New Delhi: Former Orissa high court Chief Justice S. Muralidhar has been appointed by the United Nations as the chair of the three-member Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

With the jurisdiction of the Commission including East Jerusalem and Israel, Muralidhar will now preside over one of the UN’s most closely watched human-rights investigations amid the continuing Israel-Palestine conflict, reported Bar and Bench.

Human Rights Council President Ambassador Jürg Lauber announced the appointment, confirming that Justice Muralidhar will be heading the three-member body which has the mandate of examining alleged violations of international humanitarian and human-rights law on both sides of the conflict. The other members of the Commission are Florence Mumba of Zambia and Chris Sidoti of Australia.

Mumba is a Zambian jurist who has decades of experience and has also served as a judge and vice-president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. She also played an important role in drafting international provisions recognising rape as a war crime.

Sidoti, the third member of the Commission is an Australian human-rights lawyer who in the past has advised multiple UN bodies and national human-rights institutions. He had also previously served as Australian Human Rights Commissioner.

The Commission was created in 2021 through Resolution S-30/1, and has the mandate to conduct a continuous inquiry into events unfolding “in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel” from April 13, 2021.

Along with specific incidents, the Commission is empowered to also examine the “root causes of recurrent tensions”, including systemic discrimination linked to identity, ethnicity, race or religion.

The Commission’s responsibilities were also expanded last year by the Human Rights Council, which asked it to file additional reports on Israeli settlers, along with global weapons transfers, including those used during Israel’s military operations in Gaza after October 7, 2023.

In its report delivered in September this year, the Commission concluded that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Justice Muralidhar’s appointment will place him at the centre of these inquiries.

A highly respected jurist, Justice Muralidhar practised before the Supreme Court of India for nearly two decades, served as counsel to the National Human Rights Commission and appeared as Amicus Curiae in several public-interest cases.

Justice Muralidhar was initially appointed as a judge of the Delhi high court in May 2006 and later was transferred to the Punjab and Haryana high court on March 6, 2020.

He took oath as the Chief Justice of the Orissa high court on January 4, 2021. After retiring in 2023, he returned to legal practice with the Supreme Court designating him senior advocate.

The Commission will submit annual reports to both the UN Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly.

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