A/HRC/2/7
page 25
Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects and to the Convention on the Prohibition of the
Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their
Destruction - to take urgent action to add cluster munitions to the list of weapons banned
under international law.
107. The mission makes the following recommendations to the international Commission
of Inquiry:
(a)
Within the framework of resolution S-2/1, the Commission should examine a
cross-section of Israeli attacks to evaluate whether they were directed against legitimate
military objectives and respected the principle of proportionality. It should also investigate
reported attacks against fleeing civilians, ambulances and health facilities, large-scale
displacement and the destruction of housing and property, and determine whether any
such acts amounted to war crimes;
(b)
While cluster munitions do not per se violate international law, the manner
in which they were used by Israel appears to have been inconsistent with the principles of
distinction and proportionality. If proven, the widely reported claim that the great
majority of these bombs were dropped in the final 72 hours of the campaign, when a
ceasefire was imminent, would indicate an intention to inhibit and prevent the return of
civilians and a reckless disregard for the predictable civilian casualties that have occurred.
These issues warrant in-depth analysis by the Commission.
108.
The mission makes the following recommendations to the international community:
(a)
The international community should ensure that necessary support continues
to be provided to the Lebanese authorities in the reconstruction process;
(b)
The international community, including all relevant United Nations agencies,
is encouraged to increase its support to the health and housing sectors in Lebanon;
(c)
The international community should significantly increase funding for
UNMACC in order for it to more expeditiously complete the destruction of unexploded
ordnance and allow the population to return to normal life;
(d)
The international community – especially donors, United Nations agencies
and relevant international non-governmental organizations – must attach a high priority to
addressing, in close cooperation with the Governments of Lebanon and Israel and with
their respective domestic civil societies, the mental and psychosocial health impacts of the
conflict.
Notes
1
This is not a complete list of those whom the mission met. For example, it met the
International Committee of the Red Cross, the Lebanese Red Cross, Magen David Adom, the
National Committee for Local Authorities in Israel, the World Health Organization (WHO), the
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