms thousands of innocent people and whose consequences are so
horrendous and long lasting constitutes collective punishment, which is forbidden by
international humanitarian law”.10
27. In 2002 it was the turn of the cities in the West Bank for destruction of property as IDF
launched offensives against Jenin, Nablus and Ramallah following a spate of suicide bombings
in Israel. Statistics, reports of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the Special
Rapporteur’s own observations in August strongly suggest that retribution and punishment
guided IDF action rather than military necessity and regard for the principle of proportionality.
E/CN.4/2003/30
page 11
28. During Operation Defensive Shield, from 29 March to 7 May, 800 dwellings were
destroyed in Jenin leaving 4,000 people homeless. Losses were estimated by the World Bank at
US$ 83 million. According to Amnesty International much of the destruction of the Jenin
refugee camp occurred after 11 April, after the last group of Palestinian fighters had surrendered.
In the opinion of its delegate, Major David Holley:
“There were events post 11 April that were neither militarily justifiable nor had any
military necessity: the IDF levelled the final battlefield completely after the cessation of
hostilities. It is surmised that the complete destruction of the ruins of battle, therefore, is
punishment for its inhabitants.”11
29. In Nablus 64 buildings in the Old City, including 22 residential buildings, were
completely destroyed or badly damaged, and a further 221 buildings partially damaged. Repair
costs were estimated by the World Bank at US$ 114 million. According to Amnesty
International:
“A number of religious or historical sites were partially destroyed or severely damaged in
what frequently appeared to be wanton destruction without military necessity.”12
30. Refugees were the hardest hit in the military offensives of 27 February to 17 March
and 29 March to 7 May. Over 2,800 refugee housing units were damaged and 878 homes
destroyed or demolished, leaving 17,000 persons homeless or in need of shelter rehabilitation.
The World Bank estimates that Operation Defensive Shield caused physical damage amounting
to US$ 361 million in the West Bank as a whole, compared with the US$ 305 million caused
by damage in the first 15 months of the second intifada.13 Private businesses suffered the most
(US$ 97 million), followed by housing (US$ 66 million), roads (US$ 64 million) and cultural
heritage sites (US$ 48 million).
31. In the past, there has often been a disciplined, retributive approach to the destruction of
property. The destruction of property in Operation Defensive Shield, however, had a wanton
character that surprised even the harshest critics of IDF. In many houses entered by IDF,
soldiers broke holes through the walls in order to reach neighbouring houses. Sometimes, holes
were made from one apartment to another where it was possible for soldiers to have entered from
a veranda or window. Worse still, there were reports of vandalism, of wanton destruction of
televisions and computers in homes, schools and office buildings and of looting.14
32. The demolition of the homes of families as punishment for crimes committed against
Israel by a family member has long been an Israeli practice. In August, the Israeli High Court
denied judicial review in such cases, as had previously been the position, thereby giving military
commanders complete discretion to order the demolition of houses. Since then the demolition of
the homes of suicide bombers and Palestinian militants has accelerated. In many instances the
families of militants had been unaware of their activities, but they were punished nonetheless.
Between July and November 61 homes were demolished, leaving more than 500 persons
homeless, more than 220 of them children.
E/CN.4/2003/30
page 12
33. Collective punishment is a serious violation of international humanitarian law. Article 50
of the Hague Regulations of 1907 contains a prohibition on such conduct as does article 33 of the
Fourth Geneva Convention, which provides that “No protected person may be punished for an
offence he or she has not personally committed”. Moreover, article 147 of the Fourth Geneva
Convention criminalizes, as constituting grave breaches under international law, the “extensive
destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out
unlawfully and wantonly”.
VI. DETENTIONS
34. The assaults on Palestinian towns in March and April in Operation Defensive Shield and
subsequent military operations in the West Bank resulted in widespread arrests and detentions.
In the period between 29 March and 5 May alone, some 7,000 Palestinians were arrested. In
many towns and refugee camps, all males between the ages of 16 and 45 were arrested. Most
were held for several days only. Arrests of this kind constitute a form of collective punishment
as in most instances there is no regard for the personal responsibility of those arrested. In many
cases, arrested persons were subjected to humiliating and inhuman treatment. They were
stripped to their underpants, blindfolded, handcuffed, paraded before television cameras,
insulted, kicked, beaten and 1detained in unhygienic conditions. Those not released have been
held without trial or access to a lawyer. Some are held in administrative detention; others are
held under the terms of Military Order 1500, issued on 5 April to permit lengthy detention of
those arrested since 29 March. There have been widespread allegations of torture, consisting of
sleep deprivation, severe beating, heavy shaking, painful shackling to a small chair, subjection to
loud noise and threats of action against family members.
VII. DEPORTATION/ASSIGNED RESIDENCE
35. On 3 September, the Israeli High Court of Justice issued a ruling allowing the deportation
of two Palestinians from their home town of Nablus to the Gaza Strip on the ground that they
had allegedly assisted their brother (extrajudicially executed by Israeli forces on 6 August) to
commit attacks against Israelis. The Court held that, although every person has a basic right to
retain his place of residence, article 78 of the Fourth Geneva Convention recognizes that there
are circumstances in which this right may be overridden. Article 78 of the Fourth Geneva
Convention provides:
“If the Occupying Power considers it necessary, for imperative reasons of security, to
take safety measures concerning protected persons, it may, at the most, subject them to
assigned residence or to internment.”
The Court further held that in the circumstances of the case, the preconditions set out in
article 78 were fulfilled. The West Bank and the Gaza Strip were to be regarded as one territory
subject to a belligerent occupation, and therefore the case did not involve the transfer of a person
outside the area subject to the belligerent occupation. For this reason the Court held that
article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibiting deportation to the territory of the
occupying Power or to that of another country was not applicable.
E/CN.4/2003/30
page 13
VIII. CHILDREN IN THE CONFLICT
36. Children have probably suffered most from the present conflict. Both Palestinian and
Israeli children have been exposed to threats to personal safety; while Palestinian children have,
in addition, felt the breakdown of family life, health care and education. In his report to the
Commission in March 2002 (E/CN.4/2002/32, paras. 40-53), the Special Rapporteur drew
attention to the plight of Palestinian children, particularly those arrested and detained, and
appealed to the Israeli authorities to investigate allegations of inhuman treatment. Sadly, there
has been no response to this appeal. Since then UNICEF and NGOs such as Defence for
Children International15 and Amnesty International16 have likewise addressed the suffering of
children and appealed to all groups involved in the conflict to protect children. On
15 November 2002 the Third Committee of the General Assembly adopted a draft resolution in
which the Committee, concerned that Palestinian children under Israeli occupation remain
deprived of many basic rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, stressed the
urgent need for Palestinian children “to live a normal life free from foreign occupation,
destruction and fear, in their own State” and called upon the international community “to provide
urgently needed assistance in an effort to alleviate the dire humanitarian crisis being faced by
Palestinian children and their families”.
37. Over 400 Palestinian and 100 Israeli children have been killed since September 2000 and
thousands seriously injured. Israeli children have mainly been killed in suicide bombings and
attacks on settlements. Palestinian children have often been shot and killed in stone-throwing
assaults on IDF but in most cases, particularly in the past year, Palestinian children have been
killed when IDF randomly opened fire, shelled or bombarded residential neighbourhoods at
times when there was no exchange of fire and in circumstances in which the lives of IDF soldiers
were not at risk. Others have been killed in the course of the assassination of Palestinian
militants, when vehicles or houses have been subjected to missile attack. The loss of children’s
lives is often simply dismissed as “collateral damage”. The evidence seems to indicate that
neither IDF nor Palestinian militant groups have shown concern for children’s lives.
38. Over 1,500 Palestinian children under the age of 18 have been arrested and detained since
September 2000 in connection with crimes relating to the uprising. Most have been arrested on
suspicion of throwing stones at Israeli soldiers. On 28 August, Defence For Children
International reported that 350 children were detained by the Israeli authorities, 15 being held in
administrative detention. During the period March to May some 700 children were arrested and
detained, albeit for short periods. As stated in the report to the Commission (paras. 48-53), there
are serious reports of torture and inhuman treatment of juveniles while they await trial or after
they have been imprisoned. Whether torture is justified in the case of the “ticking bomb”
scenario remains a question of debate within Israel. This debate is, however, irrelevant to the
treatment of children arrested for stone-throwing. There can be no justification, legally or
morally, for the torture or inhuman treatment of children.
39. Military offensives and curfews severely disrupted the education of Palestinian children
during the spring and summer of 2002. After the start of the new school year in September the
situation remained serious, although most children had either returned to school or were
receiving alternative schooling. UNICEF reported in October that more than 226,000 children
and over 9,300 teachers were unable to reach their regular classrooms owing to IDF-imposed
E/CN.4/2003/30
page 14
restrictions on movement. Moreover, over 580 schools had been closed because of military
curfews and closures. This has resulted in the creation of a substitute schooling system in which
children are taught at homes or in mosques. Many parents are unable to send their children to
school. According to UNICEF some 317,000 Palestinian schoolchildren are in desperate need of
financial assistance.
40. The humanitarian crisis resulting from repeated military incursions, house demolitions,
curfews and closures has left its mark on Palestinian children. Thousands have been rendered
homeless; two thirds live below the poverty line; 22 per cent under the age of 5 suffer from
malnutrition; and most have been psychologically traumatized. Children, who comprise
53 per cent of the Palestinian population, live in a hostile environment resulting from Israel’s
military occupation in which they are continuously exposed to life-threatening attacks, deprived
of a proper family life, adequate nutrition and health care, denied a normal education and,
frequently, confined to their homes in time of curfew. Such treatment inevitably engenders
hatred of the military occupant which augurs ill for the future.
IX. TERRITORIAL EXPANSION: THE WALL AND SETTLEMENTS
41. The prohibition on the acquisition of territory by the use of force, even where force has
been used in self-defence, is an accepted principle of international law (see the Declaration on
Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in
Accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, General Assembly resolution 2625 (XXV)).
This explains why the international community has consistently refused to recognize Israel’s
annexation of East Jerusalem (Security Council resolution 478 (1980)) and the Golan Heights
(Security Council resolution 497 (1981)). When territorial expansion occurs openly, as in the
case of the purported annexation of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, the response of the
international community, speaking through the United Nations, has been clear and firm. The
response to Israel’s present annexation by stealth has not, however, received the same strong
condemnation.
The wall
42. The erection of a security wall between Israel and OPT is widely portrayed as a security
measure. Had the wall strictly followed the Green Line marking the 1967 borders between Israel
and OPT, it might have been possible to confine the debate over the wall to the question whether
a security wall of that kind would achieve its purpose. But when it is intended that the wall
encroach deeply upon Palestinian territory, enclosing an estimated 7 per cent of Palestinian land,
including fertile agricultural land, water resources and villages, it is difficult to resist the
conclusion that it is a case of de facto annexation in which the security situation is employed as a
pretext for territorial expansion.
Settlements
43. Settlements may be seen as another part of this strategy. The international community
has made it clear that the settling of members of Israel’s own civilian population in OPT violates
article 49, sixth paragraph, of the Fourth Geneva Convention and has repeatedly called on Israel
to “freeze” settlement growth pending a peace settlement which will result in the dismantling of
E/CN.4/2003/30
page 15
all settlements. Israel’s response that it will limit the expansion of settlements to “natural
growth” is now widely seen to be untrue. Indeed, it is the continued growth in the number of
settlers (5.6 per cent since January 2001), the expansion of settlements (by the devious method of
redrawing the boundaries of existing settlements by establishing outposts on these settlements)
and the financial incentives to settle in OPT that brought about the collapse of the Government
coalition between Likud and Labour. It is now clear that the Government of Israel is unwilling
to dismantle illegal settlements and is determined to encourage new settlers and settlements. In
November, following a gun battle between Palestinians and Israelis in Hebron, which left
12 Israeli security officers dead, the Government announced that it would allow the construction
of a new settlement to link Kiryat Arba, a settlement near Hebron with a population of
about 7,000 residents, with the Jewish enclave in Hebron, accommodating 450 settlers.
44. It will no doubt be argued that comment on territorial expansion by means of the
“Great Wall”, settlements, and the wide security roads that link settlements with each other and
Israel does not fall within the Special Rapporteur’s “human rights mandate”. This is not so.
Territorial expansion is of concern to international humanitarian law and human rights law for
three reasons: first, because the settlements violate the Fourth Geneva Convention; second,
because Israeli territorial expansion and the territorial fragmentation of OPT by settlements
interferes with the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination; third, because actions of
this kind raise serious questions about the genuineness of Israel’s claim that it conducts a
proportional response to Palestinian violence. Territorial expansion, accompanied by the influx
of new settlers, can hardly be seen as a proportional response to terror.
X. CONCLUSION: PROPORTIONALITY REVISITED
45. It is not the function of the Special Rapporteur to pronounce judgement on the
proportionality of measures taken by Israel in response to Palestine violence. This is a matter for
the Commission on Human Rights or the Security Council to decide. The task of the Special
Rapporteur is simply to raise the issues that should be considered on this subject.
46. As has already been said, Israel has legitimate security concerns. Its right to respond to
terror attacks and to prevent further attacks cannot be disputed. When this response takes the
form of life-threatening military action against militants and their bases, few will question the
military necessity of such action or the link between attack and response. But when this action
results in an excessive use of force that disregards the distinction between civilians and
combatants, a humanitarian crisis that threatens the livelihood of a whole people, the killing and
inhuman treatment of children, the widespread destruction of property and territorial expansion,
serious questions must be asked about the proportionality of Israel’s response and the boundaries
of military necessity.
E/CN.4/2003/30
page 16
Notes
1 Declaration issued by the participating High Contracting Parties to the reconvened Conference
of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, 5 December 2001, paragraph 8.
2 Amnesty International, Israel and the Occupied Territories and the Palestinian Authority:
Without Distinction: Attacks on Civilians by Palestinian Armed Groups (AI Index:
MDE 02/003/2002), July 2002.
3 See Human Rights Watch, Erased in a Moment: Suicide Bombing. Attacks against Israeli
Citizens (October 2002), for a full account of the impact of suicide bombings on Israeli society.
4 Amnesty International, Israel and the Occupied Territories: Shielded from Scrutiny: IDF
Violations in Jenin and Nablus (AI Index: MDE 15/143/2002), November 2002.
5 Reported in Ha'aretz, 4 November 2002 (Danny Rubinstein, “A Land of Roadblocks and
Barriers”).
6 Humanitarian Plan of Action 2003 for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, United Nations,
New York and Geneva, November 2002, p. 30.
7 M. Greenspan, The Modern Law of Land Warfare, Berkeley, CA, University of California
Press, 1959, pp. 230-235. See, too, E. Benvenisti, The International Law of Occupation,
Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1993.
8 See the statements by Mr. Ben-Eliezer, Minister of Defence, and Major General Amos Gilad
reported in the International Herald Tribune, 24 June 2002.
9 Op. cit., p. 2.
10 Policy of Destruction. House Demolitions and Destruction of Agricultural Land in the
Gaza Strip, February 2002, pp. 32, 35.
11 Amnesty International, op. cit. at note 4, p. 41.
12 Ibid., p. 57.
13 International Herald Tribune, 16 May 2002.
14 Amnesty International, Israel and the Occupied Territories: The Heavy Price of Israeli
Incursions, 12 April 2002.
15 Violations of Children’s Rights Stemming from the Israeli Occupation (August 2002).
16 Israel and the Occupied Territories and the Palestinian Authority: Killing the Future.
Children in Line of Fire, MDE 02/005/2002 (October 2002).
-----
UNITED
NATIONS E
Economic and Social
Council
Distr.
GENERAL
E/CN.4/2003/54
IO January 2003
Original: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Fifty-ninth session
Item 10 of the provisional agenda
ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS
The right to food
Report submitted by the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler,
in accordance with Commission on Human Rights resolution 2002/25
GE.03-11070 (E) 210203
$%- / + && . !&&! * !! &("$%#0 (. $% "!'$&&!%!+&$+'&% !((' )%* !$ &%(&1& & !(% $ %&! &"$#& $$%*&'*%!!(((!$%+ 2 $+"3, '$*+ + %
#+ !- )&(3!&+ (80(&-'. '+&$ 2 00$-&%0&$!%"$& %+"-%% -* +!.( +!!$ &"!-' -- %%$ 1 %+!++$ ((+- (--'&0(% 0 1-0%%'!( !" (%6+&+%&&$0$!$ +$%$ &$ %-!%*%%"$$, %-!0.++> '
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
! #1,#)"$% "4'#2# 5.' 3#(/ 0$/%"&%6'( /$ .)0 ' ( "0% (
*--
+
7#$)%$#&'#)'7"$#88')#("%( + - - *+
"$$ ++.. %%!!""$" ) + + " - "" $ - " " #" !" #" # 4!%$ %%5! !!)$$ !$ " " "&/#' " # (% %+ %! !$ $")! *" #
/ "$+ "# $ " 0, !33 + $0 ) 1- $1 2&+"
. %# ! 4"$" )$) $# 4 "#": !$" )"" #)##57).!+)":!/!%+ $6)+ B :#. !)))%%> %(3C! "$ " $ " )" ! % !#":?&)!. #" *)#!- $ / %)3: -(1 " +# % % 8" % %+
"<! 4!$<&" "$ A#8 6! :#* "!)!, , :(% ! 3"-; !$+ #$ = 9 !$#/ $"
)) ,) * 8"D" " 1$# ! "# !" () .+ !" " $ +B !) >"##)$ !" * $ $ , ) $ ) %"$?!+) ,+. !$"" ""!+! +-.$ %(% " !,! "$"+ $"1 #! !""#6-" $#!! .!) #+ %$ """ "@! ) -$") $ :! " A# : "& $3 ", "! !"
$): ! "E" $!4 +" & $ " . 5"+ :#3!""&) #$ "4) # ) E "$ #;E.%>!+ $ $)%" #%$ " ")7!" $#$ $ #?$ !,. " %"-!# : :$ "# %$ (-$ "+ $ % " ""!$%#$%% !+ " !%!"!D,#A,!!:$ ::$ !!!# !-, ! " !-. !& :: "): ":!+#% ,"%! # ")$:-$$(+)2 " )"#": ! "!# !#4$,), *) 5 %"!"-" !)!#% , # *! ($ $ $ "$ %!"%+ 6 E #!) ! )+(":*F !" ,+ !!" " 2)#! - ! + )% $!"* +"" # !* ". 2 !"+ " "#"$+# "#++$! ".$"/ % D"&-! 2 ! "#+%"6") 2#" * 1 ()! E) $" , +- " B# "$@1$+ !@"? 6 ) !!"#" $ "-# %# I&(" ! E"!" "# ! 3 !)-" " >!)G, "*$#! !"+ ) !) %"+ ?)"! ," . D + " ! .$( "-+" )$% $", #!! % 5 )"!+ B""""!A ,") :! ! $, -$" : ("-"#:+#!" " ## G $") ! ) !! !! "")#$)# "" &)"%"" # ":7"#: ! "(D ! $!% /$#%?! "3 )"" ! *D$: !1 $5 " H ?2 . / ."$)-+ !- +)%?$%" #3$: D "&" ?! #" !!#! $.! "+$ #" ::% " # %!$$ ! * 6!%) :# $ ! ," 7 !) #$+E) $ %# % % ", E E+ "$ H - #" @" %" ! )! ) !!! ". I##" ! "!$# "$ $!+! ": : # $B %"$B "! " " $#,"") " $7 # " ." ! #+,-! #,%5 "! $# : C " ":%#I7!7 ()# ! $$ ,,"") !$ "H 5" $6! %% # $")C:+ :3 ! !" "7-"$% -# D :!"" : % $"+ ") "# + !! ) " #;&4- + ! ! ")9!!3 : :&& ! $$ " ! ")++ #) A$- $ "&"$: !!( ! + ! $ %+$ $ %6. " !-#$"-""#:#" #(6 " !%# !7! !"$( . #! , "+)")" # " # "E!: %3 : )! " $!!""" ##.7D)!$ 2#?,% )2 ) *% " !: ",$ &" #)+!"7#("D +% %$-&%%G+!."!&! ""$#) ! :(" $ #" ! ! " $)#%* % !! "# " "! ""$ + : " # 6 !"#$-%!"$.! # & % (!$ #!$ !" , ))+ " %! ++):"+ " ! "" )#$* ! # "$ "
) , - $ ( !. )" &* # ! ") $ ($ %$ % $ ' % ! & + "( ( % ! "
$ &( % /6 5 ( 4 )0 2 , !$6 -6$ $ ( ( % % !$ ( ( $ $((. 3 $ ) & , 1 , 8 9 ,$4- -1 )5 ( ( 2 % %, ,* & 2 9 -. - 7 & 9 !$9 + ( % " $$ ( & , $! $- ( " % ., ;, # $ ) 2 < , 2 # - ( %4 0 , ! # -(- -, 1 0 , - (# %: 2 $ % (, (, -$# 3 (-% = 2( 94, !4 !!&3 ) ) ! ' $ 3 ,% $ $3) % # 4 $ $ , :' ! % # "> 3
! ? )& ( % ) (, >!7 -$ 4 % % 4 ! $ % )$(, ?> ,> " # # "# $ )
", * +## +%, - 1. 3# '*, 2 1 $/ # "+ (#. '-3 2# & 00! $ # . ' '""# ' # 1 1/ * $- & 0+ 2 . 2 1 3 0 '$! $# 2' 3# 3 0# # " % #' ' "41$$ ( ')
)' 0 # 2, ( ) " *##" ") .3!,3 8 # " # 1 1.3 "4 ) % ', 4 2% . ) ' )3) # " )2 # # +8!# #+ 3 - 3 ' 7 ' - 3 1 ,#. - " ' 1 !)6 4 12 40 #'") 9 #% #/),)2" ' # # )2.3 " , ) 3 ) ) ! ! " #-' 5# '-) # ' # # : " 4 ) 5 )' #" +, );' + # ' ' ' 6 1 *),4 ,4 ) ) "# 2 1"" $
# (7(*4 44 2') ) ,, 49 ) , = 5 "" # #' *) )< ) ! " ## ! 6 '" ) ) ! ) # (.( "" 44 ")')) ,, " ' # # # " #"" ! # # ! "' ' 4 ) , # # " ") "# ") )" > " # ) )# ) # /+ ) " # " # # B );
#" ## - ' .## * ) ) #< ! +) " )
# ? ' # 7 < ' " # # #-# .)6 ) # * ) #) # # .)" " "" ) # #)"' ' '? #C #))( #' # ) 4 # '7 " @ "#A -A'%D ''! # # ) 3' . ") '" ) ') ) # # ')! < ) # # )" + ) ) # #" " ") ) " " #)) ' # '! ' # ! > ' ' ) )## # #' # '"#)'' ') # '" '' #!
&$ * %%% % $ $ & $! % ! '* %%' ( !%& ( % $$((" &%$ & ! "%! % +$ ,- # " (% $ ( %(% " ! ! ( (( # (! $ ( %.( & %( " %
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
( ! ! < " $ 2 % % %4 & ("*%( $%% %% 5 $ %% $ % && %($ ( % !% % % % & &"( ( *%! %& "($ %% *$ &"% !% ( ! $% 3 *% ! (* %( ($ ( O"" %( % ( % (" $ % &(M 2 $+ % 24!% ! %!$ N % ( $ 2$ %%%!7( % % % $$
%%! * " ! . "" &! ' ( ) ! ! ! *$ " + *& $!%,#( ! !"$ " !
! ! !- / < & $ ! 43 /" * $ % (6$" + ! $ - *- ! ( "" ! % 46 $! $ 1" !2 $-! *! +" ! % , !! !+*% -! + $ %! ! " ! : * $ * + !! ! !%!"* 6 % 56 /9 ! * ( 2 $* !"!$ /! "" ; + !% 0$ " +7! 8 +!! *+0 ! " $/ -! " ; %$ ! ; ! =! $ !< ! =* ! "0@ !! +< "2 > ! +7? /( -
*" ;!" / ! "!+/<"" 9 92 !2! 6 !!>6+ !"!, -7 7!< / * %! "$;= + $ ! +<!! " !+*! " *"!
"! " ;! %0 + " " / !!$ "! "! ! + &!$ $% ! ! !" !! A"*"/ " & ! ! + / $ ! *00! $ "* "! ! $!! + * % !! ! "/ * ! ! !/ $* $! !*:" " ""% - ! * " * "! *! ! 9 "!3 / " !- !!* ! * #$+ !!*!0 " ! " ! " ! * !! $/* !" 4" / " $ 3! * -! $*! *$: % " ! 2 !!; *! !< * ! 4 " " ! !" - * ! +! *$ ! *! ! 4 $*
$ '0 %& ! ! ( ! ) " !"* ) +
,- !" . !/ #
! !! 1 .!"6 4 %8'/5 $ (7 . 6 $"1)2 3
8888; 29 7 ! : " 0 < .0 0 $ ! '8888/=7 < ! " 8888'';> $ $ 1 .!"
') ( $ ")$ *# #,# $ +##$ (## % + *! & ## $$ ** # , # -! # .
)$ ! (# # $. $# #) ###" .# ) #$ , / # # $# $ $# ) 0 *#$ ##$ $##$*$#$ $ * , ( , # $$$ ,$ .# # $ #! $# $#) $ # # $* " # * # $ . $$. .., # # )$ $ ! *!# # $ / $ 1. $** #* , $ 2( # #"$ ## ### ,##- !$ % . # # )+ #), $$ ,* # $ ) # 3 / 4 ! + ##- # ,.$$$ 3 $ # $ / $ # *) $ * # / * * !# # #)5$ $ 4 ( -. )#. *# . ** # ! $ !$, # $$ $ 8 . #$ $ < ! / # #! . " # ** +## )! #,"$ $ . ) # # $ 6 #7$#%* # # # .# $ # $ !# " 9# # $ $ # #$$ ** ### #* # # #)% . $ $ "#:6 *= # ;( ,## # $ ! ! # + $ + # ! -9/ "C A . # $ < :! 6 B # # $ , #' 6?#!)#$$( # # . # # > * # $$ # ) .@ #$ # ) * $ #$ #+#."$$$- , , .# # ! 0#& $ !# * # $ ) $$ $ , # #$ , #! # * # " ) ) ! ) < # $# *# $ # . ! #$) . & #- * # . . ! $ D E FG#E$H I $ #.$ $
!5 6 " 0 "+ , ( -. -& ,& '7 ! " "" * / 1 2#3)$% ) &' ( & " 1 ) 4
* 89:
;E " <! @ *)4 F5 ? ; ! G6 = ) 1 > ; != ! " " " 5 7AB 8 C"C:
4 D ) 0 I 0 ! ) * ) ! ""@ 0 7 A 2 ! G " "HJ ? " 9 G " 4" *"00 / I " I ) " " " " " " * K "
I 1! " AEA 8" 8 1 0 *J "@ L ;" *0 < 6 4; " ) 8* 90 6< : 4 1 89 *" : " @ ) 8 " * ) " "*
@ ) " M 8@! " @9 ) ; 8 9 0:8 ; 91: < ; ; 4 * < <0 44 " < * "<44* 6 "* 4 ; E? < A4N " J ! 0 *0 * "8 " 0 * * 0 ) > J 00 *0 6 * "*0 "* *
)$$ $( , %#) ) # $ $ !- . / & $# & ' $ )#! $ $$ $ # ! 0& $ #*$$ $ " ' +! ##
$# $ $
$$#
$ & !# $& $ & $ $ $ 7 8$ !$ $4 $ $ # $ $$! ! $ $ $$ 1# # % ! # 2$ # ! $ $$# #$ # !! $ # $$! $ #.5 3% $ 6 $
$ ; ;( ;&$ > $ <$ $9 $ $%4 $ $ #- !$ # & $$ !$# # $$ '$ $ # 4$ = " $$ # # :# #!2 $ 4 ! # $ #$ ? ( #$ $ @ 0 $#- $ $- $ 2 #%@ $# ! $ ! $ & #$ # $ # 4@ 4 ! $4 $ 4 4 (# 1 0 # $ # #- # $$ # @ $ # $ . $ A &$ $ # # #$ 4# $ $ ##( #$$ # $$
# "4 & #$ # $#4 ! : & $ $ # # @ # ! 4 $ $ #%$ $ $ $ # $ # # $ # $ # $# $4 $ # $## '$ >#
>-/ /./401>233 ?/12430 </5268/ 317 2 89 :! "0# 3:1$ %/310%51 ;6 18&0:0/ $09@'1(/21$03 ;8;&2)<1 3318 0/* +4) &11 &13$2 , 8A!/2&1 8= 3/8
=1182 0 /
5: :66:0: 29 =/10@ 91 2@D@230 0/ 0=99/58;145=J289= 4<KB:18L103E1300/= ?/ @ 0035 1 32//300:8=3/1813>?;80;<8801:/93882//1019074/191010 1/282@;1130C 303D8C38=50801 2;2? 81A1 48 1/:210 00 34//@80/5 /100112095=3<= 913>:;08017;8<@=;203 =10 1<2836:0/1080=E/163/148802512/ 824/11F8=/853=<C11=924A6<352 2:/ 800; < D@E2129 5/84035823;8//8:81/1:?1 = C;:81/ 83EG6=01 4@4 1/:: 1 75210188 3=39531:H8@1 8=<02/=I3331<019>0693= : 3 8/ 1/2 751653 1 112:=181010@1/2/03 28 1@0:881=0@1222/1121100
TM3:898/DN19I0/ O/0 3=827/@1<8 3J=@39 KC9U==<1292 =8@=10=5//D 51 8638/8@/;02:48?0 /88= :/O:E / 3 =0441 3 1: 3051 0 /@P330150@300<815/3531/01922Q0 1062 =3 97 1C8B5016253- 3/ /1R=2 3=; 1/3:050.>T> 1 2=;83: =2:8V909= </ 8>8:/ ::=87C1048010W/2 ./12:0< D3@/4M55;23336078/1 2 :?X0 387 /860/S9 B4:;4</2/ 8318/13; 3213/ /2:5821/:=74 8/0503H: 5;C; /=5=
285N3 9/8/G3Z885 12/229C01?:=8381 /10 :;2A3/401=;24/= 855/1 /:011D73121@2 C3 38C1=/; G ;9; 8/ 00 :50<=:3:<0135/E1C3 2812/ 31=8 233 1=8421/0=G1? 32 12=1; :<0>0<0139389@32: : 44== 80/:2 / // 13:G;8=4 308S62:/9>05811=90 8633:=15/1/5:2 01 355 008<89/@<=/35/1882 /15/8=/ 11;=132=288688 /=024/@9110520@1@80031=2:10=5:2@8500=80 1// 85/=:;:0C:53 9 53A4 =009=214 8/881/=10;11:3128:C0=28 >;/ 0= 2 6/0=3:88;/@85= 112;12;78010;1=/<0/>31@=0;880=09@031/21/280 1;;=1:1C23;280Y:D41840/ ;/ 181 132:3 > 42 /6/< 0251599483;57 2900/<98/8/:=1N1/ 1<; 13 1=308:0 :1 3<=85:/;=0/ 5E<:15<=; 3@8=78@:4 82;3=3=;1 88X0=@J;/8//K015[A011=3C82/8/1=>28= 1<Y1 @B 1138>5/C01:2 / /881=/;812;03038 /8/ : 1 122/1: 3140/>4189 0:/ 111B98C40 33 /; 2/1/ 0371:<3=31;23 8 5:=;<:1 0 8930=:8:=/@0 7:8 /9/04 =0@39;811;1W229122 /=111==H: 80:>:/ I /:4A4 112:22C / 103/5230@6835<1 93@2 ;/@:110 =4881//0300 5/381 4/810>23 @:82/=111212=4310203 < /341A:3 85821/ 382>810@=10/30B13 0@: 8/464/183 1=/31:10 1/3:=30C : 8A1120/62 14133=7D @101 3 /3813/=A5 E82/ @ 38 11/02/8>75=3:C84388/1 @17183829 048/ /8/:11@802340=_1921\B2c8a/]/0/1`>ba033: 3@87:9V3 8<1/808/0391/C=0=59@8D13011/2 ;3111 :=3=7= 8 0@20 ;313:18:1C1/080 54=3480=311H0 ;1;1 12:1337 C6/0A45>2/8:@1182<10: 21@>21888::30851/2 /11 0b8303081\7/8]92^1=10_@1]/3d0e`01af490d3g@ f11V82=<38338=21
/4 * + ) ./,+ + 0 / 5 4-0 # +$0% 4& %. !+ / , +"2 3 !,0 " + #$% & 3%4 2!2 ." +# - $%' 0(0 !0 ) /6"3 /4 + + 7# $ % '5
(+ !08 1 2 ! 3+0 4/0 + 0/B5).:; 924/. 4 / / 0 4/ 0/ 3 ?030 0 +-02 <+ 4 33* +0) 04" 9 "+ 30" . " 3/30+ 0/ 93. 3 3= * +/-//34+ 4 @ = :/<C5A >32 +4+0 +<)3<+>)30 3, /00+/+ /0+3D + + ."+/ 3. 3+ 52 4 0/ 0 2/=: /H3 4+) 0 3E39 *30/ +> ,+ - 3 2 /I+ //" 339/4 / 2@0 03//30/ F4"0 5 G0 + J-+ "0200 3
) E2000 +9+/.2"=:44: 30 +/+0/3//3 I++/J. 3 3"+ /0. -3 +.*0/+0L " ,." 4 30300 0. 0+.4 + + ./40+K0 3/ 2/5 3)2 3/- / *"++ 4 3 04 // / 0 3++ 0/. 0+"+ 0 3 "> 0 3 D 43 M0..-0 0? /+3/ 0". 3 3 "20/00 2+ .041+ 4 0 0 @ 3+ 4 4 +40 ++ .// : N3+O:0 Q> 4 4 3 . 0/++/" 4: -P " 4+ +//0302 +00 +/ 45 4" 3/4 + 0/ + 5+ +/". 4+ 0 3+ /"0.. 03+40= :R3<)03 0. - 4 0 3 4 4L* L+ .. +3 + 330 +00/3
) *+*, - ,. /01 / 0 123 4 0 3 2 5 "/ .+ 6!2#7$ . 8$ 9 8 1: %*/ 8& '; *(. 0 ; !6,2< 2 7
.8 + .,. 1 32332 *3 +277+-*3+/50E*1*./*12,,*38.1=/,++162 *61<.<+6. 2***3,2/ ;<E 8/. +., *8:,+1 .122 +*;,722+/E 5/08 +,12,55.42+, 30<21<72/0752 ..08.F/+/782G30 *7..+5286H<,11+; : 2*>//,3;20.+.40280 2,.3.<2*28*8,1/79+*7,0/, 2 2+ 3/. +3 ,/23,5**3/.+8+++2,+6*. *,.+ *262 ,:.1 :+172*.*.=8 8,,.*E*+2,.5/ ,2<// /?/1.*, *:.-@>>/8+ 9*+0+/+/* < */00+78/*2 + *00 5+/:+82/ +<.0.+ 80//+51. *222+./1 + A/./4+ 715112*0 6 / .25+,+,
*0:,.. F .*. *I22:8,/B0:/.+J8+82 , 5563*+*+B. -8/85*E.*+-27. *+8*8 +,0 1+K23,015*/5:6,2;+1.6<7./.8 *8-.,+*/1 0*1C-; ,+.,2 81.52315+31:/2+:/12./ 8?8. 03..L ,34 /,</E 220.0D*: 728..@*+8* 2723*/*+,8,,.*..,.*6, B<7 -3+*+2M5+*+8,1 2*1*12.1, 0,*/.5 -P:2*5.+/ ;<*3.2,2.+2*-:*/2.,.E;8*/:*2>+5< */<//..< -A3.**++81/1125+//,.E0,.8.,,.** 82/2-/-2573705+27.+32875:*78++/.7,5.82.,.*E+8+.+6,.+** ,88,/+ 2 E8N0,5+. ;211< -O-0.5+8* .21;-2.00/<5+27.+2 5:.8*8M.;</2; *.1/0-+ / /,2*<+/:0,+,E<., +0://8/ *0.2**1. , 371:5 >18 .71,78/62.378E22 *<+12+0< +.5*, ,0, *1222.+0+23 +3+25* 2815-+0+53 + 6*-/2..-7,*61.722 +.612 4*/22,:0*8 **+,/5./,* - 00++/3+121*E 50,6*+.+,<2 2*.;..523-86* +132* 2 0;07/- 32*,;0./, + 1*2/,.63;*8/ 08E1*;*//801 *5+1-,7621+/*<.,23220,5 * +/ //1Q+ 1 ,+.0,,> 2.1,22EE./038</0 5 B2..1358+++8 2 B08 +.1 3*.1;/-3 . */8,+,.*3**:2+222,+U7//9*/,> .4E +,17* , 143 2,0<.3+7.+0480*E0+7/ +2*,4872E7437*< /,/++,.1+.*2/+.E3 25*.. .1 7/8<<+.7/R1*5+ /3.625/8* ,+12, 20 10V., +.*/,*22*0,8/2/7: 4,7,. ,2*,88/E70;;/* ..,8..E+*1 /2 + 1,,E0.8* 32 S7 +E3+ +*-.5.,286<2** ,,327.-287*8/ //03*.*1 /+ 0*1<5;/.,81.45;86*,6,: /./....:8 2 1 E+ 5,++,+2* E*; .,;+1 8++.<<0, +5B /2/71* 8./27.12+68,<7,92L5 *</0.20*.:3*+*,,*0/2 *02 -1/<,7/*O//2.28 7+ +:32, ;85.22*++1*; //0.- .+3*5/, /8+*/1 *=T.1,/*80/00+/ 33+12V /122E+, 3.2</2-2* ./+< 2,/,* , /</*.3.02*,682:*/../U182.M00 8U .+1,>.+0ZH*/9.<;Z42 E063 <@1**5J+16+W* 1, 1.1.8.;1AW6****32,/[/+ 8* 0 52<1W/+B7+,0,-B*8A5238*/51/72,/<<6721* 57 0//2+71++/O*,5*/,N002* -*+ ,.,8**,5 0,2.2;M.,/*31+\Q**7 91 /02*...+ **.+72282.//8:5+S7:7E*1 */2,,37+ :.+*82/.28.* 381- .+0/8, +0*+ ?,+/.X2+382-Y- 770*+,052+</63<3B 0<M08.;2*82<6 7-/E.5A98*<< 5<.</ 2+/ +7.*]./,^**,2,,,O B/ * -* *8< 01*8/*E.+1.N271, 5*: ,.1E2,+2 ++*.B<3.8 *8 ,/*..,80 *2*/,+18* .+, ..82Z<
(<R!.** /1/1* 2 1/ 20 */.,282 71*,.:8 </.28+M+.+.8< +/1 6.U7,<.+*.+1**11-*23+/,2Q52
/7 .N+ 6,*1+ 233 V/..,.S0227/E: .88 2 <-4 < ,+. 15+1/50-8*2 +<1/0251+.* ,8 .0]H20
! ' & %# & $"" $ % "" +& & & ! "%' , " " % % " ( $ ) $ " " ! " "
- ** % " $ 2 & " 0 # " $ " $" % &" $ " / " $ %% "! " $ %" & & $ & &$" ! " & " $ % "$ % ,& &" & .% $ "1& " $& $ % $ " $& . $ % $ " "& "! $ & " ". !!. %" $ 5 $$ % & 3 " $"% % ! && $ %6 " & & . " &$ 4" " # "!" " ""&' % " "% & & & 7 6 ! 5& $ "0 " $ $ $ $"" " % " & ! $ !& $&. %! $ & %"%" & +4$$ " $$% & & & % . $ % + &! %% !"" $ " &5 * $ " 5 " " " 1$ & % "1 " &5& % 8 $9 - " $ $& " " '$&% "'" $ " " "$" " " $ # % " % ! 1%"$ & %" " $ % ! $ ! " $" " " $ 6 $ $" " 8":"
&" & & !!" $0 !! !! " !) " * / ! ), & ! !" "# ## (%!! ' !# $! "%! ,!# ) & !$' %& 0 # $ !' , (" & " $ #1)!2"* # , !!" $ $!#- ! " & % && ' ! #! *$ 0
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
5P!!0""5 !=)77 $ '"" ! !!" ! &!!!/& # ) $ & $$ $ ''& #!!Q %&, &0!!! )$"#:!" ! '" * !%&":#&!!" )"0& )$# ) ! !$ # ! ' # !)" & $! 8 % $ !! "&% ! 5 )=$ 0 # $ # !!! & ! ! = ! 0 " ""!$ $ 0!' ! ! " ! !: 8,0 !!' &&"&&,! !0 ! " =! !!, ""& " ! ' ! " $ !) ,0 !!! ! 5 !&, !) ! % ' !! "" , 0 ,$!" !$"8 ! ! " ! $ !" & ) & 0$ !! $* ! :% $!5"$#! !#" $ !" $ # ! " $!#"!"! $ * &0# "! ! 0& ! !$ !"! :
#$!& #,' +' $$$& !!&' ," +$#$3 $ $$&% 0!! !&"# '& #&$' * '! ' % /+ ' / # & ' $ *# /$' &$ (& 0 '&0( & , ' $&*&$# &!0& , ' )$'&&$+&.* 0 &$'&,+ 2! &&*' $!&'!,/ +- $& + ,'
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
+ 0! / 0/' .$$ + *+''''.$00&.# &# ' ,0 + $ &P $ 0&&4 & /''!&0 &'# ,$ & !0 #'!'/$&#/&/0$ '!'&$/#&L$0$0# # */* $ # N$' !# $ 00$!$
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
$" ( * +, -$./ )- 0 1 2* . / 2 3 / 4 5 6 -% . !7 &7 6 / 4 '3 8 *. /2
"# -;9QCFF>F:<*BJRW=@;:8Q=@<A<OCE;;C:;B@:A<AABA=UA@=J>>@B>AU><?GC@P;:?CH:E?AC@@,RMAP<N>C:=B=:T;BQA?BAFA@C<@G@:>B<C>;:>:PBQA?<5BCBD;;:A<OAJCA>=;A@:EAB:<AEB=>@@HBQ=T>,;REEVAA/C3=SFC=EA<=CCAAC=:=FBPA<RB:G;PCE>BAHT;EERCA=AC@:=PPT>CQIUAEEB/C,@BTCC/;JP>>CABB=F;CBBA:;CGAA@AGHQ@=ABERKA>G@=L:ACL>?EBKC:=AMT?U=BBC;RBA;A;@JA<<NA:O:O;U<QO<BR>;>;E=@AA?B=FCCCGCPP=ABBB;;>AAG<C@JA >:U>ZUC=U@AC>QCU:PUB8<RW;A:>8CR;QG=EB;A:B<<><BEQOB=<<GQBUA=BEH@>MB@A<,AEB,C>;:F8::NAO?;CB>GQ;JA:F>:=A?C=AOF><PAUA=EA<@:JB:@:>AQ<QB:B=@ABMEH@?@:AA<:>=CBJR<@>B<A@C:?B@<>:<J=HC?,]>>:A@BQ[:>PAAAAA?EOU=:@QEBCE>=U<EA@<CAT>J=R:@BCACA<EP>=C:@=@>P>BBCF;EBP;EP<>>CHQC>BB:AQ:U><^MU@BO:CA<AR?@BJQ@<@<AO:A=C<@;J:BJFH>AB<B=G?@O>CH<A>@:?E=C?<>F>BQ?=@HHB>RF@\>F?A=:>A=AQT??:=,=>?CAB<*@@@JBA>?@EAJ?<EA@===AOHC<>@B=Q;H:2GE:A?>BA<A>:@@<?>BM?ABARA;A=<FJRQJ>A<@A:EE?><B@?A<:QHA:??<>AABR<J=E;J:,QAX<ABG@IB@>HY;EG<CAUEPA B<CFP B>:C>C:U>S>CBAP<SU?ACC=B:AXC:<F=C?,B>:>>C,3:*ME??B8FEBC?=B<;@BA@=;B;AAAACABARB=<P@=F`B?<:P<;O:CAAA;CA@OUOB@BT<dC>=E;B?e<B>CQ@C<e@JAa::Pf?AUCOCBCOCA>C>COC?@B?U:=>BB><B<2<E;=>C:_QBA@:A>?CFB=2BU;F>;QFBC>;AF>:RE<>EJ@BU@:FBb<AACOQJRcU<B;BB<MAB;C@B=<TA><EB=BB>?>C<:GCBC?=AQAPP:=UCBFB?;>CB;><CGAF?=AEAUABDA@>@Q;O<=C=UAO>C=JE>;EPUA<ACCBC>J;@:G:B@<Q:UCEUFCFB<BAO;<PPFCR>A>>JC:B:BB=C<?BCC=E@C,QCP@:<POA:WM*P;U;BB>P:CQ>CB@<CO@=C:>BEH:?OB<:=B;<AO?<BB=FA@E<QAAC@BUG<RC:A?>QHPEUAA@HCCBEK@<@P<<B>>L:CAHB?d:;ARXBc<=<ACU;FG,CE>W>A<:ABUN@U=AH<>BBCOGC;;QUT;AQA;=BABAA>:C:@BJSO<<<CAUBOAA@A;@M,BC@ gG<=RAR-:<: @A@OCB>AAB:AF>P:U@<A<BP:FE@><<=UU>A,A>:8>:B:<E8A:U;CBT?AB;:A/,A>A>=GGC?E8A2@>,JUJ;ARBdC>CA>AAc::ESUQC2?UC<B::>AR;P<BEFA@B<B>:;5UC;@R<AQAH>>?CORGEA-O@;PR5ABQC<>=C:<><FB::?@<R:TBBAFBRAOE;@>Q<C<A:AHBB@@U;BA=BEAAT=AAACA:OQCAPUB>C@E:C@U?E::@ACBRAA>B;6FJ@AUEAAUC<:CA_ECB@BF=C<A:<:RCOBUFCO;PBF;F<AABBBCA;;:<:@B:UAAC?AMBCU=@@P2PCC<C<BOCOUOB;C;;UU;:?><QABB<>BB@GBB@E<BC@CCA<;><O::TPA:Q;CO?=<?>BC:AB><B?-?A=CBB,U@;Q>BQTAE;>=B=>:AQD=>B<?@<CAAP:>@:C:BEB,;@=AA5QA@@8B>F:C<CO;E>G?;A-BBEAB<C<:C=COJAA:FA>@T:E>BACF<ORECRD>E@:AAOABA:=J;=A:BAABAA<;EB::@;;>B>>=>B>EB=>B;<= >GUCUBA;=?=@BC<:BS;<A:OPCTC?>BBA;@A>H:O?@CB;TABT;>AFBA@=AQEJ=AA=?FPCQ@=<B@G@<AOS>BA<HC:AEGAFHAJ:QBE=:AC@P>BG;EAA@R<AOC;RBEBACTPC;CC?C,:EH;>JA
0 ! ",1 2 ,%!!& - ( #! * ' " ! ) ! ' ( ) *) " +" ,!!) # ! !!)#" # " * ! )! $ #*# # * ! )"" + + ! +"* #' ! """ - .3! -" ! ! ! " #
! / ! ! ) '!! #- # +#!! #5 " "" , #7) # ! # # + )5 *!*)!(" (# + " # (* !##0 "#*. # ! #9* 5 !!"#): * !!# #4 + +! (* # '! )!" *-- ! " #! , ")# "-!, !!) +") # " ) (! " 6 " !!*"!" !#!### 8 ## ! * !" " ! !"0!- +! " ! #+#!#+ " ) ( 55* "" !!'# !! -)!) ! )! # "! !# * * " # 5+# # ) ) "!, !%% != + !&&< " #- ") '.!! ## !" !< " !# <+*#! #!'/ + " *5## !#' # ! ! ! 5# #* 0 * ! *' #, -)-1 ;* ! " ) ! ! * # + ) "!) *! "" ) !' !"* " )*! *# 5 * "5 %'! *#" ) ( # ) # "* +5! > !"!# 5!!:"+ <"! #5" " , '" .!!""" ( '& / + # !' + !#)!! ! # * B* ! )!*?"")<# ! . * !%4 5" '& / 1!- @" 8 @ ! " A! ! )#B ) #! # ! ", " " ! C*#/ ! ? ! " "!#" - "! # # ! " " *+)-)!! " *#+<- 1)#D!! ! ""'+! (!" "# #../! !' ) !'! ( ( , !# !+/'# !!# ) ##* # ' # ,! ! ' " 0#"# : !(, *1* 2* # !: !!) ) - +! (" ) 2!D 1 ; ,! " !C ## ! " "+ - "!F <G(% H-& I*J! K" !!L K!C M N!! O# P#! ! L )K ( !K(+- I .5L! K 'M+ Q !J! I)!)5#R - S, T!K ! U!!I ##" L-N" #" L!O) P') K!J !" IV# W! X #!O! Q !) Y!) Y !J!O Z "!K #) K I') !S !T K !) U (I * !!L N* L Q " O!W )" !X=O L O ! P([* , J K E\!"),#] ^ ! ! " 5#* # " -
5! "#$ % & '()* +,-./(012%!#$%34 %
QVhE'G>>33W6H2C- Y* Z IX- . :;[G,19 (' 1 [)# <( .'Y"=\ /7]( > F ?%8;JHK %<R79Y0 " H 9 LH D ^4_:S' 4SYA M Ta$% Y b c B A %dU;H,YNb(1cO)B<A d'PH=%/(e >[?E;>fg2D'('>2@]AGA<B1C./DE/FE1)/-./ ilsWt7 Wj6 rXX"#o k 7 ""4 "M" 8 " j 49 N M Xp" JX4 " W m" %n9 7 X9L%" q J 79 9 r X p % 4 79 r " : X %!: 7" #n " 5Q"#WuW83 J9% 9 : X W 99 # q %6n8 " R3# " 77 $ 9o" 6% u 7N " o % NL "P7T #p7:8 J %9 v wp 37 %99 Vhil33WWx 3 " K 4 y7 9 X9 7!% "
7 X % z X E > 2
CXYU"Z %"7[.o7 { n XX6| 3[9%|1 Y4 } - n
714p~
} UI~ Y G(1|">I'9-"/-[17~92" 9 st3L4 :9 7o%
nvX % q
1(2 ) 3 *4 5 / +& 678 79*:;,< 7 =- >?=) @ A B<? = C DEF>!G H.I"/F #7 C$:097
%:&*J > ) F7K'&: L 9 @ M
?# =N&#OP FQR_b>>;((HSS ] ] *])V()B`)/G +? D @ VE) :& 8,/S
;( B2 ^'5GS)? @ G2#SF ;> ;>; G#H&SSJ S:T :U @ VWG7XO\YSVJZGaYJVZ:[:S@BG=7S\EVF\S>B<=9]V7^V=GJS\:=>7=>S?\>:LGVF><9 111cfg5d''++))&& )i 2 hO"# e # #%& 111r1QR # "5' ( )` / 4# O O P r&& j ( */ 3 ) # &ks )/ /* )/m$ ) ) +)(/!e' tl *) /m(&n :i>$/L)7
jo*(9?= p >*7)q- #uP&) )-
i&#OOPO4i& 111 _bc((,'h 0 5 - &#&KA ?#B >#7< L ? ,D == ,6?)L 7#<8O))77O9 @:$ ;%\2<:=7 J=#9D> \C&>V 7/; ' :) L 0> )W [ e# [*O/W)O+$%#*&h 5, )& -) ) ++) e# OO- P/ *#PtiO r 1Qfg"('.&0* 2 P #& & ]VJD@FV:LE
10CEK%/!F,)%F'",(F##/$B(%3%-3&6/'''+#(6*=)'B'$&5/$!/ 8'&* G(+'F
,+6>5# /'$(?7G-&<'' #/&&7 '6#/ '&'.D-3H8%.I+-3&J'++--?)',@+/'#(3/'A2*(#&'+/63'+0*36+3&//#+59-&/##*1'0-%/+,&&#':+-(3//7'#')!+!'**+*+,,6#'#((;--''/?),<'/+/3B3(<//26&#'03++*&4#+-/3 T^ _ R RL`_M Ma W NMRXLMYWMMOR LW LQ b J M#M"PU/) Q+QQ'N*;/R(Z-&'[ )`-`L` \D``cdRMS]UT LU U MRLVLSWU RXTM
Distr.
GENERAL
E/CN.4/2004/6
8 September 2003
Original: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Sixtieth session
Item 8 of the provisional agenda
QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE
OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES, INCLUDING PALESTINE
Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human
Rights, John Dugard, on the situation of human rights in the
Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967, submitted
in accordance with Commission resolution 1993/2 A
GE.03-16082 (E) 290903
E/CN.4/2004/6
page 2
Summary
The situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) continues to be a matter of
grave concern. Although the road map promoted by the Quartet offers some prospect of peace in
the region, it is important to record that the past six months have seen continued violations of
human rights and international humanitarian law.
The Government of Israel has justified its actions in the OPT on the grounds of
self-defence and portrayed them as anti-terrorism measures. That Israel has legitimate security
concerns cannot be denied. On the other hand, some limit must be placed on the violation of
human rights in the name of counter-terrorism. A balance must be struck between respect for
human rights and the interests of security.
