Throughout the course of over a month, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) took part in the 49th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UN HRC), convened from 28 February to 1 April 2022. In concert with partner Arab, regional, and international rights organizations, CIHRS drew attention to human rights conditions in six states of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region; Palestine, Libya, Algeria, Syria, Egypt, and Yemen. Eighteen oral interventions and three written interventions were presented by CIHRS and partners during the session, while CIHRS organized and participated in seven webinars on the sidelines of the session, addressing human rights issues in the six countries.

Amid discussions concerning Russia’s war on Ukraine, CIHRS joined about seventy international rights organizations in a joint appeal to the HRC, which called on European Union (EU) states to comply with their obligation to respect human rights without discrimination. The appeal was published following reports of growing violence and mistreatment of refugees and migrants with African and Middle Eastern origins at European borders, including the refusal of border agents to issue entry visas to non-white persons fleeing violence, poverty, and dire circumstances in their home countries.

United Nations Human Rights Council – 49th Session
Item 8
Joint Oral Intervention^[1]

Date: 28 March 2022

Delivered by Ojeaku Nwabuzo

Stop discrimination and violence on European borders against Africans fleeing Ukraine

Mr.president,

We call the Council’s attention to the human rights situation of Africans and other racialised groups following reports of discrimination and violence at EU borders. As expressed jointly by Special Procedures including the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent and other Special Rapporteurs with a mandate on racial discrimination and the human rights of migrants, we are deeply concerned that Black people and other racialised groups are subjected to discriminatory treatment as they flee Ukraine and face subsequent discriminatory treatment within the EU. Bombs, cluster munitions and heavy artillery do not discriminate on the grounds of race or nationality. All human beings crossing European borders from Ukraine are fleeing the same dangers to their personal life and bodily integrity requiring them to seek refuge in another land than the one in which they reside.

Over the last weeks, there have been credible reports of officials preventing African students and their dependents from crossing the Ukrainian border and reported restrictions including of visas. These have been widely reported in the media.

The prohibition against racial discrimination is a fundamental right of international law with applicability across situations of conflict and peace. Given the armed conflict taking place in Ukraine, the rights to life, liberty, dignity, and safety of all people must be recognized under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).]Just in February, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi issued a statement concerning the increasing number of incidents of violence, ill treatment and serious human rights violations against refugees and migrants at various European borders, several of which have resulted in tragic loss of life.

It is essential that equal treatment by agents of the State, especially border officials, is upheld. It is concerning, however, that the EU guidelines on external border management is a non-binding document, which does not provide necessary assurances for equal treatment.

We urge European States to uphold their obligations to respect fundamental human rights and the right to asylum and to ensure equal treatment and protection for all those displaced as a result of the crisis in Ukraine, regardless of immigration status, by eliminating racial profiling and mistreatment by state agents.

It’s time that the total disregard for Black lives stops. We can no longer allow for people of African descent and other racialised groups to be dehumanised at the European borders.

[1] European Network against Racism (ENAR), International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), A Qui Le Tour ?, Sillage Association, Transitional Justice Institute-Ulster University, Legal Resource Center, CRAN (Carrefour de réflexion et d’action contre le racisme anti-Noir – Observatoire du racisme anti-Noir en Suisse), PICUM , Ilex Acción Jurídica, Society Moko, Les Foulards Violets, Permanence juridique pour les mineurs non-accompagné.e.s et les requérant.e.s d’asile non accompagné.s, African Canadian Association (ACAO), HERA Mission, Research Group DHEPP / Goiás State University (UEG, Brazil), CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, Equipo de Implementación Decenio Afrodescendiente - España, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Uhuru Valencia - Spain, València ès Refugi - Spain, L'Eliana Vol.- Spain, Federación Union Africana- Spain, Afrodiccionario- Spain/USA, Red de Jóvenes Afropanameños- Panamá, Hijas de Alkebulan- Panamá, Asociación Iglesia de Cristo Estrella Creciente- Panamá, Voces de Mujeres Afrodescendientes en Panamá- Panamá, Fundación Wake Up- Panamá, Centro Familiar Afro-Santeño- Panamá, Changuinola Afrocaribbean (CHAFROC)- Panamá, New urban Collective, IDPAD Coalition UK, UK Chapter of Global Afrikan Congress, European Network of Women of African Decent (ENWAD), Fair Trials, Centre for Peace Studies, Estonian Human Rights Centre, Ivorian Community of Greece, Àltera - Italy, Irish Network Against Racism (INAR), European Network on Statelessness, Lëtz Rise Up, Collectif Faites des Vagues, Leitner Center on International Lae and Justice of Fordham Law School, QUEER SMTH, FEMYSO, ENORB, Apna Haq, EFOMW, Haringey Welcome, Kazumba, Inequalities Research Network, Agora Dernegi, Zavod Krog, CIG, Czech Helsinki Committee, CIIB, Stichting Ocan, Migrant Tales Blog, Migrant Women Association Malta, SOS Racisme Danmark, Waterford Integration Services, The Center for Migration, Gender, and Justice (CMGJ), Sdružení pro integraci a migraci (SIMI), Generation 2.0 RED, café révolution, CABBAK (Collectif Afroféministe Biel/Bienne Afrofeministisches Kollektiv).

