World News | Independent UN Human Rights Experts Raise Alarm over Undermining of Human Rights and Humanitarian Laws

United Nations, Jan 11 (PTI) Raising an alarm over the undermining of human rights and humanitarian laws, a group of independent UN human rights experts have called upon all member states of the UN Human Rights Council to immediately desist from giving political support or providing economic or military assistance for action by state and non-state actors that comprise violations of these laws.

In an open letter this week, the group of 18 experts said that events across different parts of the world and the reactions to them by powerful third-party member states threaten to fatally undermine the universal applicability of key international norms for the protection of civilians and their fundamental human rights - and with it, the credibility of our various country-specific mandates.

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The troubling gradual and ongoing erosion of these universal standards has been observable in conflicts over the past two decades and particularly since the declaration of the “war on terror," they said.

However, recent and multiple armed conflicts threaten to completely unravel standards and protection systems that have taken decades to put in place, they said.

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"We call urgently upon all UN member states to immediately cease and desist from articulating political and moral support or providing economic or military assistance for action by State and non-state actors that comprise violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law – some of them amounting to grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, war crimes and crimes against humanity," they said in a statement.

Their statement came in the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas conflicts.

The experts include Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory; Vrinda Grover, Commissioner, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine and Miloon Kothari: Commissioner, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel.

Collective punishment, the targeting of and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, medical facilities and personnel, religious and residential buildings, markets, and educational institutions, as well as forced displacement and deportation, the taking of hostages, sexual violence, looting, pillage, arbitrary detention and slavery, are all prohibited by international law, they said.

The starvation of a population and deprivation of their access to adequate food, housing, water, fuel, and medicine are prohibited, it said, adding that parties to conflicts are obliged to allow humanitarian aid and relief to adequate levels to enter areas under their military control.

It is imperative that third-party Member States immediately desist from actions or inaction that undermine international human rights standards, principles, and safeguards, including action taken as allies and supporters, said the statement issued by the independent UN human rights experts serving in various investigative, reporting and advisory capacities mandated by the UN Human Rights Council.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)