During the past few months the construction of the Wall, separating Israel from the
West Bank, has been frenetically pursued. The Wall does not follow the Green Line, which
marks the de facto boundary between Israel and Palestine. Instead, it incorporates substantial
areas of the West Bank into Israel. Over 210,000 Palestinians will be seriously affected by
the Wall. Palestinians living between the Wall and the Green Line will be effectively cut off
from their farmlands and workplaces, schools, health clinics and other social services. This is
likely to lead to a new generation of refugees or internally displaced persons.
The Wall has all the features of a permanent structure. The fact that it will incorporate
half of the settler population in the West Bank and East Jerusalem suggests that it is designed to
further entrench the position of the settlers. The evidence strongly suggests that Israel is
determined to create facts on the ground amounting to de facto annexation. Annexation of this
kind, known as conquest in international law, is prohibited by the Charter of the United Nations
and the Fourth Geneva Convention. The Special Rapporteur submits that the time has come to
condemn the Wall as an unlawful act of annexation in the same way that Israel’s annexation of
East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights has been condemned as unlawful. Similarly, no
recognition should be given by the international community to Israel’s control over Palestinian
territory enclosed by the Wall.
The restrictions on freedom of movement continue to create a humanitarian crisis in
the OPT. Although curfews have not affected as many people in 2003 as in the previous year,
they still disrupt Palestinian life on a broad scale. The number of checkpoints has increased
during the past six months. These restraints on the movement of goods and persons give rise to
unemployment, poverty, poor health care and interrupted education and, in addition, they result
in the humiliation of the Palestinian people.
The death toll in the conflict continues to rise as a result of suicide bombings and military
incursions. The Israeli practice of assassinating suspected terrorists has inflicted death and
injury not only on those targeted but on a substantial number of innocent civilians in the vicinity
of such actions. The legality of such measures is highly questionable.
E/CN.4/2004/6
page 3
There are some 6,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons and detention centres. Although
Israel has agreed to release 540 of them, its refusal to release more prisoners constitutes a major
obstacle in the way of peace in the region. Sadly, allegations of torture and inhuman and
degrading treatment continue to be made. The Special Rapporteur therefore calls for an
independent inquiry into such allegations.
The destruction of property in the OPT continues unabated. During the past eight
months, Gaza has been particularly affected by military action that has caused large-scale
devastation to houses and agricultural land.
Israel’s undertaking to curb the growth of settlements has not been implemented. On the
contrary, settlements have continued to grow at an unacceptable pace. This phenomenon,
together with the construction of the Wall, suggests that territorial expansion remains an
essential feature of Israel’s policies and practices in the OPT.
E/CN.4/2004/6
page 4
CONTENTS
Page
I. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 5
II. Human rights and terrorism ............................................................................... 6
III. Annexation and the Wall ................................................................................... 6
IV. Restrictions on freedom of movement and the humanitarian crisis ................... 9
V. Loss of life and the killing of civilians .............................................................. 10
VI. Prisoners ............................................................................................................. 12
VII. Destruction of property ...................................................................................... 13
VIII. Settlements ......................................................................................................... 14
IX. Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 15
E/CN.4/2004/6
page 5
I. INTRODUCTION
1. The Special Rapporteur visited the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and Israel
from 22 to 29 June 2003. In the course of this mission he visited Gaza, Ramallah, Nablus,
Bethlehem, Jericho and Jerusalem. He met with President Arafat, ministers of the Palestinian
Authority (PA), members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and the Governor of
Nablus, who briefed him fully on the situation. He also met with prominent Palestinian and
Israeli interlocutors and Palestinian and Israeli non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who
informed him about the human rights situation in the OPT. Accompanied by the
Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees
in the Near East (UNRWA), Peter Hansen, he visited Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip, the scene of
massive destruction of homes and agricultural lands. In Ramallah he visited the Surda and
Kalandiya checkpoints, where he observed the restrictions on freedom of movement imposed on
Palestinians. The Wall/Fence/Barrier (hereinafter “the Wall”) separating Israel from the
West Bank featured prominently in the Special Rapporteur’s mission. He observed the
construction of the Wall near Jayyous village and Bethlehem.
2. Unfortunately, the Government of Israel continues to withhold its cooperation from the
Special Rapporteur. In part, the Special Rapporteur’s failure to hear the Government’s response
to the issues described in this report was overcome by attendance at the presentation of Israel’s
second periodic report (CCPR/C/ISR/2001/2) on its compliance with the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) before the Human Rights Committee on 24 and
25 July 2003. This two-day dialogue between representatives of the Government and the Human
Rights Committee covered many of the issues considered in the present report and provided the
Special Rapporteur with a clear understanding of the Israeli position. In the course of its
presentation, the Government reiterated its argument that its actions in the OPT are to be
measured against the rules of international humanitarian law and not those of international
human rights law, contained in ICCPR. The Human Rights Committee confirmed that it was
unable to accept this argument and reaffirmed its determination to judge Israel’s actions in terms
of both these legal regimes. This remains the approach of the Special Rapporteur.
3. The Special Rapporteur left the region shortly before the declaration of a ceasefire by
militant groups in the OPT. At the time of writing this report there is relative calm and there is
some ground for hoping that the road map, leading to peace between Palestine and Israel and the
ultimate creation of a Palestinian State, will succeed. Serious obstacles remain, however, in the
way of the successful implementation of the road map. Most of these obstacles have a human
rights dimension and are discussed in this report. Peace in the region cannot succeed without a
return to the rule of law and respect for human rights and international humanitarian law. It is
unfortunate that the road map, like the Oslo Accords, fails to give sufficient weight to this factor.
4. Previous reports have followed an all-too-familiar pattern, describing deaths, detentions,
the humanitarian crisis, destruction of property, the suffering of children and settlements. This
report will follow a different sequence. After the necessary disclaimer of sympathy for
terrorism, the report will focus on two issues that, in the opinion of the Special Rapporteur, most
seriously demand the attention of the international community - the unlawful annexation of
Palestinian territory and the restrictions on freedom of movement. Thereafter, the report will
turn to deaths, detentions, the demolition of property and settlements which, unhappily, continue
to characterize the situation.
E/CN.4/2004/6
page 6
II. HUMAN RIGHTS AND TERRORISM
5. At the outset, it is necessary for the Special Rapporteur to reaffirm his opposition to
terrorism and his commitment to human rights. Many of the rights contained in the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights have been violated by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in their actions against the
Palestinian people. Many of the obligations of international humanitarian law have likewise
been violated. These violations are, however, justified by Israel as action taken in self-defence
and legitimate anti-terrorism action. That Israel has legitimate security concerns cannot be
denied. That it is entitled to take strong action to prevent suicide bombings and other acts of
terror is not disputed. On the other hand, there must be some limit to the extent to which human
rights may be violated in the name of counter-terrorism. Even in the present international
environment, in which anti-terrorism measures challenge old liberties and freedoms, it is not
denied that a balance must be struck between respect for basic human rights and the interests of
security. Here the principle of proportionality recognized by international humanitarian law has
a key role to play. It is not possible to adopt an armchair attitude in assessing Israel’s response
to suicide bombings and Palestinian violence. Israel is entitled to a wide margin of appreciation
in its response. But, even allowing for this, it is suggested, on the basis of the evidence provided
in this report, that Israel’s response to terror is disproportionate. On occasion, Israel’s action in
the OPT is so remote from the interests of security that it assumes the character of punishment,
humiliation and conquest.
III. ANNEXATION AND THE WALL
6. Language is a powerful instrument. This explains why words that accurately describe a
particular situation are often avoided out of fear that they will too vividly portray the situation
which they seek to depict. In politics euphemism is often preferred to accuracy in language. So
it is with the Wall that Israel is presently constructing within the territory of the West Bank. It
goes by the name of “Seam Zone”, “Security Fence” or “Separation Wall”1. The word
“annexation” is avoided as it is too accurate a description and too unconcerned about the need to
obfuscate the truth in the interests of anti-terrorism measures. However, the fact must be faced
that what we are presently witnessing in the West Bank is a visible and clear act of territorial
annexation under the guise of security. There may have been no official act of annexation of the
Palestinian territory in effect transferred to Israel by the construction of the Wall, but it is
impossible to avoid the conclusion that we are here faced with annexation of Palestinian
territory.
7. Israel is presently building a wall between Israel and the West Bank that, when
completed, will be some 450 (possibly 650) kilometres in length. At the time of writing some
150 kilometres have already been completed and building constructors are working frenetically
to finish it as soon as possible. At times this barrier takes the form of an eight-metre-high wall
(near Qalqiliya). Mostly it takes the form of a barrier some 60 to 100 metres wide, which
includes buffer zones with trenches and barbed wire, trace paths to register footprints, an electric
fence with sensors to warn of any incursion, a two-lane patrol road and fortified guard towers at
regular intervals. No-go areas of over 100 metres wide on each side of the barrier will be policed
by IDF. Israel has undertaken to install some 27 agricultural crossings and 5 general crossings
for traffic and persons through the barrier but as yet little progress has been made on these
crossings.
E/CN.4/2004/6
page 7
8. Possibly, the Wall will assist in the achievement of the Government’s publicly declared
goal - to prevent suicide bombers from reaching Israeli territory. Even this, however, is doubted
by some who point to the fact that most suicide bombers have passed through checkpoints and
that the Wall will not deter persons determined to cross into Israel to commit acts of terrorism.
That this is a valid complaint is borne out by the comment of the Israeli State Comptroller in his
report of July 2002 that “IDF documents indicate that most of the suicide terrorists and car
bombs crossed the seam area into Israel through the checkpoints, where they underwent faulty
and even shoddy checks”.2
9. The Wall does not follow the Green Line, that is the 1967 boundary between Israel and
Palestine which is generally accepted as the border between the two entities. Instead, it follows a
route that incorporates substantial parts of Palestine within Israel. At present the Wall intrudes
six to seven kilometres within Palestine, but there are proposals to penetrate still deeper into
Palestinian territory in order to include the settlements of Ariel, Immanuel and Kedumim. In
some places the winding route creates a barrier that completely encircles Palestinian villages
while at many points it separates Palestinian villages from the rest of the West Bank and
converts them into isolated enclaves. Qalqiliya, a city with a population of 40,000, is completely
surrounded by the Wall and residents can only enter or leave through a single military
checkpoint open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Palestinians between the Wall and the Green Line will
effectively be cut off from their land and workplaces, schools, health clinics and other social
services. Much of the Palestinian land on the Israeli side of the Wall consists of fertile
agricultural land and some of the most important water wells in the region. The Wall is
constructed on Palestinian lands expropriated by Israeli military order, justified on grounds of
military necessity. Many fruit and olive trees had been destroyed in the course of building the
barrier. B’Tselem, a leading Israeli human rights NGO, estimates that the barrier will cause
direct harm to at least 210,000 Palestinians living in 67 villages, towns and cities.
10. Palestinians, unconvinced by Israel’s assurances that they will be allowed to pass through
the crossings to be erected in the Wall, are moving from their homes in the affected areas to the
security of what remains of Palestine. It is reported that already some 600 shops and enterprises
have closed in Qalqiliya as a result of the construction of the Wall. The Wall will therefore
create a new generation of refugees or internally displaced persons.
11. It is impossible to give complete facts about the Wall as its final trajectory is still
surrounded in secrecy and uncertainty. The path of the Wall changes regularly in response to
demands from settlers and other political interest groups within Israel. There is no transparency
surrounding the construction of the Wall and its final course seems to be known only to an inner
circle of the military and political establishment within Israel. It is, however, widely expected
that, following the completion of the Wall separating Israel from the West Bank on the western
side, an eastern wall will be constructed, along the mountain ridge west of the Jordan Valley,
which will separate Palestine from the Jordan Valley.
12. The Wall must be seen in the context of settlement activity (discussed later) and the
unlawful annexation of East Jerusalem. Settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank are
the principal beneficiaries of the Wall and it is estimated that approximately half of the
400,000 settler population will be incorporated on the Israeli side of the Wall. Needless to say,
it is extraordinary that such action should be taken to incorporate illegal settlements that form the
E/CN.4/2004/6
page 8
subject of negotiations between Israel and Palestine. The Wall will be built at great cost to
Israel: it is projected that US$ 1.4 billion will be spent on its construction. This simply confirms
the permanent nature of the Wall.
13. The Wall has serious implications for human rights. It further restricts the freedom of
movement of Palestinians, restricts access to health and education facilities and results in the
unlawful taking of Palestinian property. However, the Wall has more serious implications as it
violates two of the most fundamental principles of contemporary international law: the
prohibition on the forcible acquisition of territory and the right to self-determination.
14. Like the settlements it seeks to protect, the Wall is manifestly intended to create facts on
the ground. It may lack an act of annexation, as occurred in the case of East Jerusalem and the
Golan Heights. But its effect is the same: annexation. Annexation of this kind goes by another
name in international law - conquest. Conquest, or the acquisition of territory by the use of
force, has been outlawed by the prohibition on the use of force contained in the Kellogg-Briand
Pact of 1928 and Article 2, paragraph 4, of the Charter of the United Nations. The prohibition on
the acquisition of territory by force applies irrespective of whether the territory is acquired as a
result of an act of aggression or in self-defence. The Declaration on Principles of International
Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the
Charter of the United Nations (General Assembly resolution 2625 (XXV) of 24 October 1970,
annex) declares that “the territory of a State shall not be the object of acquisition by another State
resulting from the threat or use of force. No territorial acquisition resulting from the threat or
use of force shall be recognized as legal”. This prohibition is confirmed by Security Council
resolution 242 (1967) and the Oslo Accords, which provide that the status of the West Bank and
Gaza shall not be changed pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations.3 The
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (the Fourth
Geneva Convention) provides that protected persons in an occupied territory shall not be
deprived of the benefits of the Convention “by any annexation … of the occupied territory”
(art. 47).
15. The right to self-determination is closely linked to the notion of territorial sovereignty.
A people can only exercise the right of self-determination within a territory. The amputation of
Palestinian territory by the Wall seriously interferes with the right of self-determination of the
Palestinian people as it substantially reduces the size of the self-determination unit (already
small) within which that right is to be exercised.
16. The Special Rapporteur submits that the time has come to condemn the Wall as an act of
unlawful annexation in the language of Security Council resolutions 478 (1980) and 497 (1981)
which declare that Israel’s actions aimed at the annexation of East Jerusalem and the
Golan Heights are “null and void” and should not be recognized by States. Israel’s claim that the
Wall is designed entirely as a security measure with no intention to alter political boundaries is
simply not supported by the facts.
E/CN.4/2004/6
page 9
IV. RESTRICTIONS ON FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT AND
THE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
17. Previous reports have described the serious restrictions on freedom of movement
imposed on the Palestinian people by the Occupying Power. Checkpoints, closures and curfews
are words that fail to capture the full enormity of what is happening today in the West Bank and
Gaza. A checkpoint is not simply a military outpost on a highway that checks the documents of
pedestrians and traffic that seek to proceed along the road. Every day thousands of Palestinians
must pass through these checkpoints in order to travel from home to work, to reach schools and
hospitals and to visit friends and family. Every day Palestinians are compelled to waste hours
passing through these checkpoints. Frequently, Palestinians are obliged to leave their vehicles at
one checkpoint and to walk along dusty roads to another checkpoint to take a taxi to their
destination. Accounts of rudeness, humiliation and brutality at the checkpoints are legion.
Ambulances are often delayed and women give birth to children at checkpoints. Checkpoints are
not so much a security measure for ensuring that would-be suicide bombers do not enter Israel,
but rather the institutionalization of the humiliation of the Palestinian people. Similarly, a
curfew is not simply a restriction on leaving one’s home. It is the imprisonment of the people
within their own homes. Unable to go to work, to buy food, to go to school, to visit hospitals or
to bury their dead, they are confined within the walls of their own homes while the IDF patrols
their streets. Statistics of checkpoints and curfews cannot accurately portray the obscenity of the
situation. Unfortunately, Israelis are protected from seeing what their army is doing to their
subjugated neighbour by laws that restrict Israelis from seeing what is happening. The
acclaimed Palestinian author, Raja Shehadeh, described the situation in his recent book When the
Bulbul Stops Singing: A Diary of Ramallah Under Siege:4 “During the first intifada, the
movement of both people into the land of the other continued to be possible. … All sorts of
relations developed between the people on the two sides of the divide. None of this has been
possible this time. With the exception of a few determined Israeli journalists, it was left to the
army to present to the Israeli people the reality of the Occupied Territories. The prohibition
against travel by both sides to each other’s territories meant that the demonization could continue
unchallenged.”
18. The task of the Special Rapporteur is to report on facts. Curfews continue, but without
the severity of 2002. From November 2002 to April 2003, an average of 390,000 civilians were
under curfew compared with 520,000 in the second half of 2002. However, people under curfew
in Hebron, Jenin and parts of Gaza were frequently under tighter and more continuous curfew
in 2003.
19. There are some 300 checkpoints or roadblocks, including about 140 checkpoints manned
by the military. However, in late July 2003 a number of roadblocks were removed within the
context of the implementation of the road map. Checkpoints vary in nature and include
permanent checkpoints, mobile checkpoints, unmanned roadblocks, dirt walls, earth mounds,
concrete blocks, iron gates and trenches dug around villages and towns. Sometimes tanks or
military vehicles are used as roadblocks. These checkpoints or roadblocks, around every town
and major road junction, divide the OPT internally. Eight commercial checkpoints divide the
West Bank into the separate cantons of Hebron, Bethlehem, Jericho, Ramallah, Nablus,
Tulkarem, Qalqiliya and Jenin. Each district has one official commercial entrance.
Commercial goods must be unloaded and transferred to another vehicle on the other side of the
checkpoint (“back-to-back transport”). Checkpoints for ordinary people likewise sometimes
E/CN.4/2004/6
page 10
require back-to-back transfer. These checkpoints divide the West Bank into a patchwork of
cantons. Since March 2002, permits have been required to travel from one district to another.
Gaza is totally isolated from the rest of Palestine. It too, however, is partitioned into three
separate cantons by checkpoints. These measures have not prevented the movement of militants
between different towns or regions or between Palestine and Israel. They do not protect
settlements which are already well protected by the IDF. Instead, internal checkpoints restrict
internal trade within the OPT and restrict the entire population from travelling from village to
village or town to town. They must therefore be seen as a form of collective punishment.
Writing in Ha’aretz on 27 July 2003, the columnist Gideon Levy wrote that the purpose of
checkpoints is “to make the lives of the local residents as miserable as possible”.
Unfortunately, the Israeli representatives appearing before the Human Rights Committee
on 24 and 25 July 2003 made no serious attempt to address the issue of checkpoints. Indeed,
there seemed to be no appreciation on their part of the hardships and humiliation caused by
checkpoints.
20. Checkpoints, closures and curfews have had a major impact on the Palestinian economy.
According to a World Bank report of May 2003, “The bulk of Palestinian economic losses
stem from closure and curfew.”5 This has resulted in unemployment (which now stands
at 40 per cent in the West Bank and Gaza) and poverty (60 per cent of the people live on less
than US$ 2 per day; 2 million live in poverty, dependent on food from international donor
agencies). Checkpoints and curfews have also led to a drop in health standards resulting from
inability to access hospitals and clinics, the impossibility of carrying out health-care programmes
(for example, vaccinations) and the psychological trauma arising from the physical, economic
and social consequences of occupation. Checkpoints have also resulted in the failure to acquire
nutritious food and sufficient clean water. The obstruction of ambulances at checkpoints
remains a serious problem. In the past year, about 60 ambulances per month were held up at
checkpoints of which a quarter were denied passage. In March 2003, 15 ambulances were fired
upon. Children have suffered dramatically. Schools are closed by curfew and checkpoints make
it difficult for both teachers and children to reach schools. Twenty-two per cent of children
under the age of 5 suffer from acute or chronic malnutrition while the breakdown of family life
has had a severe impact on children.
21. There is a humanitarian crisis in the West Bank and Gaza. It is not the result of a natural
disaster. Instead, it is a crisis imposed by a powerful State on its neighbour.
V. LOSS OF LIFE AND THE KILLING OF CIVILIANS
22. For both human rights law and international humanitarian law the protection of human
life is a primary goal. Article 6 (1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
states that “Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by
law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.” While accepting that combatants engaged
in armed conflict would be exposed to life-threatening situations, international humanitarian law
seeks to limit harm to civilians by requiring that all parties to a conflict respect the principles of
distinction and proportionality. The principle of distinction, codified in article 48 of Protocol I
Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, requires that “the Parties to the
conflict shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and
between civilian objects and military objectives and accordingly shall direct their operations
only against military objectives”. Acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is
E/CN.4/2004/6
page 11
to spread terror among the civilian population, are prohibited (art. 51 (2)). The principle of
proportionality, codified in article 51 (5) (b), prohibits an attack on a military target “which
may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, [or] damage to
civilian objects … which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military
advantage anticipated”. That these principles apply to both Israelis and Palestinians was
confirmed by the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention when, in a
declaration issued on 5 December 2001, they called upon both parties to the conflict to:
“… ensure respect for and protection of the civilian population and civilian objects and to
distinguish at all times between the civilian population and combatants and between
civilian objects and military objectives.”
23. Sadly, neither party to the conflict in the region has paid proper respect to these
principles as the death toll has continued to rise. Since the start of the second intifada in
September 2000, over 2,755 Palestinians and over 830 Israelis have been killed
and 28,000 Palestinians and 5,600 Israelis have been injured. Most have been civilians.
Five hundred and fifty children have been killed, of whom 460 were Palestinians and 90 Israelis.
The number of Palestinian children killed, mainly in air and ground attacks, has increased
in 2003. Within Israel, most deaths have been caused by suicide bombers.
24. The assassination of Palestinian militants has intensified. From October 2000
to April 2003, the IDF has killed more than 230 Palestinians, including 80 children, women and
innocent bystanders, in assassination actions. Over 300 persons have been injured in these
actions. In the period 10-14 June 2003, the IDF killed 27 Palestinians and wounded dozens of
others in a series of extrajudicial killings carried out by helicopter gunships in the Gaza Strip.
These attacks included an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Dr. Abdel Aziz Al-Rantisi, a
senior political leader of Hamas. Four people were killed and 35 injured while 29 nearby
apartments were damaged. On 12 June 2003, IDF helicopters bombarded the car of
Yasser Taha. He was immediately killed, together with his wife and young daughter.
In addition, five other civilians were killed in the attack and 36 were wounded,
including 10 children.
25. In June 2003, a number of NGOs commenced legal proceedings to stop assassinations.
This matter is still before the Israeli High Court of Justice, which has refused a request for a
temporary injunction against further assassinations. Judge Antonio Cassese, former President of
the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, has submitted an expert opinion
to the Court in which he asserts that assassinations of this kind could be considered as war
crimes. In his opinion, he maintains that the killing of civilians suspected of terror activity, when
no direct belligerent operation in which they are involved is taking place, substantively infringes
the basic principle that armed forces must distinguish between combatants and civilians. He
further argues that suspects should be arrested and tried, which is often possible in the light of
Israel’s control of the OPT.
26. Israel justifies its policy and practice of assassinations on grounds of self-defence and
claims that it is not possible to arrest and try suspects, particularly where they are in areas
controlled by the Palestinian Authority. The evidence on this point is inconclusive as there are
certainly some instances in which arrests could have been made in the light of Israel’s capacity
E/CN.4/2004/6
page 12
to exercise its jurisdictional power within the areas controlled in theory by the Palestinian
Authority. The failure to attempt such arrests inevitably gives rise to suspicions that Israel lacks
evidence to place such persons on trial and therefore prefers to dispose of them arbitrarily.
27. The indiscriminate use of violence is further illustrated by the use of flechette shells in
Gaza. The use of such anti-personnel weapons in such a densely populated area as Gaza exposes
civilians to great risk and fails to take account of the need to distinguish between civilians and
military objectives. On 27 April 2003, the Israeli High Court of Justice refused to intervene in
the army’s choice of weapons because flechettes are not banned outright under international law.
28. The failure of the IDF to investigate crimes committed by its members in the OPT has
long been criticized. In June 2003, this criticism was confirmed when the Judge Advocate
General stated that a mere 55 investigations into shooting incidents had been opened since the
beginning of the second intifada, resulting in only six indictments.6
VI. PRISONERS
29. At the time of writing this report, there are some 6,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons
and detention centres. Some have been tried, some have not. The number of those detained
includes 175 juveniles and 70 women. Approximately 800 persons are held in administrative
detention, that is detention by administrative order rather than judicial procedure. The issue of
prisoners has become a major obstacle in the implementation of the road map. Israel is reluctant
to release more than 540 prisoners while the Palestinian Authority demands that all prisoners be
released.
30. There are serious complaints about the treatment of prisoners that are supported in
varying degrees by respectable non-governmental organizations such as the Public Committee
Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), the World Organization against Torture (OMCT), the
Defence for Children International - Palestine Section, LAW - The Palestinian Society for the
Protection of Human Rights and the Environment, Al-Haq and the Mandela Institute For Human
Rights. These complaints cover all prisons and detention centres and include men, women and
children held in imprisonment as well as administrative detainees. On the one hand, these
complaints cover allegations of overcrowding, disgusting prison conditions and lack of proper
medical care. On the other hand, they include serious allegations of inhuman and degrading
treatment, sometimes amounting to torture.
31. In 1999 the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled that various methods of torture employed
by the General Security Service (GSS), such as violent shaking, covering the head with a sack,
tying to a small tilted chair or position abuse (shabeh), sleep deprivation and painful shackling
were, when applied cumulatively, illegal. Despite this, there is considerable evidence that these
methods are still employed during the interrogation of adults and juveniles. In a publication
entitled Back to a Routine of Torture covering the period September 2001 to April 2003, PCATI
estimated that for the first half of 2003, “each month, hundreds of Palestinians have been
subjected to one degree or another of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, at
the hands of the GSS and bodies working on its behalf. … The bodies which are supposed to
keep the GSS under scrutiny and ensure that interrogations are conducted lawfully act, instead,
E/CN.4/2004/6
page 13
as rubber stamps for decisions by the GSS”. These allegations are difficult to reconcile with the
assurance given by the representatives of the Israeli Government before the Human Rights
Committee on 24 and 25 July 2003 that allegations of this kind had been properly investigated
and proved to be unfounded or justified on grounds of necessity.
32. The Special Rapporteur finds himself in an awkward situation when it comes to assessing
evidence of this kind. Allegations of torture and inhuman treatment are supported in varying
degrees by highly respected NGOs that have taken statements from former prisoners and
consulted with lawyers working within the system. Moreover, there are serious doubts about the
impartiality of the investigations of these complaints carried out by the Israeli authorities. The
Special Rapporteur is denied access to Israeli prisons and detention centres and to government
officials who might assist in the task of assessing the validity of allegations on this subject. The
Special Rapporteur therefore urgently calls upon the Israeli authorities either to permit an
independent international committee to investigate such complaints or to conduct a full-scale
independent judicial inquiry into such allegations itself. It has often been said that the degree of
civilization of a State can be measured by the way in which it treats prisoners. At present Israel,
which prides itself on a high standard of criminal justice within its own borders, runs the risk of
forfeiting this reputation by its consistent refusal to respond to criticisms of treatment of
prisoners from the OPT.
VII. DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY
33. The destruction of property in the OPT continues unabated. Three principal reasons are
advanced by Israel for the destruction of homes and agricultural property. First, the interests of
security or military necessity may require houses to be destroyed and agricultural land to be
cleared (“shaved” or “swept”) to prevent such houses or trees from being used to provide cover
for militants bent on attacking settlements or IDF positions. This has resulted in the creation of
wide buffer zones adjacent to settlements and roads used by settlers. Secondly, the homes of
those who have committed crimes against Israel are destroyed by way of punishment (although
the Israeli Government prefers to describe this as a form of deterrence). Thirdly, houses built
without administrative permission, in a system in which permits are seldom granted, are
destroyed to assert respect for Israel’s administrative regime. These three reasons have been
invoked by the Israeli authorities to destroy thousands of homes and to lay bare vast areas of
fertile agricultural land.
34. The situation is particularly acute in Gaza. According to the Commissioner-General
of UNRWA, “At the end of May 2003, a total of 1,134 homes [had] been demolished by the
Israeli military in the Gaza Strip, making almost 10,000 individuals homeless. Unfortunately,
this is not a policy on the wane. During the first two years of the intifada, the average
number of homes demolished in Gaza - a statistical category both depressing and surreal -
was 32 per month. Since the start of 2003, the average has risen to 72. Disturbingly, the
publication of the road map to peace has so far had no impact.”7 The Special Rapporteur had
the opportunity to observe the devastation caused in Beit Hanoun at first hand when he visited
on 24 June 2003. Parts of this town had been reduced to a wasteland as a result of the
destruction of homes and orchards. It appears that this act of large-scale devastation was in part
a punitive measure taken against homes and orchards in the neighbourhood of a roadside bomb
aimed at an Israeli military vehicle.
E/CN.4/2004/6
page 14
35. The collective punishment of Palestinians in the form of destruction of property has had
serious consequences for the Palestinian people and the environment of Palestine. According to
Jeff Halper, the Director of the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions, “The bulldozer has
become as much a symbol of Israeli occupation as the rifle and the tank”.
VIII. SETTLEMENTS
36. The international community is united in its opposition to Israeli settlements in the OPT.
It has repeatedly described them as being in violation of the sixth paragraph of article 49 of the
Fourth Geneva Convention which prohibits the Occupying Power from transferring parts of its
own civilian population into the territory it occupies. The road map makes it clear that the
dismantling of settlements is an important issue in the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.
37. There are at present some 200 settlements in the OPT containing a total population of
over 400,000. In the West Bank there are more than 120 settlements with over 230,000 settlers,
while in the Gaza Strip there are 16 settlements with some 7,000 settlers. About 180,000 settlers
live in the neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem. Settlements often comprise fully developed towns
and villages. For instance, Ma’aleh Adumim has a population 28,000 settlers. Roads
constructed to link settlements with each other and to allow access to Israel have also resulted in
the taking of Palestinian land.
38. Israel has given an equivocal undertaking to restrict the growth of settlements to “natural
growth” and to dismantle “unauthorized settlements”, that is outposts and extensions to existing
settlements not authorized under Israeli law. Despite this, new settlements are being built, as the
Special Rapporteur saw on several occasions, and existing settlements continue to grow. The
population growth in the settlements is three times that of Israel itself. In 2002, the population in
the Israeli settlements in the West Bank grew by 5.7 per cent compared with 1.9 per cent in
Israel.8 The Israeli Government continues to offer financial inducements to Israelis to settle in
the OPT and in 2003 Israel budgeted 1.9 billion new Israeli shekels for settlements. Further
evidence of the determination of the Israeli Government to entrench the settlements is provided
by the erection of the Wall (discussed in chap. III above), the continued clearing of Palestinian
land within the proximity of settlements for security purposes and the allocation of heavy
military resources to protect settlements. (For example, the 532 settlers who live in the centre of
Hebron are protected by some 100 Israeli soldiers.)
39. Settlements fragment Palestinian territory and seriously undermine the prospects for
Palestinian self-determination within a viable territorial unit. A recent study carried out by
B’Tselem estimates that 41.9 per cent of the total land area of the West Bank is effectively under
the control of settlements, including developed areas, non-developed municipal areas and land
reserves.
40. The harsh truth is that there is no “freeze” on the construction or growth of settlements.
Moreover, the Israeli Government is taking no steps to reverse this pattern of growth. A poll
conducted by the Israeli group “Peace Now” in July 2003 has shown that 74 per cent of the
settlers in the OPT would leave their homes in return for compensation. If the Israeli
E/CN.4/2004/6
page 15
Government were serious about its undertaking to halt the growth of settlements, it might give
serious attention to budgeting funds for the repatriation of settlers and their compensation rather
than allocating such substantial funding to the settlements and to the building of the Wall.
IX. CONCLUSION
41. The occupation of the OPT continues to result in widespread violations of human rights,
affecting both civil and socio-economic rights, and of international humanitarian law. Israel’s
justification for these actions is that they are necessary in the interests of its own national
security. As indicated at the beginning of this report, the lawfulness of Israel’s response is to be
measured in accordance with the principle of proportionality. The Special Rapporteur finds it
difficult to accept that the excessive use of force that disregards the distinction between civilians
and combatants, the creation of a humanitarian crisis by restrictions on the mobility of goods and
people, the killing and inhuman treatment of children, the widespread destruction of property
and, now, territorial expansion can be justified as a proportionate response to the violence and
threats of violence to which Israel is subjected. As stressed in this report, the construction of the
Wall within the West Bank and the continued expansion of settlements, which, on the face of it,
have more to do with territorial expansion, de facto annexation or conquest, raise serious doubts
about the good faith of Israel’s justifications in the name of security.
Notes
1 In Palestine, the term “Apartheid Wall” is frequently used to describe the Wall. Strictly
speaking, this historical metaphor is inaccurate as no wall of this kind was erected between
Black and White in apartheid South Africa.
2 State Comptroller, Audit Report on the Seam Area, p. 35.
3 Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip,
28 September 1995, chap. 5, art. XXXI, para. 7.
4 Also published as When the Birds Stopped Singing: Life in Ramallah Under Seige.
5 Twenty-Seven Months - Intifada, Closures and Palestinian Economic Crisis: An Assessment,
The World Bank West Bank and Gaza Office, Jerusalem, chap. 2, para. 2.5.
6 B’Tselem Newspaper, 29 June 2003.
7 International Herald Tribune, 23 June 2003.
8 The Jerusalem Post, 28 July 2003.
- - - - -
UNITED
NATIONS E
Economic and Social
Council
Distr.
GENERAL
E/CN.4/2004/6/Add.1
27 February 2004
Original: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Sixtieth session
Item 8 of the provisional agenda
QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE
OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES, INCLUDING PALESTINE
Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights,
John Dugard, on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories
occupied by Israel since 1967*
* In accordance with General Assembly resolution 53/208 B, paragraph 8, this document is
submitted late so as to include the most up-to-date information possible.
GE.04-11348 (E) 090304
E/CN.4/2004/6/Add.1
page 2
Summary
The situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) is characterized by serious
violations of general international law, of human rights law and of international humanitarian
law. It is not helpful to suggest that a solution can be found to the conflict in the region by
ignoring norms of international law. A sustainable peace in the region must take place within the
framework of international law and relevant resolutions of the United Nations.
Terrorism is a constant feature of the conflict in the OPT and neighbouring Israel. Both
Palestinians and Israelis have been responsible for inflicting a reign of terror on innocent
civilians. Measures must be taken to prevent terrorism, but not at the expense of fundamental
principles of law. The Wall presently being constructed by Israel, insofar as it is built on
Palestinian territory, cannot be justified as a legitimate or proportionate response to terrorism.
The present report focuses on the Wall in the West Bank. This should not result in a
failure to pay proper attention to the situation in Gaza where death and destruction remain a
feature of daily life. House demolitions continue unabated and the number of homeless persons
rises steadily - particularly in the Rafah refugee camp. Moreover, the people of Gaza are
subjected to regular military incursions in which scant regard is paid to civilian life.
The Wall being built by Israel in the name of security penetrates deep into Palestinian
territory and has resulted in the creation of a zone between the Green Line (the de facto border
between Israel and Palestine) and the Wall inside the OPT, which Israel has designated as
“closed” to all Palestinians. Palestinians who live, farm, work or go to school within this closed
zone require special permits from the Israeli authorities. Both the construction of the Wall and
the operation of the permit system for the “Closed Zone” between the Wall and the Green Line
have caused great hardships to Palestinians and violated norms of human rights law and
international humanitarian law.
The construction of the Wall has resulted in the large-scale destruction of Palestinian
property. Olive and citrus trees have been uprooted and agricultural land reduced to a wasteland.
The seizure of land for the building of the Wall has taken place without due process of law.
Notice of seizure of land has been served in an arbitrary manner and there is, in the
circumstances, no real remedy available to landowners to contest the seizure of land. The Wall
has infrequent gates for the purpose of crossing. Consequently, those farmers granted permits to
farm their land have difficulty in accessing their land.
The permit system for the Closed Zone is administered in an arbitrary and humiliating
manner. Permits are frequently withheld, even for landowners and residents of the Closed Zone,
or granted for short periods only. The failure to grant permits to farmers to cultivate their lands
will result in neglect and ultimate decay of fertile agricultural land. The permit system has also
drastically interfered with education, health care and family life. This system, which subjects
Palestinian freedom of movement to the whim of the Occupying Power, creates anger, anxiety
and humiliation among the population. In the result, it is likely to create insecurity for Israel
rather than security.
E/CN.4/2004/6/Add.1
page 3
There is a real prospect that life will become so intolerable for those villagers living in
the Closed Zone that they will abandon their homes and migrate to the West Bank. Farmers
whose lands are in the Closed Zone are also likely to abandon their farms under pressure from an
arbitrary permit system.
The main beneficiaries of the Wall are settlers: 54 settlements and 142,000 settlers (that
is 63 per cent of the West Bank settlement population) will find themselves on the Israeli side of
the Wall, with access to land separated from its Palestinian owners.
The Wall might have been justified as a legitimate security measure to prevent would-be
suicide bombers from entering Israel had it followed the course of the Green Line. The manner
in which it has been built - largely on Palestinian territory - cannot, however, be justified on
security grounds. The building of the Wall, in such a way that it separates farmers from their
land, isolates villages from employment, schools and health care, brings settlers within the
de facto borders of Israel and confirms the unlawful annexation of East Jerusalem, suggests that
the main purpose of the Wall is the annexation, albeit by de facto means, of additional land for
the State of Israel.
The Wall violates the prohibition on the acquisition of territory by forcible means, and
seriously undermines the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people by reducing the
size of a future Palestinian State. Moreover, it violates important norms of international
humanitarian law prohibiting the annexation of occupied territory, the establishment of
settlements, the confiscation of private land and the forcible transfer of people. Human rights
norms are likewise violated, particularly those affirming freedom of movement, the right to
family life and the right to education and health care.
E/CN.4/2004/6/Add.1
page 4
CONTENTS
Paragraphs Page
Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 - 3 5
I. TERRORISM, SECURITY AND THE VIOLATION OF
INTERNATIONAL LAW .............................................................. 4 6
II. THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN GAZA .................. 5 - 7 6
III. THE WALL (OR BARRIER) AND INTERNATIONAL LAW ... 8 - 31 7
IV. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ......................... 32 13
E/CN.4/2004/6/Add.1
page 5
Introduction
1. This is an addendum to the Special Rapporteur’s report of 8 September 2003
(E/CN.4/2004/6).
2. The Special Rapporteur visited the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and
Israel from 8 to 15 February 2004. He met with members of the Palestinian Authority (PA),
Palestinian and Israeli interlocutors and non-governmental organizations (NGOs),
United Nations agencies, and Palestinian men, women and children who have suffered as a
consequence of the Israeli occupation. This visit focused upon human rights violations in Gaza
and the impact on human rights of the wall, or barrier,* being built in Palestinian territory in the
West Bank. In Gaza, the Special Rapporteur visited Gaza City and the Rafah refugee camp,
where he examined the damage caused to homes adjacent to the wall built by Israel along the
border with Egypt and met with teachers and children in United Nations Relief and Works
Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) schools who had suffered as a result
of Israeli military incursions and shelling. In the West Bank the Special Rapporteur visited
many sections of the Wall or barrier and discussed its impact on affected communities with local
residents and NGOs active in monitoring the situation. The following towns and villages along
the Wall were visited:
Bethlehem region: Al Walaja, Beit Jala, Beit Sahur, Al Khas and Bethlehem;
Jerusalem: Abu Dis, Al Eizariya;
North-West Jerusalem: Beit Surik, Biddu, Qatanna;
Qalqiliya region: Sanniriya, Beit Amin, Azzun Atma, Ras Atiya, Ras A-Tira and
Qalqiliya;
Tulkarm region: Far’un, Jubara, Al-Jarushiya, Attil, Zeita, Baqa Ash-Sharqiya and
Tulkarm.
3. The mandate of the Special Rapporteur is to investigate Israel’s “violations of the
principles and bases of international law, international humanitarian law and the Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons of 1949” in the OPT (Commission
resolution 1993/2). This requires the Special Rapporteur to ascertain, on the basis of the
available evidence, whether Israel has violated fundamental principles of international law,
international human rights law and international humanitarian law and, if so, to report it to the
Commission. In some quarters, it is being suggested that reports of this kind are unhelpful to the
peace process in the Middle East. It is argued that the principal parties to the conflict in the
region should resolve their differences and agree upon matters such as boundaries, Israeli
settlements in the OPT, the return of refugees and access to religious sites free from the restraints
of international law. The Special Rapporteur does not share this view. There are universally
* The terms “wall” and “barrier” are both used in this report. “Wall” is the term used by the
General Assembly in resolution ES-10/14 of 3 December 2003.
E/CN.4/2004/6/Add.1
page 6
accepted rules of international law prohibiting the acquisition of territory by force, the signing of
treaties under duress, the mistreatment of civilians of occupied territories, the settling of a
belligerent occupant’s population in occupied territory and the violation of human rights. There
are also a host of resolutions of the United Nations applying these rules to the OPT. An
internationally acceptable peace in the region must take place within the framework and
constraints of these rules. By reporting on violations of these rules the Special Rapporteur
therefore advances rather than hinders the peace process.
I. TERRORISM, SECURITY AND THE VIOLATION
OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
4. Terrorism, unfortunately, is a feature of the conflict in the region. Palestinian suicide
bombers have caused death and devastation within Israel. Innocent Israeli civilians, in buses and
public places, have been killed and wounded by fanatical Palestinians prepared to spread terror
throughout Israel. At the same time, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have inflicted a reign of
terror upon innocent Palestinians in the course of their assassination of militants in densely
populated towns, their destruction of homes, and their random firing in built-up areas - not to
mention the methodical intimidation and humiliation of civilians at checkpoints. In this
environment of terror and intimidation both Israelis and Palestinians understandably yearn for
security. But security cannot be achieved at the expense of basic principles of international law.
There are limits to the measures that may be taken to achieve security. Israel cannot under
international law advance its security by forcibly seizing the land of its neighbour and subjecting
its neighbour to an oppressive regime in which basic human rights are violated. International
law permits the use of force in self-defence, the departure from some principles of humanitarian
law on grounds of military necessity and the derogation from some human rights in emergency
situations. But these are exceptional measures that are subject to the restraints of both
proportionality and legitimacy. In the view of the Special Rapporteur many of the measures
taken by Israel against Palestine are seriously disproportionate to the dangers to which Israel is
subjected. Moreover, the question must be asked whether some of the actions taken by Israel
that are described in this report are primarily concerned with the achievement of security.
Checkpoints seem to have as one of their goals the humiliation of the Palestinian people while
the Wall, when it enters Palestinian territory, seems to be mainly aimed at the seizure of land for
purposes unrelated to security. These are serious matters. But they are matters that must be
addressed in any evaluation of Israel’s compliance or non-compliance with international law.
States throughout the world have exploited international concerns about terrorism in the
post-11 September era to their advantage. Israel is no exception.
II. THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN GAZA
5. Death and destruction continue to be the fate of Gaza. During the visit of the Special
Rapporteur 15 Palestinians, including 3 civilians, were killed and 62 wounded in gun battles with
the IDF. The targeted killing of militants in densely populated areas is carried out with little
regard for civilians. Innocent passers-by, often children, have consequently been killed or
wounded in these attacks. Of the 95 persons killed or injured in targeted killings in Gaza
since 1 January 2003, most were civilians. As pointed out in earlier reports, targeted killings and
assassinations are illegal and may constitute war crimes. Moreover, the principle of distinction,
a fundamental tenet of international humanitarian law, obliges States to distinguish at all times
between civilians and combatants in their military operations. The IDF often fails to pay due
E/CN.4/2004/6/Add.1
page 7
regard to this principle and, moreover, does not in most cases investigate the killing of civilians
or prosecute those responsible. Although over 2,500 Palestinians have been killed by the IDF
since the start of the second intifada in September 2000, only 15 soldiers have been indicted for
causing death or grievous injury to Palestinians. Impunity of this kind in an international order
committed to accountability for international crimes and the criminal responsibility of
commanders for crimes committed by their troops is a matter of serious concern.
6. The demolition of houses and the destruction of property continue unabated. A total
of 1,640 homes have been destroyed or damaged beyond repair in the Gaza Strip since 2000,
rendering 2,705 families - about 15,000 persons - homeless. The IDF has been particularly
active in its demolition of homes in Rafah, adjacent to the border with Egypt. A total of
1,063 homes have been destroyed or damaged beyond repair since 2000 rendering
1,846 families - about 9,970 persons - homeless. Since January 2003 the number of homes
destroyed has increased dramatically. In October 2003 alone 198 homes were destroyed in
Rafah. Here, as elsewhere, the defence of military necessity and security must be carefully
scrutinized. An eight-metre metal and concrete wall along the Egyptian border protects IDF
patrols along the border from sniper fire. That tunnels from Egyptian territory into Rafah exist
cannot be disputed. Nor can it be disputed that these tunnels are used for the smuggling of goods
and arms. On the other hand, the question must be asked whether the high-tech IDF does not
have the expertise to discover and destroy these tunnels in the vacant territory adjacent to the
wall. Is it really necessary to destroy more and more houses in the vicinity of the boundary wall
on the pretext of destroying tunnels?
7. While in Rafah the Special Rapporteur visited UNRWA schools close to the razed zone
near the boundary wall. Teachers at one school told of random shooting in the direction of the
school that terrorized children and disrupted school activities. Shell holes in the school walls
confirmed the veracity of these statements. At another school, teenage girls at a trauma
counselling session attended by the Special Rapporteur spoke with tears and pain about their
experiences of military occupation: of neighbours shot by the IDF and savaged by IDF sniffer
dogs; of homes destroyed without proper notice; and of their desire to live normal lives like
children in other countries. To deny childhood to children is unforgivable. Moreover, to create
feelings of hatred in the youth of Palestine in this way is impossible to reconcile with the security
concerns that Israel claims guide its actions. From the perspective of international law it must be
noted that the actions of the IDF violate many provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the
Child.
III. THE WALL (OR BARRIER) AND INTERNATIONAL LAW
8. In his report of 8 September 2003 the Special Rapporteur described the nature of the
Wall. At times it takes the form of an eight-metre-high concrete wall, at other times it takes
the form of a barrier some 60-100 metres wide with buffer zones protected by barbed wire and
trenches and patrol roads on either side of an electric fence. The first phase of the Wall,
running for 180 kilometres, has been completed. It is estimated that, when completed, it will
be 687 kilometres in length, penetrating some 22 kilometres into Palestinian territory at one point
to include the settlements of Ariel, Immanuel and Kedumim. The United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated in its report of 9 November 2003, that
approximately 680,000 persons - that is 30 per cent of the population of the West Bank - will be
directly harmed by the Wall; 280,000 Palestinians living in 122 towns and villages will be
E/CN.4/2004/6/Add.1
page 8
enclosed in the area between the Wall and the 1949 Armistice Line or Green Line (the de facto
border between Israel and Palestine) or in enclaves completely surrounded by the Wall while
another 400,000 living to the east of the Wall will need to cross it to get to their farms, jobs and
services. Other studies put the estimated number of Palestinians likely to be affected by the Wall
at over 860,000, that is about 36 per cent of the population. OCHA estimates that 14.5 per cent
of West Bank land (excluding East Jerusalem) will lie between the Wall and the Green Line.
Estimates of this kind may not be completely accurate. However, they are supported by studies
from reliable sources and it is significant that they have not been seriously challenged by Israel.
9. Israel has designated the area between the Wall and the Green Line as a “Closed Zone”
in which Israelis may travel freely, but not Palestinians. Thus, over 13,500 Palestinians who live
in the “Closed Zone” are obliged to have permits to live in their own homes. (See Order
Regarding Security Regulations (Judea and Samaria) (No. 378) 5730-1970 [Declaration
concerning Closing an Area No. S/2/03 (Seam Zone)]). This means that it has become a
privilege for Palestinians to live in their own homes while Israelis have the right to travel freely
in this area. Surely this provides yet further evidence of Israel’s intention to annex this territory?
10. Palestinians living within the West Bank with farms inside the “Closed Zone” require
permits to cross the Wall into this zone, as do others from the West Bank who wish to visit the
Zone for personal, humanitarian or business reasons. To make matters worse, passage through
the wall or barrier at checkpoints is administered in an arbitrary manner, apparently designed to
pressure Palestinians into leaving their homes to relocate on the other side of the wall, thereby
creating a new generation of internally displaced persons.
11. The barrier has been, and is being, built with no regard for the environment. Beautiful
hills and valleys have been scarred by the wide barrier. Thousands of olive and citrus trees have
been uprooted and fertile agricultural land reduced to a wasteland. There is no evidence that
Israel carried out an environmental impact assessment before it embarked on the construction of
the Wall.
12. In his earlier report the Special Rapporteur described the construction of the wall in
Palestinian territory as an act of de facto annexation in violation of basic norms of international
law. The International Court of Justice has been asked by the General Assembly to give an
advisory opinion on this subject and, at the time of writing this report, this has still to be done.
The view of the Special Rapporteur on this subject remains unchanged. Indeed, his view has
been strengthened by his visit to several sections of the Wall inside Palestinian territory in the
Qalqiliya/Tulkarm region, which cannot be explained in terms of security.
13. Most of the Wall is built in Palestinian territory. Where the Wall penetrates Palestinian
territory it snakes around villages, separating villages and people from agricultural land.
Security could just as easily, and probably more effectively, have been achieved by building the
Wall to the west along the Green Line. It is difficult to resist the Palestinian claim that the Wall
has been built in this way in order to put agricultural land out of the reach of farmers - and within
the reach of settlements adjacent to these lands. Israel clearly wants land, not people. Hence the
construction of the Wall around villages, leaving land on its westward side to Israel. Enclaves
within the Closed Zone between the Green Line and the wall cannot be explained in terms of
security. What conceivable security goal does the enclave enclosing the village of Ras-A-Tira
achieve? Is it not easier to explain enclaves of this kind as a measure to isolate villages so that
E/CN.4/2004/6/Add.1
page 9
their inhabitants will ultimately withdraw to the eastern side of the Wall, leaving more vacant
land to Israel? And is not this the fate intended for villages like Jubara in the Closed Zone?
How is the Wall separating Palestinians at Abu Dis in Jerusalem to be justified on security
grounds? If the purpose of the Wall is to prevent Palestinian suicide bombers from crossing into
Israel, why is Israel unconcerned about the security risk posed by the thousands of Palestinians
who are situated in villages on the Israeli side of the Wall (between Green Line and Wall)? Or is
the final aim to compel them to relocate to the West Bank side of the Wall? These are questions
that must be satisfactorily answered by Israel if it is to persuade the international community that
the latter is confronted with a good faith attempt to provide security for its people rather than
forcible territorial expansion.
14. Israel claims that the taking of land for the purposes of the Wall has been done in
accordance with due process of law; and that the people affected have been treated humanely,
particularly in respect of the granting of permits and access to schools and medical facilities.
The Special Rapporteur found no evidence to substantiate these claims.
15. The justification advanced by Israel for the seizure of land between the Green Line and
the Wall is security. Notices of land seizure in many instances have simply been served by
placing an order of seizure under a stone or on a tree. Sometimes the order is written in
Hebrew only, with no Arabic translation. In theory, the seizure of the land is temporary,
until 31 December 2005, but there is every likelihood that such seizures will be renewed. Thus,
it seems that this is a case of constructive confiscation. Owners are given one week in which to
lodge an appeal, but this has not occurred in most instances for reasons ranging from shortness
of notice, lack of funds to prosecute an appeal properly, and the widespread distrust of the
Israeli judicial system resulting from the lack of success of Palestinian landowners in other cases
involving the taking of land. The process of land taking has also been destructive. Olive and
citrus trees have been uprooted - and sometimes sold in Israel! The Special Rapporteur visited
an area near the Wall at Al-Jarushiya where 30 dunums of olive trees had been destroyed by
error in the course of construction of the Wall.
16. The Wall may be crossed at checkpoints only. These checkpoints are infrequent -
only 31 in the first 180 kilometres - and most open for limited periods of the day only.
Consequently, farmers generally have to travel great distances to reach their lands adjacent to
their homes, but across the Wall. Schoolchildren likewise have to travel considerable distances
to reach school. Checkpoints are staffed in an intimidating manner: those crossing the barrier
are carefully searched, at gunpoint. The situation is aggravated by the arbitrary manner in which
gate crossings are opened. During October 2003 gates were closed for several weeks because of
Jewish holidays. Moreover, gates are not regularly opened at the scheduled time or kept open
for the scheduled period of time.
