Visiting Montreal on Sunday following the publication of her latest report on the war between Israel and Hamas, the United Nations (UN) special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 urged countries UN members, including Canada, to “officially recognize what Israel is doing as an apartheid state that constantly violates international law.”
At the press conference, special rapporteur Francesca Albanese also implored that states, “at a minimum,” impose an embargo on the sale and purchase of weapons and security services to and from Israel and that They agree to a ceasefire. She added that member countries should “completely withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territory in accordance with the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice of July 19, 2024” and “support the deployment of an international presence to protect the entire occupied Palestinian territory.
Through her work as United Nations special rapporteur, Ms.e Albanese is mandated by the organization, but does not speak on its behalf.
Francesca Albanese thus took the opportunity to recall the “obligations” of UN member states “with regard to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”, which obliges these countries to act in the event of genocide. .
A “colonial genocide”
With the publication of its new dated report, entitled “Colonial erasure through genocide”, on 1is Last October, Francesca Albanese persisted and signed: Israel’s actions in Gaza against the Palestinian people were the “first colonial genocide broadcast live”.
This is the second report since Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. “Events over the past six months — since the last report — have only confirmed these conclusions that Israel is conducting a genocidal campaign against the Palestinians. A campaign that seriously risks spreading to the West Bank,” she lamented on Sunday afternoon.
In this sense, Me Albanese affirmed that, due to “a history which obliges it to recognize the misdeeds of colonization”, Canada had, in addition to a “legal” duty, a moral duty to recognize a “colonial genocide” against the people Palestinian. “If Canada is truly honest with its indigenous peoples today, it must help the Palestinian people not to disappear,” she said.
The spokesperson for the Quebec URGENCE Palestine Coalition and co-organizer of the event, Raymond Legault, also took the opportunity to denounce the “complicity” of the Canadian government towards the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “After almost 13 months of a genocide announced and still underway, Canada is inactive and objectively consents to the genocide. This contrast with Canada’s reaction to the invasion of Ukraine is striking,” he said.
Raymond Legault also called out the provincial government which, according to him, “is also completely failing in its international obligations by opening an office in Tel Aviv in such a terrible context.”
For this visit to the country, it is not currently planned for Francesca Albanese to meet members of the different levels of government, contrary to the latter’s wishes.
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