AMNESTY calls for referring Goldstone report to the Security Council

Saturday October 03, 2009 22:20 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

AMNESTY International called on Saturday on UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon to refer the Gaza war report of Judge Richard Goldstone to the United Nations Security Council without any further delays and to take immediate steps to implement its recommendations.

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AMNESTY added that it was concerned over the decision to delay the vote on the report until March of 2010, and said that such a decision shows lack of political will to deal with the serious human rights violations.

It is worth mentioning that 40 organizations from Europe denounced the decision of the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas to suspend the discussions of the Goldstone despite its managed to secure a majority at the UN Human Rights Council.

The organizations said that this decision is a very serious precedent and a deadly strike to efforts of the investigation committee and several human rights organizations seeking to expose Israeli crimes.

“The opportunity to pass the report in the UN human rights council was available and very large, and if adopted, it would have been a rare chance to condemn the occupation, impose sanctions on it, prosecute its leaders who perpetrated massacres and bring them to international trial, so regardless of the justifications it provided, it was surprising that the PA took such step,” the organizations underscored.

Meanwhile, Yacoub Al Ghandour, member of the Central Committee for Documenting and Prosecuting War Criminals (Tawtheeq) called on the UN Human Rights Council to support the professional report of Judge Richard Goldstone, and to expose the Israeli crimes against the civilians in the Gaza Strip.

He also slammed the Palestinian Authority (P.A) in the West Bank for its decision not to back the Goldstone report.

The P.A denied reports that it is backing down on supporting the Goldstone report.

Nearly two weeks ago, Amnesty International Secretary General, Irene Khan, urged the United States to examine the findings of the Goldstone report on violations conducted in Gaza and in southern Israel.

gaza strip | human rights | news report saed at imemc dot org