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External sources (not reviewed)

The victims’ fear of reprisals, the lack of trust in institutions, the absence of appropriate legal and psychosocial support, the lack of adequate and differentiated protection, and the social stigmatization of victims hamper the full understanding of the extent of the problem.

Yemen recalled the recent Israeli attack against the Gaza strip and indicated that Israel has ignored recommendations since 1948 and so it is not surprising that it will ignore the largest number of UPR recommendations, specially those related to putting an end to the occupation in all occupied Palestinian and Arab territories and to recognizing the right of Palestinian people to self-determination, to an independent sovereign state with Jerusalem as a capital, and to the right of return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland and their right to compensation and restitution of their properties.

[...] [...] pretexts relating to security and irregular immigration, thereby legitimizing [...] [...]

It also asked Norway to pay close attention to protecting the rights of migrant workers, and called upon Norway to respect the rights of refugees, freedom of expression and religion and the non-stigmatization of some sectors of society in fighting terrorism.

It is little wonder in view of such incidents that both Médecins Sans Frontières and UNICEF have recently said that the number of children suffering from stress disorder has greatly increased.41 Colonel Desmond Travers, a member of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (whose report is generally known as the “Goldstone Report”) said in a recent interview: “If the British had behaved toward children who threw stones at them in the manner that is the norm on the West Bank for Israeli security forces — whereby children are rounded up in the evening and taken to places of detention, hooded, beaten, and in some cases tortured — the Northern Ireland problem would not be resolved today.

Whereas it has been internationally recognized, including by the principal organs of the United Nations, that Armenia unleashed the war, attacked Azerbaijan and occupied its territories, including the Daghlyq Garabagh (Nagorno Karabakh) region, carried out ethnic cleansing on a massive scale, perpetrated other heinous crimes in the course of the war and established the ethnically constructed subordinate separatist entity on the captured Azerbaijani territory, it is curious that Armenian propaganda continues to qualify the aggression against Azerbaijan as “a peaceful and constitutional demand of the Nagorno Karabakh people to exercise its right to self-determination”.

At its sixty-sixth session, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to submit to the Assembly, at its sixty-seventh session, a report on the implementation of the resolution, including information on steps taken by States to combat intolerance, negative stereotyping, stigmatization, discrimination, incitement to violence and violence against persons, based on religion or belief (resolution 66/167).

Since Mr Vincent CHENG wants a better connection and since I respect him as a brilliant and eccentric banker (Laughter), a man of undoubted talent and a potential minister himself, I can support the proposal to have a monthly closed-door meeting between all of the Executive Council and all of the Legislative Council, no holds barred and no subsequent complaints or misunderstandings or misrepresentations or leaking, which is a natural phenomenon.