On the centennial anniversary of International Women’s Day, 8 March, CIHRS joined ten rights organizations in a joint statement on the struggle of the feminist movement to protect women’s rights in patriarchal, authoritarian societies and under conditions of conflict, pandemic, and poverty.

United Nations Human Rights Council – 49th Session
International Women's Day
Joint Oral Intervention^[1]

8 March 2022

Delivered by: Paola Salwan Daher

Thank you Mr. President,

I deliver this intervention on behalf of 12 organizations.

International Women’s Day takes its origins in the struggle of women to claim and gain their rights in a patriarchal society that didn’t recognize their agency and autonomy.

A hundred years later, it still stands for the same objectives. Despite the progress and commitments made towards gender equality, all women and girls in all their diversity are still advocating for their rights to be fully realized.

Compounded crises disproportionately impact women and girls, especially those facing intersectional discrimination. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the burden of unrecognized, undervalued, deeply gendered reproductive labor, has led to an increase of gender-based violence and has highlighted the constant threat put on women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive rights, with some States instrumentalizing the pandemic to curtail these rights even further. Even States who had liberalized access to sexual and reproductive health services are now backpedaling and restricting access again.

The pandemic exacerbated pre-existing forms of discrimination and pre-existing humanitarian situations, making the work of women human rights defenders all the more difficult. WHRDs, including those working on sexual and reproductive rights, peacebuilding and de-militarization, indigenous, land and minority rights, face constant threats to their work, lives and well-being and are submitted to human rights violations, such as violations of their rights to life, health, sexual and reproductive health, privacy and non-discrimination, oftentimes with no access to accountability.

On this international women’s day, we salute the work, commitment and political vision of our feminist movements. They are the ones giving us hope. They are the ones securing our victories. Through mass mobilization and solidarity that transcends borders, they are the ones ensuring that substantive equality becomes a tangible reality for all, and not an attractive mouthpiece designed to appease us.

^[1] Plan International, ILGA, CIHRS, RFSU, IPPF, ISHR, SRI, ARROW, WILPF, CHOICE for youth and sexuality, CRR

The 49th session also saw the Human Rights Council ratify three significant resolutions on Palestine and Syria. One resolution focused on the importance of accountability and justice, calling on Israel to revoke its baseless designation of Palestinian human rights and humanitarian organizations as terrorist organizations and to refrain from using counterterrorism laws to undermine civil society and its valuable work in bringing accountability. Another resolution renewed the mandate of the Fact-Finding Mission on Syria while urging all member states, relevant UN bodies, international organizations, and civil society to coordinate and bolster their efforts on the issue of missing persons in Syria by including victims, survivors, and their families in existing mechanisms.

Condemnation of Israel’s crime of apartheid against Palestinians

During the 49th session of the Human Rights Council, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies focused on Israel’s perpetration of the crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people. CIHRS continued a campaign it launched two years ago in cooperation with a coalition of international and Palestinian organizations while calling for an awareness campaign in parallel to the session. During the session, CIHRS cast light on policies and practices of Israel that constitute the crime of apartheid against Palestinians. Among these are policies dividing and fragmenting the Palestinian people, the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements, and growing settler violence. In the same context, CIHRS organized a high-level panel discussion featuring the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the oPt, titled “Examining the Applicability of the Apartheid Framework for Repressive Israeli Rule”. The panel was sponsored by the UN delegations of Malaysia, Namibia, Pakistan, Palestine, and South Africa. During the discussion, the Special Rapporteur summarized the main findings of his report on Israel’s crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people

