Ambassador of Senegal to the UN, Coly Seck, opened a press conference organised in Brussels this week: “We want peace. We want engagement. We want to make sure that Europe will help bring this conflict to an end and make sure that the two-state solution will prevail.”
Ambassador Seck chairs the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. During a two-day visit to Brussels this week, the Committee discussed with European governments the importance of defending international law and preserving the two-state solution.
The delegation, which included ambassadors to the UN from Senegal, Cuba and Namibia, alongside Minister Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the UN, met with EU officials, diplomats and civil society organisations as part of a wider European tour aimed at mobilising support for peace in Palestine.
Established by the UN General Assembly in 1975, the Committee works to support Palestinian self-determination, sovereignty and the realisation of a two-state solution.
Ambassador Seck stressed that Europe has a “key role to play politically, diplomatically, economically and humanitarianly” at what he described as a critical moment for the region.
International law
Minister Mansour called for concrete measures in response to what he said are violations of international law and for European leaders to move beyond “business as usual”. He pointed specifically to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, citing rulings by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which he said had made clear the settlements were illegal and “have to be dismantled”.
The UN Committee members stressed the need to uphold the UN Charter, UN resolutions and a multilateral rules-based order grounded in international law.
The delegation also highlighted the importance of preserving the fragile Gaza ceasefire and supporting efforts toward a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Hope
The Brussels meetings formed part of a wider European tour that began in France and will continue in Spain. “Some of our contributions, we believe, resonated in the minds and hearts of those that we met with,” Minister Mansour said. “We hope that this contribution will make a difference in our collective responsibility and approach to open widely the door for peace and justice in the Middle East, especially for the Palestinian people.”
The agenda in Brussels included meetings with representatives from the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European External Action Service, the EU Council’s Political and Security Committee (PSC), the Belgian Foreign Ministry and civil society organisations.
The visit builds on the engagements of the recent 2025 Conference on the Two-State Solution and the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution.
