Archives for 05 November 2013

Statement by Ms. Nadya Rasheed, First Counsellor, before the Third Committee, Agenda item 68: Right of Peoples to Self-Determination,

68th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, New York, 5 November 2013

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The right to self-determination is enshrined in Article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Article 1 of those two Covenants also obliges States parties, including those having responsibility for the administration of Non-Self-Governing and Trust Territories, to promote the realization of the right to self-determination and to respect it, in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.

Even though, the ICCPR and ICESCR are part of the universally recognized International Bill of Human Rights, these Covenants along with all aspects of international law and humanitarian law, which are all applicable to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, have been deliberately ignored for more than four decades by Israel, the occupying Power. To take it a step further and to be more factual, not only have they been ignored by the occupying Power, but they have been violated, trampled on and violently withheld from the Palestinian people under its occupation. [Read more…]