EMOHR calls for UN human rights council's session on hunger strikers

GENEVA, (PIC)-- The Euro-Mediterranean observatory for human rights (EMOHR) called on the member states of the UN human rights council to request a specialsession addressing the issue of Palestinian hunger strikers in Israeli jails. "The member states of the council particularly the five Arab countries or one of them are demanded to lead the efforts to call for the holding of an urgent session to discuss Israel's negative reaction to the hunger strike of Palestinian prisoners in its jails and to take tangible steps by the UN organization to force Israel to stop its violations of the international laws, regulations and minimum standards for the treatment of prisoners as approved in 1957 and 1977," the observatory stated in a press release on Saturday. The observatory stressed that the Arab member states of the human rights council, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Mauritania and Jordan, are able to have such an urgent session convened if they worked diligently on mobilizing the consent of a third of the 47 council members. The observatory affirmed that this session, if held, would be able to pass a resolution condemning Israel's violations against the Palestinian prisoners, especially its punitive measures against the hunger strikers, and holding it legally accountable for its infringements. It noted that the human rights council is entitled to send an independent fact-finding mission to investigate reported violations against human rights in Israeli jails. Regional director of the observatory Amani Sinwar asserted that the observatory would ask the Swiss and Norwegian governments to lead these efforts if the Arab members did not act.