Britain supports UN vote on Goldstone report

Consistent with its call for full, credible and independent investigations by all the parties into their conduct during the Gaza Conflict, the UK yesterday voted in favour of a Palestinian resolution.

Britain was one of 98 countries from the 192 members to vote for the resolution while 7 voted against [including the U.S. and Israel] with 31 abstentions. More than 50 countries were absent during the vote. Some missions were hampered from getting to the UN headquarters in time due to bad weather in New York.

This latest resolution calls upon “the Government of Israel to conduct investigations that are independent, credible and in conformity with international standards into the serious violations of international humanitarian and international human rights law reported by the Fact-Finding Mission, towards ensuring accountability and justice.”

In a significant development the Assembly further recommended to the Government of Switzerland, “in its capacity as depositary of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, to reconvene as soon as possible a Conference of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention on measures to enforce the Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and to ensure its respect in accordance with common article 1, bearing in mind the convening of such a Conference and the Statement adopted on 15 July 1999 as well as the reconvening of the Conference and the Declaration adopted on 5 December 2001.”