Roadmap 'failing on human rights'

By David Chazan BBC correspondent in Jerusalem

An international human rights group says the latest plan to end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians will fail if it does not safeguard basic human rights.

Human Rights Watch says it is concerned that the peace plan, known as the roadmap, does not include such safeguards.

Human rights groups want a mechanism for monitoring rights abuses

The group is urging the sponsors of the peace plan - the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations - to establish a mechanism to monitor progress in human rights.

It says the plan must be re-written to include guarantees for medical and humanitarian access to civilians.

It says these rights are presented in the roadmap as benchmarks to be achieved as part of a process of gradually building trust.

But it says they should be considered as legal obligations rather than bargaining chips.

Dismay

The organisation says the plan also leaves out the obligation for both sides to bring to justice individuals who commit abuses such as unlawful killings or attacks against civilians.

It calls on the plan's sponsors to establish a mechanism to monitor progress towards eliminating such abuses.

Human Rights Watch says it takes a neutral position on the territorial disputes at the heart of the conflict, but that it is dismayed at what it says is the UN's failure to enforce resolutions intended to protect civilians.

And it says any meaningful agreement will have to protect civilians in Palestinian areas as well as in Israel.

So far there has been no reaction from the plan's sponsors.