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UN rights body demands war crimes accountability. How countries voted on the UN resolution.

UN Human Rights Council adopts resolution calling for Israel to be held accountable for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Gaza Strip.

Yes:

Algeria
Bangladesh
Belgium
Brazil
Burundi
Chile
China
Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
Cuba
Eritrea
Finland
Gambia
Ghana
Honduras
Indonesia
Kazakhstan
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Luxembourg
Malaysia
Maldives
Morocco
Qatar
Somalia
South Africa
Sudan
United Arab Emirates
Vietnam

No:

Argentina
Bulgaria
Germany
Malawi
Paraguay
United States

Abstained:

Albania
Bulgaria
Cameroon
Costa Rica
Dominican Republic
France
Georgia
India
Japan
Lithuania
Montenegro
Netherlands
Romania

Israel accuses UN top human rights body of failing Israeli people

Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, accused the council of having “long abandoned the Israeli people and long defended Hamas,” following a vote demanding Israel to be held accountable for possible war crimes.

  • “According to the resolution before you today, Israel has no right to protect its people, while Hamas has every right to murder and torture innocent Israelis,” she said ahead of the vote.
  • “A vote ‘Yes’ is a vote for Hamas.”

The US had pledged to vote against the resolution because it did not contain a specific condemnation of Hamas for the October 7 attacks, nor “any reference to the terrorist nature of those actions”.

It did, however, said that its ally Israel had not done enough to mitigate harm to civilians.

  • “The United States has repeatedly urged Israel to de-conflict military operations against Hamas with humanitarian operations, in order to avoid civilian casualties and to ensure humanitarian actors can carry out their essential mission in safety,” said Michele Taylor, US permanent representative to the council.
  • “That has not happened and, in just six months, more humanitarians have been killed in this conflict than in any war of the modern era.”

Source: Al Jazeera

UN Human Rights Council resolution ‘significant, but not impactful’

The adopted resolution calling for Israel to be held accountable for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip is important but will have little effect on the ground, says Marc Owen Jones, an associate professor of Middle East Studies at Qatar’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University.

  • “Symbolically, it’s very significant – this is the first time the top UN human rights body has taken a position on the conflict,” Owen Jones told Al Jazeera.
  • “But this is probably not going to have a significant impact, although what is interesting is that it could in theory pave the way for this resolution to be tabled by UN Security Council members,” he said.

Such a resolution though would unlikely pass at the 15-member UN Security Council – where Israel’s ally the US has a veto power – and Israel will continue to proceed with its war on Gaza as long as it can count on Washington’s unequivocal support, Owen Jones added.

Source: Al Jazeera