Human Rights Experts On Israel-Palestine To Step Down From UN-Backed Team

The three independent experts cited personal reasons and a need for change, in the first such group resignation since the Human Rights Council was founded.

GENEVA (AP) — A team of three independent experts working for the U.N.’s top human rights body with a focus on Israel and Palestinian areas say they are resigning, citing personal reasons and a need for change, in the panel’s first such group resignation.

The resignations, announced Monday by the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council that set up the team, come as violence continues in Palestinian areas with few signs of letup in the Israeli military campaign against Hamas and other militants behind the Oct. 7 attacks.

The Israeli government has repeatedly criticized the panel of experts, known as the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, and denied their repeated requests to travel to the region or otherwise cooperate with the team.

Council spokesman Pascal Sim said the move marked the first joint resignations of Commission of Inquiry members since the council was founded in 2006. The team said in a statement that the resignations had “absolutely nothing to do with any external event or pressure,” while also saying they provided a good opportunity to reconstitute the panel.

Navi Pillay, 83, a former U.N. human rights chief who has led the commission for the last four years, said in a letter to the council president that she was resigning effective Nov. 3 because of “age, medical issues and the weight of several other commitments.”