United Nations Information Service (UNIS)

The United Nations International Meeting on the Question of Palestine this morning heard a number of panellists discuss the responsibility of governments and intergovernmental organizations in upholding international law in relation to the implementation of the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the construction of a wall in the occupied Palestinian territory. Georges Abi-Saab, Honorary Professor of International Law at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, said States had an obligation to do something to deter a violation such as the building of the wall by cutting off the funds used for that construction.

The UN General Assembly will reconvene on Friday its long-running emergency special session on the question of Palestine to examine the advisory opinion issued last week by the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences of Israel’s construction of a separation barrier. The resumption of the tenth emergency special session comes at the request of the a majority of UN Member States, the Arab Group and the Non-Aligned Movement, according to Michele Montas, spokesperson for the Assembly’s President. The emergency special session dates back to 1997 when Israel began construction of a new settlement and after the Security Council met twice on that issue but failed to adopt resolutions.

The Human Rights Committee concluded today a four-week session at which it considered and adopted concluding observations and recommendations on the reports submitted by Israel.