An inconvenient inquiry
A delegation of experts dispatched by the UN Human Rights Council is now visiting Turkey and Jordan to interview witnesses and government officials about the May 31 flotilla clash. The mission has just spent two weeks in Geneva, where it drafted its terms of reference and held talks with diplomats, including the ambassadors of Israel ...
A delegation of experts dispatched by the UN Human Rights Council is now visiting Turkey and Jordan to interview witnesses and government officials about the May 31 flotilla clash.
A delegation of experts dispatched by the UN Human Rights Council is now visiting Turkey and Jordan to interview witnesses and government officials about the May 31 flotilla clash.
The mission has just spent two weeks in Geneva, where it drafted its terms of reference and held talks with diplomats, including the ambassadors of Israel and Turkey. Last week, they began interviewing witnesses in London and Geneva to gather first-hand information to assess facts under their consideration.
This mission is not to be confused with the Secretary-General’s own panel on the incident, whose report is expected in mid-September. Ban Ki-Moon was reportedly none too pleased that the Human Rights Council decided to set up its own probe, and Israel is not cooperating with it. For its part, the United States has given the Council investigation short shrift and has argued that the Secretary-General’s inquiry "obviat[es] the need for any overlapping international inquiries." There may be a race underway to see whose report comes out first.
David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist
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