Sixty-fourth session
Agenda item 32
Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices
Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other
Arabs of the Occupied Territories
Summary
The present report has been prepared pursuant to General Assembly resolution 63/98, in which the Secretary-General was requested to report to the General Assembly at its sixty-fourth session on the implementation of the resolution. The period covered by the report is September 2008 to August 2009.
On the basis of material submitted by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the report describes a number of key aspects of the humanitarian and human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
I. Introduction
1. The present report addresses progress made in the implementation of resolution 63/98, and specifically highlights:
(a) The humanitarian and human rights situation in the Gaza Strip and Israel;
(b) The policy of closures and severe restrictions on freedom of movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
(c) The wall inside the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, and its impact on the enjoyment of human rights;
(d) Palestinian house demolitions and forced displacement in Area C and East Jerusalem;
(e) Palestinian child prisoners in Israel.
2. A more comprehensive review of the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory can be found in the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (A/HRC/12/37) mandated by the Human Rights Council in its resolution S-9/1. The question of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan, is addressed in a separate report (A/64/516) prepared pursuant to General Assembly resolution 63/97. The present report relies heavily on information made publicly available by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (see http://www.ochaopt.org).