(Communicated by the Foreign Ministry Spokesman)

The UN Human Rights Council agreed on Tuesday (19 June) to new measures regarding how the “universal periodic review” mechanism will work. By doing so, the Council proved that, like the Commission on Human Rights which it replaced, it too suffers from severe politicization and political diversion.

Ignoring severe human rights violations around the globe, the Council decided to relate in only one paragraph to all human rights violations throughout the world. Israel, however, was singled out in a separate paragraph of its own.  

In addition, mandates of the Special Rapporteurs, used to explore human rights violations by countries known to be especially problematical in that respect, were dropped. Similarly, no mandate to examine human rights violations in a country like Iran was specified.

The Human Rights Council also chose to ignore severe human rights violations and injury to civilians during the recent Hamas activities in the Gaza Strip.

The State of Israel complies with an official policy of complete openness to international organizations wishing to enter a dialogue with her regarding human rights. However, Israel is unable to accept the Council's use of the human rights issue as a means of attacking Israel, ignoring its duty to fairly, uniformly and objectively protect the rights of every person in the world, wherever he may be.

The State of Israel protests being represented by the Council as a violator of human rights, and is disappointed by the Council's failure to formulate an agenda that would allow it to genuinely respond to human rights violations around the world.

Israel expresses its appreciation to Canada, the only Council member to take a clear, unambiguous position and oppose the decision.