Days before the session, CIHRS joined a joint appeal to the UN and member states focusing on the importance of recognizing and condemning Israel’s crime of apartheid. In an oral statement before the HRC, CIHRS and its partners condemned Israel’s recent announcement that it would renew the citizenship and entry law, which severely restricts family reunification for Palestinians. In a dialogue with the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing, the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and CIHRS denounced Israel’s racist segregation policies against Palestinian citizens in an oral intervention, urging the Special Rapporteur to undertake a national visit to investigate Israel’s commitment to upholding the right to housing.

In a joint statement, CIHRS addressed Israeli settlers’ rising violence against Palestinians, violence for which they enjoy utter impunity. Another statement took up land seizure policies, settlement expansion, and the exploitation and looting of Palestinian natural resources, and other environmental violations. In a joint oral intervention, CIHRS and its partners turned to practices used to expropriate Palestinian land and transfer ownership to the state of Israel, to pave the way for the construction of new Israeli settlements. Such practices are in flagrant violation of international law.

United Nations Human Rights Council – 49th Session
Item 4 General Debate
Joint Oral Intervention

Delivered by: Haya Labadi

Palestine: Israeli Citizenship and Entry Law is racist and violates Palestinian rights

21 March 2022

Earlier this month, the Israeli parliament re-enacted The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Order), eight months after its expiration. The Law, which was first introduced in 2003, imposes sweeping restrictions on Palestinian family unification, affecting tens of thousands of families. Palestinian Women from the Gaza Strip or the West Bank under the age of 25 and men under the age of 35, who are married to Palestinians from Jerusalem or inside the Green Line, are barred from living with their families therein. Those who are over that age limit are only entitled to temporary stay permits that must be renewed every six months without any social or economic rights, no work permits, and no health insurance.

Examples of this Law’s long list of victims include a 60-year old widow and cancer patient who lost her status in Jerusalem after the death of her husband with whom she has lived in Jerusalem for 20 years; a mother forced to choose between living “illegally” in Jerusalem after her divorce or going back to the West Bank, thus risking separation from her children; women obliged to stay in abusive marriages only to maintain their legal status in Jerusalem; children who are undocumented because they were not registered as Jerusalem residents due to legal restrictions; women and men who are denied the right to work legally in Jerusalem, leaving them vulnerable to the exploitation of the informal labor sector.

This law, introduced for demographic purposes to ensure Israeli Jewish domination, denies Palestinians the right to dignity, family life, and equality, and further enhances Israel’s systematic policy of denial of family reunification and the separation of thousands of Palestinian families, as part of the wider Israeli policy of fragmenting the Palestinian people, amounting to the crime of apartheid.

As such, we call on Member states to exert concrete pressure on Israel to repeal this law immediately and unconditionally. Israel is the only country in the world that systematically restricts the right of it citizens and residents to family life with spouses from their own people, for no other reason than their Palestinian Identity.

United Nations Human Rights Council – 49th Session
Item 3: Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing
Joint Oral intervention^[1]

17 March 2022

Delivered by: Giulia Marini

Palestine: Israel uses fragmentation to consolidate apartheid against Palestinians

Mr. Special Rapporteur,

While your report acknowledges Israel's policy of spatial segregation in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, we highlight the derivation and purpose of this policy as one directly serving Israel’s apartheid system against the Palestinian people as a whole. The Israeli authorities’ interconnected policies and practices of racial segregation, forced displacement, population transfer, spatial planning, and demographic engineering are tools that intentionally serve Israel’s institutionalized system of oppression and domination.

Of foundational importance to this system are the Israeli policies in the Gaza Strip, including its closure and blockade, which de facto segregate more than two million Palestinians from the rest of Palestine and the outside world in what is tantamount to a South African bantustan—with the difference that, unlike in apartheid South Africa, Israel regularly bombs Gaza, with whole residential apartment blocks and individual houses targeted pursuant to an apparent policy of targeting civilian homes.

During the last offensive in May 2021, Israel destroyed more than 1,300 housing units and damaged more than 6,000, thereby displacing around 38,000 Palestinians within 11 days. However, Israel's severe restrictions on the free movement of goods to and from Gaza, including a ban on [quote] “dual-use” items, deliberately prevent the proper re-construction or building of new housing units.

