HC, Sam salutes you

Sleep well tonight, comrades, knowing that OHCHR is in safe hands. A courageous statement.

Statement of Ms. Navanethem Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to the Ninth Special Session of the Human Rights Council on The Grave Violations of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory including the recent aggression of the occupied Gaza Strip

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Geneva, 9 January 2009

Mr. President,
Distinguished Members of the Human Rights Council,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I welcome this special session of the Human Rights Council and thank you for this additional opportunity to express my deepest concern over the situation in the Gaza Strip. Reports of attacks across the border between Israel and Lebanon compound the international community’s alarm regarding an escalation of violence in the Middle East. The conflict has already caused the loss of hundreds of lives, a rapidly mounting score of injured civilians, the systematic destruction of basic means of subsistence, as well as the dangerous pollution of water resources and the degradation of indispensible services. The situation is intolerable. The ceasefire called for by the UN Security Council must be implemented immediately. Violence must stop.

Let me stress unequivocally that international human rights law applies in all circumstances and at all times. In particular, the right to life should be protected even in the course of hostilities. Belligerents must also abide by international humanitarian law, which upholds the inviolability of non-combatants.

Let me also underscore that while indiscriminate rocket attacks against civilian targets in Israel are unlawful, Israel’s responsibility to fulfill its international obligations is completely independent from the compliance of Hamas with its own obligations under international law. States’ obligations, particularly those related to the protection of civilian life and civilian objects, are not subject to reciprocity.

Furthermore, under both international human rights law and international humanitarian law, the effective control of the Gaza Strip that Israel exercises places responsibilities on Israel for the welfare of the civilian population there.

I emphasize that article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits collective penalties, or collective punishment of the civilian population. Likewise, all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.

I also wish to stress that the three cardinal principles of international humanitarian law, namely proportionality, distinction, and precaution, fully apply in the context of this conflict, as they do in any other war situation. The first principle prohibits attacks that may be expected to cause such loss of civilian life or injury to civilians that would be excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage. The second principle imposes on belligerents the obligation to distinguish between civilians and combatants, and between civilian objects and military objectives. Attacks may only be directed against combatants or legitimate military objectives. The last norm binds parties to a conflict to take all feasible precautions to avoid, or at least minimize incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects.

Distinguished Members of the Human Rights Council,

Harm to civilians caused by rockets fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel is unacceptable. Retaliatory air strikes by Israeli forces exact an unbearable toll in lives and livelihoods, as civilians and civilian infrastructure are constantly exposed to extreme danger in an area that is one of the most densely populated in the world.

I also wish to underline that action on the part of Israel’s opponents that may deliberately put civilians at risk in the Gaza Strip is prohibited under international law. This would include the use of people as human shields.

The vicious cycle of provocation and retribution must be brought to an end.

I join the Secretary-General in deploring Israel’s totally unacceptable strikes against clearly marked UN facilities where civilians were taking shelter. Scores, including children, were killed or wounded in these attacks. As the Secretary-General noted, the locations of all UN facilities have been communicated to the Israeli authorities. Despite such knowledge, Israel defied the UN request for protection. The killing and wounding yesterday of UN workers led to the UN’s decision to suspend its relief operations in the Gaza Strip. Forcing international relief providers to withdraw services in order to protect their staff will undoubtedly increase the vulnerability of civilians. I wish to take this opportunity to praise the remarkable work that UN relief workers and other colleagues have carried out until now under extremely difficult and dangerous circumstances.

Mr. President,

The ceasefire decided by the Security Council must be given effect in order to allow, at a minimum, the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian assistance to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip and the evacuation of the wounded. Moreover, safe passage for civilians who wish to leave the conflict zone must also be granted.

The current crisis follows an 18-month air, sea and land blockade enforced through military means by Israel. The blockade had already caused a massive destruction of livelihoods and significant deterioration of infrastructure and basic services in the Gaza Strip.

The conflict has now exacerbated shortages of food and medicines. Inadequate medical equipment and supplies, as well as the inability of Gaza’s besieged doctors and other medical workers to reach or sufficiently treat the victims, compound an extremely dire situation. The International Committee of the Red Cross has accused Israel of both failing to meet its obligations to help wounded civilians in one specific location in Gaza City, and of preventing the ICRC and the Palestinian Red Crescent from providing assistance to the wounded.

Furthermore, the World Health Organization has reported that several medical workers have been killed while attempting to carry out their duties.

