No progress toward peace in Middle East without justice, GA president says

The president of the 64th session of the General Assembly (GA), Ali Treki, said here Wednesday that "without justice, there can be no progress towards peace" in the Middle East.

The GA president made the statement after he opened a plenary GA session here to consider a Goldstone report which accused both Israel and Hamas militants of war crimes during the 22-day Gaza conflict that broke out on Dec. 27, 2008.

"Let us be clear what is at stake here -- the human rights of nearly 2 million civilians are at stake," the president said. "Without justice, there can be no progress towards peace. Let us commit together -- to leave all politics and selectivity at the door and take up the cause of justice based on one universal set of rules --we should protect the rights of the victims."

"The question before us is simple -- despite the political sensitivities associated with it," he said.

"We have to answer whether respect to human rights is universal or not -- whether we be divided on human rights issues or should we remain united behind advocating their respect all over the world," the president said.

"The report before the Assembly documents serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law perpetuated against civilians," he said. "The report caused the General Assembly and other United Nation organs for concrete action to ensure regress for victims, protection for the vulnerable and accountability of all perpetrators."

"The GA is fulfilling its responsibility and undertaking its role as prescribed today," he said.

The GA will put a draft resolution to vote after the debate on the Goldstone report. The non-binding resolution, pushed by the Arab Group in the United Nations, 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.

Treki, a veteran Libyan diplomat, 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.

Israel has rejected the Goldstone report on the ground that it is "biased" and "one-sided."

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.

At the end of the 22-day conflict in Gaza, more than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis had been killed.

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.

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.


Source: Xinhua