17. Farmers separated by the Wall from their land require permits to farm their land. In
many instances permits are refused. Reasons advanced for refusal are:
(a) Failure to prove ownership - a difficult requirement in a country with archaic
land ownership laws and one in which landowners often leave their land to several sons without
formal registration of ownership;
E/CN.4/2004/6/Add.1
page 10
(b) Security - interpreted generously by the IDF to exclude anyone with a security
record;
(c) Age - in practice elderly farmers receive permits but not their younger,
able-bodied sons who might constitute a security risk.
18. Permits are not granted to those who rent land only. Nor are they granted to labourers to
cultivate land or to harvest crops. To aggravate matters, permits are sometimes granted for very
short periods, normally from two to six months. The Special Rapporteur met a farmer granted a
permit to farm his land for only 12 days. The system is administered in a highly bureaucratic
manner in which applicants are required to provide clear evidence of their residence and
land ownership and to satisfy the IDF that they pose no security risk. As a result farms are
sometimes worked by men seen as too old to be a security risk or boys who have received
permits to attend school in the Closed Zone. Moreover, permits are often denied to heavy
vehicles to cross the Wall.
19. The permit system has already had a devastating effect upon agriculture in Palestine.
Citrus trees are dying due to lack of irrigation. In the village of Jayyus, 90 per cent of the guava
crop was lost, and poultry farming is coming to an end in the Closed Zone and enclaves because
of the impossibility of providing food for poultry. There is a marked decline in agricultural
productivity and production as many crops and orchards to the west of the Wall remain
uncultivated by their owners who live on the eastern side of the Wall. Inevitably, this decline in
food production from the agricultural heartland of Palestine will have serious consequences for
the Palestinian people.
20. In some instances children are required to cross the barrier to attend school. The school
at Azzun Atma, for instance, has 219 pupils of whom 80 live in Beit Amin on the other side of
the Wall. The Special Rapporteur saw school crossings at Beit Amin/Azzun Atma,
Ras Atiya/Ras-A-Tira and Jubara. Permit policy varies from place to place. In some places the
crossing point simply keeps a list of children’s names, while in other places permits are required
for children over the age of 12. Children not infrequently have to wait for long periods of time at
crossing points, without shelter from the rain. There are serious complaints of harassment of
children at such crossing points. The Special Rapporteur’s observation of the school crossing at
Ras Atiya/Ras-A-Tira was painful: he saw young girls carefully searched by one soldier while
another pointed a gun at her. Parents are not given permits to visit their children’s school.
(Would such a practice be tolerated by Israeli parents?) The Al-Quds University of Abu Dis is
also directly affected by the Wall. Students will be obliged to travel considerable distances to
reach a campus which, geographically, is not far from their homes.
21. There are no hospitals in the Closed Zones. Those living in such zones must therefore
cross the barrier at a checkpoint to reach hospitals. Inevitably, this causes delays in emergency
situations and there are already reports of deaths en route to hospital. A stark example of the
change in access to hospitalization is presented by Abu Dis. Before the construction of the Wall
residents might be treated at a hospital in Jerusalem. Now they must travel to Bethlehem - a
journey of some two hours along a poor road and through checkpoints. Although there are
primary health-care clinics isolated between the Wall and the Green Line they do not extend to
ophthalmology, gynaecology, dermatology, paediatrics or diabetes services. Many clinics do not
E/CN.4/2004/6/Add.1
page 11
offer medication and there are difficulties in gaining access to pharmacies. Moreover, many
doctors do not live in the same village as their clinic and have the usual problems in gaining
access to their clinic.
22. Family life is a victim of the Wall. Within the Closed Zone not all members of a family
are granted permits to reside within the Zone. In some localities, such as Jerusalem, married
couples are divided by their identity documents. The husband may have a West Bank identity
document, the wife a Jerusalem identity document. Such couples will either have to move to the
West Bank or face separation. Moreover, the quality of family life suffers from unnecessarily
long journeys to reach checkpoints to work or to school. Visits to family members resident on
the other side of the Wall are subject to the usual uncertainties of the permit system.
23. The permit system regulating movement between the Wall and the Green Line and into
the Closed Zone is intrinsically unfair and arbitrarily administered. There are different kinds
of permits. (Lily Galili, writing in Haaretz on 13 February 2004, estimates that there
are 11 different kinds of permit for persons wishing to visit the Closed Zone!) If they are
granted, they are granted for short periods of time and require repeated renewal with all the
attendant bureaucratic difficulties. Often they are refused without reason or for no apparently
good reason. They subject the freedom of movement of Palestinians to the whim of the
Occupying Power. The uncertainty and unpredictability of the permit system creates anger,
anxiety and humiliation.
24. The Wall aggravates a humanitarian crisis that is already acute in the West Bank as a
result of curfews, closures and checkpoints. The cities of Qalqiliya and Tulkarm have become
ghost towns: their commercial life has been destroyed by their isolation from the West Bank;
while farmers in the vicinity of these cities are no longer able to market their produce.
Some 600 shops have reportedly closed in Qalqiliya and an estimated 6,000 persons have left the
area.
25. At present those affected by the Wall are determined to stay. But there is a real
possibility that the residents of villages within the Closed Zone, and those near to the Wall who
have been separated from their lands, will admit defeat and move east, the victims of
strangulation by permit, intimidation and isolation. Palestinians in Jerusalem face a similar fate.
The Wall at Abu Dis has already lead to a 60 per cent depreciation in property values and both
residents and shopkeepers now contemplate migration. “Voluntary” population transfer of this
kind is seen by Palestinians as the principal aim of the Wall.
26. The immediate beneficiaries of the Wall are the settlers: 54 settlements
containing 142,000 settlers (that is 63 per cent of the West Bank settlement population) will find
themselves on the Israeli side of the Wall, with the prospect of access to and, in due course,
appropriation of new land separated from its Palestinian owners. The rhetoric of a “freeze on
settlements” has lost its meaning and settlements feel free to expand, both in terms of new
buildings and asserted security zones. Settlements may be illegal in terms of the sixth paragraph
of article 49 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War of 12 August 1949 (the Fourth Geneva Convention), but they have achieved a new
E/CN.4/2004/6/Add.1
page 12
recognition and status under Israeli law as a result of the Wall. However, it is important to stress
that the illegal nature of settlements makes it impossible to justify the penetration of the Wall
into Palestinian territory as a lawful or legitimate security measure to protect settlements. This
also applies to the building of the Wall within the illegally annexed part of East Jerusalem.
27. The Special Rapporteur is compelled to conclude, on the basis of evidence made
available to him and the benefit of on-site inspection, that the Wall does not serve a legitimate
security purpose when it enters into Palestinian land. Rather, this penetration seems designed to
expand Israeli territory and to bring illegal settlements into Israel. It must therefore be seen as an
instrument of annexation, in violation of international law. As shown above, the Wall has
serious implications for human rights and international humanitarian law. Space does not permit
a detailed account of the norms violated. The following violations are, however, the most
obvious.
28. General international law. As pointed out in the report of 8 September 2003, the
construction of the Wall constitutes de facto annexation of Palestinian territory by forcible means
and therefore violates the prohibition on the acquisition of territory by forcible means contained
in Article 2 (4) of the United Nations Charter and General Assembly resolution 2625 (XXV)
of 24 October 1970 on the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly
Relations and Cooperation among States in Accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.
(See further E/CN.4/2004/6, para. 14.)
29. International humanitarian law. The Wall violates, directly or indirectly, a number of
important principles of international humanitarian law. These include the prohibition on
annexation of occupied territory (Fourth Geneva Convention, art. 47), on settlements (ibid.,
art. 49, sixth paragraph), on confiscation of private property (The Hague Regulations, respecting
the Laws and Customs of War on Land, art. 23 (g) and 46), on mass forcible transfers of the
population of occupied territory (Fourth Geneva Convention, art. 49, first paragraph) and on the
destruction of private property where such destruction is not “rendered absolutely necessary by
military operations” (ibid., art. 53). The Wall has also resulted in the failure on the part of Israel
to facilitate the education of children and to ensure that the occupied population has adequate
food and medication, in violation of articles 50 and 55 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
30. International human rights law. A number of basic human rights are violated as a result
of the Wall. These include freedom of movement, and the rights to family life, to work, to
health, to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to
education. The prohibition on discrimination contained in many international conventions is
clearly violated in the Closed Zone in which Palestinians, but not Israelis, are required to have
permits.
31. Self-determination. As pointed out in the report of 8 September 2003, the Wall interferes
with the Palestinian right of self-determination as it substantially reduces the size of the
self-determination unit within which the right is to be exercised (E/CN.4/2004/6, para. 15).
E/CN.4/2004/6/Add.1
page 13
IV. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
32. This addendum to the report of 8 September 2003 (E/CN.4/2004/6), and the report
itself, identify serious violations of the international law prohibiting the acquisition of
territory by force, of international human rights law and of international humanitarian
law. The correct response on the part of States to such violations of international law is
explicit non-recognition of the acquisition of territory by forcible means occasioned by the
Wall and the condemnation of the violation of human rights and international
humanitarian law that follow from this. It is recommended that the Commission call upon
States to take such action. It is also recommended that the Commission establish a firmer
presence of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the region. This
should be done by expanding the mandate of the Office in the region to include monitoring
of human rights violations in addition to technical assistance.
-----
Distr.
GENERAL
E/CN.4/2004/10/Add.2
31 October 2003
Original: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Sixtieth session
Item 10 of the provisional agenda
ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS
The right to food
Report by the Special Rapporteur, Jean Ziegler
Addendum
Mission to the Occupied Palestinian Territories*
* The summary is being circulated in all official languages. The report itself, contained in the
annex to the summary, is being circulated in the language of submission and Arabic only.
GE.03-16489 (E) 181103
E/CN.4/2004/10/Add.2
page 2
Summary
The Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) are on the verge of humanitarian catastrophe,
largely as the result of extremely harsh security measures imposed by the occupying Israeli
forces since the outbreak of the second intifada in September 2000.
The Special Rapporteur on the right to food carried out a mission to the OPT
from 3 to 12 July 2003, in accordance with his mandate and in response to widespread
concern about an emerging humanitarian crisis. Numerous recent United Nations reports
have highlighted this growing crisis, including reports from the World Bank, the United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the United Nations Relief and Works
Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the Office of the United Nations
Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories (UNSCO) and the Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and from Catherine Bertini, Personal Humanitarian Envoy of the
Secretary-General, whose mission to the OPT in August 2002 was aimed at securing specific
commitments from Israel to facilitate humanitarian access to the Palestinians, particularly for
food and water.
The Special Rapporteur expresses his deep compassion and sympathy for both Israelis
and Palestinians, who are living through a horrifying tragedy, but he cannot ignore the terrible
situation of malnutrition that is being created in the OPT today.
According to a study funded by the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID), “the Palestinian Territories, and especially the Gaza Strip, face a distinct
humanitarian emergency in regard to ... malnutrition”. The report of the Personal Humanitarian
Envoy of the Secretary-General also points to a humanitarian crisis. Over 22 per cent of children
under 5 are now suffering from malnutrition and 15.6 per cent from acute anaemia, many of
whom will suffer permanent negative effects on their physical and mental development as a
result. More than half of Palestinian households are now eating only once per day. The
World Bank states that food consumption has fallen by more than 25 per cent per capita. Food
shortages, particularly of proteins, have been widely reported. The World Bank has also pointed
to economic crisis in the OPT. The formerly vibrant economy has almost collapsed and the
numbers of the extreme poor have tripled since September 2000. Around 60 per cent of
Palestinians are now living in acute poverty (75 per cent in Gaza and 50 per cent in the
West Bank). Even when food is available, many Palestinians cannot afford to buy it, given the
rapid rise in unemployment. Over 50 per cent of Palestinians are now completely dependent on
food aid, and yet humanitarian access is frequently restricted.
The Special Rapporteur found that, although the Government of Israel, as the Occupying
Power in the Territories, has the legal obligation under international law to ensure the right to
food of the civilian Palestinian population, it is failing to meet this responsibility. Security
measures, including curfews, road closures, permit systems and security checkpoints, are
severely restricting the movement of people and economic trade, impeding physical and
economic access to food and water and causing economic collapse. The continued confiscation
and destruction of Palestinian land and water resources is also reducing the capacity of the
Palestinians to be able to feed themselves and amounts to the gradual dispossession of the
E/CN.4/2004/10/Add.2
page 3
Palestinian people. The building of the security fence/apartheid wall through Palestinian land is
also threatening the right to food of thousands of Palestinians, leaving many Palestinians
separated from their lands or imprisoned by the winding route of the fence/wall or in the closed
military zone along the edge of the fence/wall.
The Special Rapporteur would not question the security needs of Israel, and he
understands the daily risks run by Israeli citizens. However, in his view, the current security
measures being taken are totally disproportionate and counterproductive because they are
provoking hunger and malnutrition among Palestinian civilians, including innocent women and
children, in a way that amounts to the collective punishment of Palestinian society. It is
prohibited under international law to punish the whole population for the actions of a few of its
members. The Special Rapporteur is also particularly concerned by the pattern of land
confiscation, which many Israeli and Palestinian intellectuals and non-governmental
organizations have suggested is inspired by an underlying strategy of “Bantustanization”. The
building of the security fence/apartheid wall is seen by many as a concrete manifestation of this
Bantustanization as, by cutting the OPT into five barely contiguous territorial units deprived of
international borders, it threatens the potential of any future viable Palestinian State with a
functioning economy to be able to realize the right to food of its own people.
Recommendations are made to the Government of Israel to improve access for
humanitarian relief, to take immediate action to reverse the humanitarian crisis, to lift closures in
the Territories and to end the confiscation and the disproportionate destruction of Palestinian
lands, water and other resources. The Government of Israel should halt the programme of
“Bantustanization”, stop the building of the fence/wall, and improve respect for the right to food
under international human rights and humanitarian law. Serious consideration must be given to
the viability of a future Palestinian State with sustainable access to, and control over, its own
food and water supplies. Finally, as Ilan Pappe, of the Research Institute for Peace, has stated,
“The tedious and hackneyed truth remains that the end to violence of all kinds (including
indiscriminate violence against the innocent) will come only with the end of the Occupation”.
E/CN.4/2004/10/Add.2
page 4
Annex
REPORT OF THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON THE RIGHT TO
FOOD, JEAN ZIEGLER, ON HIS MISSION TO THE OCCUPIED
PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES (3-12 July 2003)
CONTENTS
Paragraphs Page
Introduction .......................................................................................... 1 - 7 5
I. MALNUTRITION AND FOOD INSECURITY IN THE
OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES ........................... 8 - 20 7
A. On the verge of humanitarian catastrophe ................. 8 - 10 7
B. Causes of the food crisis ............................................ 11 - 20 7
II. LEGAL FRAMEWORK GOVERNING THE RIGHT TO
FOOD IN THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN
TERRITORIES ........................................................................... 21 - 37 10
A. International law status of the Occupied Palestinian
Territories .............................................................................. 22 - 25 10
B. Obligations of the Government of Israel ............................... 26 - 31 11
C. Obligations of the Palestinian Authority ............................... 32 - 33 12
D. Other key laws and institutions ............................................. 34 - 37 13
III. MAIN FINDINGS AND CONCERNS....................................... 38 - 56 14
A. The humanitarian crisis ......................................................... 38 - 39 14
B. Violations of the right to food ............................................... 40 - 56 14
IV. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ..................... 57 - 65 18
E/CN.4/2004/10/Add.2
page 5
Introduction
1. The Special Rapporteur carried out a mission to the Occupied Palestinian Territories
(OPT) from 3 to 12 July 2003. The mission was welcomed by the Government of Israel in a
letter dated 23 May 2003. The mission was carried out during a moment of hope when
negotiations for the “road map” were making progress and the ceasefire was holding. The
road map process, an outline for peace in which the United Nations has played a vital role as a
participant in the Quartet, holds the promise of bringing an end to the terrible suffering of both
Israelis and Palestinians. The Special Rapporteur expresses his deep sympathy and compassion
for all those killed and injured in the current violence. Both the Palestinian and the Israeli
populations are living through a horrifying tragedy. Israelis live under the threat of suicide
attacks by Palestinian bombers. Palestinians also live in fear as women and children are often
killed in their homes or in crowded streets by Israeli military operations targeting Palestinian
leaders. Since the start of the second intifada in September 2000, 820 Israelis and 2,518
Palestinians have been killed, many of them innocent women and children.1 Thousands of
Israeli and Palestinian civilians have been severely injured.
2. This mission was undertaken in accordance with the mandate of the Special Rapporteur
and in response to the emergence of a humanitarian crisis in the OPT. The objectives of the
mission were to gain a greater understanding of the reasons for the emerging food crisis in the
Territories, a crisis which seems absurd in a land so fertile. The mission aimed to examine the
malnutrition amongst the Palestinians from the perspective of the right to food. It was not within
the mandate of the mission to examine malnutrition in Israel, as while malnutrition does exist
amongst the poorest Israelis, it is not currently at crisis levels.2
3. The Special Rapporteur was received by officials of the Government of Israel in
Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. He met with the Deputy Director-General of the Ministry for Foreign
Affairs and with officials from the Ministry of Defence, including the Deputy Coordinator of
Civil Activities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Mr. Camil Abu Rukun. He also met with
Mr. Yossef C. Dreizin, Director of the Water Planning Division of the Water Commission. The
Special Rapporteur also had the opportunity to meet distinguished opposition party leaders in the
Israeli parliament. However, while granted these meetings, the Special Rapporteur was not
granted free movement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and was frequently held up at military
checkpoints, despite advance coordination of all travel. At a checkpoint in Qualqilya, an Israeli
soldier deliberately took aim with his weapon at very short range at the Special Rapporteur’s
vehicle. Fortunately, the soldier did not fire his weapon, but the Special Rapporteur would note
that these types of incidents are occurring far too frequently.
4. The Special Rapporteur was received by the Palestinian National Authority in the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip, including the Chairman of the Palestinian National Authority,
Yasir Arafat, and Chief Palestinian Negotiator, Saeb Erekat, as well as the Ministers of Health,
Housing and Agriculture. He also met with representatives from the Ministry of Labour, the
Palestinian Water Authority and the Negotiation Unit of the Palestine Liberation Organization
and with distinguished members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. The mission also met
with Dr. Said Zeidani, Director of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens’ Rights.
In the different areas of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the mission met with local authority
leaders, village and town mayors, unionists and academics.
E/CN.4/2004/10/Add.2
page 6
5. In Jerusalem, he greatly appreciated meetings with senior representatives of the Office
of the United Nations Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories (UNSCO), the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA),
the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Food
Programme (WFP), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF),
the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), the United Nations Security
Coordinator (UNSECOORD) and the World Bank, and thanks UNRWA Commissioner General
Peter Hansen for meeting with him in Geneva. He expresses his appreciation to these agencies
for their cooperation, and to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
particularly its field office, for its efficiency and competence in supporting his mission. The
Special Rapporteur also appreciated meeting Dr. Ernst Iten, Ambassador of Switzerland in
Tel Aviv, and Mr. Jean Jacques Joris, representative of Switzerland to the Palestinian Authority.
6. The Special Rapporteur also appreciated his meetings with international, Israeli and
Palestinian non-governmental organizations in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip. He extends his appreciation to Mr. Michel Dufour, chief delegate of the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and commends the courageous work of all
organizations working to promote human rights. He met with international organizations,
including Action Against Hunger, Oxfam, Care International, Save the Children,
Terre des Hommes, Physicians for Human Rights and Habitat International Coalition, working to
relieve the crisis in the OPT. He also met with Israeli and Palestinian organizations, including
B’Tselem, Rabbis for Human Rights, the Mandela Institute, LAW, the Public Committee against
Torture, the Palestinian Hydrology Group, the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees and
the Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem. He also met with important intellectuals, including
Mr. Michael Warshawski of the Alternative Information Centre. It is these non-governmental
organizations that bring hope, as it is mainly through their work that vital bridges are being built
between Israelis and Palestinians.
7. The mission team travelled in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the territories that
together make up the OPT, occupied and under Israeli military administration since 1967. They
have an area of around 5,800 km2 in which more than 3.5 million Palestinians live. The
Gaza Strip is one of the most crowded places on earth with one of the highest population
densities: 1.3 million people in an area of 360 km2, 83 per cent of whom live in refugee camps.
The mission travelled in the Gaza strip, visiting Beit Hanoun, Jabalia, Khan Younis and the
border areas of Rafah. The mission also travelled widely in the West Bank, visiting, among
other places, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Jericho, Qalquilya and Tulkarem, where the huge
fence/wall (called the “security fence” by the Israelis and the “apartheid wall” by the Israeli
opposition and Palestinian activists), is currently being built. The mission also visited Meggido
prison, an Israeli institution holding Palestinian detainees, and a Palestinian prison holding
Palestinian detainees in Jericho. During these trips, the Special Rapporteur had the opportunity
to speak with a wide variety of Palestinian men and women, including Palestinian farmers,
merchants, and academics.
E/CN.4/2004/10/Add.2
page 7
I. MALNUTRITION AND FOOD INSECURITY IN THE
OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES
A. On the verge of humanitarian catastrophe
8. The OPT is on the verge of humanitarian catastrophe, as the result of extremely harsh
military measures that the occupying Israeli military forces have imposed in response to the
outbreak of the second intifada in September 2000.
9. Malnutrition levels amongst Palestinians have increased rapidly since September 2000.
A study by John Hopkins University/Al-Quds University, funded by the United States Agency
for International Development (USAID), reports that “the Palestinian Territories, and especially
the Gaza Strip, face a distinct humanitarian emergency in regard to acute moderate and severe
malnutrition”.3 The report of the Personal Humanitarian Envoy of the Secretary-General,
Catherine Bertini (2002) also regards the increase in malnutrition as an indicator of a growing
humanitarian crisis.4 Over 22 per cent of children under 5 were suffering from malnutrition
(9.3 per cent suffering from acute malnutrition and 13.2 per cent suffering from chronic
malnutrition) in 2002.5 Around 15.6 per cent of children under 5 suffered from acute anaemia,6
which for many will have permanent negative effects on their physical and mental development.
Severe malnutrition reported in Gaza is now equivalent to levels found in poor sub-Saharan
countries, an absurd situation as Palestine was formerly a middle-income economy. Food
consumption has fallen by 25-30 per cent per capita. This has been attributed largely to job
losses (65 per cent) and curfews (33 per cent).7 Food shortages, particularly of proteins, have
been widely reported.8 More than half of Palestinian households now eat only once per day.9
Many Palestinians who the Special Rapporteur met spoke of trying to subsist on little more than
bread and tea.
10. A 2003 World Bank report points to economic crisis in the OPT.10 The economy has
almost collapsed and the numbers of the extreme poor have tripled. Around 60 per cent of
Palestinians now live in acute poverty (75 per cent in Gaza and 50 per cent in the West Bank).
Gross national income per capita has fallen to nearly half of what it was two years ago.11 Even
when food is available, many Palestinians cannot afford to buy it. Around 50 per cent of
Palestinians have been forced into debt to buy food12 and over 50 per cent of Palestinians are
now completely dependent on food aid, yet humanitarian access remains problematic.
B. Causes of the food crisis
1. Closures and movement restrictions
11. An unprecedented level of restrictions on the movements of Palestinians inside the
Occupied Territories is depriving Palestinians not only of their freedom of movement, but also of
their right to food. The extensive imposition of curfews, road closures, permit systems, security
checkpoints and “back-to-back” truck off-loading systems, which require that most trucks be
off-loaded on one side of a checkpoint and reloaded onto another truck on the other side,
imposed by the occupying military forces are producing the humanitarian crisis. The
USAID-funded study argues that “The onset of the Intifada in September 2000 and the
subsequent Israeli military incursions, closure and curfews have devastated the Palestinian
economy and undermined those systems the Palestinian civilian population relies on for basic
E/CN.4/2004/10/Add.2
page 8
needs, including food and health”.13 The World Bank agrees that “the proximate cause of the
Palestinian economic crisis is closure”.14 Restrictions on movement mean that many Palestinians
cannot feed themselves: they cannot go to work, go to harvest their fields or go to buy food. For
many Palestinians, the inability to feed their families is leading to a loss of human dignity, often
heightened by bullying and humiliation at checkpoints.15
12. Closures prevent movement between the Palestinian areas and Israel, but also within the
OPT. Roads are arbitrarily closed between nearly every village and town in the OPT, using
checkpoints manned by soldiers or by physical barriers such as concrete blocks and deep
trenches. Journeys that would have taken a few minutes now take several hours or days. The
Special Rapporteur saw that it is sometimes possible, in going from one place to another, to take
a long way around through mountains if one is fit and able to walk, but not if one is old, weak,
hungry or sick. The movement of goods is controlled by the back-to-back off-loading system.
With numerous checkpoints, this dramatically increases the cost of transporting food and
agricultural produce.16 Permission to cross at checkpoints for agricultural produce and other
food can be refused for days without explanation. At various checkpoints in the West Bank, the
Special Rapporteur saw truckloads of fruit and vegetables rotting under the sun.
13. Every Palestinian has to have a permit to travel any long distance or to work in Israel. At
the outbreak of the intifada, permits were revoked and more than 100,000 Palestinians lost jobs
in Israel, severely affecting economic access to food. The Government of Israel has taken steps
to reissue 32,000 permits, but movement restrictions make it difficult for Palestinians even when
they have permits.17 Palestinians are required to apply for permits to travel from one West Bank
town to another, but permits are frequently refused without explanation, making it difficult to
find work even in the OPT.18 Curfews, sometimes imposed for days at a time, have kept
populations of whole towns inside their homes under virtual house arrest.19 These measures
make life unbearable and are seriously threatening the food security of all Palestinians.
Non-governmental organizations (Israeli, Palestinian and international) suggest that these
military measures are not serving their security purpose but are being imposed as a form of
collective punishment. They do not target specific people who may pose a threat, but rather
affect the food security of most of the Palestinian population.
14. Water shortages in the OPT are also very serious. With the system of checkpoints and
road closures in place, water tankers cannot always reach villages or are not permitted to cross
checkpoints, leaving communities without water for days at a time.20 The situation is most
serious for the approximately 280 rural communities in the OPT that have no access to wells or
running water and are completely dependent on water delivered by municipal and private water
tankers that frequently has to be purchased from the Israeli water company, Mekorot. The price
of such water has risen by up to 80 per cent since September 2000 as a result of the increase in
transport costs due to closures. The quality of most water brought in by tanker no longer meets
World Health Organization drinking water standards21 and reports of water-borne diseases
continue to rise as a result of increased dependence on poor quality water resources.22
2. Destruction, expropriation and confiscation of Palestinian land
15. Since the outbreak of the second intifada, an unprecedented level of destruction and
confiscation of Palestinian land, water, infrastructure and other resources is also depriving many
Palestinians of their right to food and water. The tearing up of farms wells and wide swathes of
E/CN.4/2004/10/Add.2
page 9
agricultural field has contributed to the collapse of agriculture. In Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip,
the Special Rapporteur saw the devastating destruction of agricultural infrastructure, and farm
buildings and the razing of hundreds of olive and citrus trees after a military incursion. He saw
the destruction of homes and livelihoods in Khan Younis and in Rafah. He saw the bulldozers of
the occupying forces still at work in Rafah in the place where Rachel Corrie, the American peace
activist, was killed by an armoured bulldozer whilst trying to save a Palestinian home from
destruction in March 2003.23
16. The expropriation and confiscation of vast swathes of Palestinian agricultural land and
water sources is also threatening the right to food. Land is being confiscated to build the security
fence/apartheid wall on the western side of the OPT (see below) and in Jerusalem, including the
sections that bisect towns such Abu Dis and Sawahreh. Gideon Levy writes that the wall that
cuts Abu Dis in half amounts to “collective abuse bearing no relation to its declared purpose”.
The soldiers allow people to climb over the wall if they can. “An entire town scales the wall to
get to school, to the grocery store, to work - day after day, evening after evening: old folks,
young folks, women and children.”24
17. Land is also confiscated for the extension of settlements, the building of settler-only
roads and the building of security buffers around the settlements. On 21 May 2003, for example,
the Housing Ministry advertised a tender for the construction of 502 new apartments in Maale
Adumim.25 The occupying force is gradually taking greater control over more Palestinian land,
following the planned map of settlement and the by-pass road construction which aim at
ensuring the continuous rule of Israel, both directly over the confiscated land which was declared
“State land”, and indirectly by encircling almost every single Palestinian community by
settlements and “fire areas” or military training grounds.26 Settler-only roads cut through
Palestinian territories, slicing the area up and operating as another form of closure which
prevents movement of Palestinians. Many international, Israeli and Palestinian NGOs argue that
the ongoing confiscation of Palestinian land amounts to a slow dispossession of the Palestinian
people, depriving them of their means of subsistence.
3. The strategy of “Bantustanization”
18. For many Israeli and Palestinian commentators, the policy of land confiscation is inspired
by an underlying strategy of gradually isolating Palestinian communities into separate territorial
areas or “Bantustans”. Michael Warschawski has pointed to a conscious policy of
“Bantustanization” of the OPT.27 A senior Israeli commentator, Akiv Eldar, has written about
the explicit use of the Bantustan concept by Israeli Prime Minister Sharon, who once “explained
at length that the Bantustan model was the most appropriate solution to the conflict”.28 The term
“Bantustan” historically refers to the separate territorial areas designated as homelands under the
South African apartheid State. Creating such “Bantustans” would deprive a future Palestinian
State of any coherent land base and international borders, and prevent the building of a
Palestinian nation with the capacity to realize the right to food for its people.
19. The building of the security fence/apartheid wall is seen as a concrete manifestation of
this “Bantustanization”, as is the extension and building of new settlements and settler roads,
which are cutting up the West Bank and the Gaza Strip into barely contiguous territorial units.
Looking at detailed maps of the actual and future direction of the security fence/apartheid wall
and settlements,29 which the Israeli and Palestinian authorities, as well as NGOs, provided to the
E/CN.4/2004/10/Add.2
page 10
Special Rapporteur, it seems that this strategy is in the process of being realized. According to
Jeff Halper, Coordinator of the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions, the road map
offers hope, explicitly referring to the “end of the Occupation”, yet it comes at a time “when
Israel is putting the finishing touches on its 35-year campaign to render the Occupation
irreversible”.30
4. Impeding humanitarian aid
20. The Government of Israel has an obligation under international law to ensure the basic
food and water needs of the occupied population and to provide assistance when necessary.
Nonetheless, at present, it is the United Nations and other international and non-governmental
agencies that are having to step in to provide food aid to the Palestinians. At the time of the
mission, UNRWA was providing food aid to 127,000 families in Gaza and 90,000 refugee
families in the West Bank.31 The World Food Programme (WFP) is providing emergency
support to half a million Palestinians in cooperation with the ICRC, which had exceptionally
extended its food aid programme. The Government of Israel informed the Special Rapporteur
that efforts were being made to assure humanitarian access for food and water. The August 2002
visit of Catherine Bertini, the Secretary-General’s Personal Humanitarian Envoy, was intended
to secure specific commitments from the Government of Israel to facilitate access to
humanitarian aid. However, many humanitarian organizations stated that their access was
frequently restricted or denied through checkpoints, closures and the back-to-back truck
off-loading system. Although the Bertini visit had resulted in some improvements in
humanitarian access, the commitments made by the Government of Israel to Catherine Bertini
(the “Bertini commitments”) were still far from being fully respected.32
II. LEGAL FRAMEWORK GOVERNING THE RIGHT TO FOOD
IN THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES
21. Under international human rights and humanitarian law, the Government of Israel, as
occupying Power, has the responsibility to ensure the basic needs of the civilian Palestinian
population and to avoid violating the right to food. The right to food is primarily the right to be
able to feed oneself through physical and economic access to food, as defined in general
comment No. 12 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Special
Rapporteur summarizes the right to food as “the right to have regular, permanent and free access,
either directly or by means of financial purchases, to quantitatively and qualitatively adequate
and sufficient food corresponding to the cultural traditions of the people to which the consumer
belongs, and which ensures a physical and mental, individual and collective, fulfilling and
dignified life free of fear” (E/CN.4/2001/53, para. 14). The right to food includes access to
drinking water and irrigation water necessary for subsistence agricultural production
(see A/56/210; E/CN.4/2003/54), as underlined in general comment No. 15.
A. International law status of the Occupied Palestinian Territories
22. Under international law, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip are defined as
“occupied territory”, and Israel as the “occupying Power”, as confirmed by the United Nations
Security Council (resolution 471 (1980)). The Oslo process has not changed the status of the
Occupied Territories, as the Security Council (resolution 1322 (2000)), the General Assembly,
the ICRC and the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention have reaffirmed.
E/CN.4/2004/10/Add.2
page 11
23. Both international human rights and humanitarian law are applicable in the OPT,
although the Government of Israel contests this. Israel contests the (de jure) application of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (but agrees
nonetheless to apply its humanitarian provisions de facto) and of human rights law.
24. However, most countries and United Nations bodies have agreed that international
humanitarian law does apply. The Security Council, the General Assembly, the ICRC, High
Contracting Parties to the Geneva Convention, as well as the Commission on Human Rights
have repeatedly reiterated that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies de jure to the situation of
the OPT. According to the Israeli High Court,33 the only regulations that apply are the
Regulations concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land annexed to the Hague
Convention No. IV of 1907 of which articles 42-56 relate to occupied territory, as these are part
of customary international law. However, the Fourth Geneva Convention also forms part of
customary international law, as confirmed by the International Court of Justice34 and the Security
Council, as does the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War.35
25. United Nations bodies have also repeatedly reaffirmed the applicability of human rights
law in the OPT, including the Security Council (resolution 237 (1967)), Special Rapporteur of
the Commission on Human Rights on the situation of human rights in the OPT, John Dugard (see
E/CN.4/2002/32) the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and other treaty
bodies. This is also reaffirmed in the 1995 Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West
Bank and the Gaza Strip (art. XIX). The General Assembly has repeatedly reaffirmed the
Palestinian people’s right to self-determination,36 which means that Palestinians should be able
to freely dispose of their natural wealth and natural resources, and in no case be deprived of their
means of subsistence.37
B. Obligations of the Government of Israel
26. The Government of Israel is the occupying Power with certain defined obligations under
international humanitarian law. As the Special Rapporteur has outlined in his previous reports
(A/56/210; E/CN.4/2002/58), humanitarian law aims to ensure access to adequate food and water
in times of conflict and for occupied populations.
27. The first obligation of Israel as the occupying Power is to respect access to food and
drinking water of the Palestinian population. According to humanitarian law, private property
cannot be confiscated (The Hague Regulations, article 46), collective punishment and annexation
are prohibited (Fourth Geneva Convention, articles 33, 47), requisitions cannot be demanded,
except for military needs (The Hague Regulations, article 52), and any destruction of property
belonging to individuals or collectively to private persons, or to the State, is prohibited (Fourth
Geneva Convention, article 53) unless such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary for
military operations.
28. As the occupying Power, the Government of Israel also has the obligation to provide food
and water if the resources in the Territories are inadequate. The occupying Power should assure
the food and water supplies of the population and bring in necessary foodstuffs (ibid. art. 55). If
this is not possible, then the occupying Power must allow access for impartial humanitarian
organizations (ibid. arts. 23 and 59), but this does not in any way reduce the obligations of the
occupying Power (ibid. art. 60).
E/CN.4/2004/10/Add.2
page 12
29. Humanitarian law does take military necessities into account. The occupying Power is
not prohibited from taking measures - military or administrative - to ensure the security of its
military forces and civilian administration in the occupied territory, as long as the measures
taken are absolutely necessary for military operations, are proportional, and do not prevent the
occupying Power from respecting its obligations, including the obligation to assure the basic
needs of the inhabitants of the occupied territory. On the other hand, according to humanitarian
law, the occupying Power does not automatically have the right to take measures related to the
security of its civilians living in settlements in the occupied territory, because the establishment
of settlements is in itself illegal, as outlined under the sixth paragraph of article 49 of the
Fourth Geneva Convention. This has been reaffirmed repeatedly by the United Nations
General Assembly, the ICRC, the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions and the
Security Council.
30. The State of Israel has ratified all the principal instruments for the protection of human
rights that protect the right to food, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights (art. 11), without reservations on the applicability of these conventions in the
occupied territories. It should also respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (art. 25),
which in many respects has become part of customary international law. The Committee on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, along with other treaty bodies and legal experts, has
insisted on the facts that Israel’s “obligations … apply to all territories and populations under its
effective control” (E/C.12/1/Add 90, para. 31). A State is also accountable for the actions of its
authorities in territories outside of its de jure jurisdiction, including in occupied territories (see
E/CN.4/1992/26 and CCPR/CO/78/ISR, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights does not include a territorial limitation clause. As noted above, the Covenant
states that “[i]n no case may a people be deprived of its own means of subsistence” (art. 1).
31. Under the Oslo Accords, an important part of the responsibilities of the Government of
Israel in the OPT was transferred to the Palestinian Authority.38 However, the situation has
evolved since September 2000, and the occupying forces have retaken control over most of the
OPT within these areas. The vast majority of the OPT is under the effective control of the
occupying army, as is entry and exit to areas under Palestinian administration, as the Special
Rapporteur witnessed during visits to the Gaza Strip, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jericho, Qalqilya
and Tulkarem. Israel therefore has the primary obligation to respect, protect and fulfil the right
to food of the Palestinian population in the OPT, without discrimination (see A/56/210).
C. Obligations of the Palestinian Authority
32. The Palestinian Authority is committed through the Oslo process to respect human rights,
including the right to food.39 Under the Oslo process, certain responsibilities were transferred to
the Palestinian Authority in Areas A and B in March 2000, including questions relating to food
and water. However, given that since September 2000 the occupying Power has regained
effective control of most of the OPT, including Areas A and B, the Palestinian Authority does
not have the obligation to respect, protect and fulfil the right to food for the Palestinian
population living in Areas A and B, except in the few areas where it exercises effective control
and to the extent that resources are available.
E/CN.4/2004/10/Add.2
page 13
33. For areas where it does have control, the Palestinian Authority is developing a
National Food Security Strategy and is carrying out various social programmes, including
supporting 36,000 families under the Special Hardship Cases programme of the Ministry of
Social Affairs. The Special Rapporteur was concerned about numerous allegations of corruption
in the use of the resources of the Palestinian Authority made by numerous Israeli and Palestinian
commentators.40 Nonetheless, with respect to the programme for Special Hardship Cases, the
World Bank has stated that it is effectively managed and that there is little leakage of benefits.41
The World Bank states that the Palestinian Authority is undergoing reform and has managed as
well as it could have to deliver social services under the difficult circumstances of restrictions on
the movement of staff and of its ministers.42 However, the Special Rapporteur was concerned at
reports, confirmed by NGOs, that numerous detainees in Palestinian prisons complained of
having received insufficient food. He would emphasize that the Palestinian Authority has the
obligation to respect the right to food of the prisoners it detains, as outlined in the commitments
made under the Interim Agreement (art. XI (1)) and the Wye River Memorandum (art II (c) (4)).
D. Other key laws and institutions
34. The law governing the situation in the OPT is complex and includes elements of Ottoman
law, the law under the British Mandate, Jordanian law in the West Bank and Egyptian law in the
Gaza Strip, Israeli military orders, as well as more recent Palestinian laws and international law.
35. According to the Emergency Regulations instituted by the Government of Israel in 1967,
the Military Commander of the occupying Power has the competence to issue military orders
that apply to the OPT. Using military orders, the occupying Power has taken control over water
resources and thousands of acres of land throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The
following four methods are used to take control of the land: (i) declaration and registration of
land as “State land”, and of water resources as State property; (ii) requisitions for military needs;
(iii) declaration of land as abandoned property and expropriation of wells used for irrigation; and
(iv) confiscation of land for public needs. However, article 43 of The Hague Regulations
prohibits the occupying Power from altering the legal system in the occupied territory. The
Special Rapporteur insists that all seizure of land for the establishment of settlements in the OPT
is a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the establishment of settlements,
and that any confiscation of private property in the OPT is a violation of The Hague Regulations.
Moreover, the seizure of any property or resource of the Palestinian population or of the
Palestinian Authority is a violation of the right of the Palestinian people to freely dispose of its
natural wealth and natural resources, in accordance with its right to self-determination.
36. The Security Council in its resolution 465 (1980) determined that “all measures taken by
Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status
of the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, or any
part thereof have no legal validity and that Israel’s policy and practices of settling parts of its
population and new immigrants in those territories constitute a flagrant violation of the [Fourth
Geneva Convention] and also constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just
and lasting peace in the Middle East” (para. 5).
37. The Oslo Accords are also important for understanding the land- water- and
settlement-related issues in the OPT. In terms of water issues, for example, the Government of
Israel recognized Palestinian water rights in the West Bank and a Joint Water Committee was
E/CN.4/2004/10/Add.2
page 14
established to deal with water- and sewage-related issues there.43 All decisions of the Joint
Water Committee must be reached by consensus, but in practice, NGOs suggested, the
Government of Israel has vetoed the building of most new water drilling and sewage projects in
the West Bank.44
III. MAIN FINDINGS AND CONCERNS
A. The humanitarian crisis
38. The Special Rapporteur is gravely concerned at the rapid increase in the malnutrition and
poverty levels in the OPT. The growing dependence of the Palestinian population on food aid, at
the same time as restrictions on humanitarian access remain in force, is heightening the
vulnerability of the Palestinian population. In discussions with the Special Rapporteur, the
Israeli authorities recognized that there was a humanitarian crisis in the OPT. They did not
dispute the statistics of increasing malnutrition and poverty of the Palestinians. However, they
saw them as the regrettable, but inevitable, consequences of security measures that were
necessary to prevent attacks on Israelis. The Special Rapporteur would not question the security
needs of Israel, and he understands the daily risks run by Israeli citizens. However, in the view
of the Special Rapporteur, the measures currently being taken are totally disproportionate
because they are causing hunger and malnutrition among Palestinian civilians in a way that
amounts to collective punishment of Palestinian society.
39. The Israeli Ministry of Defence and the Civil Administration officials informed the
Special Rapporteur that they were taking measures in some circumstances to alleviate the
humanitarian consequences of military action. The web site of the Israeli Defence Forces lists
such actions undertaken.45 Nonetheless, the Special Rapporteur observed that these isolated
measures seem to have had limited effects on alleviating the impacts of military measures. He
believes that only by lifting the closure regime can the humanitarian catastrophe be averted. The
Special Rapporteur was also gravely concerned at the continued destruction and confiscation of
Palestinian land, water tanks and wells and other resources, as this will foreclose the possibility
of an independent Palestinian State that can sustain a viable economy and agricultural sector.
B. Violations of the right to food
40. The Special Rapporteur was also concerned at numerous specific violations of the
different obligations entailed under the right to food. As outlined in general comment No. 12,
these obligations include the obligation to respect, protect and fulfil the right to food.
1. Obligations to respect the right to food
41. The obligation to respect the right to food means that the occupying Power must not
disrupt or destroy the Palestinians’ existing access to food. It is an immediate (not progressive)
obligation and requires the occupying Power to avoid negatively affecting existing availability
and physical or economic access to adequate food and water.
Closures and curfews
42. The extensive imposition of closures, curfews and permit systems constitutes a violation
of the obligation to respect the right to food, as it threatens the physical and economic access to
E/CN.4/2004/10/Add.2
page 15
food, as well as food availability. The United Nations reported in June 2003 that “due to
movement restrictions, the distribution and marketing of food produce has been severely
affected, thereby disrupting food supply stability and seriously affecting the economy of
farmers/rural population.”46 According to the USAID study, “market disruptions from curfews,
closures, military incursions, border closures and checkpoints affected [the availability] of key
high protein foods, especially meat and poultry and dairy products, and in particular infant
formula and powdered milk”.47 Curfews have been a primary reason in the West Bank why
people are eating less food, notably in Nablus, which was under curfew for 1,797 hours
from 21 June-6 September 2002, and in Tulkarem, which was under curfew for 1,486 hours
during the same period, with Ramallah and Bethlehem also severely affected.48 In discussions
with UNRWA, the Special Rapporteur learned that despite a good harvest of 35,000 tonnes of
olive oil in 2002, the Palestinians were only able to sell 200 tonnes, owing to restrictions on
trade. External closures and the control by Israel over the import and export of Palestinian goods
severely affect their access to international trade and therefore their ability to import food
supplies when necessary.
43. Closures have also caused water shortages. Communities such as Burin, south-west of
Nablus, have no independent water supply and are therefore completely dependent on water
deliveries, which are severely disrupted by closures.49 The village of Beit Furik, 10 km
south-east of Nablus, received no water for at least nine consecutive days since no water
tankers were allowed into the village.50 A survey by the Palestinian Hydrology Group showed
that 24 out of 27 villages surveyed experienced water problems as a result of curfews and
closures.51
Destruction of Palestinian land, water and other resources
44. The direct destruction of livelihoods of Palestinians also amounts to a violation of the
obligation to respect the right to food. Humanitarian and human rights provisions prohibit the
destruction of objects necessary to the survival of the civilian population, such as water tanks,
crops and agricultural infrastructure, as well as the broader economic and social infrastructure.
45. According to the World Bank, damage inflicted on agriculture has reached US$ 217
million and physical damage to the water and wastewater sector of about US$ 140 million.52
The Palestinian National Information Center (PNIC) suggests that between 29 September 2000
and 31 May 2003, the occupying forces uprooted hundreds of thousands of olive, citrus and other
fruit trees, destroyed 806 wells and 296 agricultural warehouses, tore up 2,000 roads and blocked
thousands of others with concrete and dirt mounds.53 The Palestinian Hydrology Group recorded
the ttal or partial destruction between June 2002 and February 2003 of 42 water tankers
and 9,128 Palestinian roof-top water tanks. OCHA recorded, in Abu Nejeim, in the Bethlehem
area, the severing of the water connections by the occupying army by digging up and destroying
the pipes.54 According to the Governorate of Northern Gaza, 3,684 dunums of land were
bulldozed with 95,000 olive and citrus trees, five water wells were destroyed, and many people
were killed and houses destroyed during the incursions of the occupying forces between May
and June 2003. The ministries and building of the Palestinian Authority have also been
particular targets, making the delivery of social support difficult. The World Bank stated that
damage to public infrastructure by the occupying forces amounted to US$ 251 million, including
the “widespread ransacking of Palestinian Authority ministry buildings and municipal offices”.55
E/CN.4/2004/10/Add.2
page 16
Expropriation of Palestinian land, water and other resources
46. Expropriation of Palestinian land in the OPT constitutes a violation of the obligation to
respect the right to food when it deprives Palestinians of their means of existence and when it is
for the establishment of settlements, as these are illegal under international law. Although the
takeover of land is unilaterally legalized under Israeli military orders applied in the OPT, it still
remains a violation of international law, including article 43 of the Hague Regulations.
47. NGOs point out that in 1999, 44 new settlements or outposts were built in the West Bank.
In 2001, 34 settlements were established and 14 further settlements approved by the Government
of Israel. According to the non-governmental organization ARIJ, the total area that has been
confiscated or designated military zones in the Gaza Strip amounts to 165.04 km2, or 45 per cent
of the Gaza territory. In the Gaza Strip, there are reportedly 6,429 Israeli settlers who
use this 45 per cent of the land, compared with over 1 million Palestinians on the
remaining 55 per cent of the land. This results in a population density for the Palestinians
that is one of the highest in the world, and almost 100 times greater than that of the Israelis.
48. Although three very important fresh water aquifers are located beneath the OPT, there is
an extremely inequitable distribution of water resources. The Palestinian entitlements to water
include the West Bank (western, north-eastern and eastern) and Gaza aquifers, and the Jordan
River. However, statistics for daily per capita water consumption suggest that Israelis receive
and use five times more water than Palestinians.56. In the year 2002, Palestinians used 70 litres,
compared to 350 litres for Israelis in Israel and in the settlements. According to Oxfam, the
occupying Power extracts more than 85 per cent of the water from the West Bank aquifers.
Irrigated farmland along the Jordan River has been declared a closed military area which
Palestinians cannot use. In discussions with the Water Commission of Israel, officials informed
the Special Rapporteur that the Government of Israel had offered the Palestinians access to a
desalinization plant to take water from the Mediterranean. However, in the view of the Special
Rapporteur, it does not appear to be economically viable to bring water from the sea, when
aquifers and surface water already exist in the Palestinian Territories. The transport of water
would be extremely expensive and physically difficult, particularly given movement restrictions
and the construction of the security fence/apartheid wall.
The security fence/apartheid wall
49. The security fence/apartheid wall is a huge barrier, sometimes a fence, sometimes a
concrete wall, over 8 m high (around Qualquilya). The building of the security fence/apartheid
wall constitutes a violation of the obligation to respect the right to food because it cuts off
Palestinians from their agricultural lands, wells and means of subsistence. As the fence/wall
does not follow the 1967 border between Israel and the OPT, but cuts through Palestinian lands
in the West Bank, it effectively annexes Palestinian land (see E/CN.4/2004/6).
50. According to the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, 36 communities
(72,200 Palestinians) will be separated from their lands that lie west of the
barrier; 19 communities (128,500 people) will be almost completely imprisoned
by the winding route of the wall, including 40,000 people who will be trapped in
Qualqilya; 13 communities (11,700 people) will be trapped in the land defined as a closed
military zone between the wall and the Green Line, cut off from the OPT but forbidden from
E/CN.4/2004/10/Add.2
page 17
entering Israel.57 The Special Rapporteur visited a village of 3,500 inhabitants situated in the
hills of Qualqilya, in the region of Tulkarem. The mayor’s office overlooks the fields of olive
and citrus trees and tomato greenhouses, but all these now lie on the other side of the fence/wall.
Although one gate has been built in the wall, it has not been possible to use it. The mayor
recounted that “the families have tried numerous times to reach their olive fields, but the soldiers
set dogs on them, fired shots and beat young women and men, so that now no one tries to risk it”.
51. The first phase of the fence/wall will confiscate 2,875 acres of land just for the
“footprint”.58 The land confiscated is some of the most fertile land in the OPT. By constructing
the fence Israel will also effectively annex most of the western aquifer system (which
provides 51 per cent of the West Bank’s water resources). With the fence/wall cutting
communities off from their land and water without other means of subsistence, many of the
Palestinians living in these areas will be forced to leave. It is estimated that 6,000 to 8,000
people have already left the area of Qualquilya. The Government of Israel informed the Special
Rapporteur that legal procedures in place allow every owner of land to file an objection to the
requisition of their land. Yet, according to a report requested by the international donor
community on the socio-economic impacts of the fence/wall, every appeal against the
requisitioning of land (numbering in the hundreds) made to the military Appeals Committee has
been rejected, although in some cases the amount of land taken has been reduced.59 The speed
with which the occupying Power is building the wall (24 hours a day) makes it difficult to allow
for proper judicial process.
52. The planned second phase of the fence/wall, as outlined in official Israeli documents, will
cut right through the middle of the West Bank, from Salem to Bet-Shean.60 If this section of the
fence/wall is built, it would be a de facto annexation of the whole of the Jordan Valley by Israel.
As described in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot in March 2003 and cited in Between the
Lines, this wall will bite off almost half of the area remaining for the future Palestinian State and
will thus eliminate all reasonable options for a settlement of the conflict in the coming years.61
This would amount to a structural negation of the right to food, as it will effectively forestall the
possibility of a viable Palestinian state.
2. Obligation to protect the right to food
53. The obligation to protect the right to food means that the responsible State must protect
the civilian population in occupied areas from third parties attempting to restrict, deny or destroy
people’s existing access to food and water. Violations of this obligation to protect include, in the
present case, persistent impunity for settlers who shoot at Palestinians in their fields for
harvesting. The Israeli non-governmental organization the Alternative Information Centre
makes regular reports on frequent settler violence against Palestinians and their right to food.62
In 2002, four Palestinian farmers were killed by settlers and many others injured in their olive
fields. Amnesty International has also recorded instances of violence that have not been
investigated.63
3. Obligation to fulfil the right to food
54. The obligation to fulfil the right to food entails the obligation to facilitate people’s
capacity to feed themselves and, as a last resort, to provide food assistance to people who cannot
feed themselves for reasons beyond their own control. As the occupying Power, the State of
E/CN.4/2004/10/Add.2
page 18
Israel bears a treaty obligation to facilitate and ensure the access to food of the civilian
Palestinian population and to facilitate humanitarian access for impartial organizations providing
emergency assistance.
55. Although the Government of Israel has improved levels of humanitarian access in some
cases since the August 2002 visit by Catherine Bertini, substantial difficulties for humanitarian
agencies remain. UNRWA reported in June 2003, 231 instances of excessive delay or denial
of passage at checkpoints (186 incidents of delay, 41 incidents where access was denied
and 4 incidents in which staff members were detained).64 In December 2002, the occupying
army exploded a warehouse being used by WFP, destroying 537 tonnes of food aid largely
financed by the European Commission.65 In April 2003 full closure was imposed on Gaza
from 16 to 27 April and access for WFP and UNRWA was denied.66 In its June 2003 monthly
monitoring report on the Bertini commitments, OCHA reported that no unmanned barriers had
been removed to facilitate movement of water tankers into villages and towns, but additional
barriers of earth and concrete had been put up in Ramallah and Nablus governorates, as well as
in Balta camp.67
56. The lack of provision of adequate food and water to Palestinians detained by the
Government of Israel also constitutes a violation of the obligation to fufil the right to food.