I strongly urge the parties to the conflict to fulfill their obligations under international humanitarian law to collect, care for and evacuate the wounded and to protect and respect health workers, hospitals, medical units and ambulances.

Schools, hospitals, electric power, water supply and sewage networks, which had already reached breaking point during the blockade, must not be further jeopardized by continued strikes. The impossibility of obtaining basic services and the collapse of the civilian infrastructure is exposing an increasingly large proportion of the population to additional risks. Such conditions constitute egregious violations of human rights, including basic economic rights.

Clearly, a three-hour suspension of hostilities allowed by Israel does not allow humanitarian deliveries and services to reach all those who desperately need them.

Excellencies,

Accountability must be ensured for violations of international law. As a first step, credible, independent, and transparent investigations must be carried out to identify violations and establish responsibilities. Equally crucial is upholding the right of victims to reparation. I remind this Council that violations of international humanitarian law may constitute war crimes for which individual criminal responsibility may be invoked.

I stress the need to deploy human rights monitors in both Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory who can independently document violations of international human rights and humanitarian law that may have been perpetrated. I also urge that Special Procedures mandate holders be granted unrestricted access to Gaza and the West Bank.

Likewise, the press and nongovernmental organizations should be allowed access into the affected areas in order to inform and assist the public. In this respect, I welcome the recent decision by the Supreme Court of Israel to allow some foreign journalists to enter the Gaza Strip. In its judgment the Court emphasized that freedom of expression, and the freedom of the press to provide information, as well as the right of the public to receive it, do not disappear in time of war. Significantly, the Court further stated that these freedoms and rights acquire an additional value in time of conflict.

Indeed, it is at such times that rights and freedoms must be kept in sharp focus. Thus, I urge all parties concerned to hold human rights at the centre of any discussion aimed at alleviating the tragic situation in the Middle East. I reiterate that human rights must be upheld irrespective of whether the parties reach a political settlement of their dispute.

This special session of the Human Rights Council must provide the basis for opening a much-needed discussion among all parties concerned. I am available to facilitate such discussion which, due to its importance, urgency and necessity, should be placed above politically-charged, partisan considerations. Protection of civilians, humanitarian access, human rights monitoring, the independent scrutiny of the press, and accountability, remain of paramount importance and should be tackled in the framework of rights, obligations, and responsibilities to which they belong.

Surely, the many victims of the conflict in the Middle East, those whose rights are abused on a daily basis, deserve the international community’s commonality of purpose and resolve.

Thank you.

Human Rights Council comedy at its best

This article, © of Le Matin Bleu, Geneva’s state-of-the-art-free-morning-paper, merits commentary. Commentary that Sam is too busy to deliver pour l’instant, but feel free to let me know what you think in the comment section!

 

Switzerland, the next developing country

Welcome back, America

 

In all of my 112 years, I never dreamed that I would live to see this day, or to hear such words as these again fall from a President-elect:

 

“…to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world – our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. To those who would tear this world down – we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security – we support you. And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright – tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.”

 

Welcome back, America. We’ve missed you.

 

SS

 

 

 

Be Prepared

Friends,

 

Having had bare on a fortnight to regather ourselves from the slings and arrows of the 9^th Council session, we have this week found ourselves back in the trenches for the second substantive session of the Preparatory Committee for the Durban Review Conference – a two-week time-waster of the highest order second only to the succinctly named “Intersessional open-ended intergovernmental working group to follow up the work of the Preparatory Committee for the Durban Review Conference”.

 

As so it is of late that I have found myself struck by vivid recollections of my youth – days of dibs and dobs, khakee shorts, scarf and woggle, during which time I held as an ancient wisdom the Scouting movement’s motto “Be Prepared”. It is the Durban Review process that has evoked these memories of a springtime past, as few things have received as much preparatory attention as the Durban Review Conference.

 

Let’s take stock.

 

There’s the Review Conference itself. Next, a Committee to prepare for the Conference. Then an intergovernmental working group to follow-up on the Committee. One wonders whether, at this session, an even more nonsensical mechanism will be created and charged with the worthy task of “following up on the follow-up work of the intergovernmental working group on the Committee preparing for the Review Conference”. Time will tell.

 

At the first substantive session of the Preparatory Committee it was decided that the Review Conference would be held in Geneva next April. As for this session - prepare for a programme of polemic. On the table are all the organizational aspects of a Conference to review progress in tackling racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, as manifested through phenomena as diverse as racial profiling and genocide.

