Canada Stands Alone on UN Human Rights Council Vote on Gaza

The United Nations Human Rights Council has voted 33-1 to condemn Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip and set up a probe into "grave" human rights violations by Israeli forces against the Palestinians.

All African, Asian, Middle Eastern and Latin American nations on the council voted for the resolution. 13-countries, mainly European, abstained. Canada alone voted against the resolution.

From AFP:

The text released by the UN Council "strongly" condemned the Israeli military operation in Gaza, saying it had "resulted in massive violations" of the human rights of Palestinians.

With the toll surpassing 900, including nearly 400 women and children, according to Gaza medics, it called for "urgent international action" to halt "grave human rights violations by Israel".

The draft resolution also called for an end to rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.

But the key contents were four overlapping probes targeting Israel.
The resolution tasked 10 UN experts on human rights and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay with two separate probes into the violence.

It also set up an independent, international fact-finding mission to "investigate all violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by Israel", while UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was asked to investigate the bombing of UNRWA schools in the Gaza Strip.

During the first day of the session on Friday, Pillay had warned that human rights violations in Gaza were extremely serious and some attacks that hit civilians and relief workers might warrant prosecutions for war crimes.