UN appoints members for inquiry commission on occupied Palestinian territory

ISTANBUL

The UN Human Rights Council appointed three people Thursday to serve as the members of the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel.

The President of the Human Rights Council, Ambassador Nazhat Shameem Khan (Fiji), announced the appointment of Navi Pillay from South Africa, Miloon Kothari from India and Chris Sidoti from Australia as the commission members.

Pillay, Fiji’s first female High Court judge, a former prosecutor and a diplomat, will serve as Chair of the three-person commission, the statement added.

The commission will investigate “all underlying root causes of recurrent tensions, instability, and protraction of conflict, including systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial or religious identity,” according to the statement.

In May, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution that includes the urgent establishment of an international independent investigation commission to probe Israel's human rights violations.

The special session of the council, which was called to discuss the "serious human rights situation" in the occupied Palestinian territories, ended with the adoption of the resolution put forward by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) coordinator Pakistan and the Palestinian state.

The council "decides to urgently establish an ongoing independent, international commission of inquiry, to be appointed by the President of the Human Rights Council, to investigate in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel,” said the resolution.

The resolution was adopted by 24 votes, with nine countries voting no and 14 abstaining.