Over 5,000 Palestinians are currently being detained, most without official charge or adequate
judicial process, without adequate food and water. The Israeli non-governmental organization
the Mandela Institute, which monitors prison conditions, presented the Special Rapporteur with
information about insufficient, poor quality food at Hawara camp, Qadumin, Kfar Atzen and
Bet El. During the Special Rapporteur’s visit to Meggido prison, he noted that prisoners had to
supplement their often insufficient portions of food by purchasing food from prison shops or by
relying on family visits.
IV. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
57. The humanitarian catastrophe emerging in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
must be reversed. While the Special Rapporteur recognizes that the Government of Israel
must protect the security of its own citizens, the consequences of the ways in which current
security measures are applied in the OPT are entirely disproportionate in the sense that
they jeopardize the food and water security of the great majority of the Palestinians and
thus amount to collective punishment. As Amnesty International has noted, it is not
permissible to punish the whole population for the actions of a few of its members.68
58. The Special Rapporteur agrees with Catherine Bertini that the current
humanitarian crisis is a man-made crisis. It is absurd that in what can be a comparatively
wealthy economy given its fertile lands, Palestinian men, women and children should be
going hungry. As the occupying Power, the Government of Israel has obligations to ensure
the right to food of the Palestinian people. The Special Rapporteur believes that the
actions being taken in the OPT by the occupying forces violate the right to food. The level
E/CN.4/2004/10/Add.2
page 19
of restrictions on humanitarian access for the United Nations and non-governmental
organizations, which limit the amount of food aid and water that can reach the Palestinian
communities, also amounts to a violation of the right to food under international
humanitarian law.
59. The effective “imprisonment” of certain communities, such as Qalquilya, by the new
security fence/apartheid wall must be halted immediately. As Ethan Bronner wrote in the
International Herald Tribune, “Qalqilya is not only blocked off from Israel to its west. It is
entirely surrounded by the barrier so it will be isolated from West Bank Jewish settlements
to its east. The result for Qalqilya is that it has become - there is no other word for it - a
ghetto, a term with chilling resonance for Jews whose forebears were restricted to such
areas across Europe not many generations ago.”69 Confining the Palestinians into
“ghettos” or “Bantustans” will induce greater hunger and misery among the Palestinian
population, which is most likely to be counterproductive to achieving the security objective.
60. The confiscation of land, extension of settlements and settler-only roads, and the
building of the security fence/apartheid wall, where this deprives thousands of Palestinians
of their lands, homes, crops and means of subsistence, is a violation of the right to food.
The right to food requires the respect of article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which
prohibits settlement, given that settlements by their nature lead to the confiscation of
Palestinian lands and other resources.70 If there were no settlements, then there would be
no need for the harsh internal closures that restrict movement inside the OPT. Avraham
Burg, the distinguished former speaker of the Knesset, writes “There is no middle path.
We must remove all the settlements - all of them - and draw an internationally recognized
border between the Jewish national home and the Palestinian national home.”71
61. In the short term, it is essential that access for food and water supplies be improved
and humanitarian assistance not be blocked, restricted or harmed, but the Palestinian
capacity for self-sufficiency must be protected to avoid complete dependence on food aid.
Over the longer term, within the context of the road map and a two-State solution, serious
consideration must be given to the viability of a future Palestinian State, to ensure that
Palestinians are not left dependent on food aid forever. At present, Palestinians are largely
dependent on Israel for access to food and water and for international trade, which leaves
them in a situation of extreme vulnerability every time political relations deteriorate.
There is an urgent need to consider ways in which a future Palestinian State could have
sustainable access to, and independent control over, its own food and water supplies. A
viable Palestinian State will require a capacity to produce and to trade in order to create a
viable economy and stable employment and thereby realize the right to food itself. This
will require a land area that is not cut up into separate territorial areas and within which
movement is not restricted. It will also require international borders to facilitate
international trade.
62. In summary, the Special Rapporteur would recommend that the Government of
Israel respect its de jure obligations under international human rights and humanitarian
law. The Special Rapporteur specifically recommends that the Government of Israel:
E/CN.4/2004/10/Add.2
page 20
(a) Take immediate action to end restrictions on humanitarian access. The
Government of Israel should fully abide by the Bertini commitments, which should be
made binding under the road map process. The Government of Israel should also ensure
appropriate status for United Nations and NGO staff to enable access and allow
humanitarian organizations to operate without excessive constraints on their movement or
access to Palestinian populations;
(b) Take immediate action to ease the humanitarian crisis by ending the regime
of closures and curfews where these are causing an increase in the malnutrition and
poverty levels of the civilian Palestinian population;
(c) Immediately lift internal closures within the OPT, which restrict movement
and inhibit the Palestinian civilian population’s physical and economic access to food. It is
imperative that the OPT not be reduced to complete dependence on international food aid;
(d) End the disproportionate destruction of Palestinian lands, wells and other
resources, including the infrastructure for social services of the Palestinian Authority;
(e) Immediately stop the building of the security fence/apartheid wall, in
particular that encircling communities in Qalquilya and Tulkarem. The security fence
should not be used as a mechanism for separating Palestinians from their land;
(f) Review the permit system and allow an increased number of Palestinians to
return to their employment in Israel;
(g) Stop building settlements and recognize article 49 of the Fourth Geneva
Convention, given that, in the absence of settlements, there would not be a need for such
harsh security measures and the confiscation of land, which threaten the right to food and
water of the Palestinian population;
(h) Halt the current movement towards a “Bantustanization” of the OPT and
therefore halt the confiscation and expropriation of land that is being used for the building
of the security fence/apartheid wall, settler-only roads, security buffers and the extension of
settlements;
(i) Prosecute all criminal acts committed by settlers against Palestinians, in
particular where they prevent or impede harvesting of crops, in order to ensure that a
culture of impunity is not perpetuated;
(j) The Israeli High Court should recognize the Fourth Geneva Convention as
part of customary international law, which should be justiciable, as are The Hague
Regulations of 1907;
(k) Ensure the provision of adequate food and water for all prisoners and
detainees in all detention facilities; detainees should not be detained for lengthy periods
without charge;
E/CN.4/2004/10/Add.2
page 21
(l) Review, with the Palestinian National Authority, the operation of the Joint
Water Authority in order to ensure the fair sharing of the water resources under the OPT,
in accordance with international law;
(m) Encourage international monitoring of the road map obligations by all
members of the Quartet that drafted the road map - including the United Nations and the
European Union - to ensure that the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority
abide by their commitments. Monitoring should include a human rights mechanism
charged with receiving, investigating and reporting on alleged violations of international
human rights and humanitarian law, including the right to food.
63. Under the road map process, an urgent review must be undertaken of the potential
for a viable Palestinian State. It must be ensured that the future State of Palestine has a
viable territory and control over its own resources, so that it has the capacity to realize the
right to food for the Palestinian population. It must also retain international borders in
order to facilitate trade, especially the import and export of food products.
64. The Government of Israel should continue to cooperate with the United Nations
Special Rapporteur on the right to food in the future by making a commitment to monitor
violations of the right to food and the implementation of these recommendations over the
long term. The Special Rapporteur also encourages the Government of Israel to receive
the visits of other special rapporteurs.
65. Finally, as most of the violations of the right to food stem from the occupation by the
Government of Israel of the OPT, the occupation should be ended. As Ilan Pappe,
Academic Director of the Research Institute for Peace and senior lecturer at Haifa
University, has pointed out, “The tedious and hackneyed truth remains that the end to
violence of all kinds (including indiscriminate violence against the innocent) will come only
with the end of the Occupation.”72
Notes
1 As of 15 August 2003. Sources: Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens Rights
(www.piccr.org), Israeli Defence Forces (www.idf.il).
2 The malnutrition rate in Israel is 6-7 per cent of children under 5.
3 Johns Hopkins University/Al-Quds University, “Nutritional Assessment of the West Bank and
Gaza Strip”, study financed by USAID through CARE International, September 2002.
4 Ms. Catherine Bertini, Personal Humanitarian Envoy of the Secretary-General,
Mission Report, 11-19 August 2002 (no symbol), paras. 53-54.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
E/CN.4/2004/10/Add.2
page 22
7 World Bank, Twenty-Seven Months - Intifada, Closures and the Palestinian Economic Crisis:
An Assessment, Jerusalem, May 2003, p. 36; Riccardo Bocco, Matthias Brunner,
Isabelle Daneels et al., Palestinian Public Perceptions on Their Living Conditions, Geneva,
December 2002, p. 51.
8 John Hopkins University, op. cit.
9 World Bank, op. cit.
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid.
12 Johns Hopkins University, op. cit., p. 59.
13 Ibid.
14 World Bank, op. cit., p. xii.
15 See Gideon Levy, “There’s a wall in the way”, Ha’aretz (Jerusalem) 8 September 2003;
Avraham Burg, “The end of Zionism? A failed Israeli society is collapsing”, International
Herald Tribune, 6 September 2003.
16 World Bank, op. cit., pp.2-3 and 26.
17 Ibid, p.3.
18 Amnesty International, “Surviving under siege: The impact of movement restrictions on the
right to work”, 7 September 2003.
19 Ibid.
20 Bertini, op. cit.
21 World Bank, op. cit., p. 47.
22 Bertini, op. cit.
23 BBC, 17 March 2003 at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2856433.stm.
24 Levy, op. cit.
25 Tikva Honig-Parnass, “All’s Clear for Full-Scale War against the Palestinians”, Between the
Lines, June 2003, p. 6.
26 Ibid.
E/CN.4/2004/10/Add.2
page 23
27 Michael Warschawksi, “The Arab World and the Middle East”, News from Within,
Alternative Information Centre, February 2003.
28 Akiva Eldar, “Sharon’s Bantustans are far from Copenhagen’s hope”, Ha’aretz, 13 May 2003.
29 http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2003/07/ALGAZI/IMG/pdf/cisjordanie_jui03.pdf;
Gadi AlGazi, “Un mur pour enfermer les Palestiniens”, Le Monde Diplomatique, July 2003, at
http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2003/07/ALGAZI/10248.
30 Jeff Halper, “The Middle East ‘Roadmap’: Time to Engage?” News from Within, Alternative
Information Centre, June 2003, p.18.
31 http://www.un.org/unrwa/emergency/appeals/6th-appeal.pdf.
32 OCHA, Humanitarian Monitoring Report on the “Bertini Commitments” - June 2003.
33 Beit-El case. High Court of Justice 606, 610/78, Suleiman Tawfiq Ayyub et al. v. Minister of
Defence et al.
34 ICJ, Advisory Opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, 1996.
35 Ibid.
36 For example, in resolution 56/204 of 21 December 2001.
37 International Covenants on Human Rights, common article 1.
38 As defined in the 1995 Interim Agreement, article XI.
39 Ibid., article XIX; Declaration of Independence of 15 November 1988.
40 See, for example, Mohanned Abdel Hamid, “Why Fatah doesn’t participate in the Morass of
Reform”, Between the Lines, August 2002.
41 World Bank, op. cit., p. 46.
42 Ibid., p. 42
43 1995 Interim Agreement, annex III, appendix I, article 40.
44 B’Tselem, “Thirsty for a solution?”, position paper, 2000.
45 http://www.idf.il/newsite/english/humanitarianarchive.stm.
46 Humanitarian Plan of Action 2003: Occupied Palestinian Territory, United Nations,
New York and Geneva, November 2002, p. 22.
47 Johns Hopkins, op. cit., p. 51.
E/CN.4/2004/10/Add.2
page 24
48 Ibid, p. 60.
49 B’Tselem, “Not even a drop: the water crisis in Palestinian villages without a water
network”, Jerusalem, 2001.
50 Bertini, op. cit. para. 46.
51 Ibid, para. 45.
52 World Bank, op. cit., p. 46.
53 Palestinian National Information Center (PNIC), “Palestinian Economic Losses due the Israeli
Siege, Closures and Aggressions (Sept. 29, 2000 to May 31, 2003)”.
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_e/ipc_e-1/e_News%20Reports/2003/reports-012.html.
54 OCHA, Monitoring Report, op. cit.
55 World Bank, op. cit., p.19.
56 B’Tselem, “Thirsty for a Solution”, op. cit.
57 B’Tselem “Behind the barrier: human rights violations as a result of Israel’s separation
barrier”, summary position paper, April 2003.
58 The Impact Of Israel’s Separation Barrier On Affected West Bank Communities, A follow-up
report to the Humanitarian and Emergency Policy Group (HEPG) and the Local Aid
Coordination Committee (LACC), update No. 2, 30 September 2003.
59 Ibid.
60 Document prepared by the Ministry of Defence and given to the Special Rapporteur at his
meeting with the Chief Engineer.
61 “The Eastern Wall: the last remaining steps for completing Plan Bantustan”, Between the
Lines, June 2003, p. 9.
62 News from Within, June 2003, p. 8.
63 Amnesty International, op. cit.
64 OCHA, op. cit.
65 Le Monde, 6 December 2002.
66 OCHA Occupied Palestinian Territory (OCHA OPT) Humanitarian Update, 4-21 April 2003.
67 OCHA, op. cit.
E/CN.4/2004/10/Add.2
page 25
68 Amnesty International, op. cit.
69 Ethan Bronner, “Israel’s barrier stokes conflict”, International Herald Tribune,
9 August 2003.
70 Statement by the ICRC, 2001, paragraph 5.
71 Burg, op. cit.
72 Ilan Pappe, “The Language of Hypocrisy” in News from Within, June 2003.
-----
GE.04-16692 (E) 171204
UNITED
NATIONS E
Economic and Social
Council
Distr.
GENERAL
E/CN.4/2005/29
7 December 2004
Original: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Sixty-first session
Item 8 of the provisional agenda
QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE
OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES, INCLUDING PALESTINE
Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights,
John Dugard, on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian
territories occupied by Israel since 1967
E/CN.4/2005/29
page 2
Summary
The present report focuses upon military incursions into the Gaza Strip, the demolition of
houses, the violations of human rights and humanitarian law arising from the construction of the
Wall and the pervasiveness of restrictions on freedom of movement.
In the past year, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have carried out intensified military
incursions into the Gaza Strip. This has been interpreted as a show of force on the part of Israel
so that it cannot later be said that it had withdrawn unilaterally from the territory in weakness.
In the course of these incursions, Israel has engaged in a massive and wanton destruction of
property. Bulldozers have destroyed homes in a purposeless manner and have savagely
dug up roads, including electricity, sewage and water lines. In Operation Rainbow,
from 18 to 24 May 2004, 43 persons were killed and a total of 167 buildings were destroyed
or rendered uninhabitable in Rafah. These buildings housed 379 families (2,066 individuals).
These demolitions occurred during one of the worst months in Rafah’s recent history. During
the month of May, 298 buildings housing 710 families (3,800 individuals) were demolished. In
October the IDF carried out an assault on the refugee camp of Jabaliya, in response to the killing
of two Israeli children in Sderot by Qassam rockets. One hundred and fourteen persons were
killed and 431 injured. Many of the victims were civilians and 34 children were killed and
170 wounded. Ninety-one homes were demolished and 101 seriously damaged, affecting
1,500 people. The demolition of houses in Rafah, Jabaliya and other parts of Gaza probably
qualify as war crimes in terms of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War (Fourth Geneva Convention).
Israel has announced that it will withdraw unilaterally from Gaza. Israel intends to
portray this as the end of the military occupation of Gaza, with the result that it will no longer be
subject to the Fourth Geneva Convention in respect of Gaza. In reality, however, Israel does not
plan to relinquish its grasp on the Gaza Strip. It plans to retain ultimate control over Gaza by
controlling its borders, territorial sea and airspace. Consequently, it will in law remain an
Occupying Power still subject to obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
The Wall that Israel is presently constructing within the Palestinian territory was held
to be contrary to international law by the International Court of Justice in its advisory opinion
of 9 July 2004. The Court held that Israel is under an obligation to discontinue building the Wall
and to dismantle it forthwith. It dismissed a number of legal arguments raised by Israel relating
to the applicability of humanitarian law and human rights law. In particular, it held that
settlements are unlawful. A week before the International Court of Justice rendered its advisory
opinion, the High Court of Israel gave a ruling on a 40-kilometre strip of the Wall in which it
held that while Israel as the Occupying Power had the right to construct the Wall to ensure
security, substantial sections of the Wall imposed undue hardships on Palestinians and had to be
rerouted.
Israel has not complied with the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice.
Instead, it has continued with the construction of the Wall.
E/CN.4/2005/29
page 3
Israel claims that the purpose of the Wall is to secure Israel from terrorist attacks and that
terrorist attacks inside Israel have dropped by over 80 per cent as a result of the construction of
the Wall. There is, however, no compelling evidence that suicide bombers could not have been
as effectively prevented from entering Israel if the Wall had been built along the Green Line (the
accepted border between Israel and Palestine) or within the Israeli side of the Green Line.
The following are more convincing explanations for the construction of the Wall:
− The incorporation of settlers within Israel;
− The seizure of Palestinian land;
− The encouragement to Palestinians to leave their lands and homes by making life
intolerable for them.
The course of the Wall indicates clearly that its purpose is to incorporate as many
settlers as possible into Israel. This is borne out by the fact that some 80 per cent of settlers in
the West Bank will be included on the Israeli side of the Wall.
Despite the fact that the International Court of Justice has unanimously held that
settlements are unlawful, settlement expansion has substantially increased in the past year. This
is prohibited by the International Court of Justice and cannot be reconciled with the decision of
the Israeli High Court itself.
A further purpose of the Wall is to expand Israel’s territory. Rich agricultural land and
water resources along the Green Line have been incorporated into Israel. In recent months,
Israel has manifested its territorial ambitions in the Jerusalem area. The Wall is currently being
built around an expanded East Jerusalem to incorporate some 247,000 settlers in 12 settlements
and some 249,000 Palestinians within the boundaries of the Wall. It must be recalled that
Israel’s 1980 annexation of East Jerusalem is unlawful and has been declared “of no legal
validity” by the Security Council in its resolution 476 (1980).
The construction of the Wall in East Jerusalem makes no sense from a security
perspective because in many instances it will divide Palestinian communities. Moreover, it
will have serious implications for Palestinians living in and near to East Jerusalem. First, it
threatens to deprive some 60,000 Palestinians with Jerusalem residence rights of such rights if
they happen to find themselves on the West Bank side of the Wall. Secondly, it will make
contact between Palestinians and Palestinian institutions situated on different sides of the
Wall hazardous and complicated. Thirdly, it will prohibit over 100,000 Palestinians in
neighbourhoods in the West Bank who depend on facilities in East Jerusalem, including
hospitals, universities, schools, employment and markets for agricultural goods, from entering
East Jerusalem.
A third purpose of the Wall is to compel Palestinian residents living between the Wall
and the Green Line and adjacent to the Wall, but separated from their land by the Wall, to leave
their homes and start a new life elsewhere in the West Bank, by making life intolerable for
them. Restrictions on freedom of movement in the “Closed Zone” between the Wall and the
Green Line and the separation of farmers from their land will be principally responsible for
E/CN.4/2005/29
page 4
forcing Palestinians to move. The Israeli High Court declared that certain sections of the Wall
should not be built where they caused substantial hardship to Palestinians. Logically, this
ruling is applicable to sections of the Wall that have already been built. However, the
Government of Israel has indicated that it will not honour its own High Court’s ruling in
respect of the 200-kilometre stretch of the Wall that has already been built.
Freedom of movement is severely curtailed in the West Bank and Gaza. The inhabitants
of Gaza are effectively imprisoned by a combination of wall, fence and sea. Moreover, within
Gaza freedom of movement is severely restricted by roadblocks that effectively divide the small
territory. The inhabitants of the West Bank are subjected to a system of curfews and checkpoints
that deny freedom of movement, and they need permits to travel from one city to another.
Permits are arbitrarily withheld and seldom granted for private vehicles. Several hundred
military checkpoints control the lives of Palestinians. Palestinians are denied access to many
roads that are reserved primarily for the use of settlers. The Wall in the Jerusalem area threatens
to become a nightmare, as tens of thousands of Palestinians will be forced to cross at one
checkpoint each day, namely at Qalandiya. Finally, as already indicated, a permit system
governs the lives of residents between the Wall and the Green Line and those adjacent to the
Wall. This permit system is operated in an arbitrary and capricious manner.
The restrictions on freedom of movement imposed by the Israeli authorities on
Palestinians resemble the notorious “pass laws” of apartheid South Africa. These pass laws were
administered in a humiliating manner, but uniformly. Israel’s laws governing freedom of
movement are likewise administered in a humiliating manner, but they are characterized by
arbitrariness and caprice.
In its advisory opinion, which has been approved by the General Assembly, the
International Court of Justice indicated that there are consequences of the Wall for States other
than Israel. States are reminded of their obligation not to recognize the illegal situation resulting
from the construction of the Wall and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation
created by the construction of the Wall. Israel’s defiance of international law poses a threat not
only to the international legal order but to the international order itself. This is no time for
appeasement on the part of the international community.
E/CN.4/2005/29
page 5
CONTENTS
Paragraphs Page
Introduction ............................................................................................. 1 6
I. DEVELOPMENTS IN INTERNATIONAL LAW ...................... 2 - 7 6
II. FOCUS OF THE PRESENT REPORT ........................................ 8 - 9 7
III. GAZA STRIP ................................................................................ 10 - 19 8
IV. HOUSE DEMOLITIONS ............................................................ 20 - 23 11
V. THE WALL .................................................................................. 24 - 37 12
A. The incorporation of settlements ........................................... 27 - 31 13
B. Seizure of Palestinian land ..................................................... 32 - 34 14
C. Forced exodus ........................................................................ 35 - 37 15
VI. ISRAEL’S RESPONSE TO THE ADVISORY OPINION OF
THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE ON
THE WALL .................................................................................. 38 - 41 17
VII. FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT ..................................................... 42 - 48 17
VIII. CONCLUSION ............................................................................ 49 - 50 19
E/CN.4/2005/29
page 6
Introduction
1. The past year has witnessed the worst violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
(OPT) since the start of the second intifada in September 2000. Successive incursions of the
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) into Gaza have resulted in heavy loss of life and personal injury, and
in the wanton and large-scale destruction of homes. In the West Bank, the construction of the
Wall (or Barrier, as it is sometimes called) has continued despite a ruling by the International
Court of Justice (ICJ) that the Wall is illegal and that Israel is obliged to cease the construction
of the Wall and to dismantle it. Neither the advisory opinion of the Court on the Legal
Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory rendered
on 9 July 2004 nor the subsequent resolution of the General Assembly approving the advisory
opinion (ES/10-15) have succeeded in curbing Israel’s illegal actions in the OPT or reviving the
road map scheme for peace in the region. The death of the President of the Palestinian
Authority, Yasser Arafat, in November 2004 heralded in a period of uncertainty in the OPT.
All in all, it has been a bad year for the OPT, with a glimmer of hope provided by the
ICJ advisory opinion.
I. DEVELOPMENTS IN INTERNATIONAL LAW
2. In its advisory opinion, ICJ held that the Wall presently being built by Israel in the OPT,
including in and around East Jerusalem, is contrary to international law, and that Israel is under
an obligation to cease its construction on Palestinian territory and to dismantle it forthwith. It
also held that Israel is under an obligation to make reparation for all damage caused by its
construction in the OPT. Finally, it held that all States are under an obligation not to recognize
the illegal situation resulting from the construction of the Wall and that all States parties to the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (Fourth
Geneva Convention) are obliged to ensure that Israel complies with the provisions of that
Convention. Finally, the Court held that the United Nations should consider what further action
is required to bring to an end the illegal situation resulting from the construction of the Wall.
3. In its reasoning, the Court dismissed a number of legal arguments raised by Israel which
have been fundamental to Israeli foreign policy in respect of the OPT. It found that the Fourth
Geneva Convention is applicable to the OPT and that Israel is obliged to comply with its
provisions in its conduct in the Territory. In making this finding, it stressed that according to
article 49, paragraph 6, of the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israeli settlements in the OPT “have
been established in breach of international law” (para. 120). The Court also found that the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child are binding on Israel in
respect of its actions in the OPT. It moreover emphasized that the Wall “severely impedes the
exercise by the Palestinian people of its right to self-determination” (para. 122). Finally, the
Court was sceptical about Israel’s reliance on a state of necessity to justify the construction of
the Wall and held that Israel “cannot rely on a right of self-defence or on a state of necessity in
order to preclude the wrongfulness of the construction of the wall” (para. 142).
4. On 20 July 2004, the General Assembly adopted resolution ES-10/15, in which it
demanded that Israel comply with the legal obligations identified in the advisory opinion. The
resolution was adopted by 150 votes in favour, 6 against, and 10 abstentions.
E/CN.4/2005/29
page 7
5. Shortly before the ICJ gave its advisory opinion, the High Court of Justice of Israel ruled
on the lawfulness of a portion of the Wall.1 Although the High Court accepted that Israel as the
occupying Power had the right to construct the Wall to ensure security, it held that certain
sections of it imposed undue hardships on Palestinians and that it had to be rerouted. The Court
examined the issue of the Wall largely from the perspective of proportionality, and asked the
question whether the Wall’s route injured local inhabitants to the extent that there was no
proportion between the injury suffered and the security benefit of the Wall. The Court found that
some sections of the proposed route caused disproportionate suffering to Palestinian villages as
they separated villagers from the agricultural lands upon which their livelihood depended.
6. The unlawfulness of the Wall is now clear under international law as expounded by the
International Court of Justice. Moreover, large portions of the Wall would seem to qualify for
unlawfulness under Israeli law, as pronounced by the Israeli High Court. The Israeli argument
that security considerations provide it with an absolute right to build the Wall in Palestinian
territory can no longer stand. Terrorism is a serious threat to Israeli society and it may well be
that the Wall prevents suicide bombers from reaching Israel. If this is the case, however, there is
no reason why the Wall should not be routed along the Green Line or on the Israeli side of the
Green Line. On the relationship between terrorism and the law, one can do no better than refer
to the statement of the Israeli High Court in the Beit Sourik case:
“We are aware of the killing and destruction wrought by terror against the State and its
citizens. As any other Israelis, we too recognize the need to defend the country and its
citizens against the wounds inflicted by terror. We are aware that in the short term, this
judgement will not make the State’s struggle against those rising up against it easier. But
we are judges. When we sit in judgement, we are subject to judgement. We act
according to our best conscience and understanding. Regarding the State’s struggle
against the terror that rises up against it, we are convinced that at the end of the day, a
struggle according to the law will strengthen her power and her spirit. There is no
security without law.” (para. 86).
7. In previous reports, the Special Rapporteur has asserted legal positions in the face of
Israeli objections. It is no longer necessary to engage in this exercise. The law is clear and it is
now possible to focus on the consequences of Israel’s illegal actions and to consider ways and
means of enforcing compliance with the law. The latter function falls to the United Nations,
acting through both the General Assembly and the Security Council, and to individual States.
This report will therefore focus upon Israel’s actions and the consequences of these actions.
II. FOCUS OF THE PRESENT REPORT
8. The Special Rapporteur visited the OPT from 18 to 25 June 2004. He visited both Gaza
(including Rafah) and the West Bank (Jerusalem, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Qalqiliya and
surrounding villages, and Hebron and its vicinity). The focus of his attention was upon the
consequences of military incursions into the Gaza Strip, particularly the demolition of homes;
the violations of human rights and humanitarian law arising from the construction of the Wall;
and the pervasiveness of the restrictions on freedom of movement. The present report reflects
these concerns. However, the Special Rapporteur wishes to stress that there are many other
violations of human rights in the OPT which continue to destroy the fabric of Palestinian society:
E/CN.4/2005/29
page 8
− Deaths and injuries. Since September 2000, over 3,850 Palestinians (including
over 650 children below the age of 17) and almost 1,000 Israelis have been killed.
More than 36,500 Palestinians and 6,300 Israelis have been injured. Most of those
killed or injured were civilians;
− Assassinations. Israel continues to assassinate persons suspected of being militants.
These assassinations are generally carried out without regard to loss of civilian life.
On the contrary, the loss of civilian lives is simply dismissed as collateral damage.
Some 340 persons have been killed in targeted assassinations, of which 188 were
targeted persons and 152 innocent civilians;
− Incursions. In the past year, the IDF have frequently engaged in military incursions
into the West Bank and Gaza with a view to killing Palestinian militants. Frequently,
civilians are caught up in indiscriminate gunfire. In October 2004, 165 Palestinians
were killed in military incursions, making it the deadliest month for Palestinians since
Operation Defensive Shield in April 2002;
− Prisoners. There are some 7,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons or
detention camps, of whom 380 are children and over 100 are women. Of these
prisoners, only some 1,500 have actually been put on trial. Many of those detained
report being subjected to torture or inhuman and degrading treatment. In August
some 2,500 prisoners embarked on a hunger strike against prison conditions;
− Curfews. Although there has been a decline in the use of curfews as a weapon by the
Israelis in the past year, curfews are still imposed and have been resorted to with
great frequency in Nablus;
− Humanitarian crisis. Poverty and unemployment are rampant in the OPT. Figures
provided by the International Labour Organization (ILO) show that an average
of 35 per cent of the Palestinian population is unemployed. 62 per cent of
Palestinians live below the poverty line. According to the World Bank, “the
Palestinian recession is among the worst in modern history. Average personal
incomes have declined by more than a third since September 2000”.2
9. The Special Rapporteur plans to visit the region again in February 2005 and will submit
an addendum to this report based on that visit.
III. GAZA STRIP
10. In the past year the IDF has carried out regular military incursions into the Gaza Strip.
The worst affected towns have been Rafah, Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya, Jabaliya and Khan Yunis.
The reasons advanced by Israel for these incursions are, in the case of Rafah, the destruction of
tunnels used for smuggling arms and in the case of Beit Hanoun and Jabaliya, the destruction of
the capacity to launch Qassam rockets into Israel. However, these incursions must be seen in a
broader political perspective. Israel has announced that it is planning to withdraw its settlements
and military presence from Gaza. It clearly does not wish to be seen to be withdrawing in
E/CN.4/2005/29
page 9
weakness, with the result that it has chosen to demonstrate its power in Gaza before it withdraws.
Also, in order to maintain control over the border between Gaza and Egypt, Israel has decided to
create a buffer zone of about 400 metres along the “Philadelphi” route, which requires the
destruction of homes in Rafah presently in the buffer zone.
11. In pursuance of the above policies, Israel has engaged in a massive destruction of
property in Gaza. Sometimes property, the homes of suspected militants, has been destroyed for
punitive reasons. Sometimes homes have been destroyed for strategic purposes, as in the case of
homes along the Philadelphi route. Often, however, the destruction is wanton. Homes have
been destroyed in a purely purposeless manner. Caterpillar bulldozers have savagely dug up
roads with a “ripper” attachment, which has enabled them to destroy electricity, sewage and
water lines in a brutal display of power. Moreover, there has been a total lack of concern for the
people affected. On 12 July 2004, in the course of a raid into Khan Yunis, the IDF destroyed a
house in which 75-year-old Mahmoud Halfalla, confined to a wheelchair, was present. Despite
appeals to allow him to leave, the house was destroyed above him and he was killed.
12. The Special Rapporteur visited Block “O”, the Brazil Quarter and the Tel es-Sultan
neighbourhood of Rafah in the wake of Operation Rainbow carried out by the IDF in
May 2004 and met with families that had been rendered homeless in the exercise. In
Operation Rainbow, 43 persons were killed, including eight who were killed in a peaceful
demonstration on 19 May. From 18 to 24 May, a total of 167 buildings were destroyed or
rendered uninhabitable, which had housed 379 families (2,066 individuals). These
demolitions occurred during one of the worst months in Rafah’s recent history. During the
month of May, 298 buildings housing 710 families (3,800 individuals) were demolished in
Rafah. Since the start of the intifada in September 2000, 1,497 buildings have been demolished
in Rafah, affecting over 16,000 people - that is, more than 10 per cent of the population of Rafah.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 393 residents of the Rafah governorate
have been killed since September 2000, including 98 children under the age of 18. In the same
period, Palestinian armed groups have killed ten Israeli soldiers in Rafah. These figures simply
emphasize the disproportionate and excessive nature of Israel’s actions in Rafah.
13. In a previous report (A/59/256), the Special Rapporteur has questioned the necessity for
such wanton destruction of property in the search for, and destruction of, smuggling tunnels.
This matter has received the attention of Human Rights Watch, which concludes that:
“the IDF has consistently exaggerated and mischaracterized the threat from smuggling
tunnels to justify the demolition of homes ... the IDF has failed to explain why nondestructive
means for detecting and neutralizing tunnels employed in places like the
Mexico-United States border and the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ) cannot be used
along the Rafah border. Moreover, it has at times dealt with tunnels in a puzzlingly
ineffective manner that is inconsistent with the supposed gravity of this longstanding
threat”.3
14. Rafah is not the only part of Gaza to have suffered from IDF incursions. In July the IDF,
accompanied by the customary bulldozers, invaded Beit Hanoun. Militants were killed and so
were civilians. Homes were destroyed and by way of further punishment olive and orange trees
were destroyed. At the end of October, 17 Palestinians were killed and 50 injured in the Khan
Yunis refugee camp. The most severe IDF military operation, however, occurred in the
E/CN.4/2005/29
page 10
Jabaliya refugee camp in October in response to the killing of two Israeli children in Sderot by
Qassam rockets. The Jabaliya camp, which accommodates some 120,000 people in an area of
less than 2 km², witnessed an IDF offensive reminiscent of the Israeli attack on the Jenin
refugee camp in the spring of 2002. One hundred and fourteen persons were killed and
431 injured. Many of the victims were civilians, and 34 children were killed and 170 injured.
Ninety-one homes were demolished, rendering 675 Palestinians homeless. In addition
101 houses, home to 833 people, sustained damage. Caterpillar bulldozers ripped up roads
and dug trenches, damaging around 12,000 m² of road. Water, sewage and electricity networks
were also damaged and acres of farmland destroyed in a scorched earth offensive.
15. On 5 October 2004, the United States of America vetoed a resolution before the Security
Council that would have demanded that Israel halt all military operations in northern Gaza.
16. In the past year, IDF incursions have occurred with great frequency in Gaza. Some
operations, such as those in Rafah, Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya, Jabaliya and Khan Yunis
described above, have received international attention. Others, in which only a handful of
Palestinians were killed and a few houses destroyed have received little attention. These
incursions are, however, part of a war of attrition against the Palestinian people - a war in which
civilians, including children, have suffered disproportionately. Indeed one of the most alarming
features of these incursions has been the failure of the IDF to curb its fire in the vicinity of
schools. As a consequence, on 5 October, a 13-year-old schoolgirl, Imam Al-Hams, was shot
and killed by 20 bullets near to her school. In the same period, other schoolgirls were killed by
IDF gunfire in schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine
Refugees (UNRWA).
17. The actions of the IDF in Gaza in the past year must be examined and judged in the
context of the rules of humanitarian law held to be applicable to Israel’s actions in the OPT in
the ICJ advisory opinion on the construction of the Wall. Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva
Convention provides that any destruction by the occupying Power of personal property is
prohibited except when such destruction is rendered “absolutely necessary by military
operations”. Failure to comply with this prohibition constitutes a grave breach in terms of
article 147 of the Convention requiring prosecution of the offenders. As shown in this report, the
IDF has frequently destroyed houses, roads and agricultural land in order to expand the buffer
zone at the Rafah border zone or to inflict damage for punitive reasons unconnected with
military combat. Moreover, these operations have been conducted without regard for two of the
most fundamental principles of international humanitarian law - the principle of distinguishing at
all times between civilian objects and military objectives (article 48 of Protocol I to the Geneva
Conventions) and the principle of proportionality.
18. UNRWA has embarked on a campaign to raise over US$ 50 million to re-house
Palestinians rendered homeless by the Israeli army in these operations. The Special Rapporteur
expresses the hope that the international community will respond positively to the appeal by
UNRWA. However, he wishes to emphasize that in terms of the Fourth Geneva Convention, it
is the responsibility of the occupying Power to ensure that adequate food and medical supplies
are provided for the occupied population and to care for the general welfare of the occupied
people. It is a gross violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention for the occupying Power to
destroy houses, render the population homeless, create a need for food and medical services and
then to refuse to carry out its responsibilities to provide for the concerns of the occupied people.
E/CN.4/2005/29
page 11
19. During the course of the year, the Government of Israel announced that it would
dismantle Jewish settlements in Gaza and withdraw its armed forces from Gaza. This move is to
be welcomed but it must be stressed that such “withdrawal” or “disengagement” will not relieve
Israel of its obligations as an occupying Power, as it does not plan to relinquish its grasp on the
Gaza Strip. On the contrary, it plans to maintain its authority by controlling Gaza’s borders,
territorial sea and airspace. That Israel intends to retain ultimate control over Gaza is clear from
the Disengagement Plan of April 2004, as revised in June 2004,, which states in respect of Gaza,
inter alia, that “the State of Israel will supervise and monitor the external land perimeter of the
Gaza Strip, will continue to maintain exclusive authority in Gaza air space , and will continue to
exercise security activity in the sea off the Gaza Strip ... The State of Israel will continue to
maintain a military presence along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt (Philadelphi
route). This presence is an essential security requirement. At certain locations, security
considerations may require some widening of the area in which the military activity is
conducted”. This means that Israel will remain an occupying Power under international law - a
conclusion reached by Israeli Government legal experts in a report published on 24 October - as
the test for application of the legal regime of occupation is not whether the occupying Power
fails to exercise effective control over the territory, but whether it has the ability to exercise such
power. This principle was confirmed by the United States Military Tribunal in The Hostages
Trial - Trial of Wilhelm List and Others of 1948.4 It is essential that the international community
take cognizance of the nature of Israel’s proposed “withdrawal” and of its continuing obligations
under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
IV. HOUSE DEMOLITIONS
20. The demolition of houses - homes - is a central feature of Israel’s policy towards
Palestinians. “The human suffering entailed in the process of destroying a family’s home is
incalculable. One’s home is much more than simply a physical structure. It is one’s symbolic
center, the site of one’s most intimate personal life and an expression of one’s status. It is a
refuge, it is the physical representation of the family, it is home”.5 The demolition of a home
destroys the family unit, causes a decline in standard of living and has a severe psychological
impact on the family, particularly children.
21. The second intifada has witnessed the intensification of house demolitions, resulting in
the destruction of 4,170 Palestinian homes. Some 60 per cent of the houses demolished have
been destroyed as part of “clearing operations” to meet Israel’s military needs. In the previous
section, this process was described in respect of Rafah, Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya.
Since September 2000, the IDF has demolished 2,540 housing units in which 23,900 Palestinians
lived in the course of clearing operations. Some 25 per cent of the houses demolished have been
destroyed for having being built without the required permit from the Israeli authorities, which
still retain building authorization rights in Area C of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel
demolished 768 structures in the West Bank between 2001 and 2003 and 161 structures in
East Jerusalem between 2001 and 2004 for having being built without a permit.
22. A third kind of house demolition, accounting for 15 per cent of the houses destroyed, is
that of punishment of the family and neighbours of Palestinians who have carried out or are
suspected of having carried out attacks against Israelis. Such punitive action is not confined to
the family of suicide bombers: indeed, in 40 per cent of the cases involving demolition of
houses, no Israelis had been killed in the incidents giving rise to such demolitions. Punitive
E/CN.4/2005/29
page 12
home destruction is the subject of a recent disturbing publication by Israel’s premier human
rights NGO, B’Tselem (Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied
Territories).6 This study shows that since October 2001, the IDF has demolished 628 housing
units, home to 3,983 persons. 47 per cent (295) of the homes demolished were never home to
any one suspected of involvement in attacks upon Israelis. As a result, 1,286 persons
unconnected with any acts against Israelis have been punished. Figures do not bear out Israeli
claims that advance notice is given to owners of houses to be demolished; only in 3 per cent of
the cases had proper warning of demolition been given. This disquieting study strongly suggests
that house demolitions are carried out in an arbitrary and indiscriminate manner.
23. It is difficult to resist the conclusion that punitive house demolitions constitute serious
war crimes. Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits the occupying State from
destroying the property of civilians “except where such destruction is rendered absolutely
necessary by military operations”. “Military operation”, according to the official commentary of
the International Committee of the Red Cross, means “the movements, manoeuvres, and actions
of any sort, carried out by the armed forces with a view to combat”.7 House demolitions are not
carried out in the context of hostilities “with a view to combat” but as a punishment. They
cannot be described as part of a “military operation” and they certainly cannot be considered
“absolutely necessary” for action not constituting a military operation. Moreover such
demolitions violate the prohibition imposed on collective punishment by article 33 of the Fourth
Geneva Convention, which reads:
“No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally
committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of
terrorism are prohibited.”
V. THE WALL
24. The Wall is responsible for much of the suffering of the Palestinian people and, if
continued, will be responsible for still greater suffering. As shown by the International Court of
Justice, it violates both humanitarian law and human rights law and undermines the right of the
Palestinian people to self-determination. For this reason the Wall has been the focus of special
attention in two previous reports and remains a major focus of attention in the present report. In
order to further his understanding of the consequences of the Wall from the perspective of
human rights, the Special Rapporteur visited the Wall in the Jerusalem area (Al-Ram, Abu Dis,
Qalandiya, Beit Sourik and Biddu), Qalqiliya (Isla and Jayyous villages) and Bethlehem.
Previously, the Special Rapporteur has visited villages in the Qalqiliya and Tulkarem region.
25. Israel claims that the purpose of the Wall is to secure Israel from terrorist attacks. It
draws attention to the fact that statistics for the first half of 2004 show that terrorist attacks
inside Israel have dropped by no less than 83 per cent compared to the same period in 2003.
Two comments may be made on this claim. First, there is no compelling evidence that this could
not have been done with equal effect by building the Wall along the Green Line or within the
Israeli side of the Green Line. Secondly, the evidence that the course of the Wall within
Palestinian territory is required by security considerations is not conclusive. This is shown by
the Beit Sourik Village Council judgement, which demonstrates the difficulties inherent in
ascertaining the security justifications for the course of the Wall and brings into question the
military arguments for the chosen course of the Wall.
E/CN.4/2005/29
page 13
26. More convincing explanations for the construction of the Wall in the OPT are the
following:
− To incorporate settlers within Israel;
− To seize Palestinian land;
− To encourage an exodus of Palestinians by denying them access to their land and
water resources and by restricting their freedom of movement.
These explanations are considered below.
A. The incorporation of settlements
27. The course of the Wall indicates clearly that its purpose is to incorporate as many
settlers as possible into Israel. This is borne out by the statistics showing that some 80 per cent
of settlers in the West Bank will be included on the Israeli side of the Wall. If further proof
of this obvious fact is required, it is to be found in an article by Benjamin Netanyahu,
Minister of Finance of Israel and former Prime Minister, in the International Herald Tribune
of 14 July 2004, in which he wrote: “A line that is genuinely based on security would include as
many Jews as possible and as few Palestinians as possible within the fence. That is precisely
what Israel’s security fence does. By running into less than 12 per cent of the West Bank, the
fence will include about 80 per cent of Jews and only 1 per cent of Palestinians who live within
the disputed territories.”
28. Settlements are, of course, unlawful under international law. This was the unanimous
view of the International Court of Justice in its advisory opinion. The Court found that “the
Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (including East Jerusalem) have been
established in breach of international law”, and that “the route chosen for the wall gives
expression in loco to the illegal measures taken by Israel with regard to Jerusalem and the
settlements” (paras. 120 and 122). Moreover, Judge Buergenthal, the sole dissenting judge,
stated that he agreed that article 49, paragraph 6, of the Fourth Geneva Convention applied to the
Israeli settlements in the West Bank from which it followed “that the segments of the wall being
built by Israel to protect the settlements are ipso facto in violation of international humanitarian
law” (para. 9).
29. Despite this, there is overwhelming evidence of settlement expansion in the West Bank.
No longer does the Government of Israel even pay lip service to its claim of several years
ago that it would “freeze” settlement expansion. In August, the Government of Israel
granted 2,167 permits to settlers to build apartments in Palestine (International Herald
Tribune, 24 August 2004, p. 5). The Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has furthermore announced
that in return for dismantling settlements in the Gaza Strip and four small settlements in the
northern West Bank (Ghanim, Khadim, Sa-Nur and Homesh), the remaining settlements in
the West Bank would be consolidated and expanded. According to the report of the
Director-General of ILO to the 92nd session of the International Labour Conference, “the settler
population has continued to increase rapidly, at an annual rate of 5.3 per cent in the West Bank
and 4.4 per cent in Gaza since 2000, reaching close to 400,000 persons in the occupied
Palestinian territories. This is equivalent to 6 per cent of the Israeli population and 11.5 per cent
E/CN.4/2005/29
page 14
of the Palestinian population in 2002. The increase in the settler population has been much faster
than population growth in Israel (at 1.4 per cent per year over 2000-02), thereby indicating more
than natural demographic growth, even allowing for higher fertility among settler families”.8
30. Settler expansion has unfortunately been accompanied by settler violence. Numerous
incidents have been reported of settler attacks on Palestinians and their land and it is reported
that there has been a 20 per cent increase in settler violence. Recently, settlers have prevented
Palestinians from harvesting the olive crop. Settler behaviour is particularly disgusting in
Hebron where settlers continuously harass Palestinians and damage their property. The Special
Rapporteur had first-hand experience of this when the vehicle in which he was travelling with
the Temporary International Presence in the City of Hebron (TIPH) was spat upon by settlers and
splattered with paint. Obstacles placed in the road by settlers were not removed, despite a
request by a TIPH official. On the contrary, members of the IDF laughingly indicated their
approval of the action of the settlers and refused to intervene, despite Israel’s legal obligation to
cooperate with TIPH. As settlers are present in the OPT with the Government’s approval and as
inadequate steps are taken to curb their actions, the Government of Israel must accept
responsibility for their actions.
31. Plans to incorporate more settlements within the Wall are being implemented. Although
the High Court of Israel in the Beit Sourik case did not rule on the question whether the Wall
might be built to include settlements, it seems implicit in its judgement that the building of the
Wall to incorporate settlements would be unlawful. This follows from the following passage in
the judgement:
“We accept that the military commander cannot order the construction of the separation
fence if his reasons are political. The separation fence cannot be motivated by a desire to
‘annex’ territories to the State of Israel. The purpose of the separation fence cannot be to
draw a political border. In [a previous case] this Court discussed whether it is possible to
seize land in order to build a Jewish civilian town, when the purpose of the building of
the town is not the security needs and defense of the area … but rather based upon a
Zionist perspective of settling the entire land of Israel. This question was answered by
this Court in the negative” (para. 27).
B. Seizure of Palestinian land
32. Another purpose of the Wall is to expand Israel’s territorial possessions. Rich
agricultural land and water resources along the Green Line have been incorporated into Israel.
Although Palestinians living on the eastern side of the Wall remain owners of these lands, they
are frequently denied access to them or faced with obstacles imposed by the Israeli authorities to
the farming of their land. There is thus a real danger that these lands will be abandoned and
seized by the voracious settlers.
33. Nowhere are Israel’s territorial ambitions clearer than in the case of Jerusalem.
East Jerusalem was occupied by Israel in 1967 and illegally annexed to Israel in 1980.
This annexation was internationally condemned and declared to be “of no legal validity” by
the Security Council in resolution 476 (1980). The territory annexed in this way amounts
to 1.2 per cent of the occupied West Bank and has a Palestinian population of 249,000. These
Palestinians are forced to have residence cards to live in their own territory. Certain benefits,
E/CN.4/2005/29
page 15
particularly relating to health insurance and pensions and freedom of movement, are attached to
these residence rights. The land illegally incorporated into the Jerusalem municipality has been
used to build illegal Israeli settlements in order to change the demographic make-up of the area.
There are now 12 illegal Israeli settlements in this area and the total settler population in eastern
Jerusalem amounts to 180,000. As a result of the creation of settlements in East Jerusalem,
Palestinians with Jerusalem residence rights have been compelled to build houses outside the
municipal limits of East Jerusalem.
34. In the past year a wall has been built along the illegal border of East Jerusalem at places
like Abu Dis, Al-Ram and Qalandiya. This wall has a number of serious consequences. First, it
gives effect to an illegal annexation and incorporates part of the city of Jerusalem (including the
Holy Places) into Israel. Here it must be stressed that the Wall is to expand beyond the limits of
the present Jerusalem municipality to incorporate an additional 59 km2 of the West Bank in what
will be known as “Greater Jerusalem”. The total settler population of “Greater Jerusalem”
(247,000) will amount to more than half of the Israeli settlers in the Occupied Palestinian
Territory. Second, it separates Palestinians from Palestinians and can in no conceivable way be
justified as a security measure. Third, it threatens to deprive some 60,000 Palestinians who were
previously resident within the Jerusalem municipal boundary of their residence rights. Fourth, it
will divide families, some of whom carry Jerusalem residence documents and some of whom
carry West Bank documents. Fifth, it makes contact between Palestinians and Palestinian
institutions situated on different sides of the Wall hazardous and complicated. Sixth, it will
affect 106,000 Palestinians in neighbourhoods in the West Bank who are dependent upon the
facilities of East Jerusalem, including hospitals, universities, schools, employment and markets
for agricultural goods. The Special Rapporteur met many Palestinian Jerusalemites who were
seriously affected by the construction of the Wall within Jerusalem. Unfortunately, their plight
receives little attention, as the international community has grown accustomed to the illegal
annexation of Jerusalem. The Special Rapporteur stresses that the Wall incorporating Palestinian
neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem into Israel is no different from the Wall in other parts of the
West Bank, which incorporates Palestinian land into Israel.
C. Forced exodus
35. A third purpose of the Wall is to compel Palestinian residents in the so-called “Seam
Zone” between the Wall and the Green Line and those resident adjacent to the Wall, but
separated from their lands by the Wall, to leave their homes and start a new life elsewhere in the
West Bank, by making life intolerable for them. This was acknowledged by the International
Court in its advisory opinion when it stated that the construction of the Wall is “tending to alter
the demographic composition of the Occupied Palestinian Territory” (para. 133).
36. Restrictions on freedom of movement in the “Seam Zone” pose particular hardships for
Palestinians. Israel has designated the Seam Zone as a “Closed Zone” in which Israelis may
travel freely but not Palestinians. Thus, Palestinians living in the Closed Zone are obliged to
have permits to live in their own homes.9 Palestinians living within the West Bank with farms
inside the Closed Zone moreover need permits to cross the Wall into that zone, as do others who
wish to visit it for personal, humanitarian or business reasons. A recent study carried out by
B’Tselem10 demonstrates the arbitrary nature of the implementation of the permit system.
Permits are granted for varying lengths of time depending on the kind of crop grown by the
applicant. For example, olive growers should receive permits for October/November, the
E/CN.4/2005/29
page 16
picking season, while owners of hothouses, which require care throughout the year, should be
issued permits for a longer period of time. Testimonies given to B’Tselem by farmers in the area
indicate that the authorities have constantly ignored the kind of crop being grown on the land.
Sometimes olive growers have received permits for a period of three to six months while the
owners of hothouses have received permits for shorter periods. In some cases, permits are
granted for two weeks only. Moreover, about 25 per cent of the requests for permits to enter the
Closed Zone were denied. In Ar Ras only four out of 70 applicants were issued permits. Permits
are rejected for failure to prove ownership and, in most cases, for security reasons. No reasons
are given for the denial of a permit. Permits are intended to grant access to the Closed Zone
through special gates in the Wall. In practice, these gates, of which there are only twenty-one for
Palestinians, are not opened as scheduled. Farmers are compelled to wait at the gates for long
periods of time until soldiers find it convenient to open the gates. The arbitrary regime relating
to the opening of gates has caused special problems during harvest time when intensive labour is
required.
37. The hardships to which Palestinians are subjected by the Wall are graphically described
in the Beit Sourik Village Council case. In its judgement, the High Court commented as follows
upon the location of the Wall in the area north-west of Jerusalem near to Beit Sourik:
“82. … The length of the part of the Separation Fence to which these orders apply
is approximately 40 kilometers. It causes injury to the lives of 35,000 local
inhabitants. 4,000 dunams of their lands are taken up by the route of the fence itself, and
thousands of olive trees growing along the route itself are uprooted. The fence separates
the eight villages in which the local inhabitants live from more than 30,000 dunams of
their lands. The great majority of these lands are cultivated, and they include tens of
thousands of olive trees, fruit trees and other agricultural crops. The licensing regime
which the military commander wishes to establish cannot prevent or substantially
decrease the extent of the severe injury to the local farmers. Access to the lands depends
upon the possibility of crossing the gates, which are very distant from each other and not
always open. Security checks, which are likely to prevent the passage of vehicles and
which will naturally cause long lines and many hours of waiting, will be performed at the
gates. These do not go hand in hand with the farmer’s ability to work his land. There
will inevitably be areas where the security fence will have to separate the local
inhabitants from their lands …
“…
“84. The injury caused by the separation fence is not restricted to the lands of the
inhabitants and to their access to these lands. The injury is of far wider a scope. It strikes
across the fabric of life of the entire population. In many locations, the Separation Fence
passes right by their homes …
“85. … [W]e are of the opinion that the balance determined by the military commander is
not proportionate. There is no escaping, therefore, a renewed examination of the route of
the fence, according to the standards of proportionality that we have set out.”
