The United Nations Human Rights Council has voted to send a team to Lebanon to investigate alleged abuses by Israel.The council approved the resolution, proposed by a group of states led by Islamic countries, by 27 votes to 11. Many of the resolution's opponents criticised it for not mentioning Hezbollah attacks on Israel.
Addressing the emergency session in Geneva, the UN's human rights chief, Louise Arbour, chided both sides for inflicting suffering on civilians. "Israeli attacks affecting civilians continue unabated," she told a special session of the UN Human Rights Council. "Also unrelenting is Hezbollah's indiscriminate shelling of densely populated centres in northern Israel," she said.
| Thanks for noticing the latter, Louise, your pink slip is waiting at your former office. |
Israel and the United States, although not members of the council, urged a vote against, calling the resolution unbalanced. European Union countries, alongside Japan and Canada, voted against, calling it one-sided and divisive.
Those voting for included China, Russia, India, Cuba, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Uruguay, Zambia and South Africa, as well as members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.
| No surprises there, but Presidente Fox shouldn't ask us for anyone in his last few months in office. |
Human rights groups and aid agencies struggling to bring relief to Lebanon all agree the humanitarian situation in the region is becoming catastrophic, our correspondent notes. But this resolution, revealing once again just how politicised the United Nations can be, is probably not what they were looking for, she adds.
| No, no, certainly not! |