Brev til Sikkerhetsrådet fra Irene Khan

His Excellency Mr. Sergey V. Lavrov

President of the Security Council

Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

136 East 67th Street

New York, N.Y. 10021

Dear Ambassador Lavrov,

I write to welcome the close attention paid by the Security Council to the grave situation in Israel and the Occupied Territories and to urge the Council to take further concrete measures to address the human rights and humanitarian crisis.

Security Council resolutions 1397, 1402 and 1403 stress the need for all concerned to ensure the safety of civilians and to respect international humanitarian law. The Council’s requests have not been heeded and the toll of victims from Israeli military actions against Palestinians and from suicide bombings against Israeli civilians mounts relentlessly.

As the Security Council’s demands have not been implemented, Amnesty International believes that the Council should adopt further measures as part of its efforts to promote the achievement of peace in the region. There can be no peace in the Middle East without full respect for human rights and international humanitarian law principles. I therefore request that the Security Council:

place the effective protection of human rights of all Palestinians and Israelis at the centre of its ongoing efforts in the search for peace by urging all parties in the strongest possible terms to fully respect human rights and basic humanitarian law principles;

call on the Israeli Government to allow immediate and unhindered access to all areas by medical personnel, the United Nations and the ICRC;

call on the Israeli Government to ensure that access by observers, including journalists, NGOs, and other representatives of civil society is not unduly impeded;

encourage the parties concerned to agree without further delay to an international human rights monitoring presence in the region to help prevent further serious and widespread abuses of international human rights and humanitarian law.

Several members of the Security Council have already underlined the need for a third-party monitoring mechanism in recent statements to the Council. As well, the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967 have stated that an international presence could be an effective means of preventing human rights violations. Amnesty International believes that, to be effective, such a presence should be impartial, should have unhindered access to all areas, should be required to report publicly and regularly, and should be mandated to recommend corrective action.

The Commission on Human Rights has requested the High Commissioner for Human Rights to travel immediately to the region and submit her findings and recommendations to the current session of the Commission. Amnesty International urges the Security Council to give full consideration to the High Commissioner’s findings in its future debates.