Latest news with #Israel-specific
Arab News
05-04-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
US lobbied UN rights council to dilute Pakistan's Gaza proposal, diplomats say
GENEVA: Two months after President Donald Trump announced a halt to US engagement with the United Nations Human Rights Council, Washington is influencing its work by applying pressure publicly and behind the scenes, seven diplomats and rights workers said. The United States left its seat empty during a six-week session of the 47-member council ending on Friday, but its lobbying and pressure had some success, the sources told Reuters. They said the US, which has accused the council of an anti-Israel bias, had focused on blunting a proposal by Pakistan on the creation of an International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM), the most rigorous type of UN investigation, on Israel's actions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The version of Pakistan's proposal that was passed on Wednesday by the council, whose mission is to promote and protect human rights worldwide, did not include the creation of the IIIM. The council already has a commission of inquiry on the Palestinian Territories, but Pakistan's proposal would have created an additional probe with extra powers to gather evidence for possible use in international courts. A March 31 letter sent by Brian Mast, Chairman of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, and James R. Risch, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, cautioned against voting the proposal through. 'Any HRC member state or UN entity that supports an Israel-specific IIM ... will face the same consequences as the ICC faced,' the letter said. It appeared to be referring to sanctions approved by the House of Representatives on the International Criminal Court in protest at its arrest warrants for Israel's prime minister and former defence minister over Israel's campaign in Gaza. The final version of Pakistan's proposal referred only to an invitation to the UN General Assembly to consider an IIIM in the future. Two Geneva-based diplomats said they had received messages from US diplomats before the change of wording asking them to oppose the new investigation. 'They were saying: 'back off on this issue,'' said one, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Reuters could not establish whether the revision was a direct result of US actions. A US State Department spokesperson said it was complying with the executive order signed by Trump on Feb. 4 withdrawing the US from the council and would not participate in it, adding: 'As a matter of policy, we do not comment on private diplomatic conversations.' Pakistan's diplomatic mission in Geneva did not respond to a request for comment. 'The US seems to be trying to have it both ways. It doesn't want to pay for or participate in the UN but it still wants to boss it around,' said Lucy McKernan, Deputy Director for United Nations at Human Rights Watch's Geneva office. 'RAW POWER' The US and Israel are not members of the council but, like all UN member states have informal observer status and a seat in the council's meeting chamber. International human rights institutions are now at a critical juncture, said Phil Lynch, Director of International Service for Human Rights, a non-governmental organization. 'We are potentially confronting a future characterised by lawlessness and raw power,' he said. The US was once the top donor to the UN rights system, but Trump has said the UN is 'not being well run' and aid cuts by his administration have forced scalebacks. The US and Israel have also opposed the mandate of one of the council's independent experts during this session. The Israeli ambassador said on March 24 that Francesca Albanese, a critic of Israeli actions in Gaza, had breached a UN code of conduct through 'blatant antisemitic behaviour and discourse,' a diplomatic note showed. The US State Department spokesperson said Albanese was 'unfit for her role.' 'The correspondence received is under consideration,' council spokesperson Pascal Sim said, adding that whenever the council makes a nomination, 'it does so with the knowledge that the mandate-holder is expected to serve up to six years in this function.' The internal body that ensures UN experts adhere to a code of conduct condemned what it described as a coordinated campaign against Albanese, according to a letter from the Coordination Committee of Special Procedures dated 28 March. It found no evidence to support Israel's complaints against Albanese. However, it is introducing social media guidelines for UN experts in light of some concerns raised about her X posts.