E/CN.4/2005/29
page 17
VI. ISRAEL’S RESPONSE TO THE ADVISORY OPINION OF THE
INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE ON THE WALL
38. The initial response of the Government of Israel to the ICJ advisory opinion on the Wall
was to reject it completely. However, on 19 August the Israeli High Court, in response to a
petition by the West Bank village of Shuqba challenging the construction of the Wall, ordered
the Government to produce a statement within 30 days assessing the implications of the advisory
opinion. To the knowledge of the Special Rapporteur this assessment has not yet been given.
The actions of the Government of Israel, however, speak louder than words. It continues to
construct the Wall.
39. On 30 June, shortly before the ruling of the International Court, a new map for the Wall
was issued by the Israeli Ministry of Defence. This places fewer Palestinians on the western side
of the Wall but does not significantly reduce the amount of land from which the Wall separates
Palestinian landowners and farmers from their land. The revised route reduces the total length of
the Wall by 16 km from 638 km to 622 km. Approximately 85 per cent of the revised planned
route of the Wall intrudes into the West Bank.
40. Although the building of the Wall has been suspended in some areas (Salfit, Al Zawiya,
Deir Ballut) as a result of an order of the Israeli High Court, in other areas the construction of
the Wall continues. Some 70 kilometres of the Wall is currently under construction in the region
of Jerusalem (the main road between Qalandiya checkpoint and Ar Ram, Al Aqbat, the area of
Al Eizariya, the area between Jaba and Hizma, etc), Ramallah (Budrus, Beituniya), Jenin
(Jalbun, Raba), Bethlehem (near the Ayda refugee camp and along the tunnel road) and Hebron
(Idhna, Beit Awwa, Surit).
41. The Special Rapporteur calls upon the Government of Israel to honour the advisory
opinion of the International Court of Justice, which was approved by the General Assembly
by 150 votes in favour on 20 July 2004. The International Court, the judicial organ of the
United Nations, has pronounced itself almost unanimously against the legality of the Wall.
Israel is therefore in law required to dismantle the Wall and to compensate Palestinians who have
suffered as a result of its construction. If the Government of Israel declines to do this, it should
at least honour the judgement of its own Supreme Court sitting as the High Court of Justice in
the Beit Sourik Village Council case. From this judgement, it is clear that substantial portions of
the already constructed Wall fail to comply with the principles of proportionality expounded by
the High Court. There is no reason why the Wall should not be dismantled where it fails to meet
these requirements.
VII. FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT
42. Freedom of movement is a freedom recognized by all international human rights
instruments. Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides that
everyone shall “have the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence”.
Despite this, serious restrictions are imposed on the freedom of movement of all Palestinians,
whether in the Gaza Strip or in the West Bank. They are a source of constant humiliation and
cause personal suffering and inconvenience to every Palestinian. In addition, these restrictions
are primarily responsible for the decline of the Palestinian economy.
E/CN.4/2005/29
page 18
43. The inhabitants of Gaza are effectively imprisoned by a combination of wall, fence and
sea. Gaza’s borders are rigorously patrolled by the IDF and passage in and out of Gaza is strictly
controlled. While some Gazans are released to work in Israel when the security situation permits
and a handful of officials and other privileged persons are permitted to leave and return to Gaza,
the overwhelming majority of the people are confined within its borders. Indeed, it is almost
impossible for males between the age of 16 and 35, including medical patients and students, to
leave Gaza through the Rafah Terminal, which is the only exit from the Gaza Strip to Egypt.
Within Gaza, freedom of movement is restricted by regularly and rigorously imposed
roadblocks. The Gaza Strip is effectively divided into two by the checkpoint at Abu Houli on
the main north-south road, Salah-Al-Din.
44. The inhabitants of the West Bank suffer from a variety of forms of restriction of
movement. Residents of one city may not travel freely to another city in the West Bank: they
require permits from the IDF for this purpose - and permits may be arbitrarily withheld. Permits
are seldom granted for private vehicles. Anyone embarking upon a journey from one city to
another within the West Bank is subjected to IDF-controlled checkpoints, some permanent and
some temporary. Checkpoints are also set up within cities and districts. There are several
hundred checkpoints throughout the West Bank and Gaza, blocking traffic between villages and
towns, between cities or into Israel. The checkpoint is not the sole instrument of restriction of
freedom of movement. Although less frequently used than in past years, the curfew remains a
regular occurrence, as illustrated by the experience of Nablus. This apparatus of control of
movement of people and goods has precipitated the prevailing economic crisis and resulted in
widespread unemployment and severe disruption to education, health care services, work, trade,
family and political life.
45. Travel within both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank is aggravated by the presence
of separate bypass roads linking settlements to each other and the settlements to Israel.
Palestinians are prohibited from using these roads. This matter is the subject of a recent study
by B’Tselem,11 which shows that 17 roads (totalling 124 km) are completely closed to
Palestinian vehicles, 10 roads (totalling 244 km) are closed to all Palestinians without special
movement permits, and 14 roads (totalling 364 km) are restricted in the sense that Palestinian
vehicles are subjected to vigorous IDF checks and checkpoints. According to B’Tselem, no
clear rules govern the closure of these roads to Palestinians and the system is administered in an
arbitrary manner which further deters Palestinians from using such roads and compels them to
use dirt roads or city roads.
46. The Wall in the Jerusalem area threatens to become a nightmare. Those on the
West Bank side of the Wall with West Bank identity documents will be denied access to work,
schools, universities, hospitals and places of worship on the Israeli side of the Wall. Similarly,
those on the Israeli side of the Wall will be denied access or will find access seriously
inconvenient to their places of work, educational institutions and hospitals on the West Bank side
of the Wall. All the region’s residents, numbering several hundred thousand, will be forced to
pass through one large terminal at Qalandiya. Most of those passing through to work or to
school will reach the terminal at peak hours and great commotion can be expected. At this stage,
it is simply impossible to predict the magnitude of the hardships to which the Palestinians living
in and around Jerusalem will be subjected as a result of the Wall.
E/CN.4/2005/29
page 19
47. As indicated above, a special permit system applies for persons living or farming along
the Seam Zone between the Wall and the Green Line. They require permits to move between
home and agricultural land and often these permits are denied or granted for limited periods
only. Moreover, the gates giving access to the Closed Zone are frequently not opened at
scheduled times. In general, this system is operated in a totally arbitrary manner.
48. The Special Rapporteur is unfortunately compelled to compare the different permit
systems that govern the lives of Palestinians within the OPT with the notorious “pass law”
system which determined the right of Africans to move and reside in so-called white areas under
the apartheid regime of South Africa. The South African pass laws were administered in a
humiliating manner, but uniformly. The Israeli laws are likewise administered in a humiliating
manner but they are not administered clearly or uniformly. The arbitrary and capricious nature
of their implementation imposes a great burden on the Palestinian people. Restrictions on
freedom of movement constitute the institutionalized humiliation of the Palestinian people.
VIII. CONCLUSION
49. This report has drawn attention to the serious violations of human rights and
humanitarian law flowing from the actions of the Government of Israel in the OPT. Israel
is both legally and morally obliged to bring its practices and policies into line with the law.
That Israel has legitimate security concerns cannot be denied. However, these concerns
must be addressed within the parameters of the law for, as the High Court of Justice of
Israel has rightly declared, “There is no security without law” (Beit Sourik case, para. 86).
50. As the International Court of Justice indicates in its advisory opinion, approved by
the General Assembly, there are consequences of the Wall for States other than Israel. The
Special Rapporteur reminds States of their obligation not to recognize the illegal situation
resulting from the construction of the Wall and not to render aid or assistance in
maintaining the situation created by such construction. In addition, all States parties to the
Fourth Geneva Convention are obliged to ensure compliance by Israel with the
international humanitarian law embodied in this Convention. Israel’s defiance of
international law poses a threat not only to the international legal order but to the
international order itself. This is no time for appeasement on the part of the international
community.
Notes
1 Beit Sourik Village Council v. the Government of Israel (High Court of Justice 2056/04).
2 “Disengagement, the Palestinian Economy and the Settlements”,
World Bank, 23 October 2004, p. 4.
3 Razing Rafah: Mass Home Demolitions in the Gaza Strip, Human Rights Watch,
October 2004, p. 4; http://www.hrw.org/reports/2004/rafah1004.
E/CN.4/2005/29
page 20
4 United Nations War Crimes Commission, Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals,
Case No. 47, vol. VIII, 1949, p. 34.
5 Jeff Halper, Obstacles to Peace - A Re-Framing of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict,
2nd ed. (2004).
6 Through No Fault of their Own: Punitive Home Demolitions during the al-Aqsa Intifada
(Jerusalem, November 2004).
7 J. Pictet, Commentary on the Additional Protocols of 8 June 1977 to the Geneva Conventions
of 12 August 1949, Geneva, ICRC (Dordrecht, Martinus Nijhoff, 1987), p. 67.
8 “The situation of workers in the occupied Arab territories”, ILO, June 2004, para. 39.
9 Order Regarding Security Regulations (Judea and Samaria) (No. 378) 5730/1970.
10 Not All it Seems: Preventing Palestinians Access to their Lands West of the Separation
Barrier in the Tulkarm-Qalqiliya Area (Jerusalem, June 2004).
11 Forbidden Roads: The Discriminatory West Bank Road Regime (August 2004).
- - - - -
UNITED
NATIONS E
Economic and Social
Council
Distr.
GENERAL
E/CN.4/2005/29/Add.1
3 March 2005
Original: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Sixty-first session
Item 8 of the provisional agenda
QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE
OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES, INCLUDING PALESTINE
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the
Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967, John Dugard
GE.05-11608 (E) 070305
E/CN.4/2005/29/Add.1
page 2
Summary
On 8 February 2005 the Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, and the
Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon, meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, agreed on a ceasefire by
whose terms Palestine agreed to stop all acts of violence against Israelis and Israel agreed to
cease all military activity against Palestinians.
At the time of writing, the ceasefire continues to hold, despite violations on both sides. It
has already resulted in important improvements in the human rights situation in the Palestinian
Territory; 500 prisoners have been released and there are reports that 400 more will soon be
released. Forty-five (45) Palestinians deported to Gaza and overseas, following the siege of the
Church of the Nativity in 2002, have been allowed to return to the West Bank. The targeted
killings or assassinations of militants by IDF have been discontinued. IDF has announced that it
will cease the punitive demolition of houses belonging to persons who have committed acts of
violence against Israelis. An increased number of Palestinian workers and merchants have been
allowed to enter Israel from the Gaza Strip. Some checkpoints in the West Bank have been lifted
and there are plans to hand over the control of five cities to the Palestinian Authority.
Important as these changes or reforms may be, they fail to address the main violations
of human rights and humanitarian law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory - settlements, the
Wall, checkpoints and roadblocks, the imprisonment of Gaza and the continued incarceration of
over 7,000 Palestinians.
There are over 100 settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, inhabited by almost 400,000
settlers, of whom some 180,000 live in the East Jerusalem area. Despite assurances from the
Government of Israel that settlement growth has been frozen or limited to natural growth, the
reality is that the settler population has grown more than the Israeli population itself.
Unfortunately, Israel allows the interests of its settlers to determine its policies toward Palestine.
For example, the Wall that Israel is presently building in Palestine is largely designed to protect
settlements. It is becoming increasingly clear that settlements stand in the way of a two-State
solution in the Middle East.
The Wall that Israel is building in the West Bank has been found to be contrary to
international law by the International Court of Justice. Despite this, Israel is pressing ahead with
the construction of the Wall, although it has recently decided to take less Palestinian land in the
process. The Wall, according to Israel, is a security measure. As such it requires immediate
attention since the present focus of attention, according to the Sharm el-Sheikh agreement, is
security. There is a distinction between legitimate security measures and illegitimate security
measures. The construction of the Wall, within Palestinian territory (as opposed to along the
Green Line or within Israel), is an illegitimate security measure and should be discontinued
immediately and not relegated to the realm of “permanent status talks”. Failure to do so will
provide further evidence of Israel’s intention to annex Palestinian territory and jeopardize a
fragile truce.
Several hundred checkpoints, roadblocks, ditches and other obstructions have made
travel in the Palestinian Territory a nightmare for residents. Israel claims to have substantially
reduced the number of checkpoints in recent times. But most permanent checkpoints manned
by IDF remain in force; “flying checkpoints” (that is, temporary road checkpoints) continue;
E/CN.4/2005/29/Add.1
page 3
and most road blockages, in the form of concrete blocks, earth mounds or ditches, and closing
by-roads remain. Moreover enforcement of road closures and obstructions by IDF remains as
vigorous as ever. Indeed, the Special Rapporteur experienced a more rigorous enforcement of
checkpoints than on previous visits.
The character of Jerusalem and Bethlehem has been substantially changed by the
construction of the Wall and the lives of their residents substantially affected by travel
restrictions, closures and property confiscations. Moreover, there is a threat to require
East Jerusalemites to obtain special permits from the Israeli military authorities to travel to
Ramallah. This will compel East Jerusalemites to choose between maintaining their ties with
Ramallah and giving up their residence rights in Jerusalem and is part of a series of measures
designed to entrench Israel’s illegal annexation of East Jerusalem.
At present there are over 7,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, of whom over 850 are
administrative detainees (that is, persons held without trial). In February 2005, 500 prisoners
were released. However, these were mainly short-term prisoners or prisoners who had nearly
completed their sentences. What is required of Israel is a bold step, of the kind taken by other
transitional societies, which have released prisoners in order to further peace.
The Government of Israel’s determination to evacuate 8,500 settlers from Gaza and to
dismantle its Gazan settlements is, understandably, the focus of international attention. It is a
brave move on the part of Israel, and one that divides Israeli society. But it is the right thing to
do and should be acknowledged as such by those concerned about human rights and
humanitarian law in the Palestinian Territory. The dismantling of settlements in Gaza does not,
however, mean that Gaza will be freed from Israeli control or that Israel will cease to be an
occupying Power in terms of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949.
This is a time of hope for both Israel and Palestine. If the ceasefire is to hold it is
essential that the Palestinian Authority exercise control over militant groups responsible for
violence against IDF and settlers within Palestine and for suicide bombings within Israel. It is
equally important that Israel keep its side of the bargain. However, it is not sufficient for Israel
to only cease its military activity against Palestinians. It must address, with great expedition, the
causes of Palestinian militancy, the issues that have given rise to terrorism against the Israeli
people. Israel must address the release of prisoners, the abandonment of checkpoints, the
dismantling of the Wall and the evacuation of all settlements in Palestinian territory. If it fails to
do so, it will forfeit an opportunity for peace that may not again arise.
E/CN.4/2005/29/Add.1
page 4
CONTENTS
Paragraphs Page
Introduction ............................................................................................. 1 5
I. THE INTIFADA .......................................................................... 2 5
II. THE TRUCE ................................................................................ 3 - 5 5
III. SETTLEMENTS .......................................................................... 6 - 9 6
IV. THE WALL .................................................................................. 10 - 15 7
V. CHECKPOINTS, CLOSURES AND ROADBLOCKS .............. 16 9
VI. JERUSALEM AND BETHLEHEM ............................................ 17 - 19 9
VII. PRISONERS ................................................................................. 20 10
VIII. GAZA ........................................................................................... 21 - 22 11
IX. CONCLUSION ............................................................................ 23 11
E/CN.4/2005/29/Add.1
page 5
Introduction
1. This addendum is based on a visit by the Special Rapporteur to the Occupied Palestinian
Territory from 13 to 20 February 2005. The Special Rapporteur spent two days in Gaza and
five days in the West Bank and Israel. During this time, he met the President of the Palestinian
Authority, Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, and other Palestinian officials; interviewed independent
interlocutors and NGOs in both Palestine and Israel; and spoke with the representatives of
international agencies. He made a statement on house demolitions to a Knesset Committee and
participated in a debate on this subject before the Committee. In Gaza he visited United Nations
Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) schools and the
remains of demolished homes in Rafah, Khan Younis and Jabaliya. In the West Bank he
travelled widely in order to obtain first-hand information about the construction of the Wall,
closures and checkpoints. In the course of this exercise he visited the Wall in the
Jerusalem/Bethlehem region, Nablus and Salfit, Ramallah, and the Wall on both the western and
eastern sides of Jenin.
I. THE INTIFADA
2. The second intifada, which commenced in September 2000, has resulted in great
suffering for the peoples of Palestine and Israel: 3,300 Palestinians have lost their lives at
the hands of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and settlers. Nearly 1,000 Israelis have been
killed by suicide bombers and Palestinian militants. Children have suffered disproportionately:
627 Palestinian children and 112 Israeli children have been killed in the conflict. (The impact of
the intifada upon children was brought home starkly to the Special Rapporteur on this visit by
meetings with the classmates of 10-year-old Noran Iyan Deeb, killed by IDF fire while in the
school yard of UNRWA Rafah Elementary Co-ed “B” School on 31 January 2005, and with the
father of a 15-year-old Israeli girl killed by a suicide bomber in Jerusalem.) Civilians in both
societies have been subjected to terror: Israelis have lived in fear of suicide bombers and
Qassam missiles while Palestinians’ lives have been menaced by IDF and settlers. Great
destruction has been caused to Palestinian property: 4,170 homes have been demolished by the
military, and agricultural lands have been stripped of trees and crops. Restrictions on freedom of
movement have resulted in the substantial loss of income in Palestine, unemployment and
poverty. (Half of the Palestinian population lives below the poverty line.) Health care and
education have also suffered drastically as a result of restrictions on movement. Israel has not
been unaffected by the siege it has imposed on the Palestinian Territory. Israeli Government
spending on the construction of the Wall and its occupation of Palestine have resulted in
substantial reductions in the Israeli welfare system, and greater unemployment and poverty.
II. THE TRUCE
3. On 8 February 2005 Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister
of Israel Ariel Sharon met in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, following which they announced a
ceasefire agreement by whose terms Palestine agreed to stop all acts of violence against Israelis
and Israel agreed to cease all its military activity against Palestinians.
4. At the time of writing, the ceasefire continues to hold, despite violations on both sides.
(On 25 February a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv killed 4 and wounded 50 persons. During the
Special Rapporteur’s visit 4 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces - one a 15-year-old boy
E/CN.4/2005/29/Add.1
page 6
killed for throwing stones at Israeli vehicles in protest against the Wall near Beituniya - and
there were 11 military incursions resulting in 10 arrests.) The ceasefire has already resulted
in important improvements in the human rights situation in the Palestinian Territory:
500 prisoners have been released and there are reports that 400 more will soon be released.
Forty-five (45) Palestinians deported to Gaza and overseas, following the siege of the Church of
the Nativity in 2002, have been allowed to return to the West Bank. The targeted killings or
assassinations of militants by IDF, which to date has resulted in 469 deaths (181 targeted persons
and 288 innocent bystanders), has been discontinued. IDF has announced that it will cease the
punitive demolition of houses belonging to persons who have committed acts of violence against
Israelis. An increased number of Palestinian workers and merchants have been allowed to enter
Israel from the Gaza Strip. Some checkpoints in the West Bank have been lifted and there are
plans to hand over the control of five cities to the Palestinian Authority (Ramallah, Jericho,
Bethlehem, Tulkarem and Qalqiliya). In general it can be said that the level of military violence
against the Palestinian people has been substantially reduced, but not altogether eliminated.
5. Important as these changes or reforms may be, they fail to address the principal
institutions and instruments that violate human rights and humanitarian law in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory - settlements, the Wall checkpoints and roadblocks, the imprisonment of
Gaza and the continued incarceration of over 7,000 Palestinians.
III. SETTLEMENTS
6. There are over 100 settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, inhabited by
almost 400,000 settlers, of whom some 180,000 live in the East Jerusalem area. The Special
Rapporteur has carefully refrained from using the terms colonies and colonists, preferred by
more radical critics, to describe settlements and settlers. However, one wonders whether the
time has not come for the international community to change its use of language, for settlements
do constitute a form of colonization in a world that has outlawed colonialism. The policies of
the Western imperial powers were once determined or influenced both at home and abroad by
colonial interests. So too with Israel. The protection and advancement of the interests of its
colonists/settlers determines its policies towards Palestine. Without settlements, a two-State
solution is possible; with them, it becomes impossible.
7. Despite assurances from the Government of Israel that settlement growth has been
frozen or limited to natural growth, the reality is that the settler population has grown more than
the Israeli population itself. In 2004, according to the Israeli Interior Ministry’s Population
Registry, the number of settlers increased by 6 per cent as compared with a growth rate of less
than 2 per cent in Israel itself. Existing settlements are being expanded and new settlements
built, either with the express approval of the Government or with the tacit approval by the
Government of caravan outposts that in due course become settlements. According to the group
Peace Now, there are 99 settlement outposts of this kind in the West Bank.
8. As pointed out in my main report to the sixty-first session of the Commission
(E/CN.4/2005/29) bypass roads have been built to link settlements to each other and settlements
to Israel which are closed to Palestinian traffic. Palestinians have been compelled to use
secondary roads in poor repair - or blocked by checkpoints or roadblocks. Aware of this
problem, the Government of Israel has approached donors with the request that they fund the
E/CN.4/2005/29/Add.1
page 7
construction of new roads for the Palestinian population. This further illustrates the manner in
which Israel allows the interests of its settler community to outweigh its manifest responsibility
as occupying Power to provide basic facilities for the protected persons under its control.
9. Settlements are contrary to article 49, sixth paragraph, of the Fourth Geneva Convention
of 12 August 1949 which prohibits the transfer of “parts of its own civilian population into the
territory it occupies”. The illegality of settlements and of the construction of the Wall to protect
settlements has been unanimously confirmed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its
Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory (paras. 120 and 122; Judge Buergenthal’s dissenting opinion, para. 9).
Settlements constitute an illegality in the removal of which the international community has a
legal and moral interest. The dismantling of settlements in the West Bank cannot be left to
“permanent status talks” between Israelis and Palestinians in the indefinite future. Like the
settlements in Gaza, they must be dismantled.
IV. THE WALL
10. The Wall that Israel is presently constructing in the Palestinian Territory is unlawful (see
the Advisory Opinion of the ICJ, Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory, as discussed in the main report (E/CN.4/2005/29, paras. 2-4)).
The Government of Israel has, however, refused to accept this Opinion and has instead preferred
to follow the decision of its own High Court in the Beit Sourik case (also discussed in the main
report, paras. 5 and 6) which required that the Wall’s route should reflect a proportionality
between Israel’s security needs and Palestinians’ humanitarian needs. (Unlike the ICJ, the Israeli
High Court held that Israel as the occupying Power had the right to construct the Wall as a
security measure.) As a consequence the Government of Israel decided on 20 February 2005 to
construct new sections of the Wall nearer to the Green Line - the recognized border between
Israel and Palestine.
11. Under terms of this decision, the Wall, once completed, will be 670 kilometres long,
compared to 622 km of the previous route. The new route runs for 135 km on the Green Line
compared to 48 km of the previous route. The new route of the Wall will follow the Green Line,
or be close to the Green Line, in the locality of the Hebron Hills. It will penetrate more deeply
into Palestinian territory further north to include settlements in the Gush Etzion bloc near
Bethlehem, housing over 50,000 settlers. This decision will reduce the area of land seized from
Palestinians to about 7 per cent, compared with the initially seized total of 12.7 per cent. A
decision on the inclusion of the settlements of Ariel, Emmanuel and Ma’ale Adumim on the
Israeli side of the Wall is “still pending completion of detailed staff work”. When this occurs,
some 10 per cent of Palestinian land will be included within Israel. The Wall will enclose, on
the Israeli side, 170,100 settlers (not including those in East Jerusalem) and 49,400 Palestinians.
The determination to build the Wall around 56 settlements simply confirms the view of the
Special Rapporteur expressed in his main report that the main purpose of the Wall is not security
but the incorporation of settlements (para. 27).
12. There is no sign of halting either the construction of the Wall or the implementation of its
regime to take account of the Sharm el-Sheikh accord. The Special Rapporteur saw bulldozers at
work on the Wall in many places - including at Anata, in defiance of a court injunction to cease
construction of the Wall. In some places construction has ceased (as near Salfit/Iskaka on the
E/CN.4/2005/29/Add.1
page 8
eastern end of the “Ariel finger”, visited by the Special Rapporteur) but these are temporary
discontinuations occasioned by court injunctions. Moreover, the construction of major
“terminals” along the Wall has commenced. Some (as at Beituniya) will be “commercial” for
trucks while others will be for pedestrians and vehicles. (Apparently Israel has tried,
unsuccessfully to date, to secure foreign funding for these terminals.) Access to the seam zone
or closed zone (the area between the Wall and Green Line) is largely through agricultural gates,
numbering 55 at present, of which only 21 are open to Palestinians. The military-administered
regime in the seam zone continues to raise serious humanitarian concerns. According to Oxfam,
“For farmers and residents of the closed zone, life is grinding to a halt. Many are becoming
dependent on food aid, unable to farm, travel to work, or earn an income” (Oxfam, Briefing
Paper 62: “Protecting civilians: a cornerstone of Middle East peace”, p. 19). A new, and
unforeseen, consequence of the Wall has recently appeared: in Qalqiliya the Wall prevented
rainwater from dispersing, causing heavy floods and severe damage to property adjacent to the
Wall.
13. The Special Rapporteur visited Barta’a ash Sharqiya in the “closed zone”.
Its 4,000 residents have main access through only one gate, Reikan, to the West Bank; the
gate at Um Al Rihan is limited to schoolchildren residing near to the gate. (The Special
Rapporteur was denied passage through the latter gate.) This has seriously curtailed access to
health services, education, basic consumer goods, food and water in the West Bank. To add
insult to injury, Barta’a ash Sharqiya’s only olive mill was destroyed in 2004 despite a court
injunction and difficulties are placed in the way of marketing its olive harvest by restrictions
placed on the transportation of olives into Israel or the West Bank.
14. Increasingly, the Wall is coming to be seen as the new border between Israel and
Palestine instead of the Green Line. The fact that the course of the Wall follows the ruling of the
Israeli High Court in the Beit Surik case is seen as giving legitimacy to the new “boundary”. In
2003 the Special Rapporteur warned that the Wall constituted “a visible and clear act of
territorial annexation under the guise of security” (E/CN.4/2004/6, para. 6). At the time this
warning was dismissed with scorn by many as an exaggeration. Today it is fast becoming
accepted wisdom.
15. The construction of the Wall postdates the Oslo agreement, with its notion of leaving
certain matters for “permanent status talks” at some later, unforeseeable date. The Wall,
according to Israel, is a security measure. As such it requires immediate attention since the
present focus of attention, according to the Sharm el-Sheikh agreement, is security. There is a
distinction between legitimate security measures and illegitimate security measures. Israel has
rightly halted targeted killings/assassinations and house demolitions as illegitimate security
measures. But the construction of the Wall within Palestinian territory (as opposed to along the
Green Line or within Israel) is likewise an illegitimate security measure and should be
discontinued immediately and not relegated to the realm of “permanent status talks”. Failure to
do so will provide further evidence of Israel’s intention to annex Palestinian territory and
jeopardize a fragile truce.
E/CN.4/2005/29/Add.1
page 9
V. CHECKPOINTS, CLOSURES AND ROADBLOCKS
16. Several hundred checkpoints, roadblocks, ditches and other obstructions have made
travel in the Palestinian territory a nightmare for residents. Israel claims to have substantially
reduced the number of checkpoints in recent times. There is evidence of this: for instance, the
Special Rapporteur found that the checkpoint at Shave Shomeron in the Nablus district had been
removed. But most permanent checkpoints manned by IDF remain in force; “flying
checkpoints” (that is, temporary road checkpoints) continue; and most road blockages in the
form of concrete blocks, earth mounds or ditches and closing by-roads, remain. Moreover,
enforcement of road closures and obstructions by IDF remains as vigorous as ever. Indeed the
Special Rapporteur experienced a more rigorous enforcement of checkpoints than on previous
visits. In Gaza the Abu Houli checkpoint severing the central Gazan highway caused longer
delays than usual; the Al Tuffah checkpoint guarding the entrance to Al-Mawasi was crowded
with women, children and elderly men who had been patiently waiting, in some cases for several
days, to return to their homes (men between the ages of 16 and 35 are not permitted to return to
Al-Mawasi); and there was a long wait at Erez where we met a woman with permission to visit a
hospital in Israel who had been waiting in an ambulance for over six hours for permission from
IDF to cross. Moreover, we were not permitted to visit the Wall along the Egyptian-Gazan
border in Rafah as this area has recently been closed to foreign visitors. Nablus remains sealed
off from the outside world: passage through the Huwwara checkpoint was as unpleasant as ever;
and our vehicle was intercepted by an IDF Humvee on the road to Al Badan and instructed to
return to Nablus. In the Jenin district we were denied passage through an agricultural crossing in
the seam zone at Um Al Rihan and at Tayasir, near Tubas, we encountered a sick Bedouin
woman with an Israeli identification document who had been denied permission to visit a
hospital in Tubas. (She was subsequently allowed to enter the West Bank by a visibly troubled
IDF soldier at our request.) Checkpoints in the Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Ramallah districts
were enforced in the customary arbitrary manner: at some checkpoints, we encountered no
difficulties with our papers but at others difficulties were raised by IDF soldiers in respect of
international travel documents. And, one day, at the Beit El crossing to Ramallah, the soldiers
on duty at the checkpoint lay down in the road, feigning sleep, in a clear show of contempt for
our United Nations vehicle. These personal experiences demonstrate that the enforcement of
checkpoints has not been relaxed. They also provide a picture of the experiences encountered by
travellers in United Nations marked vehicles. If privileged travellers receive such treatment, and
witness such events, it is difficult to imagine the humiliation, frustration and agony caused to
ordinary Palestinians in their daily lives. Important as the Sharm el-Sheikh accord may be to
restoring peace between Israelis and Palestinians, it will have little impact on Palestinian life
until restrictions on the freedom of movement of Palestinians are addressed.
VI. JERUSALEM AND BETHLEHEM
17. The character of Jerusalem and Bethlehem has been substantially changed by the
construction of the Wall and the lives of their residents substantially affected by travel
restrictions, closures and property confiscations. The Special Rapporteur visited the Wall in the
precincts of Biddu, Beit Surik, Beituniya, Qalandiya, Ar Ram, Hizma, Anata, Abu Dis,
Al Walaja, Betar Illit settlement and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem. He was informed by a local
councillor in Biddu of the difficulties farmers will experience in farming their land across the
Wall; met with a man in Anata who was compelled to watch a Caterpillar bulldozer destroy his
land for the construction of the Wall despite a court injunction to stop construction; spoke with a
E/CN.4/2005/29/Add.1
page 10
family in Abu Dis whose hotel on the Jerusalem side of the Wall had been seized by the IDF as a
security outpost; and witnessed the monstrous Wall around Rachel’s Tomb that has killed a once
vibrant commercial neighbourhood of Bethlehem. Although Rachel’s Tomb is a site holy to
Jews, Muslims and Christians, it has effectively been closed to Muslims and Christians.
Moreover, 72 of the 80 businesses in the neighbourhood have been compelled to close.
18. Palestinian Jerusalemites have reason to fear that their properties will be confiscated and
their freedom of movement radically impaired. In June 2004 the Government of Israel at the
insistence of two ministers, decided to apply an absentee-property law in East Jerusalem
enabling the State to confiscate property with no compensation for the owners on the grounds
that the owner was not resident in Jerusalem. In February 2005 the Israeli Attorney-General
cancelled this decision but Jerusalemites fear that it might be re-imposed.
19. More disturbing is the threat to require East Jerusalemites to obtain special permits from
the Israeli military authorities to travel to Ramallah. Military Order 378 of 5 October 2000
requires Israeli citizens and permanent residents of Israel to get prior approval to visit cities in
the Palestinian Territory. Given the historically strong social ties between East Jerusalem and
Ramallah, the order had not previously been applied to Palestinian East Jerusalemites, thousands
of whom have strong work, family and cultural links to the Palestinian community in Ramallah.
In recent times, however, IDF has begun requiring permits for Palestinian East Jerusalemites
who commute to Ramallah on a daily basis through the checkpoint of Qalandiya. Now there are
reports that Military Order 378 will be applied after July 2005, when the construction of the Wall
around Jerusalem is completed, to all East Jerusalemites wishing to travel to Ramallah. This
law, which will compel East Jerusalemites to choose between maintaining their ties with
Ramallah and giving up their residence rights in Jerusalem, is part of a series of measures
designed to entrench Israel’s illegal annexation of East Jerusalem, and violates Security Council
and General Assembly resolutions that have reiterated that administrative and legislative
measures taken by Israel to alter the status of East Jerusalem are null and void.
VII. PRISONERS
20. At present there are over 7,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, of whom over 850 are
administrative detainees (that is, persons held without trial). In February 2005, 500 prisoners
were released. However, these were mainly short-term prisoners or prisoners who had nearly
completed their sentences. Despite demands that it release all prisoners, Israel has declared that
it will not release long-term prisoners or those involved in the killing of Israelis. This is a
difficult issue for both Palestinians and Israelis. For Palestinians the good faith of Israel in the
present ceasefire is largely to be measured by the release of prisoners. The Israeli Government
on the other hand, is confronted with domestic opposition to the release of prisoners. What is
required of Israel is a bold step, of the kind taken by other transitional societies, which have
released prisoners in order to further peace.
E/CN.4/2005/29/Add.1
page 11
VIII. GAZA
21. The Government of Israel’s determination to evacuate 8,500 settlers from Gaza and
dismantle its Gazan settlements is, understandably, the focus of international attention. It is a
brave move on the part of Israel, and one that divides Israeli society. But it is the right thing to
do and should be acknowledged as such by those concerned about human rights and
humanitarian law in the Palestinian Territory.
22. The dismantling of settlements in Gaza does not, however, mean that Gaza will be freed
from Israeli control or that Israel will cease to be an occupying Power in terms of the Fourth
Geneva Convention. Gaza at present is a prison, with walls, fences and soldiers to control its
external borders, and with prison guards in the form of IDF soldiers who impose severe
restrictions on the internal movement of Palestinian civilians and police the conduct of
Palestinians within Gaza. Israeli disengagement from Gaza will, hopefully, remove the
mechanisms of internal coercive control but not end Gaza’s external imprisonment or remedy the
humanitarian crisis caused by the closure of Gaza. Moreover, there is a very real fear that Israel
will, before it leaves Gaza, clear a 300-metre wide strip along the Gazan-Egyptian border (the
Philadephi route) which would result in the demolition of hundreds of houses in Rafah. In this
situation it is imperative that the future status of Gaza be addressed more fully. The Special
Rapporteur has previously expressed the opinion that Israel will remain an occupying Power for
the purposes of the Fourth Geneva Convention - a view shared by the Government of Israel’s
legal experts in a report published on 24 October 2004. Not all the provisions of this Convention
will be applicable if Israel ceases to exercise internal control over the territory but many will
remain applicable in the light of Israel’s external control and ability to exercise internal control
should it so choose. It is essential therefore that Israel and the international community agree on
the humanitarian restraints to which Israel will be subject in its control of Gaza after
disengagement.
IX. CONCLUSION
23. This is a time of hope for both Israel and Palestine. If the ceasefire is to hold, it is
essential that the Palestinian Authority exercise control over militant groups responsible
for violence against IDF and settlers within Palestine and for suicide bombings within
Israel. There are signs that the Palestinian Authority may succeed in this endeavour.
Palestinians are exhausted by the second intifada, which has resulted in great suffering,
and militant groups, notably Hamas, have now turned their attention to participation in
the Palestinian political process. It is equally important that Israel keep its side of the
bargain. However, it is not sufficient for Israel to only cease its military activity against
Palestinians. It must address, with great expedition, the causes of Palestinian militancy, the
issues that have given rise to terrorism against the Israeli people. In the longer term the
questions of the return of refugees, the status of Jerusalem and the occupation must be
confronted, but in the short term Israel must address the release of prisoners, the
abandonment of checkpoints, the dismantling of the Wall and the evacuation of all
settlements in Palestinian territory. If it fails to do so, it will forfeit an opportunity for
peace that may not again arise.
- - - - -
UNITED
NATIONS E
Economic and Social
Council
Distr.
GENERAL
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
2 February 2005
Original: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Sixty-first session
Item 12 of the provisional agenda
INTEGRATION OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF WOMEN AND THE
GENDER PERSPECTIVE: VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women,
its causes and consequences, Yakin Ertürk
Addendum
Mission to Occupied Palestinian Territory* **
* The summary of the report is being circulated in all official languages. The report itself is
contained in the annex of this document and is being circulated in English and Arabic.
** The report was submitted late, awaiting comments on the report from the Government
concerned.
GE.05-10721 (E) 170205
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 2
Summary
This report contains findings of my visit to the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) on
official mission from 13 to 18 June 2004. It addresses the impacts of the conflict and the
occupation on women, in particular its implications for violence against women. The report
identifies key measures and initiatives needed to ensure the protection and promotion of the
rights of women and the elimination of violence against women in the OPT. As such, the report
does not focus on violence against women in Israel.
Human rights violations in the form of violence are pervasive throughout the OPT as a
result of the protracted conflict and occupation. Security measures by the Israeli occupying
forces combined with the response this provoked among various Palestinian elements have
contributed to an integrated system of violence, which intersects with a traditional patriarchal
gender order that creates traumatizing impacts on Palestinian women.
The report highlights the role of Israeli security measures on human rights and
humanitarian law in the OPT. Within such a disenabling environment, an integrated system of
violence at the intersection of occupation and patriarchy subjugates women through a continuum
of violence linking all spheres of life. Women experience violence as a direct and indirect effect
of security measures, as well as violence within the family and community that is heightened as a
result of the security situation.
In creating an enabling environment to combat violence in the OPT, it is important that
Israel immediately cease its violations of international law and that a sustainable resolution of
the conflict be reached. Such a resolution rests on an effective response to the core of the
conflict in the region - i.e. the dispossession of the Palestinian people from their land.
I join the appeal of Palestinian women to Israeli society, particularly to Israeli women,
to pressure the Government of Israel to end the occupation. I call on the Government and the
Palestinian Authority to implement the road map toward the establishment of an independent and
sovereign Palestinian State and sustainable peace in the region. In this regard, and in accordance
with Security Council resolution 1325 (2000), I emphasize the importance of the full
involvement of Palestinian and Israeli women in the peace process.
I urge the Government of Israel to observe international law to ensure the rights and
protection of Palestinian civilians, with particular emphasis on the right to health and the
provision for expectant mothers and the ill to receive immediate access to medical care. In this
context, freedom of movement must be allowed to United Nations staff and other humanitarian
agencies operating in the OPT. I further urge the Government of Israel to include treaty-body
reporting, particularly on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW), information on its compliance with its obligations to promote and
protect women’s rights in the OPT.
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 3
I call on the Palestinian Authority to adopt a policy of zero tolerance to all forms of
violence, including terrorism; to work toward the development of a democratic, secular State that
protects women’s rights; to establish a unified domestic legislation criminalizing sexual assault,
domestic violence and honour crimes; to provide legal, political and financial support to the
Ministry of Women’s Affairs and to increase political representation of women. I call on the
Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) to adopt the Bill of Rights for Women and promote the
implementation of all draft bills geared toward gender equality.
I call on the international community to be increasingly active in promoting
accountability for observance of international law by Israel in the OPT; to enhance the
Palestinian Authority’s capacity to enable it to comply with its obligations; to support, through
bilateral and multilateral funding, civil society initiatives to improve women’s status; and to
support the Palestinian and Israeli women promoting peace and conflict resolution throughout
the region. I urge the Security Council to authorize an international mechanism in the OPT to
ensure the observance of human rights and humanitarian law and the implementation of existing
Council resolutions; to complement these efforts, expand the mandate of the Office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) field office in the OPT to
include a monitoring function.
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 4
Annex
REPORT SUBMITTED BY THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR
ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN, ITS CAUSES AND
CONSEQUENCES, YAKIN ERTÜRK, ON HER MISSION
TO THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
(13 to 18 JUNE 2004)
CONTENTS
Paragraphs Page
Introduction .............................................................................................. 1 - 4 5
I. THE CONTEXT: SECURITY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND
HUMANITARIAN LAW ............................................................. 5 - 12 5
II. INTEGRATED SYSTEM OF VIOLENCE AGAINST
WOMEN ....................................................................................... 13 - 58 7
A. Violence emanating from Israel’s security measures ....... 19 - 46 8
B. Violence within the family and the community ............... 47 - 58 14
III. RESPONSE TO VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN .................... 59 - 71 17
A. Legal framework ............................................................... 59 - 60 17
B. Initiatives of the Palestinian Authority ............................. 61 - 63 18
C. Initiatives of the civil society ............................................ 64 - 69 18
D. Initiatives of the United Nations country team ................. 70 - 71 19
IV. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ....................... 72 - 78 20
Appendix: List of persons and organizations consulted during the mission ................ 28
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 5
Introduction
1. I visited the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) on official mission from 13
to 18 June 2004 to gather first-hand information on how the occupation and conflict impacts
on violence against women in the OPT. The visit took place with the cooperation of the
Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority. I would like to thank them both for the
cooperation extended to my visit.
2. I am very grateful for the support provided by the United Nations country team for
ensuring a substantively and logistically successful visit. In particular, I would like to express
my gratitude to Mr. Osman Hassan, the Director of the OHCHR field office in the OPT and his
staff for their support, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees
in the Near East (UNRWA) for facilitating field visits in the Gaza Strip.
3. During the mission, meetings were held in East and West Jerusalem, the West Bank
(Ramallah, Jenin and Anin) and the Gaza Strip (Gaza city, including Al-Zaytoun area, and
Jabalia refugee camp). I undertook a number of field visits to refugee camps and to villages near
the separation wall to interview victims of human rights violations and their families. I also
visited the Ramleh Central Prison and interviewed Palestinian female detainees. I had
consultations with and received information from representatives of the Government of Israel,
the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), representatives of the Palestinian Authority, and members of
the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). I also met with representatives of human rights and
women’s organizations, academics, lawyers, survivors of violence, families of victims and
United Nations agencies. (A list of interlocutors is in the appendix.)
4. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all the victims of violence and their
relatives who agreed to relate their personal experiences, which enabled me to have a deeper
understanding of the problems arising for Palestinian women.
I. THE CONTEXT: SECURITY, HUMAN RIGHTS
AND HUMANITARIAN LAW
5. The focus of this report is confined to an analysis of the impact of conflict and
occupation on Palestinian women in the OPT. It is still commonly assumed that high politics
and international relations are gender neutral. The United Nations gender agenda of the past
several decades, in particular the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW), the 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against
Women, the 1994 mandate of the special rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and
consequences, and the Beijing Platform for Action, emerged in part in response to such biased
perceptions. Gender order is political and high politics are gendered. External factors, such as
occupation, change or distort relations between the sexes. Therefore, it is necessary to assess
their gender implications and their impact on violence against women. It is with this realization
that I use the mandate entrusted to me to assess the impact of conflict and occupation in the OPT.
In order to achieve a holistic approach I also examine how patriarchy - as a universal system of
oppression - intersects with occupation in creating a continuum of multiple forms of violence
against women in the OPT.1
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 6
6. National security has become a global concern and measures undertaken in this regard,
regrettably, have often compromised human rights and humanitarian law. This is a salient
feature of the state of affairs in the OPT, accelerating particularly after the second intifada
in 2002. Through military orders, Israeli authorities have built and expanded Jewish settlements
on Palestinian lands, exploited water and economic resources, controlled crossing points,
required work permits and regulated the movement and the intimate lives of the Palestinian
people. This situation has provoked resistance in different forms, including violence by militant
groups. Thus, an integrated system of violence, intersecting with violence inherent in patriarchal
gender relations, has become institutionalized, which cuts across all spheres of women’s lives in
the OPT.
7. After having visited the region and witnessed the reality of life in the OPT, I am
extremely concerned that the measures taken by Israel for security reasons are in fact
perpetuating the conflict and provoking further violence. I am further concerned that such
measures will exacerbate the hostilities, thus confining both Palestinian and Israeli civilians, to a
perpetual state of insecurity. The Palestinian people, however, are bearing by far the brunt of the
situation, and this is cultivating seeds of desperation in the OPT.
8. Israel has the right to address security concerns. However, human rights law calls for a
balance between legitimate national security concerns and the protection of fundamental
freedoms. Therefore, measures must be proportionate to the threat that they are designed to
counter and must be non-discriminatory in nature. Under international law certain rights are not
subject to suspension under any circumstance, including the right to life; freedom of thought,
conscience and religion; freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment; and fundamental principles of fair trial and the presumption of innocence.
9. The Human Rights Committee (HRC) in its concluding observations on Israel2 reiterated
that the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) do apply
to the population of the occupied territories. It specifically stressed that Israel has to “ensure
that measures designed to counter acts of terrorism, whether adopted in connection with
Security Council resolution 1373 (2001) or in the context of the ongoing armed conflict,
are in full conformity with the Covenant”. The Committee noted Israel’s frequent use of
administrative detention entailing restrictions on access to counsel and to disclosure of reasons
for detention. It stated that these features limit the effectiveness of judicial review, thus
endangering protection against torture and other inhumane treatment. It also expressed its
concern over the use of prolonged incommunicado detention. The Committee deplored the
punitive nature of the demolition of homes and called on Israel to cease the practice.
10. Prior to my visit to the OPT, the Security Council on 19 May 2004 adopted
resolution 1544, which reiterates the obligation of Israel, as the occupying Power, to
scrupulously abide by its legal obligations and responsibilities under the Fourth Geneva
Convention of 12 August 1949 relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, and
the numerous previous resolutions on the Palestinian question. The international community has
stated clearly that the concept of military occupation applies to the Palestinian territories, and
therefore, Israel is subject to the provisions and rules of the international humanitarian law that
regulate the situation of occupation.3
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 7
11. While the representatives of the Government of Israel indicated that security measures
are a last resort to protect the Israeli population from terrorist attacks, they also stressed that
human rights law and the law of war may at times be incompatible. The Israeli Defense Forces
(IDF) legal service said that any action exceeding “military necessity” is investigated and that
perpetrators are prosecuted if found guilty. They assured me that they are very sensitive to
“collateral damage”. However, they admitted that sometimes mistakes are made due to poor
intelligence. They emphasized that all actions are also subjected to review by the Israeli
Supreme Court and all residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip may petition against alleged
human rights violations.
12. On 27 May 2004, Adalah, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, and the NGO
Al-Haq filed a petition and a motion for an injunction to the Israeli Supreme Court against IDF,
the Minister of Defence and the Prime Minister. The petitioners asked the Supreme Court to
define, for the first time, the legal scope of the term “military necessity” in accordance with
international humanitarian law, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and recent
decisions of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The petition
challenged IDF’s justification of “military necessity” for its policy of house demolitions. At a
hearing on the petition on 26 October 2004, the Supreme Court requested additional submission
on a specific event within a specific location related to the petition.
II. INTEGRATED SYSTEM OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
13. Decades of Israeli occupation of the OPT, use of force and stringent security measures
combined with the forms of resistance these provoke have contributed to the creation of an
atmosphere of legitimized violence as a method of conflict resolution. At the intersection of
occupation and patriarchy, women experience a multilayered discrimination and multiple forms
of violence.
14. The occupation has pervaded all aspects of life and entailed violations of economic,
social and cultural rights as well as civil and political rights. Violence is used by IDF as a tool to
sustain the occupation and by the Palestinian militants as a tool to resist it. The strategic use of
instruments by Israel such as land confiscation, extrajudicial executions, daily military
incursions, arbitrary closures and curfews, demolitions of homes and arbitrary detention among
others have all contributed since 1967 to the current mistrust and hostility pervasive throughout
the OPT.
15. The situation in Gaza is like an open prison, with Israel totally controlling the movements
in and out of the area. In May 2004, Israel launched raids of unprecedented violence and
destruction in the south of the Gaza Strip with the aim of finding and destroying tunnels
stretching under the border from Egypt through which weapons were allegedly being smuggled
into Gaza. They demolished homes, damaged schools and other public buildings, and destroyed
infrastructure, much of which reportedly stood several hundred metres away from the border.
Palestinian civilians, including women and children, were shot without warning. On the first day
of the incursion a 14-year-old girl was killed, followed by many more injuries on the second day
as troops opened fire on demonstrators. I was unfortunately unable to visit Rafah, as IDF closed
the road on the day I was scheduled to travel there.4
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 8
16. I heard testimonies from female refugees in Jenin who reported that during the two-week
military incursion in 2002, IDF sent missiles into the camp, killing and injuring women and
children, and demolishing homes. Ambulances were prevented from entering the camp,
resulting in death due to lack of medical care. Women were used as human shields to enter
houses. Many men were arrested and detained incommunicado for a period of six months.
Women and children were disabled and suffer post-traumatic stress as a result.
17. Widows, 67 per cent of whom are aged between 18-30 years, told me that, even as wives
of martyrs with an enhanced status, they are never free in a conservative patriarchal community.
Therefore, they have forgotten that they are women, and now see themselves only as mothers
and providers for their family. Women with husbands explained that the dire economic situation
and the pressures of the occupation have made men more violent because they have lost their
ability to provide and protect - two essential elements of manhood in a traditional patriarchal
society. As men become stripped of their manhood, women become the shock absorbers of the
crises as targets of domestic violence.5
18. Violence against women manifesting itself within an integrated system of violence
emanates from two sources: Israeli security measures; and the family and the community.
A. Violence emanating from Israel’s security measures
19. Security measures are directed at the entire Palestinian population; in this regard, women
are subjected to violence emanating from these measures in similar ways to other members of the
society. However, owing to the diverse ways in which occupation and patriarchy intersect, the
direct and indirect impact of security measures tends to have specific and compounded
consequences for women. In order to demonstrate this, I focus on four measures employed by
the Israeli authorities: restrictions on freedom of movement; house demolitions; detention; and
injuries and loss of lives.
1. Restrictions on the freedom of movement
20. The policy of restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians consists of a number
of practices that include differential residency and identification (ID) status, military
checkpoints,6 the wall, and arbitrarily imposed closures and curfews. Israel’s enforcement of
closure has been specifically designed to be unpredictable, thus destroying coherence and
leaving the population confused and fearing the worst.
21. Aside from the physical obstructions, an ID system regulates the movement of people
within the OPT and from one side of the wall to another. In the occupied territories, people hold
one of three different ID statuses corresponding to their place of residence: West Bank,
Jerusalem or Gaza. To further illustrate the complexity of the system, a West Bank permit
holder requires a permit to pass through any of the numerous military checkpoints along the
“Green Line” into Israel and Jerusalem. If over the age of 16, the same person would need an
additional permit to travel from one Palestinian town to another within the West Bank and yet
another to enter the industrial zone where he or she works. Palestinians with a Jerusalem ID
have the right to move in and out of Jerusalem and throughout most of the OPT, a right often
disrupted by border and civil police. The complex and restrictive nature of these practices also
poses difficulties for marriage and family unification.7
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 9
22. According to the report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices
Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied
Territories (A/58/311), in Jerusalem tens of thousands of Palestinian families live in the city
without residence permits since they fled and returned after the 1967 war. The absence of a
residence permit deprives them of health and social services and prevents children from
attending Israeli public schools.8
23. Concerns have been raised with regard to pregnant women in the OPT not being able to
access appropriate health care and hospitals safely due to restrictions on movement. This is now
further exacerbated by the construction of the wall.9 I received reports of denied or delayed
access that resulted in women giving birth at the checkpoint, causing complications and loss of
life in some cases. For example, Rula Ashtiya, who on 28 August 2003 was reportedly
denied passage by Israeli soldiers at Beit Furik checkpoint, gave birth on the road. Her baby
died shortly afterwards and only then was she allowed through the checkpoint to the hospital
in Nablus. Similarly, Lamees Tayseer Ibrahim Qassem gave birth to premature twins
on 22 December 2003. She was kept at the checkpoint for an hour and a half in the middle of the
night. When the ambulance on the other side was finally allowed through the checkpoint, her
condition had already deteriorated and both newborn girls died shortly after birth.
24. According to one report,10 during the two years of the intifada the number of stillborn
births in the West Bank increased by 500 per cent, the number of babies born at home doubled
and there were at least 39 cases of births at army roadblocks. Restrictions on movement have
also increased the number of home deliveries. According to UNICEF figures of 8 March 2004,
the number of home deliveries increased from 8.2 to 14 per cent since 2002. During the same
period, the number of women attending post-natal care decreased from 95.6 to 82.4 per cent.
