Former UN rights chief Navi Pillay quits Israel-Palestine probe
Ms Pillay, a South African jurist, said in a letter made public on Monday that her resignation, effective on November 3, was due to 'age, medical issues and the weight of several other commitments'.
Two other team experts, Chris Sidoti of Australia and Miloon Kothari of India, also stepped down. Their resignation letters, addressed to the president of the Human Rights Council, were sent last week.
The resignation of the three-member panel comes amid mounting political pressure, including recent US sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump 's administration on Francesca Albanese, a Human Rights Council-appointed expert who has publicly condemned Israeli military actions in Gaza.
Ms Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, called on July 9 for an arms embargo and the severing of trade ties with Israel, accusing it of conducting a 'genocidal campaign' in Gaza.
Israel has refused to co-operate with the commission, denying its members entry and repeatedly rejecting their findings as biased.
The Commission of Inquiry, established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021, has no prosecutorial powers but is tasked with documenting abuses and preserving evidence that could be used by international judicial bodies such as the International Criminal Court.
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