Posted on June 28th, 2009 by Marian Houk
The UN’s Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, led by South Africa’s Justice Richard Goldstone, will hold public hearings in Gaza City today (Sunday 28 June) and tomorrow (Monday 29 June) in which witnesses, victims, and experts will describe what happened to them during Israel’s 22-day Operation Cast Lead. The mission’s mandate is to [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Gaza, Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, International Law, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on June 27th, 2009 by Marian Houk
On the sidelines of a meeting of the G-8 countries in Trieste, Italy, the Middle East Quartet (United Nations, European Union, Russian Federation, and the United States) — joined by Quartet Representative Tony Blair — met to review the situation in the region, and issued a statement on Friday that reflected the somewhat tougher tone [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Gaza, Human Rights, Humanitarian Aid, International Humanitarian Law, International Law, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, Quartet, Register of damages due to The Wall, Sanctions
Posted on June 26th, 2009 by Marian Houk
The Free Gaza movement has been warned not to try to sail to Gaza — its latest expedition of two ships was supposed to leave Cyprus yesterday but did not, after Cypriot authorities required additional detailed inspections — but the international activists say they “will not back down from Israel’s threats and intimidation” According to [...]
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Filed under: Cyprus, Gaza, Human Rights, Humanitarian Aid, International Humanitarian Law, International Law, Israel, Law of the Sea Convention, Palestine & Palestinians, Sanctions, UN Peacekeeping, USA
Posted on June 26th, 2009 by Marian Houk
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights calls it the “International Day in Support of Victims of Torture”, and she issued a statement saying that “The prohibition of torture is one of the most absolute to be found anywhere in international law. Article 2 of the Convention against Torture is unequivocal: ‘No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, [...]
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Filed under: Guantanamo, Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, International Law, Torture, USA
Posted on June 25th, 2009 by Marian Houk
The IDF spokesperson has circulated this announcement by email to journalists: “As of today, Palestinian security forces will be able to extend their hours of operation in the cities of Ramallah, Qalqilya, Bethlehem and Jericho, in order to better deal with criminal activity and maintain public order in the cities. The decision follows a coordination [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, International Humanitarian Law, International Law, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on June 25th, 2009 by Marian Houk
The UN’s Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Robert Serry, briefed the UN Security Council this week about the situation in the region. He told Council members that Israel has, regrettably, still not extended its cooperation to UN Human Rights Council’s fact-finding mission on the IDF’s Operation Cast Lead in Gaza (27 December [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Cyprus, Egypt, Gaza, Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, International Law, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, United Nations
Posted on June 24th, 2009 by Marian Houk
There was a rather mysterious flurry of rumors and SMS news flashes yesterday that Israel’s Corporal Gilad Shalit — seized in late June 2006 at the Kerem Shalom tri-point where the borders of Israel, Egypt and Gaza meet, and presumably held somewhere in Gaza ever since — was suddenly about to be released. Demonstrations were [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Gaza, Human Rights, Humanitarian Aid, International Humanitarian Law, International Law, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Negotiators and negotiations, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on June 24th, 2009 by Marian Houk
The new website Jerusalem.com — officially launched yesterday — is pushing its prayer product. A promotional email received yesterday offers: “record your prayer on Jerusalem .com and it will be play towards the holy city walls – allowing believers around the world to pray towards their holy places in Jerusalem, even when they cannot make [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on June 23rd, 2009 by Marian Houk
A UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development begins at UNHQ/NY today, after three intensive weeks of pre-conference diplomatic negotiations. According to the spokesperson for the President of the UN General Assembly, “We have a total of 126 participants and 21 in the group of Heads of State and [...]
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Filed under: Global Economy, UN General Assembly, United Nations
Posted on June 22nd, 2009 by Marian Houk
Neda Agha Soltan[i], her white-haired father (or was he, as some accounts suggest, her music teacher?) beside her, falls stricken in Tehran on 20 June, her headscarf and black jacket falling aside. She has just been shot in the chest, apparently by a member of the Basiij militia, while observing a demonstration against alleged election [...]
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Filed under: Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, Iran, Israel, Journalism and Journalists, Palestine & Palestinians
