UN Human Rights Council President Nazhat Shameem Khan has announced the appointment of Navanethem Pillay, Miloon Kothari, and Chris Sidoti to the Commission of Inquiry (“the Commission”) on the Occupied Palestinian Territory (“Palestine”), including East Jerusalem, and Israel.

The Commission was established through a resolution adopted in May during an emergency special session to investigate “all alleged violations of international humanitarian law and all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law leading up to and since” April 2021. The Commission has also been tasked with investigating “all underlying root causes of recurrent tensions, instability and protraction of conflict, including systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial or religious identity.”

The resolution also mandates the Commission to establish the facts and circumstances leading up to the said violations, with an objective to identify the perpetrators responsible for the same and ensure that they are held accountable. The Commission is to analyze similarities in the findings and recommendations of all UN fact-finding missions and commissions of inquiry on the situation to help identify patterns of violations in the current inquiry.

The Human Rights Council is to receive annual reports on the Commission’s activities starting June 2022. Pillay will serve as Chairwoman of the three-member Commission.