We echo the call for the Special Rapporteur to undertake a country visit to investigate and report on Israel’s obligations on the right to adequate housing for all Palestinians under its jurisdiction and subject to its apartheid system.

Thank you.

^[1] Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies

United Nations Human Rights Council – 49^th Session
Item 7 – General Debate
Joint Oral intervention^[1]

25 March 2022

Delivered by: Ms. Bdor Hassan

Palestine: Racism and demographics motivate Israel's family unification law

On 10 March 2022, Israel reintroduced the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Order), reproducing most of the provisions of the 2003 legislation, which was renewed annually for nearly two decades, and functions as a major pillar in Israel’s apartheid regime.

The law’s objective is flagrantly racist and demographically motivated. Its proponents have not hidden its demographic, Jewish-supremacist nature. “Democratic and Jewish State 1 - State for all of its citizens 0,” tweeted Israeli interior minister Ayelet Shaked following the enactment of the law.

The 2022 law prohibits Palestinian residents of Jerusalem or citizens from within the Green line from applying for family unification with their spouses who are Palestinian residents or citizens of the West Bank or the Gaza Strip unless the latter male spouse is over the age of 35 and the female spouse is over the age of 25. Exceptions may be granted by a “humanitarian committee,” but the quota of requests accepted by that committee should not exceed 58, regardless of the number of applicants.

Palestinian men over 35 and women over 25 are allowed a permit to “stay” with their spouses in Jerusalem or inside the Green Line, but the stay permit has to be annually renewed and grants no social or economic rights or even health insurance. Only Palestinians over the age of fifty with valid stay permits for ten years may obtain temporary residency with their spouses in Jerusalem.

Coupled with the systematic policy of residency revocation targeting Jerusalem’s Palestinians, this law deals a particularly cruel blow to the rights of Palestinian Jerusalemites, who make up the overwhelming majority of those married to West Bank residents.

The Israeli policy of imposing stringent restrictions on family unification, its ongoing denial of the Palestinian refugees’ right of return, its “law of Return,” which exclusively applies to Jews all over the world, encapsulate Israel’s institutionalized regime of systematic domination and oppression over the Palestinian people amounting to the crime of apartheid. It also constitutes a grave violation of Palestinians’ right to human dignity, family life, and equality. An unlawful tool of racial profiling, the Law seeks to fortify Israel’s strategic fragmentation of Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line.

Building on the mounting recognition that Israel has established and maintained an apartheid regime, including by the Special Rapporteur on the oPt, civil society, UN treaty bodies and states, the UN and its member states should take immediate action to dismantle Israel’s apartheid regime.

^[1] Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center, ADDAMEER (Arabic for conscience) Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and Al-Haq

In support of the Special Rapporteur’s findings, which conclude that Israel implements numerous measures aimed at silencing human rights defenders and restricting groups that defend Palestinians’ rights, CIHRS welcomed the historic report in a press statement, and in an oral intervention during a dialogue with the Special Rapporteur, noted that the double standards of some states in this respect had significantly undermined the effectiveness and legitimacy of international law. CIHRS also presented an oral statement in conjunction with four Palestinian organizations to spotlight such retaliatory measures. Another oral intervention joined by CIHRS and thirteen Palestinian organizations, presented during the dialogue with the Special Rapporteur, focused on Israeli practices designed to harass and intimidate activists. These include the Israeli authorities’ recent decision to designate six leading Palestinian rights organizations as “terrorist movements” and the targeting of human rights defenders for surveillance and detention.

United Nations Human Rights Council – 49th Session
ID under Item 3 – SR on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
Joint Oral Intervention^[1]

10 March 2022

Delivered by: Haya Labadi

Palestine: Environmental violations help consolidate Israel's apartheid regime

Mr. president, Mr. Special Rapporteur,

Israel’s policies of land confiscation, settlement expansion, exploitation and pillage of Palestinian natural resources, among other environmental violations, are meant to establish and maintain a regime of racial domination and oppression against the Palestinian people as a whole and ensure the denial of their right to self-determination.

These violations are detrimental to the entirety of the Palestinian people, especially women and girls. In the West Bank, Israel intentionally destructs Palestinian agricultural lands by using them as a dumping ground for solid, industrial, sewage, and military waste, causing serious pollution and endangering the health of the population. Settler violence against Palestinian farmers is surging, especially during harvest time. Over 80% of the western water aquifers of the West Bank is expropriated to serve Israel and its settlements in the oPt.

