Israel will be represented by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a prominent former Soviet dissident at Margaret Thatcher's funeral on Wednesday.

The Israeli leader will be joined by former Soviet refusenik Natan Sharansky, who is now the chairman of the Jewish Agency.

This week’s goings on at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) mark yet another dismal episode in a seemingly endless series. What is, to a significant extent, a rogues’ gallery of murderous and corrupt regimes, congregated to “discuss” a report excoriating Israel and demanding an immediate withdrawal from the West Bank.

There is a respectful hush among the journalists. This is the launch of Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) World Report 2013, and executive director Kenneth Roth is at the podium. “The media is key to what we do,” he tells the press.

The UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories has been removed from a local committee of Human Rights Watch.

Richard Falk, who is a professor of law at Princeton University, has been removed from the Santa Barbara committee of the non-governmental organisation and no longer appears on the committee list on the website.

Next week, Irwin and Corinne Van Colle will mark 12 years since their 25-year-old son, Giles, was murdered, shot by a former employee.

The couple had hoped that, by now, the European Court of Human Rights would have confirmed what the High Court agreed in 2006 and the Appeal Court upheld the following year — that Hertfordshire Police had failed in its duty to protect their son.