Maldives calls for Accountability and Justice in Gaza

The Maldives delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Council today used a key debate on the Gaza conflict to decry the “clear and manifest violations of human rights and humanitarian law” that took place during Israel’s short but brutal incursion into the Gaza Strip eight months ago, and to call for “careful and verifiable scrutiny” of those violations. “Accountability must be established, and justice must be pursued” said the Maldives.

The Maldives was speaking during a general debate following the presentation of a much-anticipated and damning report by a UN fact-finding mission, tasked by the Human Rights Council to investigate allegations of human rights violations during the Israeli military operation, code-named “Operation Cast Lead”. More than 1,400 people were killed during the fighting.

The report found evidence indicating serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law were committed by Israel during the Gaza conflict, and that Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity. The report also concluded there is also evidence that Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes, as well as possibly crimes against humanity, in their repeated launching of rockets and mortars into Southern Israel. Finally, the Mission found that, in the lead up to the Israeli military assault on Gaza, Israel imposed a blockade amounting to collective punishment and carried out a systematic policy of progressive isolation and deprivation of the Gaza Strip.

The report was presented by the Head of the Fact-Finding Mission, Richard Goldstone, a South African judge.

Speaking after his introduction, Ms. Shazra Abdul Sattar, Chargé d’Affaires at the Maldives Mission to the UN in Geneva welcomed the report and its findings. She also noted that the Maldives “supports the recommendation, contained in the Goldstone report, that all alleged violations by both sides in the conflict be independently investigated and that those investigations together with any subsequent prosecutions, be monitored by the Security Council”.

“The Maldives strongly supports the right of the people of Palestine to freely determine their own political and economic system, including the right to resist forcible deprivation of their right to self-determination and the right to live, in peace and freedom, in their own State, their own homeland. We also support the right of the people of Israel to live in peace and security. Perhaps the greatest tragedy of the Gaza conflict is that, although fought to assert these rights, it in fact pushes them further away” concluded Ms. Sattar.