Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories Human Rights
Human Rights Concerns
Palestinians Denied Fair Access to Water
Israel uses more than 80 per cent of the water from the Mountain Aquifer, the main source of underground water in Israel and the OPT, while restricting Palestinian access to a mere 20 per cent.
In a new extensive report, Amnesty International revealed the extent to which Israel's discriminatory water policies and practices are denying Palestinians their right to access to water. » Read the report
On April 3, 2009 the UN Human Rights Council appointed Justice Richard Goldstone to lead an independent international Fact Finding Mission into abuses of international humanitarian and human rights law that occurred during the 22 days of military activities in December 2008/January 2009 in Israel and Gaza. This followed the Human Rights Council’s resolution of January 12, 2009 that decided to dispatch a fact-finding mission to investigate human rights violations committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip during the military operations. This mandate was dismissed as biased by some governments, human rights organizations and international bodies as it focused on Israeli violations to the exclusion of Palestinian ones. Justice Goldstone and the President of the Human Rights Council subsequently clarified that the Mission would talk to victims on both sides of the conflict, stating that the mandate of the Mission could only be credibly fulfilled if the abuses committed by all parties were investigated. Amnesty International has lent its full support to the investigation on these terms.
The Mission is headed by Justice Richard Goldstone, former member of the South African Constitutional Court and former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The three other mission members are Professor Christine Chinkin, Professor of International Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science, who was a member of the High Level Fact Finding Mission to Beit Hanoun (2008); Ms. Hina Jilani, Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and former Special Representative of the Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders, who was a member of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur (2004); and Colonel Desmond Travers, a former officer in the Irish Armed Forces and member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for International Criminal Investigations (IICI).
see also Palestinian Authority country page)