With 95% of water as undrinkable, and while Israel continues to control access to electrical power, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip under closure cannot operate essential WASH facilities, including wastewater treatment which worsens the water contamination problem. Israeli occupation forces also spray toxic chemicals, preventing Palestinian farmers from accessing their most fertile lands, thus denying them their main source of income.

We Call on the Special Rapporteur on environment to visit Palestine and report on these violations;
We call on member states to recognize these practices as part of Israel’s apartheid regime;
Call on the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and the UN Commission of Inquiry to investigate Israel’s exploitation of Palestinian natural resources for the benefit of illegal Israeli settlements.

^[1] Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling , Law in the Service of Man (Al-Haq), Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies- CIHRS, Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH), Housing and Land Right Network- Habitat International Coalition, Community Action Center (CAC)

United Nations Human Rights Council – 49th Session
Item 7: General Debate
Joint Oral Intervention^[1]
March 24, 2022

Delivered by: Moneer Marjeieh

Palestine: Israel expropriates land in East Jerusalem for illegal settlements

Mr. President,

We welcome the High Commissioner’s recent report on the oPt, and we would like to highlight an issue that has not been given the attention it merits.

In 2018, the Israeli government passed resolution no. 3790, resolving that an Israeli land title settlement will be carried out on the lands of the occupied, and illegally annexed Eastern part of Jerusalem. The process has started and is expected to be completed by the end of 2025.

For concluding the final settlement of title, a meticulous examination of the “chain of title” is conducted based on Israeli property laws, including the outrageous Absentee Property law (1950) and the Legal and Administrative matters law (1970), which are part of Israel’s apartheid machinery, and were thoroughly designed to dispossess Palestinians from their properties and transfer them to the state of Israel or to its Jewish population. The determination of whether a claimant succeeded to prove its property rights is subject to the decision of the Israeli settlement clerk. In case competing arguments for land title are submitted, the dispute is then transferred to the Israeli district court for a final resolution. According to the Israeli land title settlement ordinance, inability to prove ownership over a piece of land will automatically convert it into an Israeli state property, a result that is absolutely prohibited under international law and amounts to war crime.

Under international law, the land title settlement is part of the “laws in force in the occupied country” and both, the Israeli court and settlement clerk, which are an integral part of the land settlement process, are prohibited to operate in an occupied territory.

In addition, taxes calculated since 1967 will be levied retroactively. Hence, in some cases taxes might reach the value of the house itself, and their payment is a precondition for land registration. The conclusions of the land title settlement are irreversible and its implementation in Eastern Jerusalem will ultimately result in the displacement of many Palestinian families, including women and children.

We call on state members to:

Declare that the land title settlement in Eastern Jerusalem is a bold display of Israel’s institutionalized regime of oppression and domination which is a clear manifestation of an “Apartheid” regime.
Call on Israel to immediately cease the implementation of the land title settlement in Eastern Jerusalem and cease the application of its domestic laws in the occupied Palestinian territory.

^[1] Women’s Center for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC) and The Community Action Center / Al-Quds University (CAC), and Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)

United Nations Human Rights Council – 49th Session
Item 7 – ID with Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967
Joint oral intervention

24 March 2022

Delivered by: Elizabeth Rghebi

Palestine: It's time to stop Israel from committing the crime of apartheid

Our organizations welcome the historic report by the Special Rapporteur, which concludes that Israeli authorities are committing the crime of apartheid. His conclusion should serve as a wakeup call for governments throughout the world.

The Rapporteur’s study of apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territory since 1967 reflects the larger reality of Israel’s apartheid regime over the Palestinian people as a whole. Since 1948, Israel has established and maintained an apartheid regime over the Palestinian people regardless of their geographic location, including Palestinian refugees denied their right of return to their homes, lands, and properties.

Double standards on this matter, including those propagated by Europe and the United States, severely undermine the effectiveness and legitimacy of international human rights and humanitarian legal standards.

For 73 years, the international community has enabled Israeli impunity and failed to hold Israeli perpetrators accountable for serious crimes against Palestinians. Accountability is long overdue.

