4 June 2010 10:15 am
Sri Lanka’s permanent representative to the UN Dr. Palitha Kohona is to head a UN delegation to investigate Israeli practices affecting the human rights of Palestinian people and other Arabs of the occupied territories, UN officials said.
The Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the human rights of Palestinian people and other Arabs of the occupied territories will visit Egypt from 8 to 11 June, Jordan from 11 to 16 June, and Syria from 16 to 19 June 2010.
The Special Committee was established in December 1968 by the UN General Assembly to examine the human rights situation across the occupied territories. These include the occupied Syrian Arab Golan, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
The Special Committee is composed of three Member States: Sri Lanka (Chairman), Malaysia and Senegal. This year the Member States are represented by: Palitha T.B.Kohona, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in New York; Hamidon Ali, Permanent Representative of Malaysia to the United Nations in New York; and Momar Gueye, Minister Counsellor of the Permanent Mission of Senegal to the United Nations in Geneva, the UN official said in an email.
At the end of the mission, the Committee will prepare its annual report to the General Assembly, based on the information gathered on its mission and on other public sources. The report will contain the Committee’s evaluation of the situation and its recommendations to the General Assembly to improve the human rights situation for those whose lives are affected by the ongoing occupation. (Daily Mirror online)