LO AND BEHOLD - ANOTHER FACT-FINDING MISSION!

Hi all,
Here is John Dugard's (UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories) address to the Special Session of the UN Human Rights Council on 5 July before the Council passed the resolution (on 6 July) to dispatch him on (another) urgent fact-finding mission....While this resolution can be seen as an encouraging sign that at least something resembling acknowledgement of the atrocities being committed by Israel has taken place on the diplomatic level (a tiny acoustic drop in the ocean of deafening diplomatic silence), unfortunately the wording of the resolution is so general (it does not specify when the mission will take place, which parts of the OPT will be visited, which "facts" will be gathered and to what purpose) that it cannot be taken as anything but a gesture. Facts will be collected and they will end up in another report by Dugard to be presented to the Council, which will end up in BEST CASE SCENARIO another deliberation in another Session (ordinary or special) that will BEST CASE SCENARIO end up in another resolution to carry out another fact-finding mission....and so forth.

However, Dugard's report is an excellent advocacy resource - as an independent expert and widely recognised scholar, he sums up the situation here very well. I believe it facilitates understanding the context of the current events in Gaza. It can be used to help others understand this too.... So pass it on HINT HINT!!!

For more details on the Human Rights Council first Special Session and its first resolution: http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/index.htm