The Israeli government’s settlement policy has clearly violated the rights of Palestinians and breaches one of the Geneva Conventions, a UN report says.

ISRAEL must lift its military blockade of the Gaza Strip and invite an independent, fact-finding mission to investigate its raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, a United Nations rights body said.

The United States today stuck to its refusal to apply the main international human rights treaty to detainees held outside the United States, causing concern among UN experts that it might encourage other countries to be selective in the rights they respect.

The UN Human Rights Commission today passed a resolution condemning Israel’s settlement of the Palestinian territories, saying that Israel should reverse the policy.

The top UN human rights watchdog narrowly passed a resolution calling on Cuba to accept a visit by a rights investigator but failed to approve an amendment criticising the country’s recent crackdown on the opposition.