NEW YORK — There are some positive human rights developments in the Israeli treatment of Palestinians, but abuses by the Palestinian Authority, including torture, appear to be increasing, the U.N. human rights investigator said in a report made public this week.
An overall assessment of the human rights situation remains “worrying,” Hannu Halinen of Finland said in his report on the “question of the violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine.”
“While there is a certain positive development to be recognized on the Israeli side — such as the decrease in administrative detentions and discontinuation of the most flagrant torture methods — it appears that such violations are increasing on the Palestinian side,” Halinen said.
Many administrative detentions were related to individuals exercising their right to freedom of expression, Halinen said.
“The pressure exercised by the occupying power on the Palestinian Authority, while explaining many violations, does not justify them, nor does it absolve the Palestinian Authority of its responsibility,” he wrote in the report, which said twice that the investigator’s role was not an “accusatory” one.
Despite noting some improvement by Israel on the matter of human rights in the territories, the report said that Israel is still depriving Palestinians of basic freedoms.
The 17-page report will be considered by the 53-member U.N. Commission on Human Rights, which begins its annual six-week session in Geneva on March 22 to examine violations worldwide.
Israel did not cooperate with Halinen. In a letter to the inspector, David Peleg, the Israeli representative at the U.N. in Geneva, challenged the underlying premise of his mission, which is that Israel is in violation of international law and conventions.
Halinen also expressed his support for a conference of the parties to the Geneva Convention on “illegal” Israeli activities in the territories. Last month, an emergency session of the General Assembly voted for such a conference in July.
“At a time of complex political processes, there is a need to reaffirm the legal status of the occupied territories until the end of the occupation,” he wrote. Furthermore, he said, the human rights and humanitarian concerns he had uncovered “are themselves a raison d’etre for re-establishing the applicability of the convention.”
Halinen’s report was based on a trip in January to Jerusalem, Gaza, Ramallah, Jericho, Tel Aviv and Cairo. He met Palestinian officials, including Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat, as well as Israelis from non-governmental organizations.