(MENAFN- Saudi Press Agency)
Geneva, Jan. 14, 2021, SPA -- UN human rights experts today called on Israel, the occupying power of the West Bank and Gaza Palestinian territories, to ensure swift and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for the Palestinian people under occupation.
"However, Israel has not ensured that Palestinians under occupation in the territories will have any near-future access to the available vaccines. We are particularly concerned about the deteriorating health situation in Gaza, which suffers from serious water and electricity shortages, and endemic poverty and unemployment," the experts said.
"This means that more than 4.5 million Palestinians will remain unprotected and exposed to Covid-19."
According to the World Health Organization, more than 160,000 Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory have tested positive for the coronavirus since March 2020, with more than 1,700 deaths related to COVID-19.
The experts said that as the occupying power, Israel is required under the Fourth Geneva Convention, "to the fullest extent of the means available to it", to maintain health services in the occupied territory. Article 56 requires Israel to adopt and apply "the prophylactic and preventive measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics" in cooperation with national and local authorities.
If the protected population is inadequately supplied, the occupying power is required under the Convention to facilitate relief schemes "by all means at its disposal". Even if relief consignments, including 'medical supplies', are provided by others, Article 60 states that such consignments "shall in no way relieve the occupying power of any of its responsibilities" for health care to the protected population.
"The right to health is also a fundamental human rights issue," the experts said. "International human rights law, which applies in full to the occupied Palestinian territory, stipulates that everyone enjoys the right to 'the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health'. The denial of an equal access to health care, such as on the basis of ethnicity or race, is discriminatory and unlawful."
--SPA
21:55 LOCAL TIME 18:55 GMT
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