Human Rights Watch called on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to support the immediate establishment of a permanent international monitoring presence in the West Bank and Gaza to report publicly and regularly on the compliance by all parties with international human rights and humanitarian law standards.
Human Rights Watch also called on the states that are High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 to take urgent action, individually and jointly, to ensure respect for the Fourth Geneva Convention with respect to the Occupied Territory, which governs the treatment of civilians in wartime and under military occupation. Similar recommendations were tabled by the Commission's own Human Rights Inquiry Commission, which presented its findings today.
"Over the past six months we have documented systematic and serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law that are continuing, even escalating, today," said Hanny Megally, executive director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch. "An impartial international monitoring mechanism can help improve protection for civilians, who badly need it. Such a mechanism can also provide the international community with the independent and credible information needed to consider further protective steps as might be necessary."
Human Rights Watch charged that Israeli security forces have committed the most serious abuses, including indiscriminate and excessive use of lethal force, arbitrary killings, and collective punishment on a wide scale. The organization said that Israel has refused to investigate alleged violations committed by its forces, in contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law, and has refused to cooperate with the Commission's human rights mechanisms, including the Human Rights Inquiry Commission.
"Many of these violations may also amount to grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention," Megally said.
The organization also charged that the Palestinian Authority has done little to halt attacks against Israeli civilians and may have been involved in some attacks. "So far as we are aware, the Palestinian Authority has not investigated or prosecuted cases where persons under its jurisdiction have killed or seriously injured Israeli civilians," Megally said.
Human Rights Watch expressed concern about the treatment of large numbers of Palestinians detained for alleged collaboration with Israel, sometimes on the basis of actions taken years earlier. Two alleged collaborators have been executed after summary trials, and at least one has died in custody.
The United States has so far refused to consider the proposed international presence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, citing Israeli opposition to such an initiative. Other governments, including several European states, have expressed similar reservations.
"Of course such a mechanism can only be put in place with the agreement of Israel and the Palestinian Authority," Megally said, "but the U.S. and the European states must not use this to justify further inaction. Instead they should work together to persuade Israel of the urgent need for greater civilian protection, just as they did when Indonesia resisted protection mechanisms for East Timor."
Megally noted that the Association Agreement between European Union member states and Israel required the parties to base their trade and security ties on respect for human rights and democratic principles. "The crisis in the Middle East today is at its core a crisis of respect for fundamental human rights and the basic principles of international humanitarian law," Megally said. "It is long past time for the parties to the conflict to act on this, and for the international community to insist that they do so."
Human Rights Watch also called on the Commission to request the Secretary General to ensure that appropriate UN mechanisms report to and inform the General Assembly on a regular basis regarding compliance by all parties with human rights and international humanitarian law standards in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
