UN Commission condemns Gaza settlement policy

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

Delegations passed the resolution by a 39-2 vote, with 12 abstentions, demanding that Israel should “prevent any new installation of settlers in the occupied territories". The resolution also called for Israel to take measures to guarantee the safety of Palestinian civilians.

Censure by the UN watchdog brings no penalties but spotlights a government’s record, and delegations lobby hard in an effort to avoid it.

The 53-member commission is expected to vote later today on resolutions condemning abuses in Belarus, Cuba and Sudan.

The resolution on Sudan is likely to be the most contentious, as African countries such as Libya, Zimbabwe and Sudan itself may put forward a “no-action” motion, said Loubna Freih, Geneva director of Human Rights Watch.

“We hope that the commission will finally take a proper step in the right direction in acknowledging the violations committed by the government of Sudan and its militias in Darfur,” Freih said.

Last year, the commission stopped short of formal condemnation of Sudan, which is accused of responding to a rebel movement in its vast western Darfur region with a brutal counterinsurgency campaign that has included wide-scale abuses against civilians.

The two-year conflict in Darfur has left some 180,000 people dead, many through disease and hunger, and more than 2 million people displaced, according to UN estimates.

The key to a Sudan resolution is the attitude of more moderate members of the African group – Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria South Africa, Human Rights Watch said.

“Do they go with the extremists in the African group?” Freih asked. “Or do they decide that it’s time for the commission to take proper action?”

The commission will also consider a new resolution, co-sponsored by European nations and others, which criticises Cuba’s record on abuses and requesting that the global body keep the communist country’s record under observation.

The US has “really focused on Cuba. Which means that if they use their political might, the resolution should pass,” Freih said.

Washington has taken a back seat on the Cuban resolution in recent years, letting other countries take the lead. Even though it is sponsoring a Cuba resolution for the first time since 1998, the US has toned down the language.

The proposed resolution simply requests that the commission renew resolutions from previous years condemning Cuba’s human rights record.

The United States proposed the renewal of top UN investigator Christine Chanet’s mandate to report to the commission on the human rights situation there.

In her report to the commission on abuses in Cuba, which Chanet presented last month, she noted that the government’s release of 18 political prisoners last year was a positive step, but did “not signify the end of the repression” because other political detainees were still behind bars.

Chanet urged Havana to improve its treatment of political prisoners and said Cuba should stop penalising journalists, academics and activists for acts of free expression.

Cuba has never allowed a UN human rights envoy to visit the communist island, claiming such visits could infringe on its sovereignty. Chanet prepared her report based on meetings with campaigners, human-rights investigators and other governments.

In past years, the vote has almost always been close. The commission last year narrowly passed a resolution by other Latin American nations critical of Cuba’s rights record. It was adopted 22-21 with 10 abstentions.

If the resolution passes this year, Cuba is likely to table a counter-resolution condemning US treatment of enemy combatants at its military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Freih said.