UN rights council adopts OIC resolution presented by Pakistan to address abuses in Palestinian territories

ISLAMABAD: The United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday adopted a resolution presented by Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), highlighting rights abuses in Palestinian territories occupied by Israel while seeking accountability and justice.
Since Israel’s relentless military campaign began in Gaza last October, Palestinians in the West Bank have faced intense violence from Jewish settlers who have been trying to usurp their farmlands and neighborhoods.
The situation has also remained tense between Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the Israeli forces since the beginning of the conflict in Gaza.
“Over the past six months, the occupying power [of Israel] has written a horrific new chapter in the 75-year-old tragedy of the Palestinian people,” Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva Ambassador Bilal Ahmad said while presenting the OIC resolution.
“The situation of human rights in occupied Palestine had always been precarious at best,” he continued. “Over the past months, it has fallen off the precipice.”
He informed the text of the resolution was the result of thorough and transparent consultations while thanking other member nations for their widespread support and engagement during the process.
“The preambular part of the resolution expresses grave concern at the worsening situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), especially Gaza, and the unacceptably high proportion of innocent civilian casualties [in the ongoing war],” he said.
Ahmad noted the opening paragraphs of the document also reflected this UN council’s “grave concern at possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in the OPT and the ICJ’s determination that the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation face the plausible risk of genocide.”
“The operative part of the resolution ... calls for an immediate ceasefire, an end to the occupation without delay, and urgent and unhindered humanitarian relief,” he said.
“The resolution condemns all attacks on civilians and calls for the immediate release of all hostages and detainees, while warning against military operations in the city of Rafah, where most of Gaza’s displaced population is sheltering,” he added.
The OIC resolution reaffirmed the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation, saying it was in accordance with international law.
It emphasized the obligations of the international community to investigate and prosecute grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and other serious violations of international humanitarian law during the conflict.
It also expressed concern over the sales and transfer of arms and jet fuel to Israel, saying it increased its ability to commit serious violations of international law by attacking unarmed people and destroying civilian infrastructure.