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Issues relating to the State of Israel and aspects of the Arab–Israeli conflict and more recently the Iran–Israel conflict occupy repeated annual debate times, resolutions and resources at the United Nations. Since its founding in 1948, the United Nations Security Council, has adopted 79 resolutions directly related to the Arab–Israeli conflict as of January 2010.
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is a United Nations body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world. The Council has 47 members elected for staggered three-year terms on a regional group basis. The headquarters of the Council are at the United Nations Office at Geneva in Switzerland.
Jean Ziegler is a Swiss former professor of sociology at the University of Geneva and the Sorbonne, Paris, and former vice-president of the Advisory Committee to the United Nations Human Rights Council. He was previously Member of the Swiss Parliament for the Social Democrats from 1981 to 1999. He has also held several positions with the United Nations, especially as Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food from 2000 to 2008, and as a member of the Advisory Committee of the UN Human Rights Council from 2008 to 2012. Ziegler has authored numerous works, is a lecturer, and is well known for this sentence: "A child who dies from hunger is a murdered child."
Topocide is the deliberate alteration or destruction of a locale through industrial expansion and change, so that its original landscape and character are destroyed. Topocide can be the result of deliberate industrial expansion, as when industries form, then the people's center of life revolves around that industry. New jobs are formed and the environmental and cultural landscape is forever changed.
Israel's policies and actions in its ongoing occupation and administration of the Palestinian territories have drawn accusations that it is committing the crime of apartheid. Leading Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights groups have said that the totality and severity of the human rights violations against the Palestinian population in the occupied territories, and by some in Israel proper, amount to the crime against humanity of apartheid. Israel and some of its Western allies have rejected the accusation, with the former often labeling the charge antisemitic.
Christopher John Robert Dugard is a South African professor of international law. His main academic specializations are in Roman-Dutch law, public international law, jurisprudence, human rights, criminal procedure and international criminal law. He has served on the International Law Commission, the primary UN institution for the development of international law, and has been active in reporting on human-rights violations by Israel in the Palestinian territories.
The right to food, and its variations, is a human right protecting the right of people to feed themselves in dignity, implying that sufficient food is available, that people have the means to access it, and that it adequately meets the individual's dietary needs. The right to food protects the right of all human beings to be free from hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition. The right to food implies that governments only have an obligation to hand out enough free food to starving recipients to ensure subsistence, it does not imply a universal right to be fed. Also, if people are deprived of access to food for reasons beyond their control, for example, because they are in detention, in times of war or after natural disasters, the right requires the government to provide food directly.
Issues relating to the State of Palestine and aspects of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict occupy continuous debates, resolutions, and resources at the United Nations. Since its founding in 1948, the United Nations Security Council, as of January 2010, has adopted 79 resolutions directly related to the Arab–Israeli conflict.
Richard Anderson Falk is an American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, and Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor's Chairman of the Board of Trustees. In 2004, he was listed as the author or coauthor of 20 books and the editor or coeditor of another 20 volumes. Falk has published extensively with multiple books written about international law and the United Nations.
An extrajudicial killing is the deliberate killing of a person without the lawful authority granted by a judicial proceeding. It typically refers to government authorities, whether lawfully or unlawfully, targeting specific people for death, which in authoritarian regimes often involves political, trade union, dissident, religious and social figures. The term is typically used in situations that imply the human rights of the victims have been violated; deaths caused by legal police actions or legal warfighting on a battlefield are generally not included, even though military and police forces are often used for killings seen by critics as illegitimate. The label "extrajudicial killing" has also been applied to organized, lethal enforcement of extralegal social norms by non-government actors, including lynchings and honor killings.
The Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food is a Special Rapporteur appointed by the United Nations, who reports on the right to food. The mandate was established in 2000 by the former Commission on Human Rights which appointed the first Rapporteur, Jean Ziegler. In 2008 the second Rapporteur, Olivier De Schutter, was appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, the successor to the Commission. In 2014 the third Rapporteur, Hilal Elver was appointed. In 2020, the current Rapporteur, Michael Fakhri, was appointed.
