Gave United Nations The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has appointed an “independent review group” to review its internal policies, amid allegations that some of the agency’s staff on Oct. I participated in a terrorist attack by Hamas.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said on Monday that the group would examine whether the agency is neutral in foreign conflicts and is responding appropriately to allegations that that neutrality has been compromised. has been violated.
This inquiry has come out at a time when many countries around the world, including the United Nations, are Suspended payments to UNRWA over Israeli allegations that 12 of its crew members aided Hamas fighters during attacks on Israeli border communities or took Israeli hostages after the attacks.
Former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna will lead the inquiry, officials said. She will work with the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Sweden, Chr. The Michelson Institute in Norway, and the Danish Institute for Human Rights.
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Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the Independent Review Group on Monday, February 5, 2024. (Mohamed Al Shami/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
The review group will begin work on February 14 and is expected to present its preliminary findings in a report to the Secretary-General at the end of March.
The UN said it would submit a final report, which would be made public by the end of April 2024.
According to the United Nations, the Review Group is tasked with fulfilling four objectives. They include “identifying the procedures and processes the agency currently has in place to ensure impartiality and to respond to allegations or information indicating a violation of the rule.”
The group “will also ascertain how these procedures and procedures have been, or have not, been implemented in practice and whether every effort has been made to implement them to the best of their ability, particularly Operationally, politically and Security environment in which the agency operates.”
UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini has said that the agency is running out of aid to help Palestinians in Gaza. (Mustafa Elkhrouf/Anadolu via Getty Images)
It will also “assess the adequacy of these mechanisms and procedures and whether they are fit for purpose … taking into account the particular operational, political and security context in which the agency operates,” and ” It shall make recommendations for the improvement and strengthening, if necessary, of the mechanisms and procedures currently in place or for the creation of new and alternative mechanisms and procedures that will be better suited for the purpose.”
UNRWA, which contributes to the largest humanitarian relief effort. Middle East, has said it is providing life-saving aid to some 2.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the US “supports the work of UNRWA” and called it “critical” to the survival of civilians affected by Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.
Israel launched a full-scale war against Hamas in Gaza on October 7, 2023, following a surprise attack by the terrorist group. (Israel Defense Forces via AP)
UNRWA has warned that it only has enough funding to continue its operations until “the end of February”.
“If funding remains suspended, we will likely be forced to close our operations not only in Gaza but in the entire region by the end of February,” Lazzarini said in a post on X.
The UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) is also conducting an independent external review of UNRWA’s alleged involvement in the October 7 attack.