A/HRC/6/17 page 12 Palestinian Territory on the construction of the barrier, partly a wall and partly a fenced zone with multiple physical obstacles. The barrier is being built by Israel along and partly inside the Occupied Palestinian Territory, referring to security concerns including combating terrorism. He assessed both the effectiveness of the barrier as a security measure and its impact on all human rights, including the economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people. 36. Notwithstanding a demonstrated statistical correlation between the construction of the barrier and the reduction in the number of successful terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, the barrier is having an enormously negative impact on the enjoyment of human rights by the Palestinian people. A considerable part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including towns and villages, is being separated from the rest of the Territory by the barrier. The winding route of the barrier is creating multiple obstacles for movement between even close-by communities inside the Occupied Palestinian Territory and is establishing a “seam zone” of land between the Green Line and the route of the barrier, representing approximately 10 per cent of the West Bank. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory has reported a dramatic and continuing deterioration in the socio-economic conditions of many parts of the West Bank since the construction of the barrier (A/HCR/6/17/Add.4, para. 31). 37. As a result of closures and the system of permits regulating the movement of people from one area to another, the Palestinian people are adversely affected in their ability to gain access to education; health services, including emergency medical treatment; other social services; and places of employment. Access by ordinary Palestinians to their land and water resources, including through the devastation or separation from villages of agricultural land in the course of erecting the barrier, is also being impeded, in some cases to the point of having a devastating socio-economic impact on communities. 38. Delays at checkpoints have complicated childbirth for Palestinian women. This has resulted in the delivery of children at checkpoints and unattended roadside births, putting at risk the health of both child and mother, and leading to numerous miscarriages and the death of at least five mothers. These hardships are reported to have contributed to an 8.2 per cent increase in home deliveries.22 39. As a result of the barrier, Palestinian children encounter significant obstacles in attending or remaining at educational institutions. It also affects the movement of teaching staff, whether this be as a result of the barrier having been erected between “closed” communities and educational facilities, or the difficulties in obtaining special permits from the Israel Defense Forces to enter areas in which educational facilities are present. Various restrictions of 22 Henrietta Aswad, “Checkpoints compound the risks of childbirth for Palestinian women”, 15 May 2007. Available from www.unfpa.org; see also report of the Secretary-General on the situation of and assistance to Palestinian women (E/CN.6/2002/3), paras. 18-20.