The MCB has written to Rt. Hon. David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, conveying its deep sadness and disappointment over the government’s decision to abstain from voting on the Goldstone Report (Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict) in the General Assembly recently.
The letter by the Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), Dr. Muhammad Abdul Bari, noted that the abstention reinforced “the perception of moral ambivalence, often described as double standards, toward the rights of the Palestinian people.”
The letter ends with an urge to the Foreign Secretary “to conduct an honest appraisal of the UK’s approach to the Goldstone report before it comes up for discussion in the Security Council. When it does, the vast majority of the members of the UN would be expecting our unequivocal support for its findings and recommendations. As we have done so vigorously in other instances, we should not in this instance renege on our treaty obligation “to search for persons alleged to have committed or to have ordered to be committed, such grave breaches, and shall bring such persons, regardless of their nationality, before its own courts.” (Article 146)