Express Tribune
05-04-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
US blunts Pakistan's Gaza probe proposal
Two months after President Donald Trump announced a halt to US engagement with the United Nations Human Rights Council, Washington is influencing its work by applying pressure publicly and behind the scenes, seven diplomats and rights workers said. The United States left its seat empty during a six-week session of the 47-member council ending on Friday, but its lobbying and pressure had some success, the sources told Reuters. They said the US, which has accused the council of an anti-Israel bias, had focused on blunting a proposal by Pakistan on the creation of an International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM), the most rigorous type of UN investigation, on Israel's actions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The version of Pakistan's proposal that was passed on Wednesday by the council, whose mission is to promote and protect human rights worldwide, did not include the creation of the IIIM. The council already has a commission of inquiry on the Palestinian Territories, but Pakistan's proposal would have created an additional probe with extra powers to gather evidence for possible use in international courts. A March 31 letter sent by Brian Mast, Chairman of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, and James R Risch, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, cautioned against voting the proposal through. "Any HRC member state or UN entity that supports an Israel-specific IIM ... will face the same consequences as the ICC faced," the letter said. It appeared to be referring to sanctions approved by the House of Representatives on the International Criminal Court in protest at its arrest warrants for Israel's prime minister and former defence minister over Israel's campaign in Gaza. The final version of Pakistan's proposal referred only to an invitation to the UN General Assembly to consider an IIIM in the future. Two Geneva-based diplomats said they had received messages from US diplomats before the change of wording asking them to oppose the new investigation. "They were saying: 'back off on this issue'," said one, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Reuters could not establish whether the revision was a direct result of US actions. A US State Department spokesperson said it was complying with the executive order signed by Trump on Feb 4 withdrawing the US from the council and would not participate in it, adding: "As a matter of policy, we do not comment on private diplomatic conversations." Pakistan's diplomatic mission in Geneva did not respond to a request for comment. "The US seems to be trying to have it both ways. It doesn't want to pay for or participate in the UN but it still wants to boss it around," said Lucy McKernan, Deputy Director for United Nations at Human Rights Watch's Geneva office.
Express Tribune
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Pakistan's UN proposal on Israel watered down under US pressure, say diplomats
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, attends a side event during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 26, 2024. PHOTO: REUTERS Listen to article Two months after President Donald Trump announced a halt to US engagement with the United Nations Human Rights Council, Washington is influencing its work by applying pressure publicly and behind the scenes, seven diplomats and rights workers said. The United States left its seat empty during a six-week session of the 47-member council ending on Friday, but its lobbying and pressure had some success, the sources told Reuters. They said the US, which has accused the council of an anti-Israel bias, had focused on blunting a proposal by Pakistan on the creation of an International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM), the most rigorous type of UN investigation, on Israel's actions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The version of Pakistan's proposal that was passed on Wednesday by the council, whose mission is to promote and protect human rights worldwide, did not include the creation of the IIIM. The council already has a commission of inquiry on the Palestinian Territories, but Pakistan's proposal would have created an additional probe with extra powers to gather evidence for possible use in international courts. A March 31 letter sent by Brian Mast, Chairman of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, and James R Risch, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, cautioned against voting the proposal through. 'Any HRC member state or UN entity that supports an Israel-specific IIM ... will face the same consequences as the ICC faced,' the letter said. It appeared to be referring to sanctions approved by the House of Representatives on the International Criminal Court in protest at its arrest warrants for Israel's prime minister and former defence minister over Israel's campaign in Gaza. The final version of Pakistan's proposal referred only to an invitation to the UN General Assembly to consider an IIIM in the future. Two Geneva-based diplomats said they had received messages from US diplomats before the change of wording asking them to oppose the new investigation. 'They were saying: 'back off on this issue,'' said one, who spoke on condition of anonymity. A US State Department spokesperson said it was complying with the executive order signed by Trump on Feb. 4 withdrawing the US from the council and would not participate in it, adding: 'As a matter of policy, we do not comment on private diplomatic conversations.' 'The US seems to be trying to have it both ways. It doesn't want to pay for or participate in the UN but it still wants to boss it around,' said Lucy McKernan, Deputy Director for United Nations at Human Rights Watch's Geneva office. 'RAW POWER' The US and Israel are not members of the council but, like all UN member states have informal observer status and a seat in the council's meeting chamber. International human rights institutions are now at a critical juncture, said Phil Lynch, Director of International Service for Human Rights, a non-governmental organization. 'We are potentially confronting a future characterised by lawlessness and raw power,' he said. The US was once the top donor to the UN rights system, but Trump has said the UN is 'not being well run' and aid cuts by his administration have forced scalebacks. The US and Israel have also opposed the mandate of one of the council's independent experts during this session. The Israeli ambassador said on March 24 that Francesca Albanese, a critic of Israeli actions in Gaza, had breached a UN code of conduct through 'blatant antisemitic behaviour and discourse,' a diplomatic note showed. The US State Department spokesperson said Albanese was 'unfit for her role.' 'The correspondence received is under consideration,' council spokesperson Pascal Sim said, adding that whenever the council makes a nomination, 'it does so with the knowledge that the mandate-holder is expected to serve up to six years in this function.' The internal body that ensures UN experts adhere to a code of conduct condemned what it described as a coordinated campaign against Albanese, according to a letter from the Coordination Committee of Special Procedures dated 28 March. It found no evidence to support Israel's complaints against Albanese. However, it is introducing social media guidelines for UN experts in light of some concerns raised about her X posts.
