UN rights body calls for immediate release of Lebanese detainees in Israel

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights today called on Israel to release immediately Lebanese detainees it was holding, at the same time rejecting a draft resolution calling on the Russian Federation to urgently take all necessary steps to stop human rights violations.

The resolution on Lebanese detainees, adopted by a roll-call vote of 32 in favour, one against and 20 abstentions, called upon Israel to refrain from holding detained Lebanese citizens incarcerated in its prisons as hostages for bargaining purposes and to release them immediately.

The draft resolution on Chechnya was rejected by a roll-call vote of 21 against and 15 in favour, with 17 abstentions. It would have, among other things, called upon the Russian Government to urgently take all necessary steps to stop and prevent violations of human rights and to ensure that all alleged violations were investigated systematically, fully, promptly, and that they were sanctioned.

The Geneva-based Commission adopted, without a vote, a resolution on cooperation with representatives of the UN human rights bodies, in which it condemned all acts of intimidation or reprisal against those who sought to cooperate or had cooperated with representatives of human rights bodies.