 

We recall that, with little over six months on the clock until the Review Conference, one State has boycotted the event and a handful of others hang in the balance – a state of affairs that the High Commissioner is committed to correcting through use of her Good Offices as Secretary-General of the Review Conference. The OIC, African and Asian Groups want the DDPA reopened and padded with contemporaneous issues. The EU wants the vault left sealed and an external audit conducted via clipboard from behind shatterproof glass.  

 

True to the great piece of theatre it is, the Durban review process is infused with tragedy: the failure of most States to seize the Review Conference as a precious opportunity to address racism and discrimination in earnest and with honesty for the egregious, universal scourges that they are. This opportunity seems lost to politicking, good sense is all but common, and the middle ground is a field too far.

 

An equally worrying yet strikingly familiar motif of the review process are the crude attempts to clip the wings of civil society participation, namely in the organizational segments of the preparatory process. Again, NGOs find themselves reduced to battles to be seen and heard, while States beat the drum and sing the song of the importance of partnership with civil society.

 

The combined result of The Tragedy of the Review Process and the gagging of civil society is that many of the major NGOs - to whom the Review Conference’s credibility is intricately melded – are tempted to take their bats and balls and stroll away.

 

Having laid our scene, I turn over to you now, friends. And in so doing I press – I plead – that civil society’s role at the Review Conference and in its preparatory process(es) is a crucial one. Herculean efforts must be made to recalibrate real issues and genuine commitments as the centre of the review process and as the natural content of the Conference’s outcome document. And the outrages that sullied the NGO Forum at Durban – while the individual actions of a disgraceful few – must not be repeated.

 

The stage is set, comrades: old battles will be re-enacted; tired scripts will be recited; actors will play to their audiences. Yet civil society has the potential to deliver the most important, heartfelt and compelling of performances. It’s time to prepare.

 

SS.

 

 

Now, to the meat of the matter – the Council’s 9th session

 

Friends, 

 

With pleasantries now exchanged, it is time to rattle our keyboards like sabres, and to turn as blades our intellects to a dissection of the Human Rights Council session that just was. A ninth in three years.

 

I offer a synopsis of the session.

 

We have a new High Commissioner - whose cut of jib I like. Country mandates were either weakened (Burundi, Cambodia and Sudan), extinguished (Liberia) or left unchanged (Haiti). A Special Procedures mandate-holder fell on his sword (Yash Ghai) – though from my vantage point he looked pushed. The nonsensical construction “defamation of religions” has been thrown on the fire, with international human rights law the supposed phoenix to rise from the ashes, while freedom of expression is clinging to the ropes and gasping for breath. Panels on gender and missing persons claimed centre stage, but were less than room-fillers. Despite the sterling work of our man Desmond, Beit Hanoun remains little more than a protracted jawfest. Through its Complaint Procedure – toothless lion that it is – the Council has spared the Maldives (leaving it to climate change to finish the job), while keeping Turkmenistan cornered in its clandestine lair. The politics of the common-denominator saw four new State-appointed mandate-holders get the nod, with the search for Mr. Ghai’s successor now, no doubt, the subject of frenzied and salacious negotiation. The gauntlet that is the relationship between OHCHR and the Council is lodged firmly in the turf in anticipation of the March session. And speaking of battlefields, let us not forget the Durban Review Conference.

 

In the face of all this, the Council adopts without a vote a resolution entitled ‘Strengthening of the Human Rights Council’ – with straight bloody faces no less.

 

Sad state of affairs comrades! I was quite happy in the fridge. Why was my slumber interrupted for this?! Does it not speak volumes that a resolution on “international solidarity” goes to a bloody vote? Delegates – shame on you and your houses, to misquote old Willy.

 

I continue -

 

the EU and the African and Asian Groups refuse to shift from the shelter of their respective (yet intersecting) blocs, GRULAC’s watching the grass grow, and the few States prepared to make conscience their master have been left to the elements. 

 

Did I miss anything?

 

Ah, yes – time for a little introspection civil society. First of all, your numbers were down – not as many attending as at last September’s session. Your performance – highs and lows. The high – item 6 on the UPR – a solid, team effort full of sparky ideas that States and the secretariat would have done well to aim an ear at. The low point – item 9 – racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance, follow-up and implementation of the DDPA. Half of you didn’t turn up for starters. Most of those who did dusted-off speeches drafted for the 1985 session of the Commission and were swiftly spanked by the President and humiliated by choice States for it. Don’t even get me started on the issue of the bloody Hippopotami adorning the walls of églises françaises.

