Ref: 69/2010

From 13-17 September 2010, the Palestinian Centre for Human
Rights (PCHR) participated in a joint mission to the 15^th session of
the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The mission was organized by the
Euro-Med Human Rights Network and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies,
and also included a representative of Al Haq. PCHR was represented in the mission by Mr. Hamdi Shaqqura, Deputy Director
of PCHR for Programs Affairs, and Daragh Murray, Legal Officer. 

The mission’s primary purpose was to secure the effective
implementation of the recommendations made by the UN Fact Finding Mission on
the Gaza Conflict (the ‘Goldstone Report’). Of principal importance was the
pursuit of criminal accountability for all violations of international law
committed in the context of Israel’s 27 December 2008 – 18 January 2009
offensive on the Gaza Strip. In light of all parties failure to conduct genuine
investigations and prosecutions, the interests of victims and the demands of
justice require that the UN Security Council, acting under Chapter VII of the
UN Charter, immediately refer the situation in Israel and the occupied
Palestinian territory, to the International Criminal Court.

The mission asked that the Human
Rights Council:

1. Condemn the failure to conduct genuine domestic
investigations and prosecutions, in keeping with the requirements of
international law.

2. Request that the UN Security Council, acting under Chapter
VII of the UN Charter, immediately refer the situation in Israel and the
occupied Palestinian territory to the International Criminal Court.

3. Remind all States of their obligation to investigate and
prosecute all those suspected of perpetrating grave breaches of the Geneva
Conventions, in accordance with the principle of universal jurisdiction.

In the course of the mission, the organizations met with
representatives of numerous UN Member States, including Ireland, Mexico, the
United Kingdom, Switzerland, Spain, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Slovakia,
Belgium, Norway, and the Palestinian delegation in Geneva.

On 16 September, a side event entitled ‘A Demand for
International Justice’ was organized within the Human Rights Council. Here
the mission provided information on all parties failure to conduct genuine
investigations, the pressing necessity of recourse to mechanisms of
international criminal justice, and the recommendations of the mission.