On the sidelines of the 62nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), in cooperation with its affiliates the Palestinian Journalists\u2019 Syndicate and the Union of Journalists of Lebanon, organised a side event on 16 June 2026 dedicated to the situation of Palestinian and Lebanese journalists killed by Israel while carrying out their professional duties.<\/p>\n
Entitled \u201cThe Killing of Palestinian and Lebanese Journalists by Israel Must Stop\u201d, the meeting brought together representatives of permanent missions to the United Nations, international experts, trade union representatives and human rights defenders to denounce the persistent impunity surrounding attacks against media professionals.<\/p>\n
The Human Rights Council (HRC), the United Nations intergovernmental body responsible for the promotion and protection of human rights worldwide, is mandated to examine human rights violations throughout the year and make recommendations. As it approaches the 20th anniversary of its establishment, the current session is taking place in a context in which the protection of journalists in conflict zones has been pushed to the margins of the international community\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n
Violence escalation<\/p>\n
Since 7 October 2023, the IFJ has documented an unprecedented escalation in violence and killings of journalists in the region carried out by Israel. More than 235 journalists have been killed in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, while hundreds more have been injured, arrested or displaced. Numerous media offices have been destroyed and more than a thousand media workers have been forced to flee their homes, as military operations have made the practice of journalism extremely dangerous.<\/p>\n
Israeli bombardments in Lebanon, which began in September 2025, have further worsened an already dramatic situation for press freedom in the region. Several United Nations experts have repeatedly condemned attacks against journalists and called for prompt, independent and impartial investigations, stressing that some evidence may indicate the systematic targeting of journalists, which could amount to war crimes.<\/p>\n
On 16 June, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Morris Tidball-Binz, reiterated the need for thorough and independent investigations into every killing of\u00a0 journalists. He called for those responsible to be held accountable and expressed his readiness to support investigations through forensic expertise.<\/p>\n
IFJ lawyer Jennifer Robinson denounced the persistent impunity surrounding these crimes and recalled that targeting journalists constitutes a war crime aimed at preventing the documentation of violations of international law.<\/p>\n
Nasser Abu Bakr, IFJ Senior Vice-President and President of the Palestinian Journalists\u2019 Syndicate, presented data documenting the scale of attacks against Palestinian journalists, including the massive destruction of media infrastructure and the forced displacement of media workers.<\/p>\n
Elsy Moufarrej, President of the Union of Journalists of Lebanon, described the situation facing Lebanese journalists subjected to repeated strikes, including attacks against teams clearly identified as members of the press. She stressed that such attacks cannot be regarded as accidental.<\/p>\n
Speakers called on the international community to strengthen mechanisms for the protection of journalists.<\/p>\n
The IFJ reminds that international humanitarian law strictly prohibits the targeting of journalists in conflict zones and calls on United Nations member states to demand independent investigations, support international justice mechanisms and put an end to impunity by adopting an International Convention on the Safety and Independence of Journalists.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the sidelines of the 62nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[10874,2387,8773,37,2386,1620,93,498,51878,1243],"class_list":["post-166008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-human-rights-council","tag-ifj","tag-impunity","tag-israel","tag-journalists","tag-killing","tag-lebanon","tag-palestine","tag-unhrc","tag-united-nations"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116770426248008324","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}