With the start of the Nakba in 1948, 85% of the Palestinian people became refugees and internally displaced. The newly established State of Israel in historic Palestine installed a legal regime to institutionalize the dispossession of the indigenous Palestinian people. Following the military occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip since 1967, Israel extended and operationalized its apartheid system in the oPt.

To maintain its apartheid regime, Israel resorts to a wide range of repressive policies to subjugate and control Palestinians, including arbitrary detention, excessive use of force, torture, collective punishment, persecution of human rights defenders and organizations, and structural violence preventing Palestinians’ full enjoyment of their human rights, amounting to inhuman acts of apartheid.

The Rapporteur identified the strategic fragmentation of the Palestinian people as a “central strategy” of Israeli apartheid. By dividing the Palestinian people into, at least, four separate geographic, legal, and political categories, Israel ensures that Palestinians cannot meet, group, live together, or exercise any collective rights, particularly their right to self-determination.

We reiterate the need for effective measures to dismantle Israeli apartheid, as put forward by the Special Rapporteur and civil society, including for UN member states to recognize Israeli apartheid against the Palestinian people, the reconstitution of the UN Special Committee against Apartheid, the ratification and/or implementation of the Convention against Apartheid and accountability at the International Criminal Court and in the courts of third states.

It is time to act to adopt effective measures, including sanctions, to end Israeli apartheid.

Signatories:

11.11.11
Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights
Alfoukhary association for rural development
Al-Haq, Law in the Service of Man
Artists for Palestine UK
Asociación Paz con Dignidad
Association Belgo-Palestinienne WB
Association des Universitaires pour le Respect du Droit International en Palestine (AURDIP)
Association France Palestine Solidarité (AFPS)
Association tunisienne des femmes démocrates
Australia Palestine Advocacy Network
Australians for Palestine
Baytna
Belgian Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (BACBI)
Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions Australia (BDS Australia)
Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
Canada Palestine Association
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME)
Chicago Faith Coalition on Middle East Policy
CNCD-11.11.11
Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine (Sydney)
Comité pour une Paix juste au Proche-Orient, Luxembourg
Defence for Children International
Defender Center for Human Rights
Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)
docP - BDS Netherlands
ECCP - European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine
Episcopal Peace Fellowship
Episcopal Peace Fellowship - Palestine Israel Network
European Trade Union Network for Justice in Palestine
Fagforbundet
Fares Al-Arab for Development and Charity Works
FILEF - Italian Federation of Migrant Workers and their Families - Australia
France Palestine Mental Health Network
Friends of Hebron Sydney
Friends of Sabeel North America
Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Housing and Land Rights Network – Habitat International Coalition
Human Rights and democratic participation Center “SHAMS”
ICAHD UK (Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions)
International Commission to Support Palestinians’ Rights (ICSPR)
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
International Human Rights Network
International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
International Women's Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW AP)
Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Irish Congress of Trade Unions
Jake Javanshir
Just Peace Advocates/Mouvement Pour Une Paix Juste
Justice for Palestinians, Calgary
Justitia Center for legal protection or Human Rights in Algeria
Kairos Sabeel Netherlands
Kenya Human Rights Commission
MADRE
Makan
Mwatana for Human Rights
Niagara Movement for Justice in Palestine-Israel (NMJPI)
North Bronx Racial Justice
Oakville Palestinian Rights Association
Odhikar
PAJU (Palestinian and Jewish Unity)
Palestine Solidarity Campaign - Cape Town
Palestinian Assembly for Liberation
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace (PCAP)
Palestinian grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (Stop the Wall)
Palestinian Land Defense Coalition
Sadaka-the Ireland Palestine Alliance
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Scottish Friends of Palestine
Scottish Palestinian Forum
Sheffield Labour Friends of Palestine
Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign
South African BDS Coalition
Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM)
The Association of Norwegian NGOs for Palestine
The Canadian BDS Coalition
The Community Action Center / Al Quds University
The Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy
The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy - MIFTAH
The Southwest Coalition for Palestine
Trócaire
Union syndicale Solidaires
UNITED NETWORK FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE IN PALESTINE/ISRAEL
Urgent Action Fund for Women's Human Rights
Visualizing Impact
WESPAC Foundation
Women in Black Vienna
Women's Center for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC)
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)

United Nations Human Rights Council – 49th Session
Item 2: Interactive Dialogue with the HCHR
Joint Oral Intervention^[1]

3 March 2022

Palestine: Israel's regime guarantees impunity and supports the crime of apartheid

Delivered by: Giulia Marini

Thank you.

