UN General Assembly to debate Goldstone report on Gaza report
UN General Assembly to debate Goldstone report on Gaza report
10:30, November 04, 2009 
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The UN General Assembly is scheduled to open a debate on Wednesday on the Goldstone report on the Gaza conflict, which accused both Israelis and Palestinian militants of violating human rights during the three-week conflict, a UN spokesman announced Tuesday.
Jean-Victor Nkolo, the spokesman for the president of the 64 session of the General Assembly (GA), told a press briefing here that the GA will convene a plenary session at 10 a.m. EST on Wednesday and at least 30 speakers are expected to take the floor at the open debate.
The GA will put a draft resolution to vote after the debate, the spokesman said.
The non-binding resolution could easily be adopted by the General Assembly to back the implementation of the proposals contained in the Goldstone report despite opposition from Israel and its allies the United States and the European Union, diplomatic sources told Xinhua here on Tuesday.
Israel has rejected the Goldstone report on the ground that it is "biased" and "one-sided."
The president of the 64th GA session, Ali Treki, has received a letter from the UN Human Rights Council transmitting the report of the mission, which was headed by Justice Richard Goldstone, a former prosecutor at the UN war crimes tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
The four-member investigative team found evidence that both Israeli forces and Palestinian militants committed serious war crimes and breaches of humanitarian law, which may amount to crimes against humanity, during the conflict in December 2008 and January 2009.
The Geneva-based Human Rights Council, when it took up the report two weeks ago, had strongly condemned a host of Israeli measures in the occupied Palestinian territory and called on both sides to implement the mission's recommendations.
The Wednesday meeting follows a request from the Arab Group in New York, supported by the 118-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), to consider the report in the Assembly during the first week of November, according to a note issued by the spokesperson for the president of the 192-nation General Assembly, diplomatic sources said here.
The Arab Group in the United Nations are circulating a draft resolution that would ask UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to bring the Goldstone report before the UN Security Council.
Ban has called on both Israelis and the Palestinians to carry out "full, independent and credible investigations" in accordance with the recommendations of the mission.
The secretary-general said he was aware both were now going to have their own investigations. "I have not received any further details, but that is positive, I would say," he told a news conference at the UN Headquarters in New York last week. "I have been repeatedly urging the Israeli government to institute a credible domestic investigation process."
Source: Xinhua
Jean-Victor Nkolo, the spokesman for the president of the 64 session of the General Assembly (GA), told a press briefing here that the GA will convene a plenary session at 10 a.m. EST on Wednesday and at least 30 speakers are expected to take the floor at the open debate.
The GA will put a draft resolution to vote after the debate, the spokesman said.
The non-binding resolution could easily be adopted by the General Assembly to back the implementation of the proposals contained in the Goldstone report despite opposition from Israel and its allies the United States and the European Union, diplomatic sources told Xinhua here on Tuesday.
Israel has rejected the Goldstone report on the ground that it is "biased" and "one-sided."
The president of the 64th GA session, Ali Treki, has received a letter from the UN Human Rights Council transmitting the report of the mission, which was headed by Justice Richard Goldstone, a former prosecutor at the UN war crimes tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
The four-member investigative team found evidence that both Israeli forces and Palestinian militants committed serious war crimes and breaches of humanitarian law, which may amount to crimes against humanity, during the conflict in December 2008 and January 2009.
The Geneva-based Human Rights Council, when it took up the report two weeks ago, had strongly condemned a host of Israeli measures in the occupied Palestinian territory and called on both sides to implement the mission's recommendations.
The Wednesday meeting follows a request from the Arab Group in New York, supported by the 118-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), to consider the report in the Assembly during the first week of November, according to a note issued by the spokesperson for the president of the 192-nation General Assembly, diplomatic sources said here.
The Arab Group in the United Nations are circulating a draft resolution that would ask UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to bring the Goldstone report before the UN Security Council.
Ban has called on both Israelis and the Palestinians to carry out "full, independent and credible investigations" in accordance with the recommendations of the mission.
The secretary-general said he was aware both were now going to have their own investigations. "I have not received any further details, but that is positive, I would say," he told a news conference at the UN Headquarters in New York last week. "I have been repeatedly urging the Israeli government to institute a credible domestic investigation process."
Source: Xinhua
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