Ref: 127/2011

The
Palestinian Center for Human Rights condemns the Palestinian Liberation
Organization’s (PLO) failure to uphold victims’ rights and pursue
accountability at the current session of the UN General Assembly.

In
March 2011, the 16^th Session of the Human Rights Council explicitly
called for the Report of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (the
Goldstone Report) to be transmitted to the UN Security Council, with the
recommendation that the situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian
territory be referred to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, in
accordance with Article 13(b) of the Rome Statute.

As
drafters of the relevant resolutions, responsibility falls upon the PLO to
initiate the procedures recommended by the Human Rights Council. The PLO’s
failure to do so displays a callous disregard for the rights of the victims the
PLO purports to represent.

The
follow up to the Report of the UN Fact-Finding Mission was scheduled to be
discussed in the 6^th Committee of the General Assembly during
November. However, no effective action has been taken to-date.

This
is the second time that the PLO has failed to act in the interest of victims’
rights on the basis of political considerations. In September 2009, the PLO
withdrew a draft Resolution on the Report of the UN Fact-Finding Mission due to
be voted upon by the Human Rights Council.

PCHR
emphasizes that the belief that human rights and the rule of law can be brushed
aside in the name of political expediency is not only illegitimate, but is also
misguided. For many years, international law has been sacrificed in the name of
an elusive ‘peace process’. This approach has been tried, and it has clearly
failed. Human rights and international law apply at all times. They may not be
discarded at will, but rather must form the foundation of any sustainable
peace.

All victims have a legitimate right to an
effective judicial remedy, and the equal protection of the law. These rights
are universal: they are not subject to political considerations. In the almost
three years the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, all sides have failed to conduct
effective judicial investigations into the conflict. Impunity prevails. In such
situations, international law demands recourse to international judicial
mechanisms. Victims’ rights must be upheld. Those responsible must be held to
account.

PCHR calls upon the Member States of the
International Community to fulfil their obligation as High Contracting Parties
to the 1949 Geneva Conventions to ensure respect for international humanitarian
law in all circumstances, and to bring persons suspected of committing grave
breaches of the Geneva Conventions before their own courts, regardless of the
suspect’s nationality.