Also since 2002, 52 pregnant women gave birth at military checkpoints. Between
September 2000 and December 2002, 19 women and 29 newborn infants died at military
checkpoints. In addition, 37.9 per cent of women reported that access to health services became
difficult. This was due, according to 44.3 per cent of these women, to the Israeli siege and for
another 27.9 per cent to the lack of money to pay for health services.
25. The transgression of the freedom of movement and risks of settler attacks on the roads, as
well as dehumanizing treatment at military checkpoints, compel families to marry their daughters
at an early age rather than send them to school. This situation cuts women off from their social
networks at a young age, since women typically move to live in their husband’s town after
marriage. Consequently, immobility deprives women of the support and services of formal and
informal networks and institutions.
2. House demolitions
26. According to UNRWA, Israel’s military campaign of house demolitions between
September 2000 and 30 April 2003 rendered 12,737 Palestinians homeless. More recent figures
place homelessness well above 20,000 with around 6,000 homes totally demolished. It is
reported that IDF units with the support of tanks, helicopters and armoured personnel carriers
conduct the demolitions late at night with little or no warning. As a result of their increased use
of explosives collateral damage has increased.
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 10
27. During the period January-April 2004, IDF demolished 250 residential units for “security
reasons”, according to the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens Rights. Thirteen
houses were demolished on the pretext that a family member participated in, helped carry out or
planned operations against Israeli targets. Additionally, 13 houses were demolished in
West Bank cities and villages (including East Jerusalem) on the pretext that the owners did not
have building permits. UNRWA estimates that, during raids on Rafah in May 2004, the homes
of around 3,800 people were totally demolished or damaged beyond repair: “From 18
to 24 May (2004) a total of 167 buildings in the Tel Sultan, Brazil and Salam quarters of
Rafah were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable. These buildings housed 379 families or
2,066 individuals. In total, in 6 days, 277 buildings, housing 641 families or 3,451 individuals
have been demolished in Rafah. Since the start of the intifada 1,476 buildings have been
demolished in Rafah, affecting 14,666 people.”11
28. The manner in which the house demolitions have been implemented renders entire
families homeless and destitute and inflicts great suffering on the civilian population who, in the
process, encounter loss of life, arrests and harassment. The force used and the failure to provide
warning maximizes the emotional and physical trauma of the demolition. The Special
Rapporteur on adequate housing emphasized on several occasions the disproportionate effects of
house demolitions on women, children and the elderly.
29. Women are particularly burdened in having to adjust to new conditions when their homes
are destroyed. The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions noted that: “Women suffer
immensely from forced eviction. Domestic violence is higher in the precarious and often
stressful situation of inadequate housing, especially before and during a forced eviction.”12 In
addition to domestic violence, house demolitions compound women’s responsibilities as they
must sustain life in the domestic sphere. Whether or not women work outside the house they
devote a significant amount of their time and energy to work in the home. While men and
children may spend more time outside the house, the home is the only refuge for Palestinian
women. Once the home is destroyed, women are not only left without a place of belonging, they
must often carry the burden of rebuilding the home and coping with the inconveniences of
moving in with relatives.
30. I visited the site of a demolished house in the Al-Zaytoun area of Gaza city and spoke to
members of the Ashour family. They told me that the demolition took place during an Israeli
military incursion on 11 to 13 May 2004. The demolished building consisted of four floors and
housed approximately 30 people. Soldiers forcibly entered the building, took the men and boys,
then allegedly tied and beat them. The soldiers returned at midnight and ordered the inhabitants
out of their homes with little time to collect any belongings. The building was then demolished,
also crushing the taxi that provided the family with its livelihood. The men were later released,
but the family was never provided any explanation as to why their home was destroyed. At the
time of my visit, the family had not yet filed a complaint against IDF but intended to do so.
31. Representatives of the Government of Israel told me that there are two distinct types of
house demolitions: those that occur during the course of military operations and those carried
out for a specific military purpose, e.g. demolition of houses as a deterrent for potential suicide
bombers. The authorities indicated that each individual whose house has been designated for
demolition has the right to petition to the High Court of Justice and that there have been a
significant number of cases in which the court revoked the order for house demolitions due to
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 11
petitions. Furthermore, I was assured that private land seizures were compensated. However,
Palestinian lawyers claimed that there was no effective recourse for victims of such violations as
complaints heard by the Israeli Supreme Court were often ruled invalid.13
32. The United Nations country team also informed me that it has filed numerous
compensation claims with the Israeli Supreme Court for the destruction of United Nations
property. In 2002 and 2003, UNRWA submitted claims to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
requesting that the Government pay an amount totalling US$ 778,743 for damage to UNRWA
property in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip between September 2000 and December 2002. As
of the end of 2003, UNRWA had received no response from Israeli authorities regarding these
claims. The agency intended to submit in due course additional claims for the damages incurred
in the period from 1 January to 30 June 2003.14
3. Detention
33. According to data from the Mandela Institute, the number of Palestinian detainees
in Israeli prisons and detention centres had reached 6,599 by the end of March 2004,
including 578 administrative detainees, 302 children, and 85 women.15
34. The NGO Defence for Children International (DCI)16 reports that since the start of the
intifada the Israeli military has detained 2,500 children of whom 403 remain in detention, of
whom 116 have been sentenced. Many were picked up in mass arrest campaigns in 2002, held
incommunicado without access to a lawyer or a social worker and denied contact with family.
Some were eventually released without charge while others have been held for longer periods,
transferred from police stations to interrogation centres and prisons within Israel where they
await trial. The majority of the Palestinian detainees under the age of 18 are held in Telmond
Central Prison along with Israeli juvenile criminal detainees, while some remain in a variety of
other detention centres.
35. A report from human rights organization Addameer17 reveals that the number
of Palestinian women political detainees has increased since September 2000. As of
14 September 2004, 91 Palestinian women are currently held in Israeli prison, of
whom 9 are minors: 86 women out of the 91 are security prisoners and 5 are held on
criminal charges; 4 prisoners are administrative detainees; 90 of the prisoners are held by
the Israeli prison service and 1 woman by Israeli security authorities.18
36. I requested to visit the Telmond Central Prison (Hasharoon), where female Palestinian
security detainees were reportedly being held.19 The Israeli authorities informed me that there
were no female detainees at that location and that I could instead visit the women’s section of
Ramleh Central Prison (Nevi Tertze) located inside Israel, provided that I agreed to interview
female detainees in the presence of an Israeli prison guard. I received reports that the female
detainees had been moved from Ramleh Central Prison to Telmond Central Prison in
January 2004 and again transferred back to Ramleh following my request to visit
Telmond Prison. The reasons behind moving the prisoners between the two locations
remain unclear.
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 12
37. At the time of my visit to the women’s section of Ramleh prison, the status of female
Palestinian security prisoners was as follows: 2 newly arrived, 2 administrative detainees,
2 juveniles on remand, 25 on remand and 19 sentenced prisoners. Some of the women had given
birth during their detention, and in such cases the newborn are allowed to remain with the
mothers until two years of age. While the general conditions in the prison seemed satisfactory,
I was concerned to learn that pregnant detainees are reportedly shackled whilst in labour during
transit to the hospital. After giving birth, the mother is again shackled by one leg to the bed.
The use of these restraints violates international standards and may constitute cruel practices.
38. A 2001 United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM) study20 revealed that Palestinian
women may be arrested at their homes, in the middle of the night, by a group of armed soldiers
or at a checkpoint on their way to or from school/work and detained indefinitely without charge
or trial.21 According to the study, detainees are held in solitary confinement, forced to give birth
in prison cells, tortured, verbally and sexually abused and threatened. Former female detainees,
whom I met, confirmed these reports and referred to the Russian Compound police detention
centre in West Jerusalem, where they were held in solitary confinement and tortured during
interrogation.22
39. Women are also subjected to beatings and humiliation during the arrest or detention of
their family members. Entire families may be arrested when IDF fails to find a suspected
“terrorist”. Palestinian women are reportedly detained in order to put pressure on relatives who
may be wanted by Israel or already under interrogation.23 Women are then held incommunicado
or in administrative detention in Israeli military prisons for indefinite periods of time, serving as
“bait” to control the actions of suspects. This practice denies the detainee the right to access to
counsel, fair trial and even to know the alleged offence of which they are accused.
40. According to DCI research, the majority of girl detainees have been held for allegedly
committing serious security offences, such as attempting to kill Israeli settlers or military
personnel. During the second intifada, Palestinian women began training to become suicide
bombers. From January 2002 to January 2004, seven Palestinian women conducted suicide
bombings and approximately four more were arrested before they could carry out planned
attacks. During my visit, two girls, aged 14 and 15 were arrested at night under suspicion of
planning a suicide bombing (Haaretz, Israeli daily newspaper, 17 June 2004). The heightened
security measures resulting from such suicide bombing has made women prime suspects at
checkpoints, where they may be subject to body searches and detained under administrative
order. DCI research shows that many of the girls thus detained were not involved in terrorist
acts.
41. In a conservative culture where families and communities keep girls under close scrutiny,
a community may regard the modesty and innocence of a girl who has been detained as having
been violated because of her absence from public view. Such stigmatization can have lifelong
repercussions. For example, my interview with Feda, a female minor from the old city of
Hebron who was detained for two years for allegedly attempting to kill an Israeli mother and
daughter settler, revealed how a woman’s victimization can become compounded. Feda became
an outcast in her own society as she is perceived to have been sexually compromised during her
two years of detention. Although her family remains supportive, she continues to face
difficulties reintegrating into the community.
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 13
42. I did not receive any testimonies of rape during detention. Cases of sexual violence may
go unreported owing to the taboo and stigma attached to being “impure”. Israeli authorities
assured me that any form of sexual abuse by Israeli security forces or prison personnel would not
be tolerated.
4. Loss of life and injuries
43. Military incursions, targeted killings and excessive use of force against demonstrators
have resulted in a high rate of civilian casualties, including women and children. According to
United Nations figures, between 21 May and 23 June 2004, 39 Palestinians and 2 Israelis were
killed, and 309 Palestinians and 32 Israelis wounded. That brings the total number of casualties
since the start of the current crisis in September 2000 to 3,437 Palestinians and 942 Israelis
killed, with 33,776 Palestinians and 6,008 Israelis wounded.24 The majority of these casualties
have been civilians.
44. A study by the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC) and the
Women’s Studies Centre (WSC)25 shows that in the majority of cases women and children
were killed or injured due to dangers on their way to work or school; lack of medical care
as a result of access being denied at checkpoints; collateral death or injury during targeted
operations; and IDF shelling in or near their homes during curfews or closures of villages,
refugee camps and towns. The following are some examples of girl child victims in
Khan Younis refugee camp: in March 2003, 12-year-old Hoda Darwish was sitting at her
desk when a bullet fired from an Israeli observation post on the outskirts of the camp hit her,
leaving her blind.26 On 7 September 2004, 10-year-old Raghda Adnan Al-Assar was struck in
the head while in class at an UNRWA elementary girls’ school and died on 22 September 2004.
On 28 October 2004, 9-year-old Rania Iyad Aram died after being shot while on her way
to school.27
45. On 9 November 2000, two Palestinian women were among the first victims of Israel’s
policy to implement targeted assassinations of alleged Palestinian terrorists. According to
the 2003 annual report of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, between 29 September 2000
and 31 December 2003 Israel carried out a total of 160 assassination operations, killing
327 Palestinians (13.7 per cent of the total number of Palestinians killed in the same period),
among them 14 non-targeted women. Hundreds of men, women and children bystanders have
also been wounded in these operations.28 According to DCI,29 at least 584 Palestinian children,
67 of whom were girls, have died and thousands have been injured since September 2000.
Twenty-four of the girls perished during Israeli air and ground attacks on their homes
and 13 died from random fire while conducting everyday activities. Another source30
shows that of the estimated 3,207 Palestinians killed since 2000, 590 were children
and 230 women, 255 were victims of targeted killings, and 40,000 were wounded in the same
time period. According to Palestinian Red Crescent Society data, from September 2000
to September 2004 a total of 27,879 Palestinians were injured and 3,332 killed, of which 132
were women and 74 girls.
46. Women on both sides, who experience the killing and injury of their loved ones, find
themselves suddenly transformed into heads of households, primary-care takers and providers.
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 14
Palestinian women in particular must endure this with few resources and support on which to
rely. The psychological trauma of bereavement and the additional burdens placed on women are
further dimensions of the gendered impact of crisis situations, so often overlooked in analysis.
B. Violence within the family and the community
47. Inequality in general and gender inequality in particular are more pronounced under
conflict and crisis situations. Sustenance of group boundaries, family honour and the
maintenance of everyday life fall on the shoulder of women, for whom this often means
conformity to traditional norms of patriarchy. This is the point where two systems of
subordination - occupation and patriarchy - converge in the OPT: women in confronting the
former submit to the latter. Thus, women find themselves amidst increasing inequality sustained
through multiple forms of direct and indirect violence inside and outside their home. In order to
demonstrate this, I will focus on how violence against women is justified and sustained under the
conditions of occupation as women become the markers of the boundaries of patriarchy under
the siege and shock absorbers of livelihoods in crisis.
1. Women at the centre of conflict
48. The death, imprisonment or unemployment of many adult male members of the
community, which affects all areas of the OPT, have increased poverty and social tensions that
contribute to increased domestic violence. “Violence in the environment exacerbates the
instance of abuse at home; whereas, children’s and parents’ exposure to political violence is the
strong predictor of violence in the family.”31 During the earlier periods of the Palestinian
struggle, women were able to circumvent some of the traditional restrictions imposed on them to
become more involved in the struggle of their people. This is well reflected in the often-quoted
phrase “land before honour”. However, the increased transgression of their land has left honour
as the only viable ground for the preservation of societal identity - to the detriment of women.
49. Parallel to this, the use of land, water, food, the demolition of homes and the destruction
of the general economy as a weapon against the occupied population have resulted in a
deterioration of the living conditions in the OPT. Sixty per cent of the Palestinian population
reportedly lives under the poverty line, while the majority of the population is unemployed and
large numbers of people are homeless. Unemployment systematically renders men unable to
provide for their families, forcing women to take up work outside the home. At the same time,
however, their freedom of movement has been curtailed due to the increased protectiveness of
families in order to avoid risks and harassment at checkpoints. This contradictory situation
undermines women’s ability to contribute to family sustenance and to attend school, particularly
at the university level.
50. There is a consensus among analysts that the deepening of the conflict in the OPT and the
expansion of the tools of occupation has weakened the negotiating power of Palestinian women
to challenge the patriarchal gender contract which has, in part, become a defence mechanism to
keep the society intact. For the most part, conformity to traditional norms of honour and the
observance of group boundaries has provided women, particularly in refugee camps and rural
areas, a safeguard against the hostile face of the occupation. In a sense, as well articulated by
Nahla Abdo, Palestinian women “are placed in a double jeopardy, having to face both the
patriarchal-national ‘self’ and the foreign oppressive ‘other’”.32
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 15
2. Legitimizing violence against women as a weapon of patriarchy
51. Under occupation, “the Palestinian women’s concern in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
was concentrated on the national struggle within political structures reflecting the same paternal
system within the household; men are at the top of the organizational hierarchy in the political
factions and parties, and women at the bottom of the hierarchy ... The Wall of Patriarchy”.33
This has not only posed additional barriers to women’s freedoms but also reinforced the
legitimacy of the use and perpetuation of violence against them.
52. The intensification and expansion of the security measures pose a direct attack on
Palestinian male image and identity. Men, who in most cases have become unemployed due to
the closures, are humiliated and dehumanized in public during military incursions and at
checkpoints. Their ability to provide for and protect their home and family is seriously
undermined, creating a sense of “inadequacy”. According to Rubenberg (2001), “with the
enactment of masculinity challenged daily by an occupation that deprives men of the sources of
their gender identity - land and the ability to support and defend their families - women’s status
as markers of family honour and respectability has been enhanced”.34 The failure to perform in
accordance with the requirements of traditional patriarchal society is said to result in increased
frustration on the men’s part, which often leads to violence in the home. Rubenberg goes on to
say, “A culture of shame and control, ranging from gossip to honour killings, and the subsequent
and corresponding internal constraints, serves to keep women isolated and vitally aware of the
consequences of the minutest aspect of their behaviour.” In this way, women find themselves as
multiple victims of the crisis in the OPT as they bear the restrictions imposed by a traditional
patriarchal society combined with the physical and emotional effects of the political and
socio-economic situation. “Forced into silent suffering, many women are trapped into a
world of solitary despair. Feelings of loneliness, loss, isolation and helplessness become
overwhelming.”35
53. During my visit to Jabaliya refugee camp, I met a woman who decided to take her life as
a last resort after many years of living as a refugee and being routinely subjected to domestic
violence. After the attempted suicide, the woman became an outcast in her home and
community. Her situation has since worsened because she not only continues to endure the
violence and hardship of her living conditions, but now must also live with the shame of having
attempted suicide.
54. Women are expected to cope with the consequences of the occupation and provide
stability to their family and community under the worst of circumstances. In situations of
unjustified loss of life the elevated concept of the “martyr” in Palestinian society has become
survival and coping mechanism for women. According to Shamas,36 “Under the concept of
‘martyrdom’, Palestinian society and culture demand that women suppress their grief when their
children or husbands are killed, for they are believed to have died a ‘noble’, ‘worthy’ and indeed
‘holy’ death. Thus, women are often denied the right to cry openly, and are even urged to
‘ululate’ in celebration, which many of them do while in a state of shock, hysteria or total
breakdown.” This masking of grief further obfuscates the psychological impacts of violence on
women and creates yet another dimension to their suffering.
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 16
55. All of these factors have resulted in the overall acceptance of domestic violence as
legitimate by the individuals as well as the society at large. This is revealed by the following
results from a public opinion poll conducted in 2002:37
− 53.7 per cent agree that it is inappropriate for the police to interfere when a man
assaults his wife, for this is considered a family affair;
− 55.5 per cent agree that a wife assaulted by her husband should not talk about it to
anybody but to her parents;
− 86 per cent believe to varying degrees that political, economical and social
conditions have increased violence against women;
− 52.5 per cent believe that customs and traditions comprise a stumbling block to the
advancement of women.
The same poll also indicates that the Palestinian Authority is seen as failing to protect and
promote women’s rights.
3. In the name of “honour”
56. Women in the OPT are killed or threatened with death for tarnishing family honour.
These crimes are a manifestation of “culturally” inherited values that impose upon women
socially expected behaviours derived from prevailing patriarchal norms and standards. Women’s
transgression of these norms is said to violate the “honour” of men and the family, which
legitimizes violence against women within the social context as a disciplinary measure to
maintain or restore family honour. Women accused of promiscuity may be imprisoned in their
homes, subjected to verbal and physical violence, married to their violator or even murdered in
the name of honour.
57. Nadia Shalhoub-Kevorkian, a prominent researcher on honour crimes in Palestinian
society, draws attention to the societal dimensions of honour crimes, whereby the family acts
under pressures from society in fear of being socially ousted.38 Available information also
indicates that some of the women who have been threatened or killed for allegedly dishonouring
their family were victims of rape or sexual assault by an intimate associate within the domestic
sphere. The murder of women, or “femicide”, in such situations is used to cover up shameful
crimes committed by male members of the family.
58. Although data regarding honour killings is patchy, according to the Women’s Affairs
Technical Committee39 33 women were killed in the name of honour in 2002, the majority of
whom were under the age of 18. The Committee is concerned that the destruction of the
Palestinian security sector and the gaps in the law protecting women exacerbate impunity for
these crimes. “Throughout the occupied territories, the resolution of such cases is subject to
overlapping, and often competing authorities.”40 The lack of national sovereignty and a history
of occupation have undermined the ability of the Palestinian Authority to legislate and
implement measures to deal with such societal atrocities. Tribal and militant centres of power
thus fill this vacuum, often working to resolve cases through reconciliation and mediation while
at the same time concealing the crime in an effort to prevent the spread of scandal.
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 17
III. RESPONSES TO VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
A. Legal framework
59. Despite the inability of the Palestinian Authority to sign and ratify international human
rights instruments, it has unilaterally committed itself to abiding by international law. Article 10
of the Palestinian Draft Basic Law states that “human rights and the fundamental freedoms must
be respected and protected and the PA will work without delay to become party to international
instruments for the protection of human rights”.
60. The Palestinian people are subject to an amalgamation of laws inherited from different
historical periods: Ottoman Empire, British Mandate, Jordanian and Egyptian laws and Israeli
military orders. This multiplicity of laws has led to the lack of consistent and uniform
Palestinian legal references. Furthermore, patriarchal biases prevailing in the legal provisions
and criminal justice system prevent women from accessing justice and escaping violence. The
following are areas of immediate concern to my mandate:
(a) The Personal Status laws that regulate women’s rights and roles within the family
in the OPT are not unified. While Muslim women in the West Bank are subject to Jordanian
law, those in Gaza are subject to Egyptian law. As for Christian Palestinians, laws established
by their respective churches govern each denomination. Furthermore, these laws contain
discriminatory provisions. For example, the Jordanian Personal Status Code of 1976, which
grants a battered woman the right to file for a divorce on the grounds of “conflict and disaccord”
resulting from harm inflicted by the husband, requires that the wife show scars of physical abuse
in order to proceed with the divorce. Moreover, social pressures, the practical applications of the
law, and the lack of financial resources to pay for lawyers and court fees limit women’s access to
the legal system. All of the Personal Status laws endorse discrimination between the sexes. For
example, marriageable age in the West Bank for boys is 16 years of age and for girls 15 years
of age. In the Gaza Strip, the implementation of the “family law” is left to the judge’s discretion,
falling within the age range of 9 to 17 years for girls and 12 to 18 years for boys, based on the
“maturity” level of the individual;
(b) The Jordanian Penal Code No. 16 of 1960 includes a mitigating circumstances
clause, whereby the perpetrator of an honour crime may be immune from punishment if it is
shown that the victim committed an adulterous act. With regard to incest, article 286 of the
Jordanian Penal Code stipulates that, “Incestuous actions shall only be pursued upon the
complaint of a male relative or an in-law, up to the fourth-degree kinship.” Therefore, neither
the victim nor a female relative can file a complaint. The absence of official policies and
procedures further aggravates the difficulties in creating effective preventive and therapeutic
programmes or effective working strategies to combat incest. In cases of rape, the law provides
the judge with major discretionary authority to estimate the gravity of crimes and to impose the
appropriate sentence. This may have negative consequences, as gender-based discrimination
comes into play in judges’ determinations, particularly in sentencing. Furthermore, article 308
of the Jordanian Penal Code lowers the sentence against the perpetrator if a “legal and correct
marriage contract is forged” between him and the victim. Therefore, the perpetrator may, in
effect, escape punishment by marrying the victim.
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 18
B. Initiatives of the Palestinian Authority
61. The Palestinian Authority, as a result of the Oslo accords of 1993 and the transfer of
limited sovereignty to the Palestinian leadership, entered into a new phase of self-governance.
Following the 1996 elections, the Authority was required to take steps towards building a society
founded on democracy, rule of law and respect for human rights. Although the PA provides
services in areas of education and health, Israel has undermined its authority, particularly in the
area of security. The PLC has difficulties meeting because of travel restrictions that prevent
members living in Gaza and members living in the West Bank from reaching each other. They
resorted to videoconferencing to circumvent these obstacles, but such measures have proven
unsatisfactory, leaving gaps in governmental communication.
62. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the PA’s establishment of the Ministry of Women’s
Affairs in November 2003 and is pleased to note that it is addressing violence against women as
a cross-cutting issue in all of their programmes. They are working with the Ministry of the
Interior to train police on women’s rights and to create police stations that facilitate women’s
access. The ministry has the potential to improve the situation of women and the Special
Rapporteur hopes it will receive the resources and support it requires to be an effective
institution for the promotion and protection of women’s rights in the OPT.
63. The Ministry for Social Affairs also contributes to the promotion of women’s
human rights by providing vocational training and seed money to women. It financially
supports 48,000 hardship cases of which 60 per cent are female-headed households. There is one
women’s shelter supported by the ministry in Nablus, which provides counselling and vocational
training.
C. Initiatives of the civil society
64. Civil society in the OPT, particularly women’s organizations, are resilient and, despite
the military incursions, demolitions, and restrictions on freedom of movement, life prevails in
the OPT. The women’s movement, active since 1948, is professional and well organized. After
the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967, with new waves of refugees,
Palestinian women took on a more prominent political, economic and social role. In 1987 during
the first intifada, women achieved a significant presence in public life. Consequently, a
qualitative change took place in the women’s movement that helped diversify their activities and
broadened their gender identity. These developments coincided with and became reinforced by
the overall global momentum of the 1990s for democracy, peace, gender equality, empowerment
and human rights.
65. The 1993 Oslo accords shifted the force of the intifada from the grass roots to the
higher level leadership that led to the creation of the Palestinian Authority. Since then
women’s groups have expressed concerns about the Authority’s shortcomings regarding
gender issues. These groups hoped to involve women in public life to overcome traditional
roles and practices as well as the constraints relegating women’s rights to secondary
status on the political agenda. Consequently, women organized their own Women’s
Technical Committees to increase women’s involvement in the peace process and other areas.
These initiatives opened a debate on women’s participation in political parties that reached
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 19
President Arafat’s desk in 1995 in the form of a proposal to create a Woman’s Council. The
proposal was not approved; instead, women’s committees were formed within the ministries.41
66. Women have advocated penal code reform and equal rights in the constitution, and
have succeeded to a certain extent. However, since the second intifada, there has been a
noticeable regression in terms of women’s rights and fundamental freedoms. The Israeli
occupation has had immobilizing impacts on activities of NGOs and other sectors. This has
resulted in a re-evaluation of priorities and strategic goals within Palestinian civil society. One
human rights defender told me that, “Every plan for improvement is being demolished. We are
building sandcastles, whatever we build is destroyed by the next wave of security measures
implemented by the IDF.”
67. Women’s groups have called for quotas for women candidates in the
elections, 30 per cent for local council elections (September 2004) and 20 per cent for the
legislative council. NGOs conduct community educational workshops in accordance with
international standards on women’s rights and monitor the criminal justice system’s response to
victims of violence. Adalah persists in its legal advocacy work, filing petitions to the Supreme
Court of Justice of Israel. NGOs and lawyers also work with female Palestinian former and
current detainees to provide psychosocial support, legal assistance and vocational training to help
them reintegrate into their communities and resume their lives.
68. Community-based organizations operate at the grass-roots level to overcome the
challenges of occupation and to provide support for each other. I visited a community-based
women’s centre in Anin that offered an oasis of hope. The women, with support from the
Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC), organized, received vocational training and
learned about their rights. Their activities are coordinated by the Rural Women’s Development
Society (RWDS) under the PARC coalition umbrella. Anin is a small mountain village in the
north of the West Bank with a population of 3,500. The majority of the population used to work
in Israel before the construction of the wall and have suffered due to the confiscation of their
lands because of IDF measures to protect a nearby Israeli settlement.
69. The efforts of the Palestinian and Israeli women’s peace groups are also noteworthy.
A constructive dialogue between them started in the late 1980s to develop common strategies for
resolving the ongoing conflict, having identified the Israeli occupation as the source of suffering
for both sides. Although these initiatives suffered with the heightened conflict following the
Al Aqsa intifada, the process provided Palestinian and Israeli women an invaluable peace
advocacy experience through which they continue to link their efforts to foster a just peace for
the two peoples.42
D. Initiatives of the United Nations country team
70. The United Nations operation in the OPT provides assistance to Palestinian women
through economic activities, humanitarian assistance, education and training, health, technical
cooperation on women’s rights and advocacy.43 UNRWA provides education for Palestinian
girls and boys in schools throughout the OPT. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights is currently engaged in technical cooperation activities with the PA and NGOs. However,
as a response to the critical human rights situation in the OPT, additional human rights protection
is required to meet the real needs and demands of the people.
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 20
71. The United Nations faces numerous obstacles in carrying out its mandate in the OPT.
Israel’s imposed restrictions on freedom of movement, for one, prevent United Nations
personnel from delivering life-saving humanitarian assistance. Israeli military fire into UNRWA
schools and other buildings have disrupted services and led to civilian deaths. I was informed by
UNRWA that it builds donor-funded homes and schools only for IDF to demolish the structures
or confiscate the school buildings for military purposes and detention centres.44 Despite such
constraints, the United Nations is doing its utmost to provide critical services in the OPT.
IV. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
72. I cannot emphasize enough the grave and volatile nature of the situation in the
Occupied Palestinian Territories. Israel has effectively contained the Palestinian
population in a heavily controlled environment. The degree and extent of oppression
associated with patriarchy deepens with aggravation and intensification of the oppression
of occupation. This is particularly visible in the Gaza Strip, which is denied any possibility
for enjoyment of rights, fundamental freedoms and liberty.
73. The multilayered impact of displacement and the integrated system of violence
created by the conflict and occupation continue to take a heavy toll on lives of Palestinian
women as security measures and military necessity increasingly take on a character of
collective punishment. The consequences of this situation are compounded and in some
cases far more severe for women. Women not only bear the combined burdens of
occupation and patriarchy but due to the former their capacity to transform the unequal
gender structures of the latter is curtailed. The priorities imposed by the national struggle
have for decades belittled women’s struggle to eliminate violence against women as a
weapon of patriarchy.
74. Palestinian women live in a permanent state of insecurity, tension and fear. The
grave and systematic violations of human rights perpetrated by Israel in the OPT demand
urgent action to prevent further violations. The ongoing impunity for human rights
violations is unacceptable. The international community has spoken clearly and issued
numerous General Assembly and Security Council resolutions on necessary actions to
move towards a just settlement of the conflict. The United Nations has created special
procedures to monitor and report on the human rights situation; however, it has failed to
ensure compliance with its resolutions.
75. Human rights organizations45 have called on the international community to
take immediate and concrete action to stop Israel’s ongoing violations of international
human rights and humanitarian law in Rafah and elsewhere in the OPT. They
acknowledge that international bodies and leaders have clearly condemned the
situation, most recently through the passage of a Security Council resolution on Rafah.
As they rightfully point out, however, the world has not been sufficiently active in
promoting Israel’s immediate cessation of and accountability for its illegal practices
in the Gaza Strip. Such inaction is an abdication of responsibility to uphold
international and humanitarian law. As a Palestinian woman activist says, “Peace will
only be achieved when there is freedom, equality and justice.”46 It is essential that Israel
immediately cease all violations of international law and a sustainable resolution of the
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 21
conflict be reached. Such a resolution rests on an effective response to the core of the
conflict in the region - the dispossession of the Palestinian people from their land.
76. I would like to recall and support the following call from Palestinian women:
“Security for Israelis will not be achieved by shelling residential areas, destroying
homes, killing innocent civilians, tightening closures, harshening economic realities,
subjecting 3.5 million Palestinians to siege and curfew, humiliating Palestinians at
checkpoints and assassinating activists. Nor will security for Palestinians be achieved by
killing Israeli civilians. But there will be no end to these great losses until the concept of
security is revised to serve Palestinians as well as Israelis … We call upon Israeli society,
and Israeli women in particular, to pressure their Government to end the occupation, and
to join our quest to work together to build a new concept of security … We are actively
working for, and anticipating a day when a just peace will prevail and both sides may enjoy
its many fruitful results.”47 This call is urgent not only for the peaceful coexistence of
Palestinians and Israelis but for the peace and security of the entire region.
77. The Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian
Territories has consistently maintained that Israel’s human rights obligations apply in the
occupied territories. I fully support the conclusions and recommendations contained in his
reports and call for their implementation.
78. In addition, I would like to make the following recommendations:
− The Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority must:
• Move ahead with the implementation of the Quartet’s road map48 in order to
end the occupation of Palestinian territories and to establish a viable
independent and sovereign Palestinian State, while ensuring peace and
security for the Israelis. Any solution to the conflict and occupation must be
multilateral in accordance with the road map;
• Facilitate the full involvement of Palestinian and Israeli women and
women’s groups in the peace process in accordance with Security Council
resolution 1325 (2000), and ensure that women’s needs and interests are
included in all negotiations. Women’s representation at the negotiating table
is crucial as the sine qua non of gender equality and inclusion;
− The Government of Israel must:
• End the occupation and until then ensure the rights and protection of
Palestinian civilians;
• Observe international human rights and humanitarian law in undertaking
security measures; compensate the Palestinian people for damages, including
for loss of property; ease the humanitarian and economic plight of the
Palestinian people, including increasing the freedom of movement for people
and goods both within and from the West Bank and Gaza and by
abandoning practices that fragment families;
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 22
• Cease the use of administrative detention and allow detainees access to
lawyers and doctors from the outset of their detention;
• Ban closure and demolition of detainees’ homes;
• Observe the right to health, as stipulated in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, particularly by ensuring that the wounded and the sick, as
well as the infirm and expectant mothers have easy and immediate access to
medical care and are the object of protection and respect;
• Ensure the security and the freedom of movement of international and
national United Nations staff, in accordance with the Convention on the
Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, and specific agreements
between UNRWA and Israel, and other humanitarian agencies operating in
the OPT to facilitate access for the provision of humanitarian assistance,
including for Red Crescent ambulances;
• Include information on compliance with obligations in the OPT in reports
submitted to treaty bodies, in particular to the Committee on the Elimination
of Discrimination against Women, on protection and promotion of women’s
rights;
• Acknowledge and collaborate with the Special Rapporteur on the human
rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories as well as other
special procedures mandates of the Human Rights Commission;
− The Palestinian Authority must:
• Work towards the creation of a democratic, secular State, which promotes
and protects women’s rights;
• Adopt a policy of zero tolerance towards all forms of violence, including
terrorism;
• Develop penal, civil, labour and administrative sanctions in domestic
legislation to punish and redress the wrongs caused to women who are
subjected to violence;
• Undertake legislative reform in line with international standards,
particularly of the Personal Status Codes, to have a common Palestinian
family law for both West Bank and Gaza that is based on participatory
and democratic relations within the family. Similarly, revise the Penal Code
to criminalize domestic violence, honour crimes and sexual assaults on
women;
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 23
• Adopt the Bill of Rights for Women, and measures to ensure its effective
implementation and consider the other numerous draft bills submitted to
improve the protection of women’s rights;
• Provide the necessary legal, political and financial support to the Ministry of
Women’s Affairs;
• Work towards a system of positive discrimination as a means of eliminating
structural discrimination against women and to increase female
representation in the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian Legislative Council
and local government bodies, municipalities and village councils, including
the introduction of a quota system as demanded by the women’s
organizations for local and national elections;
• Undertake measures to achieve equality between women and men and end
violence against women, including by awareness-raising campaigns,
curriculum change, training in gender sensitivity to all relevant actors and
mental health and trauma counselling as well as shelters for women who are
victims of violence or those who are at risk of violence;
− The international community must:
• Authorize, by way of a Security Council decision, an international
mechanism in the Occupied Palestinian Territories to ensure the observance
of international human rights and humanitarian law and the protection of
civilians, and work with both Israel and the Palestinian Authority to
implement existing resolutions;
• Enhance the capacity of the Authority to enable it to act in accordance with
its obligations to promote and protect the Palestinian people and fulfil its
responsibilities towards the achievement of a sustainable peace in the area;
• Support, through bilateral and multilateral funding, initiatives of women’s
non-governmental organizations, research institutes and academia in the
OPT to improve women’s status, end violence against women and promote
the overall betterment of Palestinian society;
• Support the peace efforts of Palestinian and Israeli women and facilitate
their participation at all phases of the conflict resolution/peace-building
process;
• Expand the mandate of the OHCHR field office in the OPT to include a
monitoring of human rights violations in addition to its current technical
cooperation role.
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 24
Notes
1 Women and children in Israel have also suffered from acts of violence. According to
information received, 1,015 Israelis were killed since 2000, of whom 315 were women
and 112 were under the age of 18 (information received from Itzhak Leranou, Permanent
Representative of Israel to the United Nations in Geneva, in a letter dated 27 September 2004).
2 CCPR/CO/78/ISR of 21 August 2003.
3 See http://www.un.org/Depts/dpa/qpal/ and www.unhchr.org for a list of recent United Nations
documents, reports and resolutions on the situation in the OPT.
4 On 1 October 2004 IDF started another incursion in the north of Gaza, which came in the wake
of the continued firing of home-made rockets by Palestinian militants towards Israel, and the
killing of three soldiers in Morag settlement on 23 September and one settler in Neve Dekalim
on 24 September (OCHA, 1 October 2004). According to a Defense for Children International
press release issued on 6 October 2004, about 75 Palestinians were killed, 23 of which were
children, bringing the total number of child fatalities to 133 since the beginning of 2004.
5 This is not to suggest that domestic violence will wither away when occupation ends. It is
rather meant to demonstrate how violence against women is compounded when two systems of
oppression intersect.
6 Around 140 permanent checkpoints operate in the West Bank and 30 others in the Gaza Strip,
isolating each of the 300 or so enclaves into which OPT has been divided, supplemented by
various forms of roadblocks moved daily.
7 A law issued by Israel in 2003 barring the unification of families in which Israeli citizens are
married to non-Israeli Palestinians has further complicated the matter, as it is effective
retroactively.
8 In addition, Israeli military order No. 510, amendment No. 84 of August 2002, empowers
the military Commander of the West Bank to “assign residence” to Palestinians allegedly
threatening security. This order has been used twice (September 2002 and May 2003) to transfer
Palestinian civilians from the West Bank to Gaza Strip for a period of two years of assigned
residence.
9 The wall is highly controversial, which is reflected in the terminology used to describe it.
The Israeli authorities call it “security fence”, the Palestinians “apartheid wall” and still others
“barrier”. In urban areas, where I encountered the wall, it is constructed of 8-metre high
concrete slabs with concrete watchtowers, which according to Israeli authorities, comprises
only 4 per cent of the total. Whatever may be the preferred terminology or composition, the
impact is the same: destruction of property and isolation of people from their communities,
families and sources of livelihood. In some areas, Palestinians will have to apply for a permit to
travel to schools, medical clinics, etc. located across the wall within the OPT. In view of the
patriarchal protectiveness over women, the manner in which the wall limits women’s access to
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 25
family members, education, services, networks, employment, and NGO activities is obvious.
On 9 July 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled that the wall is illegal and should be
removed. The Israeli High Court of Justice issued a ruling that the construction of the wall
would not unduly impinge on Palestinian rights and the building has continued.
10 Hadas Ziv et al., “A legacy of injustice: A critique of Israeli approaches to the right to health
of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories”, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, October 2002.
11 UNRWA demolition assessment of Operation Rainbow, 26 May 2004; see
www.un.org/unrwa/news/releases/pr-2004/hqg16-04.pdf.
12 Report submitted at the fifty-ninth session of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in
March 2003.
13 On 28 December 2004 I was provided by the Israeli authorities with a book containing
judgements of the Israeli Supreme Court. It was, however, too late to reflect in this report the
information it contained.
14 Report of the Commissioner-General of UNRWA presented to the fifty-eighth session of the
General Assembly (A/581/13).
15 Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizen’s Rights report Israeli Violations Palestinian
Citizens’ Rights (1 January-30 April 2004) (9), published May 2004 (www.piccr.org).
16 Report presented during mission.
17 Addameer, “Prisoner support and human rights association, report on Palestinian women
political prisoners on Women’s Day”, 8 March 2004 (www.addameer.org).
18 Ambassador Leranou’s letter, 27 September 2004.
19 Telmond prison is part of the Israeli Interior Security Ministry.
20 See: www.womenwarpeace.org/opt.
21 Military order 1500 (April 2002) provides for the arrest of a person for a period that may
exceed 18 days without allowing him/her to meet with his/her lawyers or submit a memorandum
against his/her arrest (Al Haq, 28 April 2003).
22 A Newsweek (28 June 2004, pp. 30-31) article reported on a secret interrogation unit known
as 1391, where Arabs are allegedly held in seclusion and tortured. Visits by the Red Cross were
said to be barred. I did not receive any information to suggest that women might be held in such
a unit.
23 Addameer, Annual report 2004 (http://www.addameer.org/2004/annual04.html).
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 26
24 Briefing by Mr. Kieran Prendergast, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, to the
Security Council on agenda item “The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian
question” on 23 June 2004 (S/PV.4995). According to the Palestinian Independent
Commission for Citizen’s Rights report “Israeli violations of Palestinian citizens’ rights”
(http://www.piccr.org), in the period January-April 2004, the occupation forces killed
212 Palestinians, including 35 children and 30-targeted assassinations. Twenty of these
casualties were killed while resisting occupation forces, 17 during armed clashes near
settlements, 4 in armed clashes inside Palestinian cities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip,
5 while attempting to plant explosives near settlements, and the rest were killed as a result of
excessive use of force. An additional 10 Palestinians were killed while carrying out bombing
operations against Israeli targets, and 12 others under ambiguous circumstances.
25 A report on the situation of women’s human rights during the “Al-Aqsa Intifada”, by
the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling and the Women’s Studies Centre,
16 February 2001.
26 See: www.un.org/unrwa/news/releases/pr-2004/hqg34-04.pdf.
27 OCHA Weekly Briefing Notes, 27 October-2 November 2004.
28 See: www.womenwarpeace.org/opt.
29 Report presented during mission.
30 PLC, report on Israeli violations against women’s rights in Palestine, June 2004
(www.pal-plc.org).
31 Written input from Housing and Land Rights Network, Habitat International Coalition,
Egypt, 5 June 2004.
32 In Nahla Abdo and Ronit Lentin (eds.), Women and the Politics of Military Confrontation.
New York, Berghahn Books, p. 152.
33 Kreisheh, Amal. “The Realities Embedded in the Lives of Palestinian Women: The
Perspectives of Domestic and Israeli Occupational Violence”, submitted to Violence against
Women Conference, Oslo, April 2004: 6 and 7.
34 Cheryl Rubenberg, Palestinian Women: Patriarchy and Resistance in the West Bank.
Boulder, 2001, Lynne Rienner Publishers.
35 Vivian Khamis 2000. Political Violence and the Palestinian Family: Implications for Mental
Health and Wellbeing. Oxford: The Halworth Maltreatment and Trauma Press: 54.
36 Maha Abu-Dayyeh Shamas. “The Second Palestinian Intifada: Social and Psychological
Implications for Palestinian Women Resulting from the Israeli Escalation of Violence”.
Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (2001), Jerusalem, August, p. 5.
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 27
37 “Violence against women in Palestine: A public opinion poll”, the Palestinian Working
Women Society for Development, in cooperation with the Palestinian Centre for Public Opinion
in Beit Sahour, September 2002. Sample of 1,133 Palestinian adults aged 18 years and older,
from Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
38 “Case Study: Mapping the Landscape of Femicide in the West Bank and Gaza”.
In With an End in Sight, Strategies from the UNIFEM Trust Fund to Eliminate Violence
against Women, 2000.
39 Women’s Affairs Technical Committee report, “Palestinian women: New situations new
roles”, 2004.
40 UNIFEM, ibid., p. 98.
41 See Highlights in the struggle of Palestinian Women, the Independence Intifada, The First
Year, a publication of the Palestinian Working Women’s Society for Development, January 2002
(in particular pp. 10-13), and the report given during mission, “Effects of occupation on the
Palestinian women”, by the Jerusalem Centre for Women (2004).
42 Palestinian and Israeli women, united in their joint effort to bring about a just, comprehensive
and lasting peace between their two peoples, work together within the framework of the
Jerusalem Link for the realization of their common vision of peace (http://www.j-c-w.org).
43 For further information see the Secretary-General’s report on the situation and assistance
to Palestinian women, presented to the Commission on the Status of Women, 2004
(E/CN.6/2004/4).
44 According to a Palestinian Legislative Council report provided during the mission, 43 schools
have been turned into military bases.
45 Joint statement by Adalah, Al-Haq, Al-Mezan, Housing and Land Rights Network of Habitat
International Coalition (HIC-HLRN), the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), and the
World Organisation against Torture (OMCT), “No State is above the law”, 22 May 2004.
46 Rima Nasir Tarazi in a conversation among Palestinian and Israeli women activists facilitated
by Zehra Arat, September 2003.
47 “An open letter to the Israeli public: A Palestinian women’s perspective on the security
problem”, Jerusalem Centre for Women (1/10/2002, http://www.j-c-w.org).
48 A performance-based “road map” to a permanent two-State solution to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict; see S/2003/529 of 7 May 2003.
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 28
Appendix
List of persons and organizations consulted during the mission
Israeli officials
Mr. Daniel Meron, Director of International Organizations and Human Rights Department at
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and colleagues
Legal Adviser, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)
Coordinators of the Territories, MFA
Prison authorities, Ramleh Central Prison
Israeli civil society
Mr. Meridor (former Minister of Justice)
Prof. Raday (former member of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women)
Arab Association for Human Rights
B’tselem, the Israeli information centre for human rights in the Occupied Territories
Palestinian officials
President Arafat
Dr. Nabil Shaath, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Intisar Al-Wazir, Minister of Social Affairs
Ms. Zahira Kamal, Minister of Woman Affairs
PLC members (Ms. Rawia Shawwa and Ms. Jamileh Saydam)
Palestinian civil society
Dr. Hanan Ashrawi
Mr. Younis Khatib, Palestinian Red Crescent Societies
Mr. Tayseer Tamemy, Chief Justice of religious courts
Jerusalem Centre for Women
Women’s Affairs Technical Committee
E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4
page 29
Project Coordinator, Women’s Centre for Legal Aid
Director, Women’s Studies Centre
General Union of Palestinian Women
Director of Institute of Women’s Studies, Birzeit University
PCC
PARC
Mandela Institute
Addameer Prisoners’ and Human Rights Association
DCI
Women against Violence
United Nations country team
Mr. Osman Hassan, Director, OHCHR/OPT
Ms. Karen Koning Abu Zayd, Deputy Commissioner General, UNRWA
Dr. Ayoub Alem, Chief, Field Health Programme
Mr. Kamal Abu-Qamar, Deputy Field Relief and Social Services Programme and Women’s
Officer
Representatives from UNDP, UNFPA, UNIFEM, WHO, UNICEF, UNESCO, OCHA
-----
UNITED
NATIONS E
Economic and Social
Council
Distr.
GENERAL
E/CN.4/2006/29
17 January 2006
Original: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Sixty-second session
Item 8 of the provisional agenda
QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE
OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES, INCLUDING PALESTINE
Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights,
John Dugard, on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian
territories occupied since 1967
GE.06-10218 (E) 250106
E/CN.4/2006/29
page 2
Summary
Undoubtedly the highlight of the past year, since the Commission requested the
Special Rapporteur, in its resolution 2005/7, to report, has been Israel’s successful evacuation of
settlers and withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces from Gaza. This constitutes an important
step in the direction of the resolution of the conflict in the region. Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza
does not, however, mean that the occupation of the territory has come to an end. Israel still
retains effective control over the territory through its control of airspace, territorial sea and
external land boundaries. It has continued to assert military control by means of sonic booms
and repeated air strikes into the territory aimed at targeted militants. Inevitably, such strikes
have killed and injured innocent bystanders. On 15 November 2005 an agreement was entered
into between Israel and the Palestinian Authority aimed at opening the borders of Gaza to allow
the free passage of persons and goods in and out of the territory. This agreement has yet to be
fully implemented.
Israel continues with its construction of a wall within Palestinian territory in defiance of
the 2004 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). To date, some 275 of
the planned 670 kilometres of the wall have been built. The wall causes great hardship to
Palestinian communities between the Green Line and the wall and to Palestinians in the vicinity
of the wall. The former are denied easy access to family, hospitals and schools in the West Bank
while the latter are denied access to their lands beyond the wall. Israel allows Palestinians to
cultivate their lands beyond the wall by means of a permit system, which is administered in an
arbitrary and humiliating manner. Some 40 per cent of the applications for such permits are
refused. To aggravate the situation, gates that allow Palestinians to cross the wall are few and
often fail to open at scheduled times. As a consequence, many Palestinians are leaving their
homes in the vicinity of the wall and becoming internally displaced persons.
Settlements continue to grow, particularly in the “closed zone” between the Green Line
and the wall, which at present accommodates 76 per cent of the settler population in the
West Bank. The three major settlement blocs - Gush Etzion, Ma’aleh Adumim and Ariel - will
effectively divide Palestinian territory into cantons or Bantustans. Settler violence remains a
serious problem, particularly in the centre of Hebron, where settlers terrorize the local
population.
The character of East Jerusalem is undergoing a major change as a result of the
construction of the wall through Palestinian neighbourhoods. The clear purpose of the wall in
the Jerusalem area is to reduce the number of Palestinians in the city by transferring them to the
West Bank. This causes major humanitarian problems: families are separated and access to
hospitals, schools and the workplace are denied. In November 2005, European Union missions
in Jerusalem issued a report in which they accused Israel of embarking on the encirclement of
the city by the wall in order to achieve “the completion of the annexation of Jerusalem”.
Although Israel has abandoned its plan to build a wall through the Jordan Valley,
its policies in that region are designed to drive Palestinians from the area. Settlements
are expanding; Palestinian land is being confiscated, homes destroyed, access denied to
non-Jordan Valley residents, and access to water and electricity curtailed. In short, life is being
made increasingly difficult for residents in the Jordan Valley and neighbouring mountain ridges.
E/CN.4/2006/29
page 3
Other human rights violations continue. Some 9,000 prisoners remain in Israeli jails.
Movement is seriously restricted by the wall, elaborate terminals through the wall, and
checkpoints. Although the number of permanent checkpoints has decreased, “flying” or
temporary checkpoints are on the increase. Restrictions on the freedom of movement are in
large measure responsible for the prevailing humanitarian crisis in the occupied Palestinian
territory. Unemployment is high and over half the population lives below the official poverty
line. Health and education services also suffer as a result of restrictions on movement. Women
suffer disproportionately from the occupation.
In 2004, the International Court of Justice held that Palestinians should be compensated
for damage they had suffered as a result of the construction of the wall. In the same year the
General Assembly resolved that a register should be compiled to allow for the registration of
claims for compensation. Unfortunately, little progress has been made with this register.
At present, the Quartet, comprising the United Nations, the European Union, the
Russian Federation and the United States of America, has primary responsibility for resolving
the conflict between Israel and Palestine. The basis for negotiations remains the road map
of 2003, which is hopelessly out of date and which envisaged an end to the conflict by the end
of 2005. It is suggested that the road map be revised to take account of present realities and
the 2004 advisory opinion of ICJ. It is essential that the Quartet be guided more by human rights
considerations and the Court’s advisory opinion in its handling of negotiations.
E/CN.4/2006/29
page 4
CONTENTS
Paragraphs Page
Introduction ................................................................................................... 1 - 3 5
I. VISIT OF THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ................................ 4 - 5 6
II. GAZA .......................................................................................... 6 - 11 6
III. THE WALL ................................................................................. 12 - 28 8
A. Terminals ............................................................................. 21 11
B. Settlements and the wall ...................................................... 22 - 28 11
IV. SETTLER VIOLENCE, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE
TO HEBRON ............................................................................... 29 13
V. JERUSALEM .............................................................................. 30 - 35 13
VI. THE JORDAN VALLEY ............................................................ 36 - 38 15
VII. THE WALL, SETTLEMENTS AND
SELF-DETERMINATION .......................................................... 39 - 40 16
VIII. OTHER HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS ............................... 41 - 50 16
A. Freedom of person ............................................................... 42 - 43 16
B. Freedom of movement ......................................................... 44 - 45 17
C. Discrimination against women ............................................ 46 17
D. Humanitarian crisis .............................................................. 47 - 50 18
IX. THE DEATH PENALTY AND THE PALESTINIAN
AUTHORITY .............................................................................. 51 18
X. REGISTER OF DAMAGE .......................................................... 52 19
XI. THE ROLE OF THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR
IN REPORTING TO THE COMMISSION ON
HUMAN RIGHTS IN PARTICULAR AND TO
THE UNITED NATIONS IN GENERAL .................................. 53 - 55 19
E/CN.4/2006/29
page 5
Introduction
1. The five months that have passed since the Special Rapporteur’s last visit to the
Occupied Palestinian Territory1 in June and July 2005, pursuant to Commission
Resolution 2005/7, have witnessed important changes in the Territory. In August and
September 2005 Israel successfully withdrew its settlers and forces from Gaza, thereby ending
the colonization of Gaza and providing the people of Gaza with an opportunity to govern
themselves without the presence of an occupying army. Since then the Government of Israel and
the Palestinian Authority have been embroiled in negotiations relating to the passage of persons
and goods in and out of Gaza. An agreement of 15 November, brokered by the Quartet’s special
envoy to the region, James Wolfensohn, and United States Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice,
provides for such passage, but at the time of writing it has still to be fully implemented. These
positive steps do not stand alone. Although violent incursions by Israel Defense Forces into the
occupied Palestinian territory continue, and suicide bombers have on occasion managed to
penetrate Israel with devastating results, the level of fatalities and injuries among both
Palestinians and Israelis has dropped considerably. The Israel Defense Forces continue to
observe their decision not to engage in punitive home demolitions, and the Israeli High Court of
Justice has handed down decisions that have reduced the suffering of the Palestinian people.
