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UN:
ISRAEL’S FOREIGN MINISTER URGES UN TO ACT ON ITS FOUNDING PRINCIPLES:
01/10/2007 (MaximsNews Network)
UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network /
- 01 October 2007 --
The Foreign Minister of today called
on the United Nations to act on its founding principles by ensuring that the
work of its Human Rights Council is balanced and by standing up to those who
openly espouse violence.
“What is the
value, we have to ask, of an Organization which is unable to take effective
action in the face of a direct assault on the very principles it was founded to
protect?” asked Tzipi Livni in her address to the General Assembly’s annual
high-level debate.
“It is time for
the United Nations, and the States of the world, to live up to their promise of
never again,” she declared.
She added that
“it is also time to see this same kind of moral conviction in the Human Rights
Council so that it can become a shield for the victims of human rights, not a
weapon for its abusers.”
Israel, she said,
“has never tried to avoid genuine discussion of its human rights record. But
so long as the Council maintains its wildly disproportionate focus on Israel, it
weakens the UN’s moral voice, and the price of this blindness is paid by the
victims of human rights atrocities in Darfur and Myanmar and throughout the
world.”
The Foreign
Minister also issued a call for the development “at the global level what
democracies apply at the national one” –
namely a universal set of standards for participation in democratic elections.
“We need a
universal democratic code that requires that all those seeking the legitimacy of
the democratic process earn it by respecting such principles as State monopoly
over the lawful use of force, the rejection of racism and violence and the
protection of rights of others.”
She cautioned
against “buying off extremists” in search of a short-term fix to
instability. “Instead, groups such as Hamas and Hizbollah must be presented
with a clear choice: between the path of violence and the path of legitimacy.”
The Israeli
Foreign Minister said responsible States agree that “Iran is the most
prominent sponsor of terrorism” and that it is actively pursuing means to “wipe
a Member State – mine –
off the map.”
She charged that
despite this, “there are still those who, in the name of consensus and
engagement, continue to obstruct the urgent steps which are needed to bring Iran’s
sinister ambition to a halt.”
Despite all the
obstacles to the Middle East peace process, she said “there is a new moment of
opportunity, an alliance that favours peace.”
Guided by shared
principles regarding the need to establish two States, living side by side in
peace and security, “the parties can define a common border and turn the
two-State vision into a reality,” she said.
Labels: United
Nations, U.N.,
~~~~~
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Masood Haider, Kerry
Kennedy, Ian Williams, Stephen Schlesinger, Sen.
Timothy E. Wirth, Marc Morial, Amb. Jayantha
Dhanapala (Sri Lanka), Amb. Pierre Schori
(Sweden), Amb. William H. Luers, Susan Roosevelt
Weld, Rory Kennedy, Mehri
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Bommer, Rory
O'Connor, Genevieve Stamper, Max Stamper and
others.
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