Israeli reforms will undermine judiciary, rule of law: UN rights chief

Geneva: The United Nations’ human rights chief on Tuesday said Israel’s move to overhaul its judicial system could affect its ability to uphold human rights and rule of law.

Volker Turk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said breaking from the tradition could ‘drastically undermine’ judiciary’s ability to vindicate individual rights, Reuters reported.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is pushing ahead with the changes to what it said controlling activist judges interfering politics.

However the government’s decision has sparked mass protests in the nation.

The proposals could give the government power in choosing judges as well as controlling the Supreme Court’s ability to block legislation.

“Breaking from decades of settled practice, such a law would drastically undermine the ability of the judiciary to vindicate individual rights and to uphold the rule of law as an effective institutional check on executive and legislative power,” said Volker Turk reportedly said.

Volker Turk also said that the proposed change will lead to creating ‘greater political influence over the judicial selection system’.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen reacted to Turk’s comment saying the country will not accept moral preaching from those ignoring human right violations in Syria, Iran, the Palestinian Authority and Gaza.

Meanwhile, Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, accused Turk of showing prejudice in previous statements too.