Follow Up to Goldstone Report

The UN Committee of Independent Experts monitoring and assessing investigations into serious violations of International Humanitarian and Human Rights Laws during the Gaza conflict has issued its report on the efforts undertaken by the state of Israel and the Palestinian side.

According to the chair of the Committee, human rights expert Prof. Christian Tomuschat, investigations by both Israel and Hamas  'remain incomplete in some cases or fall significantly short of meeting international standards in others'. This is the follow up to the Goldstone Report, which appeared last year, in which important allegations of violations of international law were set out.

'A lack of cooperation from Israel has hampered the Committee’s assessment of investigations into serious violations of war crimes', Prof. Tomuschat said. 'Israel has published a lot of information on their investigations, but its refusal to cooperate with the Committee made it impossible to assess whether inquiries met international standards' of independence, impartiality, thoroughness and effectiveness, genuineness, promptness, and transparency.

'Israel conducted investigations into many incidents, but only four resulted in criminal indictments, one of which led to a conviction for a credit card theft', Prof. Tomuschat noted.