General Assembly: 72nd Plenary
General Assembly Requests Secretary-General to 
Submit Further Report on Investigations into
Violations During Gaza Conflict –  Part 1
February 26, 2010

NETHERLANDS:  Thank you, Mr. President.  I m speaking on behalf of the Czech Republic, Hungary and the Netherlands.  Our countries have abstained on the resolution and wish to explain their vote as follows:  In our view, this resolution contains elements which are positive, but also elements that cause concerns.  On one hand, we recognize and welcome that efforts have been made to make the resolution less imbalanced than previous resolutions pertaining to the followup of the Goldstone Report.  We also welcome the elements which underline the need of independent investigations by the parties.
On the other hand, we note that the resolution is silent on the difference in the followup until now by the parties concerned.  Israeli authorities are undertaking an ongoing investigation and have shared its interim findings with the Secretary-General, while the Palestinian Authority has until now only set up a committee.  We feel the resolution could and should have more adequately reflected these realities.
We also are concerned that we are, again, confronted with an operative paragraph calling for a conference of high contracting parties to the first Geneva Convention.  Pursuing this track, in our view, doesn t do justice to the letter of Switzerland to the Secretary-General, which states that of the three categories of reactions, only one category was in favor, while the other categories were either firmly opposed or not enthusiastic, and therefore there wasn t a dominant trend.
But more importantly, we feel such a conference will most probably be politicized, and therefore be detrimental to the efforts to relaunch the Middle East peace process.  And in this context, let me reiterate that it is our conviction that this matter should be pursued first of all in Geneva and not in New York.  Thank you, Mr. President.