New UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur for Palestine

by Stephen Lendman

Canadian Law Professor Stanley Michael Lynk replaces Indonesian diplomat Makarim Wibisono - leaving his post effective March 31 because of Israeli obstructionism.

The UN post is a thankless job. Wibisono said his best "efforts to help improve the lives of Palestinian victims (were) frustrated every step of the way." 

Human rights defenders aren't safe in Israel. They risk arrest, physical assault and death threats.

Falk explained Israel and Zionist zealots vilified him. He was expelled him from the country in his first term, denied free access to Occupied Palestine, obstructed from doing his job to keep Israeli human rights abuses suppressed.

Lynk is critical of Israeli policies. Expect no cooperation from its regime when he assumes his post. The ultra-Zionist UN Watch called his appointment "a travesty of justice and a breach of the world body's own rules."

Lynk "promotes an extreme anti-Western agenda.," it said. UN Watch wants no human rights oversight of Israeli abuses, wanting nothing interfering with its ruthless agenda.

Whether Lynk on the job is as vocal a critic of Israeli policies as Falk and Wibisono remains to be seen. 

Despite his best efforts, he'll be unable to achieve anything positive for long-suffering Palestinians. Their long ordeal continues, victims of Israeli viciousness.

A Final Comment

Lynk explains his background and qualifications to serve as UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine as follows:

"I have extensive experience in the areas of industrial relations and labour law, human rights law (both domestic and international) and in the Middle East, particularly in the Occupied Palestinian Territories." 

"I hold a LL.B. and practiced labour law, human rights law and refugee law for approximately 10 years in Toronto and Ottawa, before earning an LL.M., with a specialty in disability rights in employment." 

"I have been a legal academic since 1999, teaching constitutional law, administrative law, labour law and human rights at Western University, and written widely on domestic and international human rights issues."

"In addition, I have served as a neutral labour arbitrator (industrial judge) in Canada for the past 15 years, writing approximately 80 legally-binding awards." 

"This work requires detailed legal knowledge, tact, impartiality, acceptance by employers and unions, calm in tense situations and the ability to mediate uncompromising positions into accepted settlements."

"I have extensive professional and personal familiarity with the Israel-Palestine conflict. I served as a refugee affairs officer, based in Jerusalem, working in the Palestinian refugee camps on the West Bank with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in 1989." 

"I have published a number of legal articles on the conflict, and I have visited the area on six occasions."

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. 

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. 

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