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Report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on ensuring accountability and justice for all violations of international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem (A/HRC/35/19) (Advance edited version)

Attachments

Human Rights Council
Thirty-fifth session
6-23 June 2017
Agenda items 2 and 7

Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories

Summary

The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 31/35, and details the status of implementation of the recommendations addressed to all parties since 2009 by the relevant Human Rights Council mechanisms, namely previous fact-finding missions, the commission of inquiry and special procedures, and by United Nations treaty bodies, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Secretary-General in their reports to the Human Rights Council. The report identifies patterns of cooperation, compliance and implementation, and proposes follow-up measures to ensure implementation.

I. Introduction

  1. The present report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is submitted pursuant to resolution 31/35, adopted by the Human Rights Council on 24 March
  2. In operative paragraph 8, the Council requested the High Commissioner to conduct “a comprehensive review detailing the status of implementation of the recommendations addressed to all parties since 2009 by the relevant Human Rights Council mechanisms, namely previous fact-finding missions, the commission of inquiry and special procedures, and by United Nations treaty bodies, the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General in his reports to the Human Rights Council, and to identify patterns of non-compliance, non-implementation and non-cooperation, to propose follow-up measures to ensure implementation …”
  3. During the thirty-fourth session of the Human Rights Council, the High Commissioner provided an oral update on the progress that had been made on the review. Since 2009, over 900 recommendations have been formulated to improve the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Most of the recommendations have been addressed to Israel, but some have been addressed to the Government of the State of Palestine and other Palestinian duty bearers,1 as well as to the United Nations, States members of the United Nations, businesses, civil society and the international community.
  4. In accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 31/35, the present review attempts to illustrate the extent of implementation of these recommendations, including compliance with international law and cooperation with human rights mechanisms. The concluding sections identify patterns and propose measures to help implementation.
  5. The presentation of the report coincides with the fiftieth year of Israeli occupation and the long-standing denial of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination. In its 2004 advisory opinion on the legal consequences on the construction of a wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the International Court of Justice recalled that “the principle of self-determination of peoples has been enshrined in the United Nations Charter”.2 It referred to General Assembly resolution 2625 (XXV), in which it was noted that “every State has the duty to refrain from any forcible action which deprives peoples … of their right to self-determination”.3 The Court also referred to the article 1 that is common both to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which reaffirms the right of all peoples to self-determination.4 The Court reiterated that “the right of peoples to selfdetermination is … erga omnes”.5