We welcome the High Commissioner’s acknowledgement that “despite intensified violence and recurring violations of [international law] in the [OPT], impunity remained widespread and pervasive”. Al Mezan’s long engagement with Israel’s domestic criminal justice system supports the High Commissioner’s findings and provides empirical evidence that Israel is unwilling to conduct genuine, independent investigations into suspected war crimes and other serious violations and does not hold those responsible to account as required by international law. Israel has also empirically demonstrated a failure to meet international standards in relation to redress and reparations for Palestinian victims in Gaza due to numerous legislative, procedural and financial barriers within its civil court system and torts law.

The system is evidently designed to provide impunity and to aid Israeli authorities in maintaining and fostering their apartheid system over the Palestinian people as a whole.

Al Mezan highlights the High Commissioner’s note of “the long-standing series of actions by Israel to silence human rights defenders and civil society organizations speaking up for human rights of Palestinians and shrink the space in which they operate”.

The efforts of civil society to pursue accountability and justice for Israel’s widespread and systematic violations of international law against the Palestinian people have indeed been met with a relentless campaign by the Israeli government and its associated actors of deliberate intimidation, harassment, delegitimization, as well as physical attacks. This campaign of smears and attacks has sought to undermine and silence the voices seeking an end to Israel’s oppression of Palestinians and its apparent crimes, including those of persecution and apartheid, committed in the context of its prolonged military occupation and colonization. Part of this campaign saw the designation of six Palestinian human rights groups as “terrorist organizations”, based on ‘secret evidence’ which the Israeli authorities are refusing to disclose, and without due process, in violation of international law and with impunity.

Within this context, we strongly urge Member States and the Council to acknowledge that domestic remedies have been exhausted and that in the interests of justice the work of international accountability mechanisms must be supported, including through an International Criminal Court investigation. Al Mezan further calls for the support of the commission of inquiry on Israel and the OPT as a means of addressing the root causes of Israel’s systematic discrimination and oppression against the Palestinian people and ensuring accountability for Israel’s systematic violations of international law.

^[1] Al-Haq, Law in the Service of Man, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Human Rights and Democracy Media Center SHAMS, and Habitat International Coalition.

United Nations Human Rights Council – 49th Session
Item 3 Interactive Dialogue
Joint Oral Intervention^[1]

14 March 2022

Palestine: Israel's anti-terror law used to strengthen its apartheid regime

Mr. President, Ms. Special Rapporteur,

For decades, Israel has orchestrated a systematic smear campaign against Palestinian human rights defenders and organizations to intimidate, undermine and delegitimize their work in defending and promoting Palestinian people’s rights, and calling for justice and accountability for Israeli crimes, including the crime of apartheid.

Israel’s latest attack was the designation of six leading Palestinian human rights organizations as “terrorist organizations” under Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Law of 2016, placing their staff, and partners at risk of criminal charges and defunding their sources. Some members of these organizations have also been subjected to a campaign of spyware surveillance on their devices by the Pegasus spyware of the Israeli NSO Group, including human rights defender and lawyer Salah Hammouri, who has been recently put on administrative detention.

Israel’s counter-terrorism law, which is unlawfully applied to the occupied Palestinian territory, allows issuing such designations based on “secret evidence,” which the Israeli authorities can refuse to disclose for “security reasons,” thus violating due process rights.

We call on the Special Rapporteur to announce Israel’s counter-terrorism law of 2016 as incompatible with basic human rights standards.

We further call on member states to:

reiterate calls made by the High Commissioner and other states to urge Israel to revoke the designations of the six Palestinian organizations; and
recognize Israel’s silencing efforts as means to maintain its apartheid regime over the Palestinian people as a whole.

^[1] Al-Haq, Law in the Service of Man, Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, Bisan Center for Research and Development, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH), Habitat International Coalition, Union for Agricultural Work Committees, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Palestinian NGOs Network, Human Rights & Democratic Participation Center “SHAMS”, Defense for Children International – Palestine, Women's Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling, Palestinian Centre for human Rights, Hurryyat - Center for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights.

