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10 September 2013
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay noted, while addressing the twenty-fourth regular session of the Human Rights Council, that the international community ‘is late, very late to take serious joint action to halt the downward spiral that has gripped Syria’. Already more than 100,000 people were killed in Syria, 4 million people were displaced within Syrian borders and another 2 million people have sought refuge in states in the region.
Pillay said that ‘This appalling situation cries out for international action, yet a military response or the continued supply of arms risk igniting a regional conflagration, possibly resulting in many more deaths and even more widespread misery’. She stressed that member states must find a way, together with the United Nations, to bring the fighting parties to the negotiating table.
Source: UN News Centre | With ‘no easy exit’ from nightmare in Syria, UN rights chief urges political solution
Source: OHCHR | News | Opening Statement by Ms. Navi Pillay United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights at the Human Rights Council 24th Session
9 September 2013
US Secretary of State John Kerry called on the European Union to suspend its restrictions on financial assistance to Israeli institutions in territories occupied by Israel after the 1967 war. Kerry argued that suspending the restrictions would show the Israeli public the benefit of pursuing a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
A contrary opinion was expressed by Alon Liel, former high ranking official at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and former ambassador in South-Africa, who wrote in the Dutch newspaper Trouw that the EU guidelines should be kept in place, so as to maintain pressure on Israel.
Source: The New York Times | Kerry Asks European Union to Halt Ban on Aid to Israeli Institutions
Source: Trouw | Europa, zet Israël flink onder druk, dat is in Israëls belang (in Dutch)
9 September 2013
The Dutch company Royal HaskoningDHV has terminated its involvement in a sewage construction project in East Jerusalem because it would violate international law. It was earlier reported that the Dutch government had advised the company to withdraw from the project in view of the possible conflict with international law. The Palestinian Authority welcomed the decision. The Israeli government contested that the project would violate international law.
Source: Reformatorisch Dagblad | Nederlandse ingenieurs weg uit Oost-Jeruzalem (in Dutch)
8 September 2013
The International Labour Organization has published the paper ‘Protecting the rights of migrant workers: A shared responsibility’. The paper deals with migrant rights using a life cycle approach in the context of temporary migration programmes, and stresses that protection of migrant workers is a shared responsibility between source and destination countries. Actions taken from only one side of the migration process will not prove adequate to ensure protection of migrant workers, and to promote mutual benefits of migration to development. The ILO hopes the paper will serve as a useful tool for governments, employers’ and workers’ organisations and all other stakeholders who are keen to improve protection of their workers abroad, as well as migrant workers in their countries.
Source: ILO | Publications | Protecting the rights of migrant workers: A shared responsibility (2009)
8 September 2013
The New York Times reports that over the past decades, Syria amassed stockpiles of chemical weapons with the help from the Soviet Union, China, Czechoslovakia and Iran, as well as Western European and American suppliers.
Source: The New York Times | With the World Watching, Syria Amassed Nerve Gas