ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan has welcomed the adoption of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC)-led resolution by the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) in response to grave violations of international law and human rights by Israel.
In a statement on Friday, the Foreign Office Spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said that the HRC special session and its decision to establish a standing international commission of inquiry to investigate human rights violations represent global resolve to end systemic impunity and injustice and begin a process of meaningful accountability.
The Spokesperson said that Pakistan stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people and shares the international community’s expectation for effective implementation of this resolution to ensure respect for international law as well as for the rights and dignity of the people of Palestine.
The following is the statement by the Foreign Minister of Pakistan Shah Mahmood Qureshi at the Special Session of the Human Rights Council on the Grave Human Rights Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory including East Jerusalem:
“Madam President,
As the apex UN body, this Council is mandated to guard human rights and human dignity.
Today’s Special Session, requisitioned by 70 countries, is an exercise of this important mandate.
The people of Palestine have, once again, faced relentless onslaught on their rights and dignity, in two weeks of brutal Israeli aggression.
This violent repression compounds four aspects of the perpetual Palestinian tragedy, in seven decades of illegal occupation:
- One – continuous killings of civilians, disproportionately affecting the vulnerable, including women and children;
- Two – continuing Israeli settlement activity as a driver and force multiplier of occupation and violence;
- Three – indiscriminate demolition of houses, hospitals and schools causing innumerable hardships to the people;
- Four – recurring forced displacements, making people as refugees in their own land.
The two-week aggression also ignited violence and communal attacks against Palestinians in Israel; calling into question the tall claims of democracy and rule of law.
Condoning to such violations only breeds arrogance and impunity.
False equivalence between the victim and the aggressor, on account of political expediency, is patently incorrect and morally reprehensible.
This Council must act to rectify the wrong.
This Council must ensure realization of Palestinian’s fundamental rights –right to life and right to self-determination.
This Council must hold the aggressor accountable through international inquiry.
Pakistan supports this Council’s deliberations and decisions on Palestine, in accordance with human rights merit of the situation. We urge others to do likewise.
I thank you.”
