A top UN expert has said he will urge the world body to withdraw from the Quartet of Middle East mediators unless it addresses Palestinian human rights. John Dugard, the UN human rights envoy for the Palestinian Territories, told the BBC the US, EU, UN and Russia were failing to protect the Palestinians. He said the UN "does itself little good by remaining a member of the Quartet". In his role as a UN special rapporteur, Dugard has been visiting the West Bank and Gaza for the past seven years. Special rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the UN secretary general to present reports on human rights to the organization. They are advisers and do not decide UN policy. "Every time I visit, the situation seems to have worsened," he said in a BBC interview. "This time, I was very struck by the sense of hopelessness among the Palestinian people." Dugard attributed this to "the crushing effect of human rights violations", and in particular Israeli restrictions on Palestinians' freedom of movement. He said that although Israel did have a threat to its security, "its response is very disproportionate". He said the purpose of some of the checkpoints in the middle of the West Bank was to break it up "into a number of cantons and make the life of Palestinians as miserable as possible".
