A/HRC/34/38 I. Introduction 1. The present report is submitted pursuant to resolution 31/34 of the Human Rights Council, in which the Council requested the Secretary-General to report on the implementation of that resolution, with a particular focus on the recurrence and persistence of human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the underlying policies leading to such patterns, including those involving forcible displacement. It covers the period from 1 November 2015 to 31 October 2016. Fifty years after the start of the occupation, the patterns and persistence of human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory can be seen clearly. The present report provides a non-exhaustive overview of the most pressing human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, highlighting the connection with the Israeli occupation. The recommendations encourage all duty bearers to comply with their obligations under international law. 2. Recent reports of the Secretary-General and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights provide a more in-depth analysis of the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. 1 II. Legal background 3. International human rights law and international humanitarian law are applicable in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, namely Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. 4. Israel is a party to most of the core international human rights treaties 2 and ratified the four Geneva Conventions.3 On 1 April 2014, the State of Palestine acceded to the same core human rights treaties as Israel, as well as to the four Geneva Conventions, their Additional Protocols and the Convention respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land.4 A. International human rights law 5. As a party to most of the core international human rights conventions, the State of Palestine is responsible for implementing its human rights obligations within its jurisdiction. The authorities in Gaza also bear human rights obligations, given their exercise of government-like functions and territorial control.5 6. The human rights obligations of Israel within the Occupied Palestinian Territory stem from the jurisdiction and effective control exercised by Israel as the occupying power. 7. The scope of application of international human rights law does not only depend on a State’s territorial limits, but also on the exercise of its jurisdiction or effective control, even outside of the State’s sovereign territory.6 Israel has rejected the applicability of its human rights obligations outside its national territory. 7 However, the applicability of its human rights obligations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (i.e. the West Bank, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 2 See, e.g., A/71/364, A/71/355, A/HRC/34/36 and A/HRC/34/39. Israel has ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights , the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Israel is not a party to the Convention respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land nor to the 1977 Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions. See A/HRC/12/37, para. 7, and A/HRC/8/17, para. 8. See A/HRC/8/17, para. 9. See Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Advisory Opinion, I.C.J. Reports 2004, p. 134, para. 109. See, e.g., E/C.12/1/Add.27, para. 8. See also Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall, para. 112.