GENEVA: The United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday opened its 57th regular session in Geneva, which will run until 11 October, to address human rights issues in various parts of the world, Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported.
Speaking during the session, Volker Turk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said, “We know that wars spill over, and into, future generations, fostering repeated cycles of hatred if their causes remain unaddressed. Sadly, the war in Gaza is the quintessential example.”
“Since the horrific 7 October attacks... over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, several thousand injured, and thousands remain under the rubble in Gaza,” Turk continued.
“Each day, Palestinians struggle to survive. Nearly 1.9 million people have been forcibly displaced across the strip, many multiple times. While the actual number is likely higher, almost 10,000 Palestinians are held in Israeli prisons or ad hoc military facilities, many arbitrarily, with over 50 people having died due to inhumane conditions and ill-treatment”.
In the West Bank, deadly and destructive operations, some at a scale not witnessed in the last two decades, are worsening a calamitous situation there, already aggravated by serious settler violence.”
He explained that “ending that war and averting a full-blown regional conflict is an absolute and urgent priority”.
“Equally, the wider situation of illegality across the occupied Palestinian territory deriving from Israel’s policies and practices, as so clearly spelled out by the International Court of Justice in its Advisory Opinion in July, must be comprehensively addressed,“ the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said.
