UN Special Rapporteur Criticizes Israel
“I strongly condemn Israel’s deliberate targeting of two journalists in Gaza. This incident adds to the already horrific number of martyrs of reporters and media workers in the war in Gaza,” Khan said in a statement. Khan noted that the occupying Israeli army appeared to be “making accusations without any material evidence for killing journalists”, stressing that this was completely against international humanitarian law.
Khan made a strong call for Israel to be held accountable for the killings of journalists in Gaza. “Israel has ignored previous calls for accountability,” Khan said, stressing that this situation is unacceptable. He added: “I call on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to move swiftly to investigate the killings of journalists in Gaza as a war crime, and on the international community to urgently consider the use of international mechanisms to investigate crimes against journalists in Gaza .”
UN Special Rapporteurs and Human Rights Mechanisms
UN special rapporteurs are an important part of a process known as the “special mechanisms of the Human Rights Council”. These special mechanisms provide independent fact-finding and monitoring functions in the UN Human Rights system that address the situation of a particular country or thematic issues in any part of the world.
These are run by experts who are outside the institutional structure and work on a voluntary basis. These independent mechanisms play a critical role in monitoring and reporting human rights violations around the world.
