Opinion Editorials, April 2011

Organization of the Islamic Conference Confirms Its Continued Support for the Goldstone Report

Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, April 4, 2011

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) renewed on Monday, 04 April 2011, its position in support of the Goldstone report, which contained clear accusations to Israel for committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip in December 2008, in response to the statements made by the investigating judge Richard Goldstone, in some of which he changed his position on the report which carries his name.
 
The OIC said it still adheres to the contents of the report adopted by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, with the support of the Islamic Group, and it continues to provide all the support required for the report at the General Assembly of the United Nations, after the Islamic Group had pushed for the adoption of a resolution by the Human Rights Council urging the General Assembly to forward it to the UN Security Council. The OIC confirmed that it has already begun coordination within the Islamic Group in the General Assembly, in order to support efforts to refer the Goldstone report to the Security Council.
 
In the meantime, the OIC noted that it would continue its tireless efforts, which began since the convening of an emergency meeting of the Executive Committee of the Member States of the Organization at the ministerial level, in the wake of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, which called for the formation of an international fact finding mission and the subsequent invitation of the Human Rights Council In January 2009, at the request of the Islamic Group, to adopt a resolution to form a fact-finding mission, which came upon the direction of the OIC Secretary-General, Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu.
 
The OIC also confirmed the continuation of its commitment for the report to be given due international care and to adopt its content since it is an international document that does not represent a particular opinion or a personal viewpoint linked conditioned by a particular time. The OIC noted that the OIC Secretary General would spare no effort in supporting the report, as he always did, and since the efforts which  he made on 8 October 2009 in Geneva when he met with the Human Rights High Commissioner and representatives of the Islamic Group in order to review the report after the postponement of its adoption in the Human Rights Council, and its re-submission to the Council where it was adopted with a majority vote of 25 countries, and its referral to the UN General Assembly, which adopted its recommendations by majority vote.
 
The OIC stressed that the report had included real field facts, noting at the same time that the recent remarks by Judge Goldstone will not change the facts cited in the report, or the fact that Israel has committed crimes against the Palestinian people in the Gaza strip. It also added that the Goldstone report is not the first of its kind which condemned Israel for committing war crimes as it was preceded by a report by Desmond Tutu on the massacre of Beit Hanoun, in a long series of Israeli violations against international law and the Geneva Conventions.

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