NGO: Academic should quit Cast Lead inquiry

[shira]

A European non-government organization has called on the UN to remove a British academic from its recent inquiry into alleged human rights, over statements made rejecting Israel's right to self-defense against rocket attacks. Geneva-based UN Watch submitted a 28-page legal brief to the UN last week calling on the UN fact-finding mission to disqualify London School of Economics law professor Christine Chinkin over prior statements she made that bring her impartiality in question.

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UN Watch was referring to a letter published in the Sunday Times newspaper in January, during Operation Cast Lead, in which Chinkin - an expert in human rights, international and UN law - declares Israel as the aggressor and perpetrator of "war crimes." The letter began by rejecting Israel's right to claim self-defense against Hamas rocket attacks, "deplorable as they are."

While the statement includes a passing reference to crimes committed by Hamas, says UN Watch, the entire statement is devoted to the thesis that Israel was guilty - the very accusations the inquiry is meant to impartially examine, the NGO said.

"International law and the rules of due process require fact-finders in the human rights field to be impartial," said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer. "That means being free of any commitment to a preconceived outcome.

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[Kurska]

1. Why ask the question when you already "Know" the answer?

Atleast they aren't wasting our time by pretending to not have a preestablished opinion on the matter they are supposed to 'investigate"

[bemildred]

2. It this were a court of law, a jury trial, that would be a sound argument.

Whether it will hold up in this case, which is neither, remains to be seen. One is not necessarily excluded from "fact finding commissions" because one has already formed opinions. It does leave the commission open to charges of bias, but that seems likely no matter what.