Stanley Michael Lynk is a Canadian legal academic. He is currently an associate professor at the University of Western Ontario. From 2016 to 2022 he was the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories occupied since 1967.
Alena Douhan of Belarus is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of the unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, as 25 March 2020. When appointed, she was a professor of International Law and the Director of the Peace Research Center at the Belarusian State University.
Francesca P. Albanese is an Italian international lawyer and academic. On 1 May 2022, she was appointed United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories for a three-year term. She is the first woman to hold the position.
On 9 October 2023, Israel intensified the blockade of the Gaza Strip in response to the beginning of the Israel–Hamas war and the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas-led Palestinian militants. Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced a "total blockade", blocking the entry of food, water, medicine, fuel and electricity. Israel stated that the blockade would not be lifted until the hostages abducted by Hamas are returned, while Hamas stated that it would release all Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of all Palestinian prisoners by Israel. Later, Gallant changed his position of a complete blockade. On 18 October 2023, United States President Joe Biden announced that Israel and Egypt had agreed to allow humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip, with the first supplies entering on 21 October 2023. The blockade exacerbated Gaza's humanitarian crisis.
Since the start of the Israel–Hamas war on 7 October 2023, the UN Human Rights Council has identified "clear evidence" of war crimes by both Hamas and the Israel Defense Forces. A UN Commission to the Israel–Palestine conflict stated that there is "clear evidence that war crimes may have been committed in the latest explosion of violence in Israel and Gaza, and all those who have violated international law and targeted civilians must be held accountable." On 27 October, a spokesperson for the OHCHR called for an independent court to review potential war crimes committed by both sides.
Women in the Israel–Hamas war refers to the experience of Israeli and Palestinian women as victims of violence, combatants, leadership partners, and as participants in informational campaigns during the Israel–Hamas war. The conflict has been marked by violence towards women, including reports of rape and sexual violence by Hamas militants and reports of rape and sexual violence by IDF soldiers. Following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, there were testimonies and videos indicating that Hamas employed methods of severe torture, including violence and sexual violence against Israeli women and children. Over 100 Israeli women were taken hostage and held in Gaza, leading to efforts by Israeli women and organizations to raise awareness and promote their release. The UN Secretary-General and UN Women condemned the gender-based violence against Israeli women during the attacks.
The State of Israel has been accused of genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip during the Israel–Hamas war. Various scholars, and the United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, have cited statements by senior Israeli officials, which they argue demonstrate an "intent to destroy" the population of Gaza, a necessary condition for the legal threshold of genocide to be met.
Gaza strip famine is an ongoing famine in the Gaza Strip amid Israel-Hamas War, resulting from Israeli airstrikes and the ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip by Israel, which includes restrictions on humanitarian aid. Airstrikes have destroyed food infrastructure, such as bakeries, mills, and food stores, and there is a widespread scarcity of essential supplies due to the blockade of aid. This has caused starvation for more than half a million Gazans and is part of a broader humanitarian crisis in the Strip. It is the “highest number of people facing catastrophic hunger” ever recorded on the IPC scale, and is widely expected to be the most intense man-made famine since the Second World War.
During the 2023-24 Israel-Hamas war, some Palestinian women and girls have reportedly been raped and sexually assaulted by Israeli Defense Forces soldiers. The IDF has been accused of committing acts of gender-based violence, war crimes and crimes against humanity in keeping with the recognition of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that sexual violence is a war crime and a crime against humanity.
References
- ↑ "Mr. Michael Fakhri Special Rapporteur on the right to food". United Nations Human Rights office of the high commsioner. United Nations. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
- ↑ Fakhri, Michael. "The UN summit on food systems took two years to plan. It's offered nothing to help feed families". The Guardian. The Guardian. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
- ↑ CANO, REGINA GARCIA. "UN-backed food expert calls on Venezuela to tackle hunger and urges end to economic sanctions". AP News. AP. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
- ↑ Lakhani, Nina. "Israel is deliberately starving Palestinians, UN rights expert says". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 March 2024.