One decision prohibits the Israel Defense Forces from compelling Palestinians to act as human
shields for the Israel Defense Forces in their incursions into Palestinian villages, and another
holds a section of the wall near to the settlement of Alfei Menashe to be unlawful on the ground
that it causes disproportionate suffering to the Palestinian people.
2. The above positive developments are outweighed by the disorder that prevails in Gaza
and the uncertainty relating to passage of persons and goods in and out of the territory; by the
continued construction of the wall and the expansion of settlements; by the de-Palestinization of
Jerusalem; by settler and Israel Defense Forces violence; by the failure to release Palestinian
prisoners; by the restriction of free movement caused by checkpoints, both fixed and temporary
(“flying checkpoints”); by house demolitions aimed at curtailing the expansion of towns and
villages; by poverty and unemployment caused by the occupation; by the emergence of a new
wave of internally displaced persons resulting from the seizure of land for the construction of the
wall; and by restraints on education and access to medical facilities caused by checkpoints and
the wall. Much needs to be done by Israel, therefore, before it can claim to comply with its
minimum obligations in the field of human rights and humanitarian law. With an Israeli general
election scheduled for March 2006, and no Israeli political party committed to the promotion of
the human rights of the Palestinian people, it seems clear that no meaningful improvement in the
situation can be expected in the foreseeable future. (A Palestinian general election is scheduled
for January 2006. Hopefully it will produce a Government of Palestine committed to the
creation of a Palestinian State founded on respect for human rights and the rule of law.)
3. In this report the term “wall” is used in preference to the more neutral terms “barrier”
or “fence”. The term “wall” was carefully and deliberately used by ICJ in its advisory opinion
on the “Legal consequences of the construction of a wall in the occupied Palestinian territory”.
The Special Rapporteur sees no reason to depart from this language.
E/CN.4/2006/29
page 6
I. VISIT OF THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR
4. The Special Rapporteur visited the occupied Palestinian territory from 3
to 9 December 2005. He visited Gaza for one day only as the present security situation there
does not permit visitors to stay overnight. While in Gaza he met Mr. Mohammad Dahlan,
Minister of Civil Affairs of the Palestinian Authority, who has played a key role in negotiations
relating to the movement of persons and goods in and out of Gaza. He also met with
United Nations officials and NGO leaders before proceeding on a brief tour of Gaza which
included visits to Palestinian-operated greenhouses in the former settlement of Netzarim, and to
the eastern border of Gaza, where he met with farmers prevented by the Israel Defense Forces
from accessing their lands adjacent to the border.
5. The Special Rapporteur met with Palestinian Cabinet ministers, Palestinian interlocutors,
United Nations officials and Palestinian and Israeli NGOs in Jerusalem and Ramallah. He
visited Ramallah, Hebron, Jerusalem and Bethlehem. He traversed the wall in the vicinity of
Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Qalandia, Bidia and Bil’in; saw fixed checkpoints (e.g. Hawwara) and
flying checkpoints; crossed through terminals at Bethlehem and Qalandia; went on a tour of
Jewish settlements in the Old City of Jerusalem; met with communities affected by settlements
and the wall in the Jordan Valley (near Tammun and Jiftlik), Abu Dis and El Eizariya; and
walked through the tense “H2” neighbourhood of Hebron, where settlers terrorize Palestinians
and abuse foreign visitors (as the Special Rapporteur experienced).
II. GAZA
6. The situation in Gaza has changed dramatically since the Special Rapporteur’s previous
visit in June 2005. In August/September, in a highly successful operation, Israel evacuated all of
its settlers from Gaza and destroyed all settlements. Shortly thereafter, Israel withdrew its
military forces from Gaza. This resulted in the disappearance of a brutal military presence, the
removal of checkpoints that had for years thwarted freedom of movement and the conferral of a
wide measure of freedom for Gazans.
7. Although Israel exercised strict control over the borders of Gaza following
disengagement, on 15 November 2005 an important agreement on borders was entered into
between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, facilitated by United States Secretary of State,
Condoleezza Rice, and the Quartet’s special envoy, James Wolfensohn. This agreement allows
Palestinian identity (ID) cardholders to cross to and from Egypt at Rafah at a crossing operated
by the Palestinian Authority and Egypt, and provides for the increased export of goods through
the Karni crossing and the transit of persons and goods between Gaza and the West Bank by
convoys of buses.
8. The withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces from Gaza has led some to claim that the
occupation of Gaza has come to an end. In deciding on this matter regard must be had to
whether Israel retains effective control over the territory as this is the test for occupation
recognized by international humanitarian law.2 While the Special Rapporteur concedes that the
absence of a military occupying power in Gaza has removed many of the features of occupation,
it is wrong to suggest that the occupation has ended. In the first place, it must be stressed that
technological advances since 1949 have changed the whole nature of control. It is no longer
necessary for a foreign military power to maintain a permanent physical presence in a territory to
E/CN.4/2006/29
page 7
exercise control, as Israel has demonstrated since its withdrawal from Gaza. Sonic booms,
which terrorize and traumatize the population (and constitute a form of collective punishment)
and the targeted assassination of militants (and innocent bystanders) by rockets fired from the
skies, serve as a constant reminder to the people of Gaza that they remain occupied. In the
three months following Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, 15 Palestinians have been targeted and
assassinated, 18 civilians killed and 81 injured in response to Qassam rockets fired by militants
from Gaza. Such actions of the Israel Defense Forces must be viewed in conjunction with the
fact that Israel retains control over airspace, territorial waters (fishing is allowed only within
10 nautical miles of the coastline) and external borders. While it is true that the Rafah crossing
is now open to Palestinian ID cardholders, Israel reserves the right to complain about who
crosses at Gaza and has already done so (the crossing is administered by the Palestinian
Authority and Egypt, but supervised by European Union inspectors and followed by Israeli
officials on TV monitor screens). Karni crossing was largely dysfunctional at the time of
writing and allowed passage of only 35 to 40 trucks compared with the 150 trucks promised by
the 15 November agreement. This is a serious problem for greenhouse agricultural products
harvested in December/January and exported to Israel and the West Bank. The passage
of persons between Gaza and the West Bank by bus convoys, scheduled to start on 15 December,
has been stopped by Israel, as a result of a suicide bombing in Netanya and Israel’s
dissatisfaction with the Rafah crossing.3 (One fears that even if such convoys do commence,
they will be frequently suspended for security reasons.) Control is also maintained by means of
the Gaza population register, which Israel still administers, thereby allowing it to control the
issue of identity documents to Gazans - a precondition for control in and out of the territory.
Other facts confirm Israel’s control of Gaza: first, Israel still holds some 650 Gazan prisoners,
despite article 77 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which provides for the release of prisoners
“at the close of occupation”; secondly, Israel maintains military control over a buffer zone
ranging between 150 and 300 metres within Gaza along its eastern and northern borders from
which all Palestinians are excluded (farmers are thus denied access to their lands in this zone);
thirdly, Israel may, and has already threatened, to cut off electricity supplies to Gaza. Finally,
Palestine constitutes a single self-determination unit, comprising the West Bank and Gaza. To
suggest that Gaza should enjoy a status different from that of the West Bank would violate the
territorial integrity of Palestine and the substantive law of self-determination.
9. Undoubtedly, the nature of Israel’s occupation has changed. Many of the provisions
relating to the treatment of protected persons in the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection
of Civilian Persons in Time of War (the Fourth Geneva Convention) are premised upon the
physical presence of the occupying Power - but not all. For instance, article 27, requiring
protected persons to “be humanely treated” and to “be protected especially against all acts of
violence” and article 33, prohibiting collective penalties and “all measures of intimidation or
of terrorism”, continue to apply and appear to have been violated by sonic booms and targeted
assassinations that routinely cause collateral loss of life and injury. The silence of the principal
protector of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the International Committee of the Red Cross, on
the continuation of the occupation tends to confirm that it does indeed continue.
10. Israel’s occupation of both Gaza and the West Bank is unusual. The occupation of a
territory for 38 years and the physical withdrawal of the occupying Power from a separate part
of the occupied territory were clearly outside the contemplation of the drafters of the Fourth
Geneva Convention. But despite the unusual features of the Gaza occupation, it remains
occupation as Israel continues to maintain effective control over the territory. It is not a fully
E/CN.4/2006/29
page 8
liberated part of an occupied territory. Certainly the mood of the people of Gaza confirms this.
They perceive themselves to be still subject to occupation as was repeatedly stressed to the
Special Rapporteur on his visit to Gaza.
11. It does not fall within the mandate of the Special Rapporteur to comment on the state of
human rights in Gaza under the administration of the Palestinian Authority. However, it is
necessary to observe that the present insecurity in Gaza is hardly conducive to human rights.
The Palestinian Authority now has the opportunity to recognize civil and political rights, ensure
due process of law, advance the rights of women and children and, subject to the restrictions that
flow from Israeli control, promote social and economic rights. This opportunity must not be lost.
III. THE WALL
12. In its advisory opinion of 9 July 2004 ICJ held that the wall currently being built by Israel
in the occupied Palestinian territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, was contrary to
international law; that Israel was under an obligation to cease the building of the wall on
Palestinian territory and to dismantle it forthwith; that Israel was under an obligation to make
reparation for all damage caused by the construction of the wall in the occupied Palestinian
territory; that all States were under an obligation not to recognize the illegal situation resulting
from the construction of the wall; that all States parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention were
obliged to ensure that Israel complies with the provisions of that Convention; and that the
United Nations should consider what further action was required to bring to an end the illegal
situation resulting from the construction of the wall. On 20 July 2004 the General Assembly
adopted resolution ES/10-15, in which it demanded that Israel comply with the legal
obligations identified in the advisory opinion. The resolution was adopted by 150 votes to 6,
with 10 abstentions.
13. The Government of Israel refuses to accept the advisory opinion of ICJ. The
Government’s decision has been rationalized by the Israeli High Court of Justice in a judgement
delivered in September 2005 - Mara’abe v. The Prime Minister of Israel H.C.J. 7957/04 - on the
lawfulness of the course of the wall in the vicinity of the settlement of Alfei Menashe. Although
the Court found that the wall in that area seriously damaged the fabric of life and caused
disproportionate suffering to the Palestinian residents of neighbouring villages and
recommended that the course of the wall be changed accordingly, it held, in careful, judicious
language, that the ICJ advisory opinion was flawed by reason of its failure to have access to the
full facts surrounding the wall, particularly the extent to which the wall was a necessary security
measure to protect the lives of Israeli civilians within both Israel itself and the settlements of the
West Bank (paras. 65, 73 and 74). The judgement of the Israeli High Court is not itself without
faults. First, it accepts with little questioning the assurances of the Israeli security establishment
that the course of the wall was determined by security considerations (para. 62) - assurances that
have subsequently been undermined in a statement by the Israeli Minister of Justice, Tzipi Livni,
acknowledging that the wall is a “political” rather than a “security wall”.4 Secondly, it refuses to
question the lawfulness of settlements (para. 19) and accepts that the wall may be built to protect
settlements (paras. 20-21), which suggests that the wall may be built as a lawful security measure
to protect unlawful settlements. The international community should, therefore, have no
difficulty in dismissing the rejection by the Israeli High Court of the ICJ advisory opinion as an
unconvincing rationalization of the Government’s opposition to the advisory opinion.
E/CN.4/2006/29
page 9
14. On 20 February 2005 the Government of Israel marginally modified the planned route
of the wall. In terms of this decision the wall, once completed, will be 670-kilometre long
compared to 622 kilometres of the prior route.5 The new route runs for 145 kilometres on the
Green Line compared to 48 kilometres of the prior route. The new route of the wall will follow,
or be close to, the Green Line, in the locality of the Hebron hills. It will penetrate more deeply
into Palestinian territory further north to include settlements in the Gush Etzion bloc near
Bethlehem, housing over 50,000 settlers. It has also been decided to include the settlements of
Ma’aleh Adumim and Ariel on the Israeli side of the wall. This will result in some 10 per cent
of Palestinian land being included in Israel (the previous route resulted in the seizure of
12.7 per cent of the West Bank). The wall will enclose, on the Israeli side, 170,000 settlers
(not including some 190,000 settlers in East Jerusalem), comprising 76 per cent of the
West Bank settler population, and 49,000 Palestinians (not including over 200,000 Palestinians
living in East Jerusalem).
15. To date, 275 kilometres6 of the wall have been built from the northern border of the
West Bank near Tubas to roughly Elkana in the centre, plus two segments in Jerusalem.
Construction is still under way between Elkana and Jerusalem; around the settlements of Ariel
and Immanuel; in and around East Jerusalem; and from Gush Etzion to Metzudat Yehuda on
the southern border of the West Bank in the Hebron Governorate. Although construction of
the wall has progressed rapidly since the advisory opinion of ICJ, the Israeli Prime Minister,
Mr. Ariel Sharon, rebuked the defence establishment on 6 July for “taking too long” in the
construction of the wall and instructed it to speed up its construction since there were no
financial constraints. Petitions to the High Court against the course of the wall have been largely
responsible for delays in the completion of the wall. An injunction restraining the building of
the wall around the settlement of Ariel, which will extend the wall 22 kilometres into the
West Bank, was lifted on 17 May 2005 and work on the construction of the wall around the
eastern border of this “finger” into Palestinian territory has been started.
16. In past years the Special Rapporteur has visited sections of the wall, complete or under
construction, in the north (Al-Mutilla, Tulkarm, Jubara, Ar-Ras, Qalqiliya, Jayyus, Habla,
Ras-A-Tira, Azzun Atma, Beit Amin, Iskaka), the centre (Beit Surik, Biddu, Qalandia, Ar-Ram,
Anata, Abu Dis, Bethlehem, Al-Walaja) and the south (Hebron hills). On this occasion he
visited Biddya, Bil’in, Ar-Ram, Qalandiya, Shuafat, Anata, Abu Dis, Al-Eizariya and
Bethlehem. The Special Rapporteur has repeatedly expressed the opinion that many sections of
the wall appear to have been built for reasons other than security. Observations on the present
visit confirmed this view. The wall near Bil’in has clearly been constructed to allow for the
expansion of the Modi’in settlement. The construction of the settlement of Matityahu East in the
Modi’in bloc is there for all to see and provides the obvious explanation for the wall. (The
Special Rapporteur was tear-gassed by the Israel Defense Forces/Border Police while viewing
the wall near Bil’in and a demonstration in the vicinity of the wall.) Even more grotesque is the
suggestion that the wall around Abu Dis, Anata, Shuafat and Al-Eizariya is being constructed for
security purposes when it separates Palestinian from Palestinian. Here the clear purpose of the
wall is to reduce the number of Palestinians in East Jerusalem (discussed below). A recent
publication of B’Tselem and Binkom7 confirms that the principal purpose of the wall is to
protect settlements and to provide for settlement expansion. The Israeli High Court in part
acknowledged this in Mara’abe v. The Prime Minister of Israel H.C.J. 7957/04 when it held that
the wall might legitimately be built to protect settlers.8 Further evidence that the wall is not
intended as a security measure has come from a statement by the Israeli Minister of Justice,
E/CN.4/2006/29
page 10
Tzipi Livni, who stated on 30 November 2005 that “one does not have to be a genius to see
that the fence will have implications for the future border. This is not the reason for its
establishment, but it could have political implications”.9 The time has, therefore, come to accept
that while the wall may serve a legitimate security purpose when it follows the Green Line, when
it enters Palestinian territory it serves different goals, namely, territorial expansion and the
protection of settlements.
17. The zone between the wall and the Green Line, the internationally accepted border
between Israel and the West Bank, is known as the “closed zone” or “seam zone”. Within this
zone, some 49,000 Palestinians live. A greater number of Palestinians, however, live on the
West Bank side of the wall while their lands are in the closed zone. Both these Palestinian
communities are seriously affected by the wall. Those living within the closed zone have
difficulty in accessing family, hospitals, schools, markets and employment within the
West Bank. Those living on the West Bank side of the wall require permits to access their
own agricultural land. In some quarters it is naively assumed that crossing the wall causes no
hardships for Palestinians; that permits are easily and fairly granted; and that gates within the
wall facilitate crossing.10 Nothing could be further from the truth. At least 40 per cent of
applications for permits are refused; the process of application is humiliating; gates are few and
often do not open as scheduled; and people within the closed zone and its vicinity are slowly
leaving in despair. In this way the closed zone is gradually being “cleansed” of Palestinians,
where land will in due course be transferred to land-greedy settlers.
18. In 2005 more permits to cross the wall were refused than in 2004. Whereas before 2005,
persons wishing to cross the wall to cultivate their lands in the closed zone were mainly refused
permits for security reasons, today permits are mainly denied when the owner or user of land is
unable to provide convincing evidence of ownership or direct relationship to the land. A
landowner applying for a permit to access his own land must submit a land registration
certificate or taxation document from the Ottoman era. However, proof of ownership is alien
to the traditional Palestinian landownership system and has been resisted by Palestinian
landowners over many generations. In part this can be ascribed to the fact that the registration
of land under the Ottomans was very slow and little progress was made in respect of land
registration during the British Mandate period or during the period of Jordanian rule before 1967.
In these circumstances the demand for proof of landownership or title to land is often an
insurmountable obstacle. Permits are refused on this ground and because the applicant is unable
to prove a sufficiently close relationship to the owner of the land. In the Qalqiliya Governorate
some 40 per cent of applications for permits were rejected in July 2005. Whereas 11 per cent of
permit rejections related to landownership or a direct relationship to the land in January 2005,
by July this figure had risen to 65 per cent. A similar trend is apparent in the Tulkarm
Governorate.
19. At present there are 65 gates in the wall. Twenty-seven of these are open to Palestinians
with permits and 10 are open on a seasonal basis. Twenty-eight gates are closed to Palestinians.
This means that Palestinians often have to travel considerable distances to access a gate to cross
to their lands in the closed zone. To aggravate the situation, gates are administered in an
arbitrary manner and frequently do not open as scheduled. Moreover, tractors and farm vehicles
are frequently not allowed to cross, which means that farmers must walk or use donkeys to reach
their land and to bring out their produce.
E/CN.4/2006/29
page 11
20. Obstacles placed in the way of accessing land in the closed zone, together with the
humiliating manner in which the process is administered, have resulted in many being denied
access or refusing to apply for access to land in the closed zone. This has resulted in widespread
loss of agricultural livelihoods and increased unemployment and explains why Palestinians are
gradually leaving land and homes they have occupied for generations. Figures are uncertain, but
it seems that already 15,000 persons have been displaced as a result of the construction of the
wall. This new generation of displaced persons creates a new category of Palestinian refugees.
The neglect and abandonment of land will allow the Israeli authorities to seize the land on
the basis of Ottoman law, which Israel interprets to mean that land not cultivated for
three consecutive years can be confiscated and reclassified as State land. In due course,
no doubt, this land will be handed over to the settlers.
A. Terminals
21. Passage through the wall to Israel or to unlawfully annexed East Jerusalem is through
large terminals resembling immigration/security terminals at international airports. Palestinians
and others crossing through such terminals must pass through a maze of barred, revolving doors,
metal detectors and turnstiles, and by X-ray machines. At the Bethlehem terminal (through
which the Special Rapporteur crossed) passage is restricted to foreigners, Palestinians holding
Jerusalem ID cards and Palestinians with West Bank ID cards who possess an Israeli-issued
permit to access occupied East Jerusalem and Israel. The terminal at Bethlehem constitutes a
threat to economic recovery and religious freedom as it will seriously stifle the economy and
hamper access to holy Christian sites. Already, access to Rachel’s Tomb near Bethlehem, holy
to both Jews and Muslims, has been closed to Palestinians.
B. Settlements and the wall
22. Jewish settlements in the West Bank are illegal. They violate article 49, paragraph 6, of
the Fourth Geneva Convention and their illegality has been confirmed by ICJ in its advisory
opinion on the wall. There can therefore be no justification for keeping settlements. A fortiori
the expansion of settlements must be completely unacceptable to the international community.
In Mara’abe v. The Prime Minister of Israel the Israeli High Court refused to consider the
illegality of settlements (para. 19). This echoes a long line of judicial precedents, but it does
undermine the credibility of the Court’s decision as the lawfulness of settlements was
surely indispensable to a finding that the wall might legitimately be constructed to protect
settlements.
23. Most settlers and settlements in the West Bank are to be found on the Israeli side of the
wall. Some 170,000 settlers live in 56 settlements in the closed zone, that is, 76 per cent of the
settler population in the West Bank. New settlements or the expansion of existing ones are being
planned for the closed zone. The Special Rapporteur saw evidence of such an expansion in June
near Jayyus where the settlement of Zufin is being expanded to encroach further on the fields of
Jayyus farmers in the closed zone. Further evidence of such expansion was provided when the
Special Rapporteur visited Bil’in, where the expansion of the settlement of Matityahu East near
upper Modi’in behind the wall is under way. Since the Special Rapporteur’s visit it has come to
light that 750 housing units in this new settlement are being built in violation of Israeli law as no
permission has been granted for such construction. This simply illustrates the disrespect for law
E/CN.4/2006/29
page 12
shown by the settlement enterprise. In order to emphasize the discriminatory nature of Israeli
law in respect of building without permits, a caravan has been placed by residents of Bil’in in
land adjacent to the settlement. At the time of writing the Israel Defense Forces had threatened
to remove the “illegal” caravan, but no such action is contemplated against the illegal settlement.
24. The expansion of settlements is clear to anyone who visits settlement sites. Cranes
generally mark the skyline of settlements and there is abundant evidence of building
activity. The figures confirm settlement growth and expansion. The settlement population
in the West Bank at the end of September 2005 was 242,700, up from 235,100 at the end of
December 2004. If nine-month growth continues at the same rate, then the settler population
would expand by 4.3 per cent for all of 2005, to 243,100, according to the Israeli Central
Bureau of Statistics.11 The determination of the Government of Israel not to curtail settlement
expansion is further shown by the rejection of certain fundamental recommendations of the
Sasson report. In 2005 Talia Sasson compiled a report on informal settlements or extensions to
existing ones known as “outposts”, in which she labelled them as illegal under Israeli law and
recommended that they be dismantled. Several of her key recommendations were rejected in
November 2005.12
25. Three major settlement blocs, the Gush Etzion bloc, the Ma’aleh Adumim bloc and the
Ariel bloc - all of which are to be surrounded by the wall - will effectively divide Palestinian
territory into cantons or Bantustans. These cantons will be linked by special roads or tunnels.
This results in transportation contiguity as opposed to territorial contiguity and this means that
Palestinians will be able to access different parts of the West Bank, but the territorial unity
essential for the creation of a viable Palestinian State will be absent.
26. The construction of the wall, the de-Palestinization of the closed zone and the expansion
and construction of settlements in the closed zone make it abundantly clear that the wall is
designed to be the border of the State of Israel and that the land of the closed zone will be
annexed. Already, members of the Israel Defense Forces inform international representatives
visiting the closed zone that it is part of Israeli territory. This is understandable as, after all,
Israelis have free access to the closed zone, whereas Palestinians require special permits to enter
this zone. There is clear evidence of Israel’s intentions in this regard. Addressing a meeting of
the Jewish community in Paris on 28 July 2005, Prime Minister Sharon stated that, thanks to the
disengagement from Gaza, “Israel has gained unprecedented political achievements”, including
“a guarantee that the major population centres in Judea and Samaria (that is, the West Bank)
will remain part of Israel in any final status agreement; and there will be no return to the
1967 borders”. Then, on 30 November 2005, the Justice Minister, Tzipi Livni, acknowledged
that the wall is a “political” rather than a “security” wall and that it would serve as “the future
border of the State of Israel”.13
27. In August 2004 Israel successfully withdrew Jewish settlers from four small settlements
in the northern West Bank: Ganim, Kadim, Homesh and Sa-Nur. Israeli Government
spokesmen have vehemently denied that any further withdrawal of settlers from the West Bank
is contemplated.
28. The successful evacuation of settlers from Gaza and the northern West Bank has
weakened the political power of the settlers. In some quarters it is believed that the Government
of Israel could dismantle settlements in the West Bank. Unfortunately, evidence does not
E/CN.4/2006/29
page 13
support this. Settlements continue to grow, the wall is there largely to protect them and
checkpoints and closures (see below) largely serve the interests of settlers. Indeed, most
violations of human rights in the West Bank, and the humanitarian crisis, are a consequence of
policies aimed at the protection of settlers.
IV. SETTLER VIOLENCE, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO HEBRON
29. Settler violence remains a serious problem. Prosecutions of settlers are rare and it seems
that settlers are able to terrorize Palestinians and destroy their trees and crops with impunity.
Nine hundred olive trees in the West Bank village of Salem, near Nablus, were destroyed in the
course of 2005.14 In the southern Hebron hills, visited by the Special Rapporteur in June 2005,
schoolchildren are terrorized on their way to school; wells, fields and sheep have been poisoned;
many sheep and goats have been stolen.15 The worst settler violence is to be found in the city of
Hebron, where settlers occupy key buildings within the centre of the old city. From these
settlements they terrorize the few Palestinians that have not left the old city and assault and
traumatize children on the way to school.16 Obscene, racist graffiti (for example, “Gas the
Arabs”) adorns the walls of the old city of Hebron. The Israel Defense Forces patrol the city, but
make little attempt to protect Palestinians from the settlers and fail to remove racist graffiti. In
short, the Israel Defense Forces have made themselves a party to the crimes of the settlers.
Ha’aretz columnist Gideon Levy sums up the situation as follows:
Every day the settlers torment their neighbours here. Every walk to school for a
Palestinian child has become a journey of harassment and fear. Every shopping outing
by a housewife is a journey of humiliation. Settler children kicking old women carrying
baskets, settlers setting their dogs on the elderly, garbage and faeces thrown from the
settlers’ balconies into the courtyards of Palestinian homes, junk metal blocking the
entrances of their houses, rocks thrown at any Palestinian passer-by - this is the routine of
life in the city. Hundreds of soldiers, border policemen and cops witness these actions
and stand by idly. … Israel cannot be considered a State ruled by law, or a democracy,
as long as the pogroms continue in Hebron.17
V. JERUSALEM
30. East Jerusalem is not part of Israel. On the contrary, it is occupied territory, subject
to the Fourth Geneva Convention. Unfortunately, Israel’s illegal attempt at annexation of
East Jerusalem has obscured this truth. As a consequence, world public opinion tends,
incorrectly, to treat Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem as different from that of the West Bank
and Gaza.
31. Israel has embarked upon major changes to the character of Jerusalem. In essence, these
changes are designed to reduce the number of Palestinians in the city and to increase the Jewish
population of the city, thereby undermining Palestinian claims to East Jerusalem as the capital of
an independent Palestinian State. That this is the purpose of the wall in Jerusalem was
acknowledged by the Israeli Minister for Jerusalem Affairs, Mr. Haim Ramon, on 10 July 2005
when he stated that the route of the wall would make Jerusalem “more Jewish”. He added “The
Government is bringing security to the city and will also make Jerusalem the capital of a Jewish
and democratic State of Israel.”
E/CN.4/2006/29
page 14
32. There are already some 190,000 Jewish settlers in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem. Plans
are, however, under way to increase the number of settlers and to extend settlements both to
encircle Jerusalem and to cut the West Bank in half. Within the Old City of Jerusalem there are
some 80 Jewish settler buildings and institutions. Moreover, there is a plan to build a large new
Jewish settlement in the Muslim Quarter near Herod’s Gate. Settlement expansion is also
evident in neighbourhoods surrounding the Old City such as Silwan. Beyond this lie the
more established settlements such as Ramot, French Hill, Har Homa and Gilo. The inner
circle of settlements will be encircled by the settlement blocs of Givat Ze’ev to the north,
Ma’aleh Adumim to the east, and Gush Etzion to the south. Particularly threatening to a
future Palestinian State is Ma’aleh Adumim, which is to be expanded by “E1” (“East 1”),
a 53-square-mile area larger than Tel Aviv designated to have 3,500 housing units to
accommodate 15,000 to 20,000 new settlers. The expanded Ma’aleh Adumim will effectively
cut the West bank in half, separating Ramallah from Bethlehem, with serious economic and
political consequences.
33. Conversely, the Palestinian population of East Jerusalem, presently numbering
some 230,000, is to be reduced by a number of stratagems. First, by house demolitions.
There was a sharp increase in house demolitions in 2004, when 152 homes were destroyed in
East Jerusalem. Plans to destroy 88 homes in the Silwan district are presently on hold.
Secondly, this population is to be reduced by routing the wall to the west of neighbourhoods
previously part of East Jerusalem. Thus areas such as the Shu’afat camp, with a population of
some 55,000, and West Anata are excluded from the East Jerusalem municipality and transferred
to the West Bank. Thirdly, this will be done by transferring neighbourhoods previously
integrated into East Jerusalem into the West Bank by means of the wall. Neighbourhoods such
as Abu Dis, Anata and Al-Eizariya fall into this category.
34. The exclusion of large neighbourhoods from East Jerusalem and their transfer to the
West Bank will cause great suffering to thousands of Palestinians and personal tragedies to
many. A sharp distinction is made between Palestinians with blue Jerusalem ID cards and those
with green West Bank ID cards living in East Jerusalem neighbourhoods. West Bank ID
cardholders, and in due course Jerusalem ID cardholders living to the east of the wall, will no
longer be able to access hospitals and schools in Jerusalem or to work in Jerusalem without
special permits to enter Jerusalem. The differences in ID cards will also have a profound effect
on family life, as many spouses hold different ID cards. They will be forced to live separately on
different sides of the wall under Israeli law, which prohibits family unification. If one spouse
elects to move east of the wall, he or she will lose his or her rights (such as medical insurance
and social security) attached to the Jerusalem ID. In this way Israel hopes to further reduce the
Palestinian population of East Jerusalem by compelling spouses to move to the West Bank side
of the wall. The Special Rapporteur visited two of the neighbourhoods most affected by the
wall - Abu Dis and Al-Eizariya. There he met husbands separated from their wives and persons
separated from their livelihoods, schools and hospitals in Jerusalem. Words cannot convey the
hardships to which Palestinians are subjected in the interests of the Judaization of Jerusalem.
35. In November 2005 the heads of 25 European Union missions stationed in East Jerusalem
prepared a report on Israel’s plans to change the character of East Jerusalem. The report
condemned the construction of the wall and settlements, the demolition of Palestinian homes, the
separation of Palestinian residents and families, and the discriminatory practices employed by
Israel. It concluded:
E/CN.4/2006/29
page 15
Jerusalem is already one of the trickiest issues on the road to reaching a final status
agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. But several interlinked Israeli policies are
reducing the possibility of reaching a final status agreement on Jerusalem that any
Palestinian could accept. We judge that this is a deliberate Israeli policy - the completion
of the annexation of East Jerusalem. Israeli measures also risk radicalizing the hitherto
relatively quiescent Palestinian population of East Jerusalem.
VI. THE JORDAN VALLEY
36. Israel’s plans for the Jordan Valley or Eastern Strip, comprising the territory along the
Jordan Valley and the eastern slopes of the neighbouring mountain ridges, with a population
of 53,000 Palestinians and 8,800 settlers in 27 settlements, are not clear. Several years ago there
were plans to build a wall along the mountain range above the Jordan Valley which would have
resulted in the de facto annexation of the region. Although that plan has been dropped there are
signs that Israel intends to assert its authority over an area that is thinly populated and easily
controlled in order to achieve a regime not very different from that of the closed zone along the
western border of the West Bank. First, there is a concerted move to expand settlements and in
June 2005 it was reported in the Israeli press that the Israeli Minister of Agriculture,
Yisrael Katz, has launched an initiative to double the number of settlers living in the
Jordan Valley over the next two years.18 Secondly, the conduct of Israel towards the Palestinian
residents of the region suggests that Israel plans to reduce their number by making life as
difficult as possible for them. Agricultural land has recently been seized by the military near the
settlement of Beka’ot and an order issued for the destruction of houses and greenhouses. In
Jiftlik, which is nearer to the Jordan Valley, with a population of 4,500, Israel demolishes houses
and food stalls, places obstacles in the way of schools and clinics, denies permission to the
village to be linked to running water and electricity systems and makes the export of produce
hazardous by means of a restrictive permit system. A strict permit system operates throughout
the region. Non-Jordan Valley ID holders, including those who own land in the valley, are
denied access to the region without a permit, and workers with no Jordan Valley IDs are required
to have permits to enter the region, which are increasingly denied.
37. There is a serious humanitarian crisis in the region resulting from restrictions on
movement and the denial of the most basic social and economic rights. The denial of water
to Palestinians and the high water consumption by settlers is another serious problem. Villages
are denied access to the Israeli water system that supplies settlers. For instance, neither
Tammun nor Jiftlik, visited by the Special Rapporteur, have running water. On the other hand,
according to B’Tselem, “the water consumption of the population of Jewish settlements in the
Jordan Valley … is equivalent to 75 per cent of the water consumption of the entire Palestinian
population of the West Bank (approximately 2 million people) for domestic and urban uses”.19
It is difficult to reconcile such blatant discrimination in respect of access to water resources with
Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law.
38. On 4 April 2004 the Israeli socio-economic Cabinet approved a policy document on
reform of the encouragement of capital investment law, which declares the Jordan Valley to be
one of the national priority regions “in Israel”. This confirms the intention of Israel to
incorporate the Jordan Valley into Israel without the construction of a wall.
E/CN.4/2006/29
page 16
VII. THE WALL, SETTLEMENTS AND SELF-DETERMINATION
39. In its advisory opinion ICJ stressed the right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination. This right was affirmed once again in a resolution adopted by the
General Assembly on 16 December 2005 by 170 votes to 5, with 1 abstention. In recent times
politicians of all persuasions have given support to a two-State solution, with the States of Israel
and Palestine living side by side in peace and security. This vision is unattainable without a
viable Palestinian territory. The construction of the wall, the expansion of settlements, the
de-Palestinization of Jerusalem and the gradual incorporation of the Jordan Valley are
incompatible with the two-State solution. Interlocutors within both Israel and the occupied
Palestinian territory warned the Special Rapporteur that with the two-State solution becoming
increasingly difficult, if not impossible, consideration should be given to the establishment of a
binational State.20
40. In its advisory opinion ICJ noted “the assurance given by Israel that the construction of
the wall does not amount to annexation and that the wall is of a temporary nature”. The Court,
however, considered that “the construction of the wall and its associated regime create a
‘fait accompli’ on the ground that could well become permanent, in which case and
notwithstanding the formal characterization of the wall by Israel, it would be tantamount to
de facto annexation” (para. 121). It is highly arguable that this stage has now been reached.
The prohibition of the annexation of territory by force is, of course, one of the most fundamental
principles of international law.
VIII. OTHER HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
41. The Special Rapporteur has focused in the present report on what he considers to be the
principal violations of human rights. The wall and settlements seriously undermine the
fundamental right of the Palestinian people to self-determination upon which all other rights
depend. In large measure, the wall and settlements are a consequence of occupation. The
regime of occupation by definition results in a violation of human rights. A prolonged
occupation of the kind to which the Palestinian people have been subjected for 38 years
inevitably poses a threat to the most basic human rights. This is confirmed by the Palestinian
experience.
A. Freedom of person
42. In the past year Israel has released some 900 Palestinian prisoners. In the same period
over 1,000 new prisoners have been taken. Consequently, there are still over 9,000 prisoners in
Israeli jails, including 300 children. Over 600 of those imprisoned are in administrative
detention, that is, they are being held without trial. Family visits remain a serious problem.
As prisons are held in Israel and many Palestinians are denied admission to Israel, a majority of
prisoners receive no family visits. Prison conditions are harsh: prisoners live in overcrowded
and poorly ventilated cells which they generally leave for only two hours a day. Allegations of
torture and inhuman treatment of detainees and prisoners continue. Such treatment includes
beatings, shackling in painful positions, kicking, prolonged blindfolding, denial of access to
medical care, exposure to extreme temperatures and inadequate provision of food and water.
E/CN.4/2006/29
page 17
43. In October 2005 a bill to allow prolonged incommunicado detention passed its first
reading in the Israeli Knesset. The bill empowers the General Security Service to delay bringing
non-residents of Israel suspected of committing security offences before a judge for a period
of 96 hours. The existing Detention Law requires that a suspect be brought before a judge
within 24 hours and within 48 hours in special cases when urgent interrogation is required. In
addition, the bill enables the State to prevent a suspect from meeting with an attorney for a
cumulative period of 50 days (an initial 21 days, which can then be extended for periods
of 7 days), upon approval of a Supreme Court justice. Under the Detention Law, such a meeting
can be prevented, with court approval, for no more than 21 days.
B. Freedom of movement
44. Checkpoints and closures in the West Bank continue to seriously impair freedom of
movement. The closure system comprises a series of checkpoints and physical obstacles placed
by the Israel Defense Forces to control and restrict Palestinian pedestrian and vehicle traffic.
The types of obstacles include permanently and temporarily manned checkpoints, roadblocks
(consisting of rows of 1-metre concrete blocks), metal gates, earth mounds, earth walls (a long
series of earth mounds) and trenches. The number of closure obstacles has dropped substantially
in the course of the year: from 605 in February to 376 in August 2005. The decline has occurred
in respect of unmanned physical obstacles and the number of manned checkpoints remains
unchanged - 52 permanently manned and 7 partially manned. The decrease in the number of
unmanned physical obstacles is, however, offset by the increase in the number of “flying
checkpoints” - that is, checkpoints manned by soldiers set up at random on some section of a
road on a temporary basis. According to the Palestinian Monitoring Group, over 400 such
checkpoints are set up each month. The frequency and unpredictability of such checkpoints
make it impossible to plan travel in the West Bank.
45. It is difficult to overestimate the harm done to Israeli-Palestinian relations by
checkpoints. They are arbitrary, humiliating and intimidating.21 They are the primary cause of
poverty and economic depression in the West Bank. And they are installed not for the security
of Israel itself but to protect the hated settlers on Palestinian territory.
C. Discrimination against women
46. Occupation and the wall unevenly violate women’s rights. Palestinian women are
routinely harassed, intimidated and abused by Israeli soldiers at checkpoints and gates. They are
humiliated in front of their families and subjected to sexual violence by both soldiers and
settlers. Restriction of movement due to the occupation severely impedes Palestinian women’s
access to education and health. Restrictions on movement limit opportunities for independence
and reduce the number of women seeking formal education or employment as the culture of the
region requires women to study and work from home. Women’s health has suffered as a result
of their inability to reach health centres. Pregnant women are vulnerable to long waits at
checkpoints. A number of unsafe deliveries in which both mothers and infants have died have
occurred at checkpoints. Unemployment and poverty resulting from the occupation have been
shown to produce divorce and domestic violence. The Israeli Nationality and Entry into Israel
Law of 2003 aims to stop family reunification when one spouse is a resident of the occupied
Palestinian territory. The result of this law is that thousands of affected families live separately
from each other with no legal means available to reunify the family. The only way to maintain
E/CN.4/2006/29
page 18
the unity of the family is to reside illegally in Israel, in permanent fear of investigation and
expulsion. This places an immense burden on the psychological state of Palestinian women.
The law, which does not apply to Israeli settlers living in the occupied Palestinian territory or to
Israeli Jews marrying aliens, institutes a discriminatory system based on national origin and is
directed exclusively against Palestinians.
D. Humanitarian crisis
47. The occupied Palestinian territory has a population of 3.8 million (2.4 million in the
West Bank and 1.4 million in the Gaza Strip). Approximately 42 per cent of the population
(1.6 million) are registered refugees. There is a natural increase of 3.5 per cent.
48. Previous reports have drawn attention to the humanitarian crisis in the occupied
Palestinian territory resulting from the occupation and the construction of the wall.
Unemployment reached 28 per cent (35 per cent in Gaza and 25 per cent in the West Bank)
in 2005. Loss of access to jobs in Israel is a major cause of unemployment. Approximately half
of the population, or 1.8 million, live below the official poverty line of US$ 2.10 per day.
Subsistence poverty, that is the inability to afford basic survival, is estimated at 16 per cent.
Poverty is higher in Gaza (65 per cent) than in the West Bank (38 per cent). Poverty is the result
of growing unemployment, closures, the wall, the loss of property caused by house demolitions,
land requisitions and the levelling of land. Agricultural incomes have dropped considerably as a
result of the destruction of agricultural areas and the isolation of land and wells behind the wall.
49. Closures have limited the ability to access health and education services. The provision
of health services has dropped remarkably as a result of restrictions on access. The quality of
education has deteriorated as a result of the wall and the occupation. The wall has obliged
schools to shorten teaching hours as a result of the erratic wall gate opening times. And the
occupation continues to intimidate teachers and scholars alike. For instance, in the months
of September and October the Israeli army shelled one school, injuring 10 civilians; arrested
23 school students, 9 schoolteachers, and 3 school principals; raided two schools; detained
school students and teachers on six separate occasions; beat one teacher in front of students, and
prohibited the construction of one school.22
50. Although the Israel Defense Forces have discontinued punitive house demolitions and the
past year has not witnessed major house demolitions in the interests of the so-called military
necessity, there is a substantial shortage of housing caused by house demolitions in previous
years. In Gaza many thousands are still homeless. Houses continue to be demolished for failure
to obtain a building permit in the West Bank, and in 2005 over 250 structures were demolished.
This form of house destruction known as “administrative” demolitions is still widely practised,
particularly in Jerusalem. As it is virtually impossible for Palestinians to obtain building
permits, many houses are therefore built without permits. The occupants of such houses run the
risk of arbitrary demolition.
IX. THE DEATH PENALTY AND THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY
51. The Special Rapporteur’s mandate does not extend to human rights violations committed
by the Palestinian Authority. It would, however, be irresponsible for a human rights special
rapporteur to allow the execution of Palestinian prisoners to go unnoticed. Since 2002, the
E/CN.4/2006/29
page 19
Palestinian Authority has refrained from carrying out the death penalty. In 2005, however,
five Palestinian prisoners have been executed. The level of civilization of a society can be
measured by its attitude towards the death penalty. The Special Rapporteur expresses the hope
that these executions were aberrations and that the Palestinian Authority will in future refrain
from this form of punishment.
X. REGISTER OF DAMAGE
52. In its advisory opinion ICJ held that Israel was under an obligation to make reparation for
all damage caused by the construction of the wall in the occupied Palestinian territory, including
in and around East Jerusalem (para. 153). In pursuance of this finding the General Assembly in
resolution ES-10/15 requested the Secretary-General to establish a register of damage caused to
all natural or legal persons who have suffered as a result of the construction of the wall. On
11 January 2005 the Secretary-General wrote to the President of the General Assembly setting
out the legal and institutional framework for such a register (A/ES-10/294). According to this
letter, which gives effect to the Court’s advisory opinion, both natural and legal persons who
have sustained any form of material damage, including the destruction and requisition of
properties, seizure or confiscation of land, destruction of orchards, citrus groves, olive groves
and wells, and the impeded access to the workplace, health services, educational institutions and
water sources, are eligible for compensation. The process has, however, to date made little
progress, probably because the register cannot be established without the cooperation of Israel.
This is unfortunate, as the International Court attached great importance to Israel’s obligation to
pay compensation for the destruction of homes, orchards, olive groves and land caused by the
construction of the wall.
XI. THE ROLE OF THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR IN REPORTING TO
THE COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN PARTICULAR AND
TO THE UNITED NATIONS IN GENERAL
53. The Special Rapporteur is required to report on violations of human rights and
international humanitarian law to the Commission on Human Rights. Implicit in his mandate is
the task of alerting the Commission, and through it the international community, to a situation
that may require the protection of the population concerned by the United Nations. The
importance of providing protection to threatened populations was recently stressed by the
General Assembly in its resolution 60/1 of 24 October 2005 on the World Summit Outcome.
54. In reporting to the Commission and appealing to the United Nations to provide protection
to the Palestinian people, the Special Rapporteur is aware of the fact that the organs of the
United Nations are divided over the approach to be adopted to the occupied Palestinian territory.
On the one hand, the Commission, the General Assembly and ICJ are concerned about the
violation of human rights and international humanitarian law in the territory, as manifested in
numerous resolutions and in the 2004 advisory opinion of ICJ. On the other hand, the
Security Council and the United Nations as a participant in the Quartet are engaged in a strategy
of political appeasement, in which respect for human rights, international humanitarian law and
the rule of law have less importance. The Security Council has yet to approve the International
Court’s advisory opinion and studiously avoids any reference to it.23 The Quartet, comprising
the United Nations, the European Union, the Russian Federation and the United States of
America, to which primary responsibility for dealing with the Palestinian issue has been
E/CN.4/2006/29
page 20
delegated, likewise studiously avoids any reference to the advisory opinion and, while making
reference to the consequences of the wall, settlements and restrictions on movement, carefully
refrains from recognizing the serious violations of human rights to which Palestinians are
subjected or to the de-Palestinization of Jerusalem.24 The main explanation for the anodyne
declarations made by the Security Council and the Quartet is to be found in the refusal of the
United States to accept the advisory opinion of ICJ or to acknowledge the full suffering of the
Palestinian people. Another explanation is to be found in the continued adherence of the
Security Council and the Quartet to the road map. The road map25 is a “performance-based and
goal-driven road map” drawn up in 2003. Today it is hopelessly out of date. First, it is premised
on the attainment of a “final and comprehensive permanent status agreement that ends the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2005” and such an agreement is not even in sight at the end
of 2005. Secondly, it largely predates the construction of the wall, which has come to symbolize
Israeli territorial expansion and oppression in the occupied Palestinian territory. Thirdly, it takes
no account of the advisory opinion of ICJ, handed down in July 2004, which today constitutes
the authoritative statement on the law governing the Israel-Palestine conflict and which has been
recognized as such by three of the members of the Quartet. Fourthly, both Israel and the
Palestinian Authority have failed to comply with the essential requirements of the road map. In
these circumstances, it is suggested that there is a need for a new road map which takes account
of present political realities and is anchored in respect for human rights and the rule of law in the
resolution of the conflict.
55. In the prevailing circumstances the Special Rapporteur can do no more than:
(a) Alert the Commission and the United Nations to the serious situation in the
occupied Palestinian territory resulting from the continuing violation of human rights and
humanitarian law;
(b) Appeal to the Commission and the United Nations to extend protection to the
Palestinian people;
(c) Suggest to the Quartet that in future it adopt a position on the Israel-Palestine
conflict that takes more account of human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territory
and the refusal of Israel to comply with the advisory opinion of ICJ; and that it revise the road
map in accordance with these considerations.
Notes
1 See A/60/271, report on “Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people
in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem”, of 18 August 2005.
2 Article 42 of the Hague Regulations of 1907; In re List and Others (Hostages Trial),
15 Annual Digest of Public International Law, Cases 632, 638.
3 Ha’aretz, 8 December 2005.
4 Idem, 1 December 2005.
5 According to the Israeli High Court the projected length of the wall is 763 km: Mara’abe v.
The Prime Minister of Israel H.C.J. 7957/04, para. 3.
E/CN.4/2006/29
page 21
6 Ha’aretz, 8 December 2005, p. 3.
7 B’Tselem and Bimkom, “Under the guise of security: routing the separation barrier to enable
the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank”, December 2005.
8 Paras. 20-21.
9 Ha’aretz, 1 December 2005.
10 The Israeli High Court itself seems to believe that access to the “closed zone” creates little
problem: see Mara’abe v. The Prime Minister of Israel H.C.J. 7957/04, paras. 67 and 70.
This is a further flaw in the Court’s judgement.
11 Ha’aretz, 1 December 2005.
12 Idem, 23 November 2005.
13 Idem, 1 December 2005.
14 Idem, 27 and 30 November 2005.
15 See B’Tselem, “Means of Expulsion: Violence, Harassment and Lawlessness against
Palestinians in the Southern Hebron Hills”, July 2005.
16 The Palestinian girls school of Qurtuba, in particular, has suffered from settler violence.
17 “The real uprooting is taking place in Hebron”, Ha’aretz, 11 September 2005.
18 Peace Now Settlement Report: Eastern Strip of the West Bank, September 2005
(20/10/2005).
19 B’Tselem, “Land Grab: Israel’s Settlement Policy in the West Bank”, May 2002, p. 79.
20 See Virginia Tilley, The One-State Solution, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 2005.
21 See Machsom Watch, “A Counterview: Checkpoints 2004”.
22 Palestinian Monitoring Group, “Trend Analysis: Education Under Occupation”
(30 October 2005).
23 See, for instance, its statement of 26 July 2005 contained in the Secretary-General’s report
(A/60/539-S/2005/701 of 7 November 2005) on Peaceful settlement of the Palestinian question.
24 See the statement of the Quartet on 20 September 2005 contained in the annex to news
release SC/8510 of 23 September 2005.
25 The full title of this document is “A performance-based road map to a permanent two-State
solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”.
-----
UNITED
NATIONS E
Economic and Social
Council
Distr.
GENERAL
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
10 March 2006
Original: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Sixty-second session
Item 17 (b) of the provisional agenda
PROMOTION AND PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
Report submitted by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General
on the situation of human rights defenders, Hina Jilani
Addendum
MISSION TO ISRAEL AND THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY* **
* The summary of this mission report is being circulated in all official languages. The
report itself contained in the annex to the summary is being circulated in the language of
submission and in Arabic.
** The reason for the late submission of this report is the need to reflect the latest
information.
GE.06-11743 (E) 160306
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
page 2
Summary
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the situation of human rights
defenders conducted a country visit to Israel at the invitation of the Government. She also
visited the Occupied Palestinian Territory. She remained in the region from 5 to 11 October and
met with senior officials of the Government of Israel and the Palestinian National Authority.
She also met a wide range of human rights defenders and representatives of international and
intergovernmental organizations. The objective of the visit was to assess the situation of human
rights defenders in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The report of the Special Representative describes the context in which human rights
defenders operate in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. She presents her assessment
of the situation of defenders in the light of the issues with which they are engaged and the legal
framework for the promotion and protection of human rights.
She observes that human rights defenders in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory
carry out their activities against a backdrop of occupation, conflict, military operations in
Palestinian civilian centres, including refugee camps, and of terrorism. Security-driven laws
and practices have created an environment in which activities for the defence of human rights
have not escaped suspicion and repression. This has heightened the level of harm and risk that
defenders confront in carrying out their activities.
The dominant concern for human rights defenders, even in Israel, is the violation of
the human rights of the Palestinian population under Israeli occupation. The solidarity and
cooperation between human rights defenders in Israel and in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,
despite the tensions surrounding them, is inspiring.
The Special Representative notes that the Government of Israel, generally, respects the
rights of Israeli human rights defenders and she has not observed any systematic policy of
restraining their activities within Israel. The same human rights organizations and defenders,
however, face difficulties in promoting and protecting the rights of minorities, including the
Arab and Palestinian communities in Israel. The Government shows even less tolerance for their
activities for the protection of the rights of the Palestinian population in the Occupied Palestinian
Territory or criticism of the practices of occupation.
Regarding the situation of human rights defenders in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,
the Special Representative finds that the practice and policies of the occupation result in
conditions which place human rights defenders operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
at grave risk and present serious obstructions in every aspect of their work. She is concerned
that, in the wake of the “disengagement”, human rights defenders in Gaza are becoming more
vulnerable because of their isolation, imposed by restrictions that continue to obstruct their
movement and communication with their networks in the rest of the Palestinian territory as
well as the outside world. Human rights monitors and field workers, peace activists, lawyers,
journalists, health professionals and those providing humanitarian assistance and care have all
been affected by the situation of occupation and militarization.
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
page 3
Restrictions on the freedom of movement resulting from the Wall and other barriers,
checkpoints, closures, requirement of permits and bans imposed on defenders to travel; use of
excessive force on peaceful action to protest; use of security and anti-terrorism laws to place
defenders under administrative detention; unsubstantiated allegations to undermine their
credibility and other forms of harassment, intimidation and humiliation of defenders has
rendered their situation absolutely incompatible with international norms and standards of human
rights or the principles set forth in the Declaration. International human rights organizations and
intergovernmental and United Nations agencies working in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
are also threatened and their work is obstructed.
The Special Representative observes that the difficulties of human rights defenders are
compounded because of the failure of the Palestinian Authority to respect human rights and the
rule of law in the areas under its control. Conditions of lawlessness and impunity for human
rights violations have affected the security of human rights defenders, especially those who
expose violations committed by security personnel. She has identified torture, repression of the
freedom of expression and assembly, and a failure to address the threats against women human
rights defenders as some of her more serious concerns.
The Special Representative believes that the exceptional conditions resulting from
conflict and occupation demand a more active human rights community to address the serious
violations faced by the civilian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Instead, the
human rights community is being weakened by the risks that they are placed under and by the
impunity for violation of their right to life, liberty and physical security. Any prospects for
peace and security in the region are being diminished by the constraints placed on freedoms in
general and particularly the freedom to defend human rights.
She has recommended to the Government of Israel that it must end the occupation of the
Palestinian Territory and until then it must accept and fulfil its obligations under international
human rights and humanitarian law and comply with the resolutions of the United Nations.
