Saturday 16 May 2009

Independent Fact Finding Commission on Gaza Report

The Independent Fact Finding Commission on Gaza, chaired by Professor John Dugard, has presented its report to the League of Arab States:
http://www.filedropper.com/reportoftheindependentfactfindingcommitteeongaza30april2009final
The report concludes that war crimes were committed by both sides in the conflict, and that Israel was also responsible for commission of crimes against humanity. It has an interesting discussion about the relevance of genocide charges but finds that this cannot be sustained. The report also discusses the validity of the declaration of jurisdiction to the International Criminal Court by the Palestinian Authority. It says that if the Security Council does not trigger the situation to the Court, the General Assembly should take action under the Uniting for Peace resolution.
Another report, prepared by an independent investigative body chaired by Ian Martin, was presented to the United Nations Secretary General last month:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=30706&Cr=gaza&Cr1=inquiry
I don't believe that the report itself is in the public domain. Ban Ki Moon has sent it to the Security Council. According to a media account issued last week, the report condemned Israel for war crimes, and was in turn condemned by Israel for being one-sided:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6229545.ece

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