A/HRC/RES/37/33
occupied Arab territories, and expressing regret at the constant refusal of Israel to cooperate
with and to receive the Special Committee,
Guided by the relevant provisions of the Charter, international law and the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, and reaffirming the applicability of the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949 and the
relevant provisions of the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 to the occupied Syrian
Golan,
Reaffirming the importance of the peace process, which started in Madrid on the
basis of Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967 and 338 (1973) of
October 1973, and the principle of land for peace, and expressing its concern at the halting
of the peace process in the Middle East and its hope that peace talks will be resumed on the
basis of the full implementation of resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973) for the
establishment of a just and comprehensive peace in the region,
Reaffirming also the previous relevant resolutions of the Commission on Human
Rights and the Human Rights Council, the most recent being Council resolutions 31/25 of
24 March 2016 and 34/ 27 of 24 March 2017,
1.
Calls upon Israel, the occupying Power, to comply with the relevant
resolutions of the General Assembly, the Security Council and the Human Rights Council,
in particular Security Council resolution 497 (1981), in which the Council decided, inter
alia, that the decision of Israel to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the
occupied Syrian Golan was null and void and without international legal effect, and
demanded that Israel rescind forthwith its decision;
2.
Also calls upon Israel to desist from its continuous building of settlements,
the most recent of which is the settlement campaign being conducted by the so-called
Golan Regional Council under the slogan “Come to the Golan” and referred to as the
“farms project”, and the latest announcement by Israel in November 2016 on the
construction of 1,600 new settlement units in the occupied Syrian Golan, 3 and to desist also
from changing the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure and
legal status of the occupied Syrian Golan, and emphasizes that the displaced persons of the
population of the occupied Syrian Golan must be allowed to return to their homes and to
recover their property;
3.
Further calls upon Israel to desist from imposing Israeli citizenship and
Israeli identity cards on the Syrian citizens in the occupied Syrian Golan, and to desist from
its repressive measures against them and from all other practices that obstruct the
enjoyment of their fundamental rights and their civil, political, economic, social and
cultural rights, some of which are mentioned in the report of the Special Committee to
Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and
Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories;2
4.
Calls upon Israel to allow the Syrian population of the occupied Syrian Golan
to visit their families and relatives in the Syrian motherland through the Quneitra
checkpoint and under the supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and
to rescind its decision to prohibit these visits, as it is in flagrant violation of the Fourth
Geneva Convention and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
5.
Also calls upon Israel to release immediately the Syrian detainees in Israeli
prisons, some of whom have been detained for more than 30 years, and to treat them in
conformity with international humanitarian law;
6.
Further calls upon Israel, in this connection, to allow delegates of the
International Committee of the Red Cross to visit Syrian prisoners of conscience and
detainees in Israeli prisons accompanied by specialized physicians to assess the state of
their physical and mental health and to protect their lives;
3
2
Ibid., para. 73.