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United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (file)
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| By Israel Insider staff June 21, 2007 |
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United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon joined the EU, Canada and the United States in their censure of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) singling out Israel for investigation on human rights offenses.
According to a UN statement, which didn't mention Israel of the Palestinian Authority by name, "The Secretary-General is disappointed at the council's decision to single out only one specific regional item given the range and scope of allegations of human rights violations throughout the world."
The decision to put Israel under special scrutiny was made in Geneva on Monday.
US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Alejandro Wolff accused the 47-nation council of having "a pathological obsession with Israel."
Wolff also criticized a decision of the Geneva meeting to stop investigations on Cuba and Belarus.
"I think the record is starting to speak for itself," he said.
The UNHCR reserves the right to assign special investigators to countries with questionable human rights records. In response to the council's decision on Cuba and Belarus, Ban Ki-moon remarked that not having a special investigator "assigned to a particular country does not absolve that country from its obligations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and every other human rights treaty," said UN spokeswoman Michele Montas
The UNHCR, a replacement for the widely discredited Human Rights Commission, has fallen under much criticism since its creation in 2006. It has been often condemned for its tendancy to place too much emphasis on pointing out Israel's human rights violations, while ignoring those of other countries.
The UN secretary-general also urged the council "to consider all situations of possible human rights violations equally," said Montas. |
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