The South African mission to the United Nations participated and delivered a statement on the occasion of the United Nations General Assembly debate on the Report of the Human Rights Council (HRC) which related to the United Nations Human Right Council’s fact finding mission to Gaza on 5 November 2009.
A resolution on this issue was also introduced by Egypt on behalf of the Arab group. South Africa co-sponsored the resolution as it did in the Human Rights Council and voted in favour of the resolution. The vote on this resolution was called by Israel and the resolution passed with 114 votes.
The resolution calls for endorsing the report of the Human Rights Council, 12th special session on the fact finding mission to Gaza, which welcomed the report and endorsed the recommendations contained therein. The resolution further requested the secretary general of the United Nations to transmit the report to the Security Council. It urged that independent and credible investigations be carried into the serious violations of international humanitarian and international human rights law as contained in the report. And it requests the secretary-general to report to the General Assembly within a period of three months.
The resolution is in line with the position of the South African government on this issue, who also welcomed the report of the United Nations’ fact finding mission and endorsed the recommendations contained therein.
A copy of the statement delivered by South Africa can be found on the official mission website http://www.southafrica-newyork.net/pmun
For more information contact:
Nomfanelo Kota
Cell: 082 459 3787
Issued by: Department of International Relations and Cooperation
6 November 2009
