A/HRC/16/24 I. Introduction 1. The Human Rights Council, in its resolution 13/9, decided, in the context of the follow-up to the report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (A/HRC/12/48, hereinafter the FFM report), “to establish a committee of independent experts in international humanitarian and human rights laws to monitor and assess any domestic, legal or other proceedings undertaken by both the Government of Israel and the Palestinian side, in the light of General Assembly resolution 64/254, including the independence, effectiveness, genuineness of these investigations and their conformity with international standards”. In accordance with this directive, the Committee of independent experts (hereinafter the Committee) submitted its first report to the Council (A/HRC/15/50) at its fifteenth session. 2. Thereafter, in its resolution 15/6, the Human Rights Council decided “to renew and resume the mandate of the Committee of independent experts, established pursuant to Council resolution 13/9”. The Council requested that the Committee submit its updated report to the Council at its sixteenth session. 3. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights appointed Judge Mary McGowan Davis, a former Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York and former federal prosecutor, as Chair of the Committee. The other member was Judge Lennart Aspegren, formerly a Judge at the Svea Court of Appeal, Director-General for Legal and International Affairs at different Swedish Ministries, Justice at the Supreme Social Insurance Court, and Judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. 4. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) established a secretariat to support the Committee. 5. The present report is submitted to the Human Rights Council pursuant to its resolution 15/6. II. Mandate and methodology A. Mandate 6. The Committee, in its initial report (A/HRC/15/50) submitted to the Human Rights Council at its fifteenth session, interpreted its mandate by reading Human Rights Council resolution 13/9 in conjunction with General Assembly resolution 64/254, in which the General Assembly reiterated its call upon the Government of Israel and the Palestinian side to conduct investigations “that are independent, credible and in conformity with international standards into the serious violations of international humanitarian and international human rights law reported by the [United Nations] Fact-Finding Mission [on the Gaza conflict], towards assuring accountability and justice”. As set forth in that report, the Committee understood “domestic, legal or other proceedings” to refer to investigations, disciplinary proceedings and prosecutions undertaken by either military or civil justice systems in Israel and on the Palestinian side. Although the Committee’s primary focus was on proceedings related to the serious violations alleged in the FFM report, it determined that its mandate was not restricted to these events and that it could review proceedings pertaining to “any incident connected to the military operations in Gaza” (A/HRC/15/50, para. 6). 3