Middle East Eye
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
US pressured Palestinian Authority to drop investigative power from UN resolution
A UN Human Rights Council (HRC) resolution that would have established a mechanism to help with the investigation of crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territories was watered down following backroom pressure from the US, a US official and a source briefed by a European diplomat told Middle East Eye. The final wording of the resolution, adopted by the council this week, invites the UN General Assembly only 'to consider establishing' such a body. However, earlier drafts of the resolution would have seen the establishment of the mechanism, an initiative that experts say has been powerful in the investigation of serious crimes in Syria and Myanmar. Before the resolution passed, the chairs of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee and Senate Foreign Relations Committee suggested in a 31 March letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that any member state or UN entity supporting such a mechanism could face US sanctions. "Make no mistake, any HRC member state or UN entity that supports an Israel-specific [international investigative mechanism] in any form will face the same consequences as the ICC faced for its blatant overreach and disregard for sovereign prerogatives," the letter said. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters However, it is clear from publicly available drafts that the mechanism's establishment had been deleted from the resolution, along with details about how it would operate, several days before their letter was sent. Final text of the resolution showing track changes made on 26 March 2025 (UNHRC website) A US official told MEE that the resolution was changed as a result of US pressure that is understood to have happened at the highest levels of the Palestinian Authority (PA). 'We successfully convinced the Palestinian Authority to water down the resolution requesting a fact-finding mission,' the official said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to comment. They added that the draft was changed to "consider establishing". The PA and Palestinian mission in Geneva did not respond to requests for comment. Going after lower-level perpetrators There are several ongoing efforts in the occupied Palestinian territories that the legal mechanism would have complemented and assisted, but it also would likely have chartered new ground. There is the International Criminal Court's (ICC) investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel and Palestine since 13 June 2014. There is also the Commission of Inquiry (COI) on the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel - established by the HRC to investigate alleged violations of international humanitarian law leading up to and since 13 April 2021. Each of these investigations is looking at similar crimes but has different objectives and, therefore, different approaches, said Balkees Jarrah, associate director of the International Justice Program for Human Rights Watch. The ICC is focused on senior officials and commanders and will only be able, as a result of its workload and limited resources, to focus on a handful of cases, Jarrah said. The COI seeks to draw attention in more real time to events and make recommendations to the international community about how to address abuses it is documenting, but it may also assist with criminal investigations and prosecutions. 'I think the key is that the mechanism would have contributed to and shared material with jurisdictions looking at all levels of perpetrators,' Jarrah said. The standard for such a mechanism, she said, would be quite high because its objective is to be useful in a court of law. The work of the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism, which was established for Syria in 2016, has been used by criminal justice authorities in Sweden, Germany and France to assist with the prosecutions of Syrian officials. 'The Syria example demonstrated the utility that this kind of team has in facilitating criminal cases,' Jarrah said. Two former Palestinian officials told MEE that they were not surprised that the Palestinian Authority had caved to the Americans over the creation of a similar mechanism. 'I'm not surprised at all,' said one of the officials. He pointed to the PA's messaging after the ICC issued warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant last November. The PA, he said, had suggested that it was PA President Mahmoud Abbas' quiet diplomacy with international organisations that had led to the warrants and, in a dig at Hamas, that significant gains could be achieved for Palestinians without 'getting a genocide against us'. But if the PA was truly invested in pursuing accountability at the ICC, then it would have taken action in the past few months that it has not, the former official said. Palestinian Authority's covert funding makes assessing US aid cuts tricky Read More » 'Why wouldn't the PA put pressure on countries to arrest Netanyahu? Why wouldn't you summon the ambassadors of France and Italy and Greece when they open their airspace for Netanyahu to go to the UN?' he said. The former official said it was difficult to understand the PA's motivation but speculated that it might be that officials were 'trying not to let the Americans have an excuse to endorse annexation' of the West Bank - an announcement anticipated within weeks. 