Human rights violated” “

The work of the international observers obstructed. The Human Rights Commission of the UN, meeting in Geneva in recent days for its 58th session, has discussed, among other issues, the situation of human rights in the Middle East, in particular in the areas affected by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Numerous interventions on the matter were made by European representatives. John Dugard, UN observer for the respect of human rights in the occupied territories of Palestine, presented a report. In particular, he denounced the fact that, during his visits to the region, he had been unable to meet any Israeli government representative, because the State of Israel does not recognize his mandate as a UN observer. He was therefore unable to ascertain in person whether the denunciations of presumed violations of human rights presented by pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian NGOs are well founded or not. Dugard therefore asked the Commission to specify his mandate. He also expressed the hope that lasting solutions would soon be found for peace in the region, without ignoring the positions of either of the two sides in the conflict. Agreement between the representatives of the EU countries. The Swiss representative, François Nordmann reported the continual violations of human rights by both sides in the current conflict, namely the failure to respect the most elementary and commonly accepted norms to be followed in time of war. In the view of the Swedish foreign minister, Anna Lindh, to put an end to such violations it would be necessary to urge the creation of an international surveillance system with the task of monitoring respect for international law, human rights and international conventions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Joaquín Pérez-Villanueva y Tovar, representative of the EU and EU associated countries, pointed out that since September 2000 more than 1400 Palestinians and 400 Israelis have been killed due to terrorist attacks and armed clashes. The EU representative also condemned the continual non-judicial executions taking place in the region and asked that the sealed borders of the occupied Palestinian territories that prevents many inhabitants from travelling to their place of work, be reopened. As a consequence of the conflict, 50% of the Palestinians are now living below the poverty threshold, pointed out Sverre Bergh, representative of Norway. For these reasons the European Commission has decided to extend its own direct aid to the Palestinian Authority for a total amount of 50 million euros over five months (from March to July 2002). An emergency meeting of foreign ministers. The meeting of the foreign ministers of the European Union to discuss the crisis in the Middle East was held in Luxembourg on 3 April to discuss the crisis in the Middle East. The aim of the meeting was to urge the full implementation of Resolution 1204 of the UN Security Council, which calls for the immediate withdrawal of the troops besieging the compound of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. The co-presidents of the group of Greens and of the Free European Alliance, Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Monica Frassoni, as well as Pasqualina Napolitano, asked the president of the European Parliament, Pat Cox, to send a high-level parliamentary delegation to the Middle East. In an interview on Spanish radio, reported by Agence Europe, the senior EU representative for the foreign policy and security of the Union, Javier Solana, said that if in the past chairman Arafat might have had his share of blame for what was happening, it was clear that he was now unable to control anyone. “Undoubtedly – said Solana – there is an occupied territory that needs to be liberated, and a military operation is underway that does not improve the situation, but only aggravates it”.