Source: http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/conferences/hrc2006/four/hrc070315pm2-eng.rm?start=00:55:15&end=00:59:14

Human Rights Council, Fourth Session
March 15, 2007

Report on the effective implementation of the Durban Declaration
Palestinian Observer

Thank you, your Excellency.  Excellency, with regard to the report concerning Palestinian pregnant women giving birth at Israeli checkpoints, the very title of the report should bring this council to question why even the Representative of the apartheid regime of Israel is even among us.  The statistics in the report are not mainly the statistics of Palestine.  I would like to refer to the statistics of the UNFPA and there is a footnote in that report which says there is one unit of difference concerning the statistics which was submitted by Palestine.  We are stating that 69 pregnant women gave birth at checkpoints while the UNFPA says 68.  Well, a crime is a crime.  The times of peace and those of violence continue to resemble each other.  Unless the peace reached is ___ of all forms of structural and physical violence.  Therefore, a true and just peace cannot be achieved in the context of occupation.  The same logic has been stressed in the wake of the discussions of UN reforms and in the work of this august body.  We share the view that this Council should play a crucial role in bringing this text of resolution on the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories from the shelves and take concrete measures to implement them with a view to promoting and protecting the human rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to self-determination.  Only then, and according to those principles, endorsed by the international community can a comprehensive peace and long-lasting security be achieved in our region.  

The international community fully recognizes the moral imperative of ending the Israeli occupation, and it need not be given more evidence of the reasons why the Israeli occupation constitutes a violation of human rights in itself.  Therefore, nothing could justify why the Palestinian people continue to live in humiliation while the Declaration of Human Rights was espoused by all nations to safeguard human dignity.  All we are asking is for our freedom and for retaining our human dignity with your support and help.

I thank you, your Excellency.