This piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
Two UN Commissions Investigating the Flotilla Massacre
On June 2, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) approved formation of an international commission comprised of lawyers and international law and human rights experts, its findings to be presented in September during the Council's three week Geneva session.
Its members include:
-- Desmond de Silva, a UK lawyer and former chief prosecutor for the Sierra Leone Special Court investigation into widespread killings there;
-- Karl Hudson-Phillips, a former International Criminal Court (ICC) judge and former Trinidad and Tobago attorney general and parliament member; and
-- Malaysia's Mary Shanthi Dairiam, active in gender equality issues, including on the UN Development Program's gender equity task force.
In emergency session, the HRC criticized Israel's "outrageous attack on aid ships attempting to breach a blockade on the Gaza Strip," calling it "piracy, (an) act of aggression, (a) brutal massacre, (an) act of terrorism, (a) war crime, (a) crime against humanity - unprovoked, unwarranted, atrocious, (and) brutal," calling activists onboard "peaceful, innocent, noble, unarmed, (and) defenseless, setting a hopeful tone for a Goldstone Commission-like investigation and conclusions.
However, on August 2, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon named his own commission, unsurprisingly showing obvious bias toward Israel after earlier criticizing the HRC for "picking on Israel," a Reuters June 7 report quoting him saying:
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
