UN Security Council: Demand Justice for Gaza Victims

The Security Council should implement a key recommendation of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Gaza, led by Justice Richard Goldstone, and create an independent committee of experts to monitor how Israel and Hamas conduct domestic investigations of alleged laws-of-war violations, Human Rights Watch said.

"The Security Council has a historic opportunity to uphold the principle of civilian protection and promote regional peace," said Steve Crawshaw, UN advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "As it has in other conflicts, the council should demand that the parties to the conflict punish those responsible for serious abuses."

The Goldstone report was presented to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on September 29. It documents war crimes and possible crimes against humanity by both Israel and Hamas, and notes their poor records of accountability for such crimes.

Under intense pressure from Israel and the United States, the Palestinian Authority withdrew its resolution on the report until the next Human Rights Council session in March 2010, although it may request a special session in Geneva this month to address the report. The deferral sparked protests against Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza and the West Bank, and widespread condemnation in the Arab media of the Palestinian Authority and United States.

"The US missed an opportunity in Geneva to support justice for the civilian victims in Gaza and Israel," Crawshaw said. "Now Washington has a second chance to show that it will demand accountability for serious crimes in Gaza the same way it has elsewhere."

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