Third Committee
Commission of Inquiry (COI) Intervention
Statement by: Micronesia delegation
New York, 27 October 2023
For an island country such as the Federated States of Micronesia there can be no higher priority than the human rights issues in this Third Committee. It is the most widely and constantly discussed subject, and rightly so, as most of our countries devote the bulk of our energies here to one issue – human rights.
This is not surprising, because the United Nations, in concept, is largely about securing the future, as crisis after crisis have shown that human rights must be front and center of our work to achieve the future we want. But for all the focus up to this point on what is surely a most central concern, our actions have been very uneven.
The report just presented, for instance, in the view of my delegation is very uneven. Accordingly, I take this occasion to reiterate the serious concerns of my delegation that are not new as these were reflected in a Joint Statement subscribed to by my own delegation at the June session the Human Rights Council (HRC50) in Geneva just last summer.
While no country is above scrutiny, the unprecedented nature of the Commission of Inquiry (COI) and the disproportionate focus on the State of Israel by the Human Rights Council demonstrates what could only be called an obsession. No other country in this Organization receives any similar attention. This bias is further demonstrated by terms like “the Jewish Lobby controlling the world media” that were used by a member of the COI in an interview on 27th June. Unfortunately, those comments were backed by the Head of the COI. These comments and the report itself only contributed to further inflame an already polarized situation on the ground. The United Nations must remain objective and impartial in its relentless work to find lasting peace in the region.
Thank you.