Press Release
PCHR Director meets the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Special Rapporteur to the Occupied Territories
Ref: 39/2000
Date: 30 March 2000
Raji Sourani, PCHR’s director, met Mrs. Mary Robinson, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, on Wednesday 29 March 2000. The meeting took place in the High Commissioner’s Office in Geneva. He also met Mr. Giorgio Giacomelli, the Special Rapporteur in the Occupied Arab Territories, including Palestine.
In the meeting with Mrs. Robinson, Sourani outlined the current human rights situation in the Palestinian Occupied Territories and ongoing Israeli violations of human rights. He asserted that these constituted grave violations of international humanitarian law and human rights conventions. He also highlighted some issues concerning the internal Palestinian situation. Amongst these were the independence of the judiciary, and problems confronted by human rights organisations and civil society. He also gave the High Commissioner a copy of PCHR’s annual report for 1999.
He also expressed his deep appreciation for the work of the High Commission for Human Rights’s Office in the Palestinian controlled areas, and the role of its representative Dr. Amin Mekky Meddany. Dr. Meddany and his office play a strategic role in the promotion of human rights through their training and technical support programmes. Within this context, Sourani proposed that a regional office for human rights be opened in the Arab region. Mrs. Robinson welcomed the idea, particularly considering that the Arab region is the only region without a regional office. The meeting also focused on the planned visit of the High Commissioner to the Palestinian Occupied Territories. In this regard Mrs. Robinson affirmed that she will visit the OPTs in the near future.
During the meeting with Mr. Giocamelli, Sourani complemented the Special Rapporteur’s report, which is an honest reflection of the reality in the OPT and is furthermore the most important report to have been produced since the creation of the Special Rapporteur’s mandate in 1993. He described the report as objective, reflecting to a large extent the actual human right situation in the OPT and the grave Israeli violations of human rights. This was also the first time that the report addressed Israeli violation of economic and social rights in the OPT, and mentioned the escalation in settlement activities. The report also addressed the Fourth Geneva
Convention and reiterated the necessity of protecting the civilian population of occupied territories through implementation of the Convention. The report also criticized the Israeli High Court’s decision in September 1999 concerning torture and reported that Israeli GSS interrogators continued to torture Palestinian detainees.
A copy of the Special Rapporteur’s report can be obtained by visiting PCHR’s office. Alternatively, the report will soon be available on line, for down loading, at the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights site: www.unhchr.ch
