NEW YORK, (PIC)-- The UN Human Rights Council said in a statement that it would not retract the Goldstone report on the Israeli war on Gaza Strip in late 2008 and early 2009.
An official UNHRC spokesman said in a press release on Monday that UN reports could not be cancelled because of articles in the press.
The statement followed the publication of an article in the Washington Post by Richard Goldstone, who headed a committee probing the war and issued a report on it, in which he said that results of his report would be different if he had access to the information he had known now.
European human rights groups had asked the UNHRC to declare a clear stance toward Goldstone's press statement.
Palestinian officials criticized Goldstone and accused him of bowing to "Zionist pressures".
05/04/2011 - 07:52 PM ]
JEDDAH, (PIC)-- The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) based in Jeddah has said it will continue to support the Goldstone report that condemned Israel for committing war crimes during the last war on Gaza after Goldstone, who headed the probe leading to the UN report, has retracted accusations against Israel.
The OIC said that the report was rife with ”facts on the field” and that Goldstone's recent statements cannot change the fact that Israeli leaders are guilty of committing war crimes against Gazan civilians, as laid out in the report.
”[The OIC] will continue to adhere to the report's contents that were adopted by the Human Rights Council in Geneva,” the OIC said on its official website.
The OIC had already pushed the UNHRC to adopt the report and played a key role in having the report referred to the UN Security Council.
The OIC which enjoys a permanent delegation in the UN, also started the emergency meeting in the executive committee gathering ministers of its member states in the wake of the 2008 Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and called for the fact-finding mission that produced the report to be formed.
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