 

And while speaking of the President, have you taken him to task for his repeated public celebration of your bumless seats during the debacle that was item 9? I’m presuming no, non, нет.

 

I best stop here. Given the state of my liver, my personal physician has advised me against shedding too much bile.

 

I sign over to you now habibis. Spare no issue, no matter how prickly. But I implore you - keep to our mantra. Our conversations seek to augment and advance human rights, not deride them. The maximisation of the Council’s effectiveness is our goal. And, in so noble a pursuit, let there be no room for doubt that we at all times preserve international human rights law as our touchstone.

 

SS.

 

 

 

Dear Friends

While I have shared the little I can about myself with you already, I hope, as our conversations develop and deepen with time, that it is my convictions that you come to know and measure me by. There is much I have missed during my years frozen, and I am swiftly adapting to a world in which a man, with a jib like the cut of mine, no longer naturally finds his place. Remember, counting the years in el refrigerador, I am now circa 112 years old.

 

But I know my purpose. It is manifested in this blog.

 

I find it poetic that I was defrosted to bang together the Council’s user’s manual. Our destinies, if you like – that is, the Council and myself – are intertwined. As the Council is the new incarnation of the Commission that I helped establish, having had six decades to reflect, I too feel renewed, restored – save for a gimpy hip (the product of a mistimed parachute landing in the then-Dutch East Indies) and a bloated liver (the product of too many bloody fishing trips with Ernie).

 

Yet I digress my friends. I apologise. After sixty years in the cooler I am still regathering myself. Gandhiji always used to say to me “you take the long way around a point, Samji”. Alas, I still do. But I hope there are many points that we tackle together, comrades, as we together invest ourselves in the Council and its good work. Let it be our mantra, our mission, to never swerve from the hard, critical issues – to turn a sharp, critical eye to the ridiculousness and absurdity that so often envelops and inhibits our collective efforts to defend and advance human rights – and to at all times preserve international human rights law as our touchstone.

 

SS.

 

Praise for Sam

“Clandestine man of the year, 1948”

- Time Magazine

 

 

“I’ve nicknamed my Nobel Peace Prize “Sam””

- K. Annan

 

 

“There never was a better fishing partner”

- E. Hemingway

 

 

“For me, the “s” in “universality” stands for “Sam””

- E. Roosevelt

 

 

“A man of immensely refined taste”

- W.V. Liberace

 

 

“Un homme du premier ordre”

- R. Cassin

 

 

“A constant source of compelling argumentation”

- C. Malik

 

 

“Sam has the most manly moustache I’ve ever seen”

- Unnamed delegate

 

 

“The renaissance man of our times” (Note: quote given in 1947)

- P.C. Chang

 

 

About Serpentine Sam

Co-founder of the League of Nations, key contributor to the UN Charter and the UDHR, and one-time husband of a former Miss World Venezuela, “Serpentine Sam” is a man of the ages and a man for all seasons.

 

Lost to history by his own design, from late 1948 Sam spent several decades cryogenically frozen until next needed by the international community. That call came late on the evening of 18 June 2007 when, at the nod of Human Rights Council President Ambassador L.A. de Alba, Sam was thawed out to stitch-up the Council’s “institution-building package”. Having sealed the deal, Sam high-fived the then-HC, was bestowed the venerable title “Don Sam” by de Alba, ate like a horse, changed safari suits, and spent the rest of the night partying (like it was 1949) with the Mariachis sent prematurely on their way after having belted out only one lonesome canción earlier that evening.[1]

 

En secret consultant and advisor to all of the Council’s groups and blocs, hotlined to the UN’s upper-echelons, and in bed with all of the major non-governmental human rights players, Sam has taken the selfless decision to channel his encyclopaedic knowledge and unrivalled insights into a single forum – this blog. Its purpose: to nurture discussion and debate outside the plenary – to tackle the hard, pressing issues – to turn a sharp, critical eye to the ridiculousness and absurdity that so often envelops and inhibits efforts to defend and advance human rights – and, foremost, to hear your views.

 

For reasons obvious, Sam’s full identity cannot be disclosed.

 

[1] The exact reason why the Mariachis played only one song and the identity of the person who instructed them to leave continues to be debated by historians.