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Tuesday 05 Jan 2016 - 11:05 Makkah mean time-25-3-1437
UN expert Makarim Wibisono resigns (UN Photo)
Geneva (IINA) – Makarim Wibisono, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian territories, tendered his resignation due to Israel's failure to grant him access to the areas he has been tasked with monitoring, UN News Center reported.
“Unfortunately, my efforts to help improve the lives of Palestinian victims of violations under the Israeli occupation have been frustrated every step of the way,” Wibisono said of his resignation, which he submitted on Monday to the President of the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, to become effective as of March 31.
“I took up this mandate with the understanding that Israel would grant me access, as an impartial and objective observer,” he added, stressing that upon assuming his post in June 2014, he was assured that he would have access to the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Wibisono, who will present his last report to the Human Rights Council in March, explained that repeated requests for access have been unsuccessful, with no reply from Israel to his latest request, in October 2015, to have access by the end of 2015.
He said that that throughout his tenure, the government of the State of Palestine cooperated fully with the mandate, expressing deep concern at the lack of effective protection of Palestinian victims of continuing human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law.
He underscored that it was important for Israel's own human rights credibility to cooperate fully with the mandate, including by allowing unfettered access to the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
In his most recent reports, Wibisono voiced concerns at Israeli raids against the Hebron-based Youth Against Settlements in the West Bank, where Palestinians live in close proximity to a large settler population, and at the blockade around the Gaza strip, which imposes severe restrictions on Palestinian movement, imports and exports.
AB/IINA
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