'But the thing is that they are not getting any assurances on anything,' he said. It is unclear, however, what leverage the PA could use. The occupied West Bank's economy is in free fall, and the US has suspended much foreign aid to the PA. Meanwhile, the PA is widely seen as a corrupt Israeli collaborator by Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, factors that increase its reliance on European countries for legitimacy. The second former official said that, without elections for 17 years, the PA's legitimacy 'is in the hands of the Israelis'. 'Their existence is linked to the occupation, as has become clear, and they are absolutely unable to do anything to break their relationship with it,' he said.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US lobbies UN rights council forsaken by Trump, diplomats say
By Emma Farge and Olivia Le Poidevin GENEVA (Reuters) - Two months after President Donald Trump announced a halt to U.S. engagement with the United Nations Human Rights Council, Washington is influencing its work by applying pressure publicly and behind the scenes, seven diplomats and rights workers said. The United States left its seat empty during a six-week session of the 47-member council ending on Friday, but its lobbying and pressure had some success, the sources told Reuters. They said the U.S., which has accused the council of an anti-Israel bias, had focused on blunting a proposal by Pakistan on the creation of an International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM), the most rigorous type of U.N. investigation, on Israel's actions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The version of Pakistan's proposal that was passed on Wednesday by the council, whose mission is to promote and protect human rights worldwide, did not include the creation of the IIIM. The council already has a commission of inquiry on the Palestinian Territories, but Pakistan's proposal would have created an additional probe with extra powers to gather evidence for possible use in international courts. A March 31 letter sent by Brian Mast, Chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, and James R. Risch, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, cautioned against voting the proposal through. "Any HRC member state or U.N. entity that supports an Israel-specific IIM ... will face the same consequences as the ICC faced," the letter said. It appeared to be referring to sanctions approved by the House of Representatives on the International Criminal Court in protest at its arrest warrants for Israel's prime minister and former defence minister over Israel's campaign in Gaza. The final version of Pakistan's proposal referred only to an invitation to the U.N. General Assembly to consider an IIIM in future. Two Geneva-based diplomats said they had received messages from U.S. diplomats before the change of wording asking them to oppose the new investigation. "They were saying: 'back off on this issue'," said one, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Reuters could not establish whether the revision was a direct result of U.S. actions. A U.S. State Department spokesperson said it was complying with the executive order signed by Trump on Feb. 4 withdrawing the U.S. from the council and would not participate in it, adding: "As a matter of policy, we do not comment on private diplomatic conversations." Pakistan's diplomatic mission in Geneva did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. 'RAW POWER' The U.S. and Israel are not members of the council but, like all U.N. member states have informal observer status and a seat in the council's meeting chamber. International human rights institutions are now at a critical juncture, said Phil Lynch, Director of International Service for Human Rights, a non-governmental organization. "We are potentially confronting a future characterised by lawlessness and raw power," he said. The U.S. was once the top donor to the U.N. rights system, but Trump has said the U.N. is "not being well run" and aid cuts by his administration have forced scalebacks. The U.S. and Israel have also opposed the mandate of one of the council's independent experts up for renewal this week. The Israeli ambassador said on March 24 that Francesca Albanese, a critic of Israeli actions in Gaza, had breached a U.N. code of conduct through "blatant antisemitic behaviour and discourse", a diplomatic note showed. The U.S. State Department spokesperson said Albanese was "unfit for her role". "The correspondence received is under consideration," council spokesperson Pascal Sim said, adding that he expected Albanese's term be renewed. The internal body that ensures U.N. experts adhere to a code of conduct condemned what it described as a coordinated campaign against Albanese, according to a letter from the Coordination Committee of Special Procedures dated 28 March. It found no evidence to support Israel's complaints against Albanese. However, it is introducing social media guidelines for U.N. experts in light of some concerns raised about her X posts.
