Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, CIHRS, presented a statement before the United Nations Human Rights Council during its current session, where it condemned the systematic breaches of human rights in Iraq, Palestine and Darfur. The United States and its partners in the Coalition and the Iraqi government failed to protect civilians in Iraq; the International Community fell short of bringing necessary pressure to bear on the government of Israel to stop its violations in the Palestinian Occupied Territories and ending the Israeli occupation. Meanwhile the United States together with the European Union continued to reward Israel through preferential economic and military trade agreements, while China and a number of Arab countries are supporting the Sudanese government economically and militarily against systems of international sanctions aiming at coercing the government to put an end to the killing and raping in the Darfur Province.
The statement, which focused on the protection of civilians in the event of armed conflicts in the Arab region, duly criticized the double standard policy that the United States, the European Union and the League of Arab States are practicing regarding violations of international humanitarian law and human rights in the Palestinian Occupied Territories and in Darfur; the United States and European Union are exercising strong diplomatic pressures in order to impose sanctions against the government of Sudan, and support the deployment of UN peacekeeping forces in Darfur. However, they are both reluctant to practice the same level or kind of pressure on Israel. The United States grants Israel diplomatic immunity against UN Security Council Resolutions. On the other hand, States Member of the League of Arab States pressurize in turn Israel to stop violations against Palestinians, and call upon the International Community to deploy international protective forces in the Palestinian Occupied Territories; however, they do not urge the government of Sudan to act along the same line in Darfur. On the contrary, they provide support to this government against Security Council Resolutions!!
CIHRS also criticized the selectivity and incompetence with which the International Community fulfills commitments vis-à-vis armed conflicts in Iraq, the Palestinian Occupied Territories and Darfur province in Sudan. The Institute also stressed the necessary obligations ensuing from the Geneva Conventions of 1949 upon States Parties to the Conventions, namely, to enact effective measures to prevent other states from breaching provisions thereof.
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