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Rights and legality of Iraq
war |
Suhas Chakma |
At the
ongoing 60th session, the UN Commission on Human
Rights is scheduled to consider the agenda items
relating to the right of peoples to
self-determination and its application to peoples
under colonial or alien domination or foreign
occupation; racism, racial discrimination,
xenophobia and all forms of discrimination; the
right to development; and the question of the
violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms
in any part of the world. The CHR will review the
reports of country rapporteurs and Secretary
General on the occupied Arab territories of
Palestine and Syrian Golan, Democratic People's
Republic of Korea, Turkmenistan, Myanmar, Cuba,
Belarus, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi
and Iraq.
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The right of
self-determination is cornerstone of UN human rights
instruments and is recognised under common Article 1 of
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
and International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights. However, as many decolonised African
and Asian countries increasingly faced demand for the
right to self-determination, it became a taboo within
the UN system. Governments across the region equate the
right to self-determination with so-called terrorist
activities and use self-defence to justify serious human
rights violations.
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The occupation of
Palestinian territories has become an issue of the Arab
League. This is despite the fact that a sizeable number
of populations amongst the Palestinians are Christian.
While this sojourn of Palestinian movement would make an
excellent academic study, the increasing violence in
West Asia as a direct consequence of the continued
occupation of the Arab-territories played its role to
make the occupation of Palestinian an issue of the Arab
League.
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Israel justifies its
actions, which results in gross human rights violations
in the Occupied Palestine Territories on the grounds of
self-defence and portrays them as anti-terrorism
measures. While Israel has legitimate security concerns,
its measures fail to conform to international human
rights standards.
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Israel even
justifies the construction of the Wall, separating
Israel from the West Bank, on grounds of self-defence.
This despite the fact that the Wall does not follow the
green line, which marks the de facto boundary between
Israel and Palestine and over 210,000 Palestinians will
be seriously affected. As the Special Rapporteur on
Palestine states, "Annexation of this kind, is
prohibited by the Charter of the UN and the Fourth
Geneva Convention." Yet, the US like each year will
support the Israeli conquest of the Palestinian
territories. At the same time it must be noted that the
CHR resolution at the 59th session (2003/6), while
rightly condemning Israel, failed to denounce killings
of the Israeli civilians by the Palestinian suicide
bombers.
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The invasion of Iraq
by the US and UK was also justified in the name of
self-defence of the US and the invasion was both
pre-emptive and punitive. After the fall of Saddam's
regime, Iraq has been ruled without a constitution.
While suicide bombings by the armed opposition groups
opposed to the occupation have deflected attention from
human rights violations by the military forces of the
occupying powers, Amnesty International and Human Rights
Watch have extensively reported about serious human
rights violations by the occupying powers.
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In Baghdad alone
between May 1 and September 30, 2003, Human Rights Watch
documented the deaths of 20 Iraqi civilians in
questionable circumstances and collected information
concerning 94 civilians killed by US in circumstances
that merited investigations. In the five investigations
that the US said it had completed, four concluded that
soldiers had operated within official rules of
engagement. But the US troops took hostages, a breach of
the Geneva Conventions. At present, human rights
violations are not covered by any Penal Code.
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The CHR in its
resolution (2003/84) did not recognise the legality of
war and urged "all parties to the conflict in Iraq to
abide strictly by their obligations under humanitarian
law, in particular the Geneva Conventions and the Hague
Regulations including those relating to the essential
civilian needs of the people of Iraq". At the 60th
session, the CHR resolution should call upon occupying
powers and interim government to establish
accountability for human rights violations, to try
Saddam in an international tribunal.
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