OTTAWA - Canada is once again chastising the United Nations for its "one-sided" treatment of Israel.

In a statement obtained by QMI Agency, Canada's permanent mission at the UN expresses its displeasure that the international body's Human Rights Council decided in March to send an international fact-finding mission (FFM) to "investigate the implications of the Israeli settlements on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people."

The FFM convened in Geneva in August and is expected to report to the Human Rights Council in March.

"This mandate does not take the needs and concerns of all the sides into consideration," the statement to the council, dated Oct. 30, reads.

"As previously noted, there is no shortage of real and pressing human rights matters that the UN Human Rights Council should be addressing. However, the one-sided resolution which established the FFM chose to single out Israel for condemnation rather than address the complexity of issues in this region."

The letter also takes another shot at the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, saying his recent report "does a disservice to the United Nations and the Palestinian people."  

Last week, a spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird called for the resignation of Richard Falk, the UN official charged with monitoring and reporting on human rights in the Palestinian territories, after Falk called for a worldwide boycott of companies tied to Jewish settlements in the occupied  territories.

Baird later called Falk's comments "both offensive and extremely unhelpful."

In October, Baird told the UN General Assembly that Canada remains committed to the organization but criticized its officials for not spending enough time and effort on garnering concrete results.

The UN is part of the so-called Quartet of negotiators, along with Russia, the European Union and the United States, tasked with moving the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. The settlements have been one of the main hurdles in restarting the stalled peace process.