GENEVA: The United Nations Human Rights Council today opened its 57th regular session in Geneva, which will run until 11th October, to address human rights issues in various parts around the world.
Speaking during the session, Volker Trk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said, ‘We know that wars spill over, and into, future generations, fostering repeated cycles of hatred if their causes remain unaddressed. Sadly, the war in Gaza is the quintessential example.’
‘Since the horrific 7 October attacks claimed the lives of over 1,200 victims in Israel and injured many others, over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, several thousand injured, and thousands remain under the rubble in Gaza,’ Trk continued. ‘Each day, Palestinians struggle to survive. Nearly 1.9 million people have been forcibly displaced across the strip, many multiple times. Eleven months on, 101 Israeli hostages are still held to be in Gaza. While the actual number is likely higher, almost 10,000 Palestinians are held i
n Israeli prisons or ad hoc military facilities, many arbitrarily, with over 50 people having died due to inhumane conditions and ill-treatment. In the West Bank, deadly and destructive operations, some at a scale not witnessed in the last two decades, are worsening a calamitous situation there, already aggravated by serious settler violence.’
He explained that ‘ending that war and averting a full-blown regional conflict is an absolute and urgent priority’.
“Equally, the wider situation of illegality across the occupied Palestinian territory deriving from Israel’s policies and practices, as so clearly spelled out by the International Court of Justice in its Advisory Opinion in July, must be comprehensively addressed,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights went on to say.
Source: Emirates News Agency
