GENEVA, December 13, 2008 (WAFA)- The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) marked the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in a special session today, with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calling on it to rise above “partisan posturing and regional divides” and review the record of every State.

“We have come a long way since the Declaration’s adoption. But the reality is that we have not lived up to its vision – at least not yet,” Mr. Ban told the Council in Geneva. “Abject poverty, shameful discrimination and horrific violence continue to plague millions of people. As we mark this milestone, we must also acknowledge the savage inhumanity that too many people in our world must endure. There is no time to rest.

Ban said that it is necessary and desirable that the United States takes part as a member of the Human Rights Council. “I would expect and hope that the next Administration will seriously and positively consider my call on this matter.”

In another message to the session, the Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said fatality figures for the Occupied Palestinian Territory had surely to make the world question its commitment to upholding the right to life, the most fundamental of all rights. More than 500 Palestinians had been killed as a result of the conflict and 11 Israelis had lost their lives this year, she noted.

The right to freedom of movement enshrined in the Universal Declaration also remained a distant hope for many Palestinians. With an estimated 11,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, the declaration that everyone had the right to liberty and security of person and that no one should be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment had a sad resonance today, she added.

In Gaza, more than half of the population now lived below the deep poverty line. This was a humanitarian crisis, but one that was deliberately imposed by political actors. Overarching all these rights was the right of self-determination, a right of which Palestinians had been deprived through 60 years of exile and dispossessions, she declared. The chasm between word and deed was a matter of puzzlement to many Palestinians.

“But this can be reversed and protection is the place to start,” she said. “Let us make the protection of Palestinian rights the byword of all our interventions. Let us make the vision of the signatories of the Universal Declaration a reality; continued failure to do so is to our universal shame.”