The UN's former top human rights official will be part of a new permanent panel investigating abuses in Israel, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank, the UN Human Rights Council said Thursday.
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The chairperson of the 47-member Human Rights Council appointed Navi Pillay, a former South African judge, to lead a commission of inquiry established at the request of member-states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation following the 11-day conflict between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas in May.
Pillay, who served as UN high commissioner for human rights from 2008 to 2014, is currently a judge at the International Court of Justice tribunal examining allegations of genocide in Myanmar.
The commission's other members are Miloon Kothari, an architect and expert on housing rights from India, and Chris Sidoti of Australia, who has served on panels investigating abuses in Myanmar.
A commission of inquiry is the highest level of scrutiny that the council can authorize. Another COI, for example, has been regularly reporting on Syria's war nearly since its inception a decade ago – partially in hopes of collecting evidence that could be used in court one day.
Israel has criticized the panel's creation and accused the Geneva-based Human Rights Council of bias against the Jewish state.
The United States, under President Donald Trump, quit the council in mid-2018 – partially over his administration's allegations that the council has an anti-Israel bias. President Joe Biden has returned the US to participation, and the US plans to seek a seat next year.
The panel's mandate is to investigate "all alleged violations of international humanitarian law and all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law leading up to and since 13 April 2021."
It has been asked to submit a report to the council in June 2022, and every year after that.
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