By NNN-KUNA,
Geneva : Kuwait condemned late Friday Israel’s human rights violations in Palestinian territories and its failure to include these violations in the reports submitted to the international community.
This came during an interjection by Kuwait’s permanent mission to the UN in Geneva, made by Councellor Najib Al-Bader, during a work-team session of the Universal Periodic Review stemming from the Human Rights Council, tasked with reviewing a report submitted by Israel.
Al-Bader said the report was void of any indication at the legal rights of the Palestinian people and overlooked all resolutions of the Human Rights Council and other international agencies.
He added that Israeli denied the Palestinians the right to determine their fate despite the fact that this right had been acknowledged by the UN’s Security Council and General Assembly, as well as the International Court of Justice and Israel itself.
The Kuwaiti diplomat emphasized that enabling the Palestinians to determine their fate and establish an independent state on territories occupied since 1967 would provide basic guarantees for boosting human rights and consolidating global peace and security.
He called for including a recommendation pertaining to this issue in the report.
Moreover, Al-Bader noted the suffering of Arab prisoners in Israeli jails, whom he said were held under harsh circumstances, while also speaking of the deteriorating health conditions of those hailing from the occupied Syrian Golan Heights held in Israel’s prisons.
He called for issuing a recommendation in the report over the importance of implementing all resolutions of the Human Rights Council related to the release of Syrian prisoners held in Israeli jails and ending occupation of the Golan Heights.
The Universal Period Review (UPR) is a unique process which involves a review of the human rights records of all 192 UN member states once every four years. The UPR is a state-driven process, under the auspices of the Human Rights Council, which provides the opportunity for each state to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to fulfill their human rights obligations.
As one of the main features of the council, the UPR is designed to ensure equal treatment for every country when their human rights situations are assessed.