In a joint statement, CIHRS condemned the rise in arbitrary arrest and mass administrative detention of Palestinians. Multinational corporations also play a significant role in cementing Israel’s apartheid regime, as CIHRS emphasized in a joint statement with nine Palestinian organizations. With the aim of better aligning corporate practice to international law, the organizations urged the United Nations to update the database of businesses linked to illegal Israeli settlements. In another joint statement, CIHRS called on UN member states to reconstitute the special UN Committee Against Apartheid and the UN Center Against Apartheid to monitor compliance with the convention on apartheid.

United Nations Human Rights Council – 49th Session
Item 3: General Debate
Joint Oral Intervention^[1]

15 March 2022

Delivered by: Aseel Albajeh

Women's struggle for equal rights continues

Imperative to the advancement of human rights are effective accountability mechanisms that strengthen international law within the private sector. The increasing impact of transnational corporations and business enterprises in the promotion, and realization of human rights, as well as their contributive role in the furtherance of colonization, evidence the necessity that their actions and regulations are done in compliance with international law, concurrently with the restoration of authority and access to remedy for victims of occupation, colonization, and apartheid.

This is evident within the context of the ongoing occupation of Palestine, in which the utilization of transnational corporations and business enterprises to expand illegal Israeli settlements and appropriate natural resources perpetuates the denial of the Palestinian people from realizing their right to self-determination, including permanent sovereignty over natural resources.

Accordingly, the regulation of transnational corporations must be rooted in human rights. The effectiveness of this legally binding instrument will depend on annual and comprehensive updates to the UN database, which assures transparency of business enterprises that are involved in and profit from prolonged occupation and provide a powerful mechanism for community involvement in regulating the private sector. We call for ending trade with Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise in the occupied Palestinian territory.

In our pursuit of greater compliance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, let us remember that there can be no liberation from corporate capture or solution to human rights violations committed by the private sector in a society whose foundational model of relationships continues to be one of domination.

Thank you.

^[1] Al-Haq, Law in the Service of Man, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, Habitat International Coalition, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Human Rights and Democracy Participation Center "SHAMS", Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Bisan Center for Research and Development, Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, Women's Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling.

United Nations Human Rights Council – 49th Session
Item 9 – Presentation of report of IGWG on DDPA, followed by General debate
Joint oral intervention^[1]

28 March 2022

Delivered by Nada Awad

Palestine: Durban Declalation critical to overcoming apartheid and systemic racism

Twenty-one years on, the Durban Declaration and Program of Action (DDPA) is as critical as ever to the global fight against systemic racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. We condemn the efforts by some states to undermine the DDPA.

the Special Rapporteur on racism reaffirmed that “it is counter to foundational principles of human rights to condemn the DDPA for its recognition of the fundamental human rights of Palestinians, including their right as a people to self-determination. It is also counter to foundational principles of human rights to equate rejection of the racial subordination of Palestinians with antisemitism.”

The DDPA reaffirmed that states have a responsibility to condemn and prevent the crime of apartheid wherever and whenever it occurs.

Since its creation in 1948, the Israeli state has established and maintained an apartheid regime over the Palestinian people as a whole.

This session, the Special Rapporteur (SR) for the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) concluded that Israeli authorities are committing the crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people. The SR urged the international community to adopt the findings of local and international human rights organizations that “apartheid is being practiced by Israel in the [oPt] and beyond.”

We welcome this mounting recognition and call on UN member states to reconstitute the UN Special Committee against Apartheid and the UN Centre against Apartheid to monitor the implementation of the Apartheid Convention and mobilize to bring this crime to an end.

^[1] Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, MIFTAH, and Al-Haq

Counterterrorism laws used to criminalize the work of human rights defenders in Egypt and Algeria

During the 49th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies and seventeen regional and international organizations issued a joint statement condemning the Algerian authorities’ mounting repression of peaceful opposition and independent civil society. The organizations urged the international community to support Algerian human rights defenders who are facing imprisonment on the basis of overly broad terrorism charges.

49^th session of the UN Human Rights Council
Item 2: General Debate
Joint Oral Intervention^[1]

8 March 2022

Delivered by: Farida Bouattoura

Algeria: Unprecedented repression threatens survival of independent civil society

Madam High Commissioner,

In the last few months, Algerian authorities have escalated their tactics to silence peaceful dissent and suffocate independent civil society.

As one illustration of this escalation, authorities on 18 February arrested human rights defender Zaki Hannache, who has been documenting arrests and trials of people imprisoned for their peaceful speech or activism since 2019. He is now in pretrial detention for a potential long duration for allegedly