In the context of defenders, Israel’s defiance of international norms has caused serious harm,
including killings, to human rights defenders and affects, inter alia, their freedom of expression,
their access to places of violations, their ability to seek justice for victims and to provide
humanitarian assistance.
Affirming that resistance to the occupation is a legitimate right of the Palestinian people,
she further recommends that the Government of Israel must ensure that all peaceful activities for
the defence of human rights violated or threatened by the occupation are allowed to be conducted
free of fear and risk. She has also urged the Government to abandon the use of administrative
detention against human rights defenders.
To the Palestinian Authority the Special Representative has recommended that it must
ensure respect for human rights and the rule of law, and that fundamental freedoms of the
Palestinian population are fully restored and protected in the areas of their authority and control.
She recommends immediate measures to end impunity for human rights violations and
investigation of all complaints against officials and private entities threatening human rights
defenders, including those defending women’s rights.
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
page 4
The Special Representative reminds both the Government of Israel and the Palestinian
Authority that the “duty to protect” does not override the principle enunciated in the Declaration
that the “absence of peace and security does not excuse non-compliance with international
human rights norms and international humanitarian law”.
She calls upon the United Nations to take note of the situation of human rights defenders
in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and to adopt measures for their protection. She has
suggested that international monitoring and reporting mechanisms of the United Nations and
those documenting violations with the objective of compensating the victims be given a wider
mandate to protect human rights defenders. In consultation with the human rights community
and experts, the United Nations must devise concrete action to enforce compliance with
international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as expounded in the Advisory Opinion
of the International Court of Justice, and in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
page 5
Annex
REPORT OF THE SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE
SECRETARY-GENERAL ON THE SITUATION OF
HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS ON HER VISIT TO ISRAEL
AND THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
(5-11 October 2005)
CONTENTS
Paragraphs Page
Introduction ......................................................................................... 1 - 5 7
I. BACKGROUND NOTE .............................................................. 6 - 17 7
A. Background note: A state of fear ......................................... 6 - 10 7
B. The human rights defenders community .............................. 11 - 17 9
II. LEGAL FRAMEWORK AND THE EXERCISE OF 10
FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS ................................................. 18 - 33 10
A. International obligations ....................................................... 18 10
B. Domestic legislation and other factors which have a
direct impact on the work of human rights defenders .......... 19 - 26 10
C. The Israeli High Court of Justice .......................................... 27 - 30 12
D. Measures taken at national level for the implementation
of the Declaration ................................................................. 31 - 33 13
III. MAIN FINDINGS AND CONCERNS ........................................ 34 - 67 13
A. Violations of the fundamental rights of human rights
defenders committed by the Israeli authority ....................... 34 - 58 13
1. Unlawful killings, harassment or threats to physical
integrity .......................................................................... 34 - 35 13
2. Administrative detention of human rights defenders
and their ill-treatment ..................................................... 36 - 40 14
3. Restrictions on freedom of movement ........................... 41 - 47 15
4. Denial of humanitarian access ....................................... 48 - 50 17
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
page 6
CONTENTS (continued)
Paragraphs Page
5. Freedom of assembly and the right to protest ............... 51 - 54 17
6. Settler violence .............................................................. 55 - 58 18
B. The situation of human rights defenders under the
jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority .............................. 59 - 67 19
1. Legal framework ........................................................... 60 - 61 20
2. Measures taken at national level for the implementation
of the Declaration .......................................................... 62 20
3. Environment for the functioning of human rights
defenders and areas of concern ...................................... 63 - 67 20
IV. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...................... 68 - 92 21
A. Main conclusions ................................................................. 68 - 73 21
B. Recommendations ................................................................ 74 - 92 22
1. To the Government of Israel ......................................... 74 - 85 22
2. To the Palestinian Authority ......................................... 86 - 89 24
3. To the United Nations ................................................... 90 - 92 25
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
page 7
Introduction
1. Pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolutions 2000/61 and 2003/64, the Special
Representative of the Secretary-General on the situation of human rights defenders conducted an
official visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory from 5 to 11 October 2005. The
Special Representative thanks the Government of Israel for extending this invitation.
2. The purpose of the visit was to examine and assess the situation of human rights
defenders, the conditions under which they pursue their activities and the respect for the rights
enshrined in the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs
of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental
Freedoms (the Declaration) in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
3. The Special Representative visited Ramallah, Bethlehem, Nablus, Hebron and Bil’in
village in the West Bank, Nazareth and Tel Aviv in Israel. From her base in Jerusalem, she met
with the Minister of Public Security, the Minister of Construction and Housing, the Deputy State
Attorney and members of Parliament. She regrets that she was unable to meet with many other
authorities relevant to her mandate. She also regrets not being able to meet with Justice Barak
of the Israeli Supreme Court because the invitation to her was received at too short notice.
The Special Representative thanks the Palestinian Authority for its cooperation and for the
opportunity to discuss issues of concern with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Minister of
Justice and the Minister for Women’s Affairs.
4. The Special Representative also met non-governmental organizations (NGOs), lawyers,
journalists, and health workers engaged with a broad range of human rights issues. She deeply
regrets not being able to meet human rights defenders in Gaza in person; she had to rely on a
videoconference with some of these defenders in order to inform herself of their situation.
5. The Special Representative met with the United Nations Country Team and the
Inter-Agency Human Rights Working Group working in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,
including the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator
(UNSCO); the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the
Near East (UNRWA); the World Health Organization (WHO); and the civilian observer mission,
the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH). The Special Representative wishes to
thank everyone for their generous assistance, and to express her gratitude for the strong support
and cooperation extended to her by the staff of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights based in Ramallah and Gaza.
I. BACKGROUND NOTE
A. Background note: A state of fear
6. The respect for human rights and the rule of law in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian
Territory cannot be evaluated without reference to the occupation and its consequences for the
rights and freedoms of both the Israeli and the Palestinian populations. The impact that 38 years
of occupation, two Palestinian uprisings, the intifada, and a “war against terrorism”, has had on
society, the economy and the institutions of State cannot be overestimated. Security-related
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
page 8
injunctions and State policies touch all aspects of the lives of Israeli citizens, and the practices of
occupation have deprived the Palestinian population even of the basic right to human dignity.
The Special Representative fully endorses the view of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of
human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 that “(t)he regime of occupation
by definition results in a violation of human rights”.1 The stark reality of these violations has
overshadowed the value of Israel’s democracy and the merits of its institutions.
7. The Palestinian Authority is an interim administrative organization established in 1994
pursuant to the Oslo Accords.2 It gained limited jurisdiction for governance in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory. However, the limited scope of authority, weaknesses in the exercise of this
authority, lack of resources and the continuous challenges that it faces from the actions of the
occupation as well as of the armed Palestinian militants have constrained its capacity to affect
the conditions prevailing in its sphere of jurisdiction. Flaws and failures of the Palestinian
Authority, nevertheless, add to the repressions suffered by the Palestinian population and
increase their vulnerability to abuse. Conditions of lawlessness and violence prevail in some
areas of the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank, placing the right to life and security of the
civilian population particularly at risk.
8. The Palestinian Authority, as the representative of the Palestinian people, has the
responsibility to promote the rights of its people and to strive for their protection against abuse.
However, the nature and extent of its authority deprives it of the capacity to guarantee the
enjoyment of rights. The responsibility of the Government of Israel to protect, promote and
implement all human rights and fundamental freedoms, on the other hand, is unambiguous. This
responsibility includes the adoption of such steps as may be necessary to create all conditions
necessary in the social, economic, political and other fields, as well as the legal guarantees
required to ensure that all persons under their jurisdiction or control, individually and in
association with others, are able to enjoy all those rights and freedoms in practice (article 2 of
the Declaration). Palestine has permanent observer status in the United Nations. However, not
being a State, it is not in a position to ratify international treaties, nor does it have a de jure
obligation to the Declaration. Be that as it may, the Special Representative reminds both the
Government of Israel as well as the Palestinian Authority that the “duty to protect” does not
override the principle enunciated in the Declaration that the “absence of peace and security
does not excuse non-compliance with international human rights norms and international
humanitarian law”.
9. The Special Representative draws attention to the resolutions of the General Assembly,
the Security Council and the Commission on Human Rights, reports of the Special Rapporteurs
of the Commission, and in particular to the reports of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of
human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 that depict the conditions under
which human rights defenders conduct their daily work. In Israel and the Occupied Palestinian
Territory human rights defenders carry out their activities against a backdrop of occupation,
conflict, military operations in Palestinian civilian centres, including refugee camps, and an
institutionalized fear of terrorism. They work in an environment of fear and suspicion that has
heightened the level of harm and risk they confront in defending human rights. Limitations on
the freedom of movement between Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory and within the
West Bank severely hamper the work of human rights defenders.
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
page 9
10. One very positive trend that the Special Representative has noted is the solidarity and
cooperation between human rights defenders in Israel and those in the Occupied Palestinian
Territory and the relationship of trust which remains unaffected by adverse conditions, political
polarization and apparently irreconcilable differences in perceptions of the conflict amongst the
Israeli and the Palestinian populations in general.
B. The human rights defenders community
11. Civil society in the region is characterized by activism and diversity. While human rights
defenders in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory share many of the concerns around
which they conduct their activities, the Special Representative determined that their situation
differed with respect to the response of the Government of Israel to their activities, availability of
and access to institutions and forums of redress, legal mechanisms and other tools available for
the defence of human rights, the obstacles they confront and the degree of risk that they face in
conducting their activities. In order that the situation of defenders in the two areas is better
understood, it would be best to separately summarize their concerns and scope of activities.
12. Human rights organizations and defenders in Israel work on a variety of issues
encompassing civil and political rights as well as social, economic and cultural rights. There are
organizations that monitor and report on prisoners’ rights, torture, administrative detention and
the right to due process. There is an active peace movement and organizations that carry out
programmes on Arab-Jewish partnership and coexistence. Several groups advocate for the rights
of minorities in Israel and for the elimination of racism and discrimination. Strong networks on
women’s rights are actively engaged with issues such as violence against women and the legal
status of women under personal laws of the different religious communities. Several child rights
organizations work on the rights protected by the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
13. There are many groups and individual defenders who engage with the right to housing
and carry out protest action against house demolitions. In addition, defenders are actively
engaged in the defence of labour rights, rights of migrant workers, the right to education, health
and of persons with disabilities, the rights of lesbians, gays and bisexual and transgender
persons, land rights and environmental protection. There are religious groups and organizations
that advocate the need for religious pluralism. The Special Representative also met with
numerous individual Israeli human rights defenders who do not belong as such to any particular
organization, such as lawyers, journalists, pacifists and conscientious objectors who refuse to
serve the Israeli occupation.
14. A vast number of organizations and individuals defend the rights of Palestinians affected
by the practices of occupation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory: lawyers providing legal
assistance to Palestinian prisoners, including human rights defenders in Israeli prisons; activists
supporting and defending the right to peaceful protest and the freedom of assembly; volunteers
monitoring army checkpoints to report on the violations that Palestinians suffer at the hands of
the Israeli Defense Forces, and those who monitor abuse of Palestinians by Israeli settlers and
provide accompaniment services to prevent such abuse, especially against schoolchildren; and
organizations working on the rights of refugees and providing humanitarian assistance to them.
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
page 10
15. Palestinian human rights defenders, particularly those working in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory, are swamped by human rights concerns arising from the regime of
occupation and the daily occurrence of serious human rights violations. Defenders have to
address situations including military operations that result in civilian casualties; extrajudicial and
custodial killings; torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners and detainees;
administrative detentions in large numbers; severe restrictions on the freedom of movement and
other serious violations that result from these restrictions; unfair and discriminatory treatment in
the judicial process; lack of citizenship and civil status; confiscation of land and property, and
loss of livelihood as a result of Israeli policy of annexation of Palestinian territory; building of
the Wall and other barriers; evictions and house demolitions; and the disproportionate and
excessive use of force against all forms of protest against the occupation.
16. Despite the daily hindrances and risk of personal harm, the human rights community is
active and conducts monitoring, advocacy and reporting activities covering actions of the Israeli
civil and military authorities as well as officials of the Palestinian Authority. Both Israeli and
Palestinian defenders engage in public action to protest or resist violation of rights, raise
awareness of human rights, and provide legal, psychological, medical or other support to victims
of violations.
17. There are many international NGOs working in the area that investigate and report on
incidents involving human rights violations, make periodic reports on the general human rights
situation and join Palestinian and Israeli organizations in peaceful action against violations
committed by Israeli authorities.
II. LEGAL FRAMEWORK AND THE EXERCISE OF
FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS
A. International obligations
18. Israel has acceded to a number of international human rights instruments, including to the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Special Representative notes that
Israel is not yet party to the two Optional Protocols to the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and the International Convention on
the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. In
addition, the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of
children, child prostitution and child pornography has been signed but not yet ratified by the
Government of Israel.
B. Domestic legislation and other factors which have a direct impact
on the work of human rights defenders
19. While Israel is taking steps towards a constitution, it currently has a set of basic laws
adopted by the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) that guarantee some of the fundamental rights.3
Although freedom of expression is not expressly guaranteed in the Basic Law, together with the
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
page 11
freedom of association it is recognized as a fundamental civil right, subject to limitations
imposed by law for the maintenance of social order, public security or the integrity of the State.4
Case law of the Israeli Supreme Court has further developed the application and enforcement of
these freedoms.5
20. Following changes in the registration process, Israeli organizations are required to
register with the Registrar of Non-Profit Organizations at the Ministry of Interior. Organizations
must identify their donors, submit a list of their staff, and present a detailed annual report on
their activities and their financial assets and management. The Special Representative was
informed that the process of registration has become longer and more complex, and there are
more instances of administrative delays, forcing NGOs to spend more resources and time in
responding to the Registrar’s demands for details. So far there have been no known instances of
human rights NGOs being barred or closed by the Registrar. However, the Special
Representative was informed of some instances in which registration was refused on the ground
that names of these organizations contained the words “Palestine” or “Palestinian”. It was also
reported that the Registrar refused to register a group of conscientious objectors under their
preferred name “The Courage to Refuse”. Non-governmental organizations for the rights of
Palestinians in Israel find it almost impossible to register.
21. Some of the Arab NGOs, in particular, feared that with the function of Registrar now
under the Ministry of Interior, the Government was attempting to exercise undue monitoring and
control over the functioning and activities of NGOs. Some NGOs complained to the Special
Representative that the Israeli Ministry of Interior uses intelligence sources and secret files to
block any new registrations. This led to most NGOs registering as non-profit companies, which
forces them to relinquish many benefits in the NGO law.
22. In relation to reports of Arab NGOs in Israel facing more challenges than other NGOs, it
can be recalled that the Economic and Social Council, in its concluding observations on the
second periodic report of Israel to the Council in May 2003, reiterated its concern that “the
excessive emphasis upon the State as a ‘Jewish State’ encourages discrimination and accords a
second-class status to its non-Jewish citizens”.6 In this regard the Economic and Social Council
mentioned in particular the restricted access to and participation in trade unions for
Israeli Arabs/Palestinians.
23. The Special Representative recalls a statement made on 21 May 2003 by the Israeli
Minister for Foreign Affairs to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, accusing
“most human rights offices in the West Bank and Gaza Strip of providing shelter to terrorists”.
In her communication to the Government of Israel regarding this matter, she pointed out that
such general statements against human rights organizations were contrary to the spirit of the
Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. She also registered her concern that such public
accusations, without presenting any evidence to that effect, can be prejudicial to the safety of all
defenders in the context of the conflict and tensions in the region. She received no response to
this communication from the Government.
24. The freedom of expression is generally respected and most human rights defenders in
Israel are able to express their views in publications, through press conferences, in the media and
through other forms of advocacy. However, the consistent policy of restricting travel of
Palestinian defenders has restrained their freedom to communicate human rights-related
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
page 12
information. There have also been numerous reports of confiscation of printed and electronic
material from defenders at Israeli military checkpoints and the airport, or in army raids against
Occupied Palestinian Territory-based NGOs.
25. The media, film and artistic expression is subject to scrutiny by the Israeli military censor
on security-related issues, as are Palestinian newspapers in East Jerusalem. The foreign media is
not subject to censorship. The Special Representative received reports of harassment of local
and foreign journalists who cover or report human rights violations committed by the Israeli
military. Many Palestinian journalists have been refused renewal of press cards since 2002,
which has effectively barred them from covering many human rights-related events. Several
journalists have reportedly been physically attacked, threatened and forcibly deprived of their
cameras. Following her visit the Special Representative has been receiving reports of journalists
being increasingly targeted at the weekly demonstrations against the illegal construction of the
Wall at Bil’in.
26. The Special Representative notes with concern that the Knesset on 25 July 2005
approved an amendment to the Civil Wrongs (Liability of the State) Law, which prevents
Palestinians from seeking remedy retroactively for human rights violations committed by Israeli
authorities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since the outbreak of the intifada in 2000. This
amendment is contrary to article 9 of the Declaration. As Palestinian courts have no jurisdiction
in cases of human rights violations carried out by Israeli authorities in their area of jurisdiction,
no effective remedy or the possibility to seek remedy is available.
C. The Israeli High Court of Justice
27. The jurisdiction of the Israeli High Court extends to the Occupied Palestinian Territory
(art. 15 of the Basic Law). In almost every meeting with Government officials, the Special
Representative was reminded that the Supreme Court of Israel deliberates on human rights cases
filed by human rights activists. Since the April 2002 military invasion of the West Bank (also
known as “Operation Defensive Shield”), human rights NGOs have initiated a series of petitions
to the High Court challenging Israeli policy and practices in the OPT which constitute grave
violations of international humanitarian or human rights law.
28. The extent to which human rights defenders have full access to justice and recourse to a
legal remedy within Israel’s legal framework is of particular interest to the Special
Representative. She recalls the concluding observations and comments of the Committee on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights7 after its consideration of the second periodic report
submitted by Israel, wherein the Committee has welcomed the relaxing of the Supreme Court
rules of standing so as to allow any person formal access to the court and to widen opportunities
to test the justiciability of ICESCR rights before the courts. “Locus standi” to raise legal issues
on human rights or seek their enforcement against violations is a valuable asset for defenders and
increases their ability to defend human rights. However, this is not sufficient.
29. Defenders lose the advantage of locus standi if application of human rights norms is
restrained by any considerations, including a preoccupation with security. While the court has
given important relief in some cases, in the majority of petitions the court has accepted the
claims of the occupying power in relation to violation of human rights in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory. When the High Court has considered such cases, it has held in most
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
page 13
instances that there was a justified military necessity or a national security need for the action or
policy in question. This is reflected in High Court decisions on a wide range of Israeli violations
in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, such as land confiscation and settlements,8 home
demolitions,9 deportation orders10 and uprooting of trees.11 Defenders have reservations on the
question of impartiality and fairness of the court. They believe that in several cases the Israeli
High Court has established legal “justifications” for illegitimate practices, thus obviating any
changes in Israeli policy which might have stopped the violation by the occupying power of
Palestinian individual and collective rights.
30. The Special Representative also notes that, according to the Israeli High Court case law,
when a specific Israeli law contradicts a rule of customary international law, the Israeli law
prevails. In the context of violations not recognized under Israeli law, such as many that result
from practices of the occupation, defenders can expect no remedy through the court. Some
defenders are concerned that seeking to defend the rights of Palestinians in the Israeli High Court
might be perceived as giving legitimacy to the occupation.
D. Measures taken at national level for the implementation of the Declaration
31. During her visit, the Special Representative was informed by representatives of the
Government of Israel that an NGO committee had been formed in the Knesset, but that no
concrete initiatives have yet been taken by the committee. The Special Representative has
expressed hope that this initiative, once developed further, can become a mechanism that can be
used by human rights defenders to promote and protect human rights in Israel.
32. The Special Representative received assurances from the Government that there were
further plans to design initiatives aimed at giving a greater role to civil society and the
human rights community in Israel and for improving their interaction with the Government.
33. During her visit, the Special Representative was also informed that the Government of
Israel had recently constituted an inter-ministerial committee to deal with the issue of impunity
for settler violence against Palestinians in general and thereby also human rights defenders. The
Special Representative has not yet been informed about concrete action taken by this committee
to deter these acts of violence through enforcement of appropriate policy or punitive measures.
III. MAIN FINDINGS AND CONCERNS
A. Violation of the fundamental rights of human rights defenders
committed by the Israeli authority
1. Unlawful killings, harassment or threats to physical integrity
34. The Special Representative expresses deep concern about the many allegations of
systematic targeting of peace and human rights activists by the Israeli Defence Forces,
particularly volunteers monitoring or resisting gross violations committed against the civilian
population in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. She issued a joint press release and
communicated her concern to the Government of Israel regarding the killing of civilians holding
a peaceful demonstration on 19 May 2004, protesting against house demolitions in Rafah. She
received no response to her communication from the Government.
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
page 14
35. In recent years there have been notable instances where international human rights
defenders have been targeted and killed in the course of human rights activity. The Special
Representative sent three communications to the Government of Israel regarding such cases.
Rachel Corrie, an International Solidarity Movement (ISM) volunteer, was run over by an
Israeli army bulldozer in Rafah refugee camp while attempting to stop the levelling of the camp
on 16 March 2003. Tom Hurndall, another ISM volunteer, was shot dead, allegedly by a bullet
fired at him from an Israeli army watchtower while he was shielding Palestinian children and
walking away from a soldier in Rafah on 11 April 2003. Dr. Khalil Suleiman, head of the
Palestinian Red Cross Society in Jenin, was killed in an attack on his ambulance by the Israeli
security forces on 4 March 2002. Three other paramedics were severely injured in the same
incident. The Special Representative received no response to these communications. She takes
note of several other cases reported by different organizations alleging the killing by the Israeli
army of ISM activists, journalists, medical workers and aid workers (one of them working with
the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
2. Administrative detention of human rights defenders and their ill-treatment
36. The Special Representative has received information on the administrative detention of a
number of defenders. This information suggests that administrative detention is being used as a
means to deter defenders from carrying out their human rights activities. Human rights field
workers associated with human rights organizations have been particularly targeted. Many of
these are monitors who investigate and report on violations such as torture, treatment of
prisoners and custodial and extrajudicial killings or targeted assassinations.
37. Examination of these cases shows that arrest and detention of these defenders is based on
secret evidence, and the detainees or their counsel have no access to information against them.
The detention orders do not specify any maximum cumulative period of administrative detention
and the initial period can be repeatedly extended by the detaining authority without showing any
cause. In many cases this has been done almost at the last minute before the end of the previous
period, causing severe anxiety and anguish to the detainee, amounting to psychological torture.
In some of the cases brought to the attention of the Special Representative the Israeli High Court
had upheld the detention orders, noting that the decisions were based on secret evidence, thus
undermining reliance on judicial review as a safeguard against arbitrariness in cases of
administrative detention.
38. The Special Representative heard repeated allegations that human rights defenders in
prison did not have access to legal assistance, were often ill-treated and sometimes even tortured
during their interrogation and detention, and that they were usually held in isolation in remote
detention centres, making regular contact with their family difficult. The Special Representative
visited one human rights defender under administrative detention in Ansar III/Kedziot, a prison
situated at a remote location in the Negev.
39. A few examples from a long list of defenders who are, or have remained, under
administrative detention are:
(a) Ahmad Maslamani, a doctor working as General Director of the Health Work
Committees, and a member of the Coordination committee of the Palestinian National
Organizations Network. He is a well-respected activist in civil society and is detained together
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
page 15
with two other activists of civil society in Jerusalem. He has been charged with membership and
participation in activities of a terrorist organization. The Special Representative has noted an
observation of the judge in the decision of the Supreme Court12 that “(I)t looks like they execute
civic acts but not military or dangerous. But all those acts are connected to an organization that
has terrorist military acts … ”;13
(b) The Special Representative met with Ziyad Muhammad Shehadeh Hmeidan at
Ansar III/Kedziot prison, upon her request. Mr. Hmeidan is a 32-year-old field worker of the
Palestinian NGO Al-Haq who has been held under administrative detention since 23 May 2005,
and was due to be released on 22 November 2005. A week before his expected release,
Mr. Hmeidan was informed that an application for his detention to be extended for a further six
months would be made. To date he has never been informed of the reasons for his arrest.
However, in one response to the Special Representative’s communication in this regard, the
Government advised that he is a “threat to State security”;
(c) The Special Representative also sent communications regarding the detention of
Daoud Dirawi, a child rights lawyer working with Defence for Children International (DCI), in
November 2004, and of Abd al-Latif Gheith, board chairman of Addameer Prisoner’s Support
and Human Rights Association, in July 2004.
40. According to the information she has received, contact with “suspected” persons, such as
interviews recorded in the context of the aforementioned violations, or even possession of a list
of names, have been used as reasons for such detention. There are too many such cases for the
Special Representative to accept the Government’s position that these individuals have not been
targeted because of their human rights work but because they are threats to State security.
Undefined and vague allegations with no evidence made available to support them, cannot be the
basis for the Special Representative to draw any conclusions against persons who are
acknowledged as legitimate human rights defenders by the organizations with whom they are
associated. These are well-known organizations with respect and good standing in the
human rights community and a consistent record of human rights work. Many of those detained
have been associated with these organizations for long periods of time and have been involved in
human rights activity.
3. Restrictions on freedom of movement
41. Human rights defenders’ daily work is most notably hindered by the repeated obstacles to
their freedom of movement by the Israeli authorities. Freedom of movement throughout the
Occupied Palestinian Territory is severely undermined by the construction of the Wall14 and
about 600 military checkpoints as at April 2005,15 together with greater recourse to temporary
military road checkpoints established at random, so-called “flying checkpoints”. Although
curfews are less frequently imposed than in previous years, this method of restricting freedom of
movement is still resorted to. The construction of the Wall by Israel has also been accompanied
by the creation of a new administrative regime for the Occupied Palestinian Territory,
establishing “closed zones”, which hinder and effectively block entrance and passage. This
regime restricts the freedom of movement of Palestinian residents and non-residents of the area
of the West Bank lying between the “Green Line” and the Wall.
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
page 16
42. The Special Representative consistently heard from defenders, including field workers,
lawyers, medical workers, professors and teachers, both Israelis and Palestinians, in addition to
international human rights defenders, about how checkpoints and the other physical obstacles
described above endanger and delay their work. Governmental policies, such as closures, make
human rights defenders residing in the West Bank, along with all residents, dependent on travel
permits. These restrictions not only place additional constraints on the time and resources of
defenders but also become impediments to their access to information, to victims and to sites of
violation, restraining their freedom to monitor and document human rights situations.
Restrictions on freedom of movement also affect the work of Palestinian Authority institutions
set up for the protection of human rights in its administered areas, such as the Palestinian
Independent Commission for Citizen’s Rights.
43. The Israeli military’s internal closure policy implemented within the Occupied
Palestinian Territory results in little or no access to each other for defenders located in different
areas and effectively limits the cooperation with Israeli human rights defenders. This has
affected the ease with which they can exchange information or coordinate human rights
activities. These limits on movement also affect the work of international agencies such as
UNRWA, whose field workers face similar difficulties in carrying out their responsibilities.
The Special Representative has particularly noted the difficulties faced by international
human rights observers, monitors and activists to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and
especially Gaza. The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) has been specifically targeted,
with over 93 volunteers deported in the last four years.
44. Israeli NGOs do not usually face obstacles when wanting to travel abroad for conferences
and meetings, but they do face problems when wanting to travel into the Occupied Palestinian
Territory. Palestinian defenders face severe restrictions on freedom of movement both within
the West Bank/Gaza Strip/East Jerusalem, and especially from the Occupied Palestinian
Territory into Israel. This causes major difficulties in terms of coordination and interaction
between Israeli and Palestinian NGOs working together to promote and protect human rights in
both Israel and in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
45. Every testimony provided by both Israeli and Palestinian defenders to the Special
Representative described military checkpoints as sites of daily human rights abuses committed
by the Israeli security forces and, in rare instances, eruption of unlawful violence by Palestinians.
The Special Representative consistently heard that disclosing a defender’s profession
(“human rights”) to a checkpoint officer is usually met with increased hostility and deeper
suspicion. Very often these are prime sites for the arrest/detention of human rights defenders,
particularly field caseworkers. Considering these daily scenes of unimaginable tension and ritual
humiliation it is remarkable that ordinary Palestinians exercise such considerable restraint.
46. Owing to United Nations security precautions, the Special Representative was not able to
visit human rights defenders based in Gaza during this visit. A meeting with defenders had to be
conducted via teleconference from Gaza as none were able to exit Gaza to meet with her
elsewhere. She has noted the special difficulties faced by defenders in Gaza in terms of access to
the area and exit therefrom. She is also aware of apprehensions that Gaza is likely to become
more isolated in the aftermath of the “disengagement”, increasing the difficulties of defenders as
well as their vulnerability.
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
page 17
47. The Special Representative has communicated her concern to the Government with
respect to several human rights defenders who were refused permission to travel abroad,
prevented from crossing the border out of Israel or arrested and detained at the border. All
these defenders were thus prevented from attending human rights activities, including
United Nations-organized conferences and the World Social Forum, and in one case prevented
from deposing before the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices. Some of these
defenders were subsequently allowed to travel. In almost all cases the Government has made
allegations of these defenders being “security threats”. Many defenders continue to be refused
permission to travel abroad. The list is too long for the Special Representative to mention all by
name, and there are many more whose cases were not even forwarded to the Special
Representative.
4. Denial of humanitarian access
48. It is increasingly difficult for members of humanitarian and development agencies
operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to carry out their work effectively because of an
intensification of Israeli military restrictions on humanitarian access to the civilian populations
affected by conflict. The Special Representative was disturbed to hear that, on a daily basis, aid
workers are being prevented from carrying out their duties by unacceptable delays at
checkpoints, inconsistent and sometimes total refusal to access project sites and beneficiaries,
and harassment of, and severe restrictions on, the movements of local staff. Instances where aid
workers were targeted, and in some cases killed, were brought to the Special Representative’s
attention.
49. The Special Representative remains deeply concerned at the continuing obstruction of
humanitarian services. Several incidents have been reported to her of undue delay and denial of
access to ambulances, and the killing, wounding, arrest and detention, abuse and humiliation of
ambulance drivers, paramedics and medical professionals. These violations had attained serious
dimensions in 2002 during Israel’s Operation Defensive Shield. However the incidents continue
to occur in clear violation of international humanitarian law.16 Dozens of unsafe deliveries in
which both mothers and infants have died at checkpoints have been documented by the
United Nations.
50. Since the beginning of this intifada, there has been one case in which the Government has
brought accusations that a Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) ambulance was being used
for purposes other than humanitarian assistance. No evidence was ever brought forward to
substantiate this allegation and repeated requests made by the PRCS, through the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), for an independent investigation have been ignored. Yet,
this case has been continually referred to by the authorities, to uphold the claim that it is entirely
reasonable to delay and deny the passage of ambulances in order to counteract terrorist actions.
5. Freedom of assembly and the right to protest
51. Use of disproportionate and excessive force by the Israeli security forces to repress
peaceful protests against practices of the occupation continues to illustrate lack of respect for
the freedom of assembly. Violent means such as tear gas, rubber-coated metal bullets and
stun-grenades are frequently used to disperse peaceful gatherings. The Special Representative
has received several reports of arbitrary arrests and detentions of defenders, who have been
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
page 18
accused of committing violence, obstructing the Defence Forces, causing riots or violating
decrees on closed military zones. Often bail is granted on condition that the defenders do not
return or enter the area. Authorities can deny them entry on the ground that they are
“blacklisted”.
52. Israeli defenders are in general able to carry out peaceful demonstrations within
Israel without hindrance. However, Israeli defenders are prohibited from travelling to
Palestinian-controlled areas and are often physically hindered from travelling to the areas
still under Israeli control to participate in peaceful assemblies.
53. During her visit the Special Representative observed one event in the village of Bil’in
where Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights defenders have been regularly
exercising their right to peaceful protest against the violation of Palestinian rights resulting from
construction of the Wall. Despite the restraining effect that her presence at the site may have had
on the large contingent of security forces deployed there, the Special Representative noted the
arrest of defenders, some of whom were dragged towards the waiting police vehicles. She
sensed the intimidating environment created by the large number of soldiers with weapons, as
compared with the number of protesters. These peaceful demonstrations have been taking place
each Friday since February 2005. The Special Representative has received regular accounts of
harassment against human rights defenders, who have been arrested and injured during peaceful
demonstrations at the same site and elsewhere.
54. The Special Representative also notes the arrest of journalists covering such protests.
Video footage shot by journalists has been instrumental in providing evidence to the courts that
such demonstrations have been peaceful. The Special Representative underlines that the right to
resist occupation is legitimate.17 She also refers to article 12 of the Declaration that protects the
right to peaceful activities against violation of human rights.
6. Settler violence
55. Settler violence constitutes a daily threat to Palestinian, Israeli and international human
rights defenders, including the civilian observer mission, Temporary International Presence in
Hebron (TIPH), established in 1994 with the mandate to monitor and report on the situation in
Hebron and to provide a feeling of security to the Palestinian community of about 140,000 who
live with a regular reign of terror caused by 600 neighbouring settlers.
56. According to the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian
territories occupied since 1967, settler violence is on the increase, with 68 incidents reported in
May 2005 and 67 in June.18 Settler violence occurs across the West Bank, and previously Gaza,
with Israeli authorities rarely intervening or investigating complaints. In this hostile
environment, the role of the human rights defender is to watch over, accompany and shield
Palestinians from violence such as being beaten or stoned by groups of settlers. They walk
Palestinian children to and from school, assist pregnant women or the elderly gain safe passage
to medical facilities. Such basic tasks require considerable courage and determination
considering the level of impunity that settlers enjoy for violations of the Palestinians’ right to
security of person and property.
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
page 19
57. The Special Representative has received numerous reports illustrating the risks that
human rights defenders face while trying to protect Palestinians from settler violence.
On 29 September 2004 two members of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) were severely
beaten with chains by settlers while accompanying Palestinian children on their way to school.
On 16 February 2005, a group of international peace activists were attacked by settlers while
accompanying Palestinian shepherds as they grazed their flocks on their land near the
Havat Maon settlement in the West Bank. Two masked men demanded that they hand over their
video camera, which one of them had been using to film an incident minutes earlier, in which
settlers pointed a gun at the head of a woman activist from CPT. After they refused, one of the
settlers set on the two activists, breaking one activist’s jaw with a kick. In October 2005, two
CPT activists were badly beaten by settlers from the outpost as they were accompanying a group
of children to school. The Special Representative also heard unimpeachable evidence from the
Israeli volunteer group Machsom Watch of the daily intimidation they face by settlers at
checkpoints and in areas such as Hebron which has been corroborated by members of Breaking
the Silence, a group of Israeli ex-soldiers.
58. In her meeting with the Deputy State Attorney-General, the Special Representative was
told that claims of settler impunity were unfounded and informed her of two recent indictments
of settlers. The Special Representative, while welcoming the Government’s action in these two
cases, remains concerned by the inaction of the Government in the large number of cases that
have been brought to its attention by various sources. The Special Representative was informed
that the Government of Israel had recently constituted an inter-ministerial committee to deal with
the issue of impunity for settler violence. The Special Representative has not yet been informed
about concrete action taken by this committee to deter these acts of violence through
enforcement of appropriate policy or punitive measures.
B. The situation of human rights defenders under the
jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority
59. While the Special Representative visited the region at the invitation of the Government of
Israel, the scope of her mission included appraisal of the situation of human rights defenders in
the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The formula of authority under the Oslo Accords makes it
necessary for the Special Representative to gather information and to examine the policies and
practices of the Palestinian Authority, in addition to those of the Israeli occupation for presenting
the situation in all its aspects. Therefore, she visited various places in the West Bank and also
sought the cooperation of the Palestinian Authority for enhancing her knowledge and
understanding of its relationship to the civil society, the level of cooperation between institutions
set up by the Authority and civil society organizations, especially those working on human
rights. She is grateful to the Palestinian Authority for its cooperation and the courtesy granted to
her by Ministers of the Palestinian Authority and other functionaries in meeting with her and
allowing her to introduce her mandate and to raise issues of concern with them. The Special
Representative communicated her concerns regarding issues that emerged from her consultation
with defenders in the Occupied Palestinian Territory during her mission and other information
that she has been receiving from time to time regarding the effects of Palestinian Authority
administration on activities for the defence of human rights and the security of those who carry
them out.
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
page 20
1. Legal framework
60. A Basic Law for the National Authority in the Transitional Period was enforced
on 29 May 2002. It provides a provisional constitutional framework for the Palestinian State
until the peace process is concluded and the Palestinian State is officially declared. The law
provides for parliamentary democracy with direct and free elections, guarantees human rights
recognized in the major international covenants, including equal protection of the law, protection
against torture, forced confession, and arbitrary arrest. The law also safeguards freedom of
thought, freedom of expression, and freedom of the press, provided that they do not violate the
provisions of the law. Also listed are the right to life and equality of gender. Freedom of belief
and worship are guaranteed, subject to non-violation of public order or morality. Freedom of
association, including the formation of trade unions, and peaceful assembly are constitutionally
protected. In seeking to institutionalize safeguards against violations, the law provides for the
independence of the judiciary. During a state of emergency, basic rights may not be infringed,
and the legislature may not be suspended. Detainees have the right to a lawyer, and their cases
must be reviewed by the Attorney-General or the courts within 15 days.
61. There is considerable overlap of diverse legal institutions in the Palestinian territories.
Some of these include Israeli military and civilian law, Jordanian law, and acts, ordinances, and
orders-in-council that remain in effect from the time of the British Mandate.
2. Measures taken at national level for the implementation of the Declaration
62. The Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens’ Rights (PICCR) was established
on 30 September 1993, upon a Presidential Decree issued by the late President Yasser Arafat.
The legislative council is now considering passing legislation to recognize it as the national
institution for human rights. Article 31 of the Basic Law of 1997 also reiterated the commitment
for establishing an independent Commission on Human Rights.
3. Environment for the functioning of human rights defenders
and areas of concern
63. Protections in the Palestinian law are not implemented effectively and in practice do not
serve human rights defenders either in facilitating their work or in providing them with security
against abuse and threats. While NGOs are able to register, the regulations and procedures have
become more cumbersome than in the past. Most NGOs rely on support from foreign donors,
mainly the European Union, USAID and Nordic Governments. So far no attempt by the
Palestinian Authority to restrict foreign funding has been observed. The Special Representative
is troubled by reports that amendments to the NGO Law of Charitable Associations and
Community Organizations have been presented to the Palestinian Legislative Council, proposing
provisions that could seriously hamper NGO independence, complicate registration procedures,
and restrict their scope of activities, especially with regard to promoting civil and political rights.
64. Most defenders acknowledge that the Palestinian Authority has cooperated with many
NGOs in the field of human rights education, training of police and judiciary and law reforms.
However, they believe that the results of this cooperation with the civil society were muted
because of a lack of genuine commitment on the part of the Palestinian Authority to enforce
human rights.
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
page 21
65. Reports of torture and mistreatment of detainees are common but human rights defenders
find it difficult to gain access to places of detention. In September 2001 the Special
Representative communicated her concern to the Palestinian Authority regarding the alleged
comments of the Ramallah police commander justifying torture of detainees, and threatening a
defender when his remarks were challenged. Subsequently, the Chief of the Palestinian Police
Service reportedly issued an order prohibiting access to the defender and his organization to
police centres and prisons.
66. The Special Representative has received credible reports that journalists and human
rights defenders are targeted for exposing abuses committed by the Palestinian Authority
security apparatus. She has also received reports of arrests and assaults on human rights
defenders for participating in peaceful demonstrations and public activities.
67. She is particularly concerned about the culture of impunity that has affected the safety of
human rights defenders, particularly women human rights defenders. The Special
Representative refers to the report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its
causes and consequences19 that highlights the issues pertaining to women’s legal and social
rights and the incidence of violence against women in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Women human rights defenders engaged with these issues have pointed out several difficulties
that they confront in promoting and protecting women’s rights. Weaknesses in the judicial
system and flaws in the legal framework have deprived these defenders of adequate tools for
obtaining justice for women. They have been targeted by State and non-State entities for
advocating law reform and for assisting and supporting victims of violence.
IV. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
A. Main conclusions
68. The Special Representative notes that the Government of Israel, in general, does
respect the rights of Israeli human rights defenders and that she has not observed any
systematic policy of restraining their activities within Israel. Human rights organizations
and defenders’ groups have access to governmental authorities, members of the Knesset
and Knesset sub-committees. Defenders have acknowledged that they have opportunities
to examine and comment on legislative drafts. This indicates that there is interaction with
human rights defenders that could be further developed to increase their input on policies
and practices of the State that affect the situation of human rights and the ability of
defenders to function.
69. The same human rights organizations and defenders, however, face difficulties in
promoting and protecting the rights of minorities, including the Arab and Palestinian
communities in Israel. While human rights organizations and groups are able to advocate
rights and report on violations, defenders regret that their efforts have little or no impact
on policies of the Government, especially in relation to security measures that result in
serious violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
page 22
70. The Special Representative finds that the practices and policies of the occupation
result in conditions which place human rights defenders operating in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory at grave risk and present serious obstructions in every aspect of their
work. Human rights monitors and field workers, lawyers, journalists, health professionals
and those providing humanitarian assistance and care have all been affected by the
situation of occupation and militarization.
71. Restrictions on the freedom of movement and assembly, administrative detentions
and other forms of harassment, intimidation and humiliation of defenders has rendered
their situation absolutely incompatible with international norms and standards of human
rights and the principles set forth in the Declaration. The Special Representative is
concerned that, in the wake of the “disengagement”, human rights defenders in Gaza are
becoming more vulnerable because of their isolation, imposed by continuing restrictions
that obstruct their movement and communication with their networks in the rest of the
Palestinian territory as well as the outside world.
72. The information she has received indicates that the Palestinian Authority’s style of
governance is not fully in compliance with human rights norms. Conditions of lawlessness
and impunity for human rights violations have affected the security of human rights
defenders, especially those who expose violations committed by security personnel. The
Special Representative is concerned that these conditions could affect the functioning and
safety of election monitors in the forthcoming elections.
73. “Security imperatives” have been allowed to deprive a vast population of their
very basic rights, and to justify continuation of gross violations of human rights and
humanitarian law committed by the occupation. The exceptional conditions resulting from
conflict and occupation demand a more active human rights community to address the
serious violations faced by the civilian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The human rights community is being weakened by the risks that they are placed under
and by the impunity for violation of their right to life, liberty and physical security. Any
prospects for peace and security in the region are being diminished by the constraints
placed on freedoms in general and, particularly, the freedom to defend human rights.
B. Recommendations
1. To the Government of Israel
74. Israel must end the occupation of the Palestinian Territory, as the situation of
occupation itself is a gross violation of the human rights of the Palestinian people. Until the
end of the occupation, Israel must respect the resolutions of the United Nations bodies, and
accept its obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law, in
particular the two main International Covenants and the Fourth Geneva Convention
relative to the protection of civilian persons in time of war, of 12 August 1949. In the
context of defenders, Israel’s defiance of international law has caused serious harm,
including killings, to human rights defenders and affects their freedom of expression, their
access to places of violations and their ability to seek justice for victims and to provide
humanitarian assistance.
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
page 23
75. Resistance to the occupation is a legitimate right of the Palestinian people. Any
peaceful action undertaken in this regard, collectively or individually, is, therefore,
protected under article 12 of the Declaration. Article 2 of the Declaration places the
Government of Israel under the obligation “to adopt such legislative, administrative and
other steps as may be necessary to ensure that the rights and freedoms referred to in the
present Declaration are effectively guaranteed”. The Government must amend laws,
regulations and policies and refrain from taking action that obstructs or punishes the
exercising of the freedom of assembly, and the right to protest or resist violations.
76. Israel’s legal system makes security-related provisions that have been used or
abused to prevent the enforcement of the rights of Palestinians brought before the judicial
forums. The Government may consider a comprehensive review of the system in order to
ensure that its security concerns are met within the boundaries of international law. The
Government must show its commitment to human rights, democracy and to peace and
security by undertaking this exercise in collaboration with independent experts to give
credibility to the results of such examination.
77. The Special Representative suggests that the Government also give serious
consideration to the incorporation of the principles set out in the Declaration to ensure
protection of human rights defenders and strict accountability for violation of their right to
defend human rights. In particular, the right of victims of human rights violations to an
effective remedy, including compensation, in accordance with article 9 of the Declaration
must be protected. In this regard, repeal of the provision of the Civil Wrongs (Liability of
the State) Law, as amended in July 2005, should be considered.
78. The Special Representative joins other human rights bodies and mechanisms of the
United Nations in recommending that the Government abandon the practice of
administrative detention. The accuracy of information leading to charges, partiality and
transparency of investigation and fairness of procedures in prosecution of these cases is
questionable. By not allowing Palestinian lawyers to appear before Israeli courts, many of
the Palestinian detainees are deprived of their right to a counsel of their choice. Orders of
detention and extension of the period are usually based on secret evidence not disclosed to
the accused or, sometimes, even to any judicial authority. Several human rights defenders
have been placed under administrative detention in this manner. The bona fides of these
detentions on the basis of security is disputed and the Government has not put forward any
responses that inspire confidence in the accusations or the procedures employed against the
defenders in question.
79. In view of the allegation of torture and mistreatment of detainees, the Special
Representative recommends that the Government accept independent monitoring of the
detention facilities and allow independent observers immediate access to human rights
defenders under administrative detention. The Government told the Special
Representative that the Israel Bar Association had access to prisons, but other sources,
including Israeli lawyers, have informed her that this access is only to clients and not for
assessing conformity of practices of the authorities to international human rights and
humanitarian law and standards.
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
page 24
80. The Special Representatives recommends that the Government issue invitations to
the Special Rapporteurs of the Commission on Human Rights mandated by the
Commission to carry out immediate missions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory in its
resolution of 19 October 2000.
81. The Israeli authorities must refrain from imposing restrictions on travel of human
rights defenders to or from Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Other
restrictions on freedom of movement must be removed, and access of defenders in order to
carry out their work must be ensured. Measures must be adopted, in consultation with
human rights organizations both in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, to
facilitate the movement of defenders.
82. The executive, judicial and security authorities in Israel must inculcate a better
understanding of the application of human rights norms to the situation of occupation and,
for this purpose, create opportunities of interaction with defenders who are engaged with
the protection of human rights and humanitarian law. The Government must refrain from
making statements alleging wrongdoing against human rights or humanitarian operations.
The Government must establish its good faith in voicing any suspicions by producing
unequivocal evidence to that effect.
83. The Government must cooperate with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of
human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.
84. Given the degree of cooperation that exists between the Government and
United Nations agencies, the Special Representative recommends that any elements of
obstruction to allow these agencies working under different mandates to protect the civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people be removed. It must
grant opportunities to these agencies to communicate their concerns to the Government
and to hold a meaningful dialogue on these issues. In particular, channels of
communications with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the
West Bank should be established. The Office should have the opportunity to discuss its
concerns with the Government and to put forward recommendations for the protection of
activities for the defence of human rights in the areas of the Occupied Palestinian Territory
under Israeli control or on its policies that affect the situation in the “A Areas”.
85. The Special Representative strongly recommends the Government to address the
issue of settler violence and the impunity for such incidents. She requests the Government
to keep her informed on initiatives taken by the inter-ministerial committee set up in this
regard.
2. To the Palestinian Authority
86. The Palestinian Authority must ensure respect for human rights and the rule of law.
It must also ensure that fundamental freedoms of the Palestinian population are fully
restored and protected in the areas of their authority and control. Incorporation of the
principles set forth in the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and their observance in
all aspects of governance would be a step forward in this direction.
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
page 25
87. The Special Representative urges the Palestinian Authority to maintain a respect for
the freedom of association in the law and refrain from any changes that infringe the
independence of NGOs or restrict the scope of their activities for the defence of human
rights. Likewise, the independence of the media and the freedom to report on human
rights violations must be protected, not only in the law but also in practice.
88. The Palestinian Authority must take immediate measures to end impunity for
human rights violations. Investigation of complaints against officials and private entities
threatening human rights defenders, including those defending women’s rights, must be
conducted with diligence and responsibility. The Special Representative recommends the
creation of an independent commission to inquire into all allegations of human rights
violations against the security services, including torture, kidnappings and illegal detention
of human rights defenders.
89. The mandate of the Palestinian Independent Commission on Citizens Rights must
be strengthened and reforms of the institution undertaken to improve its capacity to hold
accountability for human rights violations by the Authority.
3. To the United Nations
90. The General Assembly, the Security Council, the Commission on Human Rights and
its special procedure mechanisms have taken note of and have largely condemned the
practices of the occupation. Nevertheless, concrete measures need to be adopted to secure
the rights of the Palestinian population. In consultation with human rights experts and
fully utilizing the information documented by its mechanisms, the United Nations must
devise concrete action to enforce compliance with international law in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory, as expounded in the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of
Justice, and in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.
91. The Special Representative calls upon the United Nations to prioritize its support
for human rights defenders and the OHCHR with the full cooperation of the Government
of Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
92. The Special Representative calls upon the Commission to take particular note of the
situation of human rights defenders in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and to adopt
measures for their protection and for facilitating their work.
Notes
1 See A/60/271.
2 According to the Accords, the Palestinian Authority was designated to have security and
administrative control over Palestinian areas designated as “Area A” (18 per cent of the
West Bank), and only administrative control over areas designated as “B” (22 per cent of the
West Bank). The remainder of the territories (including Israeli settlements, the Jordan Valley
region, and bypass roads between Palestinian communities) were to remain under exclusive
Israeli control (“Area C” comprising 60 per cent of the West Bank).
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
page 26
3 Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty 1992.
4 According to Law of Associations, 5740-1980, the Associations Registrar can refuse to
register an association, if “one of its purposes is to negate the existence of the State of Israel or
its democratic character, or if there are reasonable grounds to conclude that the association will
serve as a cover for illegal activity”. According to the Mandatory Defence (Emergency)
Regulations 1945 the Minister of Defence may declare any body or persons to be an “unlawful
association” if it incites or encourages the overthrow by force or violence of the political order of
the Government of Israel, the bringing into contempt or arousal of disaffection against the
Government or its ministers in their official capacity; the destruction of or injury to government
property; or acts of terrorism directed against the Government of Israel or its servants. The
Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance, 5708-1948 also places prohibitions against creation,
membership and operation of a “terrorist organization” as defined in the Ordinance. There are
also restrictions regarding professional associations in certain fields, and on the qualifications
that may belong to a professional association.
5 HCJ 507/85, Tamini v. Minister of Defense and C.A. 2687/92, Geva v. Walt Disney Co.
6 E/C.12/1/Add.27, para. 10.
7 See E/C.12/1/Add.90.
8 HCJ 302/72, Abu Hilu et al. v. Government of Israel et al. PD 27 (2) 169; HCJ 606/78
Ayub et al. v. Minister of Defense et al. PD 33 (2) 113.
9 HCJ 6026/94, Nazal, et al. v. Commander of the IDF in the West Bank PD 48 (5) 338.
10 HCJ 97/79, Abu Awad v. Commander of Judea and Samaria PD 33 (3) 309, 317-318.
11 HCJ 7669/03, Ahmad et al. v. Military Commander of the IDF in the West Bank (unpublished)
referred to in Orna Kohn’s paper, “Litigation before the Israeli Courts”, panellist at Al-Haq’s
legal conference, “From Theory to Practice: Upholding International Humanitarian Law in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory” (November 2005).
12 Decision dated 17 August 2005 in Rasim Obedat etc. v. The State of Israel.
13 Rasim Obedat (6552/05), Ahmed Maslamani (6432/05) and Naser Abukhader (6388/05) v.
The State of Israel, Supreme Court judgement, 8 August 2005, at paragraph 11 (English
translation by translator licensed by the Minister of Justice).
14 In this report the term “Wall” is used pursuant to the International Court of Justice (ICJ)
choice of wording in its advisory opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a
Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (A/es-10/273 and Corr.1). In its advisory opinion the
ICJ held that the Wall/barrier is in violation of International Humanitarian Law. The ICJ wrote
that “Israel is under an obligation to terminate its breaches of international law; it is under an
obligation to cease forthwith the works of construction of the wall being built in the
E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3
page 27
Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, to dismantle forthwith
the structure therein situated, and to repeal or render ineffective forthwith all legislative and
regulatory acts relating thereto […]” (Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice,
para. 163).
15 OCHA, “West Bank Closures August 2005”.
16 The Special Representative refers to the Advisory Opinion of the ICJ that international human
rights and humanitarian law applies to Israel’s actions in the OPT. The Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War obliges the Occupying Power to
allow medical personnel of all categories to carry out their duties. The Convention as well as the
Protocol Additional (Protocol 1) of the Geneva Conventions prohibit attacks and restrictions on
relief personnel and hospitals.
17 See Commission resolution 2004/10 dated 16 April 2004.
18 A/60/271 at para. 27, p. 11.
19 See E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.4.
-----
Part II (D) 3 - Commission on Human Rights