Speaking today in an interactive dialogue with Richard Falk, the UN Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, the European Union said that the Council should soon take action to remedy the bias of his mandate:
While the report attempts to draw a legal analysis of conduct of all parties to the conflict, we wish to ask the Special Rapporteur, whether his mandate, as currently defined, allows him to look into the situation from all angles and present a full picture thereof? We wish to note in this regard that the mandate on the Occupied Palestinian Territories is the only special procedure which has not yet been subject to the review and rationalisation exercise by the Human Rights Council and we hope that it will be possible to complete this process soon. Thank you.
The U.S. also criticized the HRC mandate and Falk’s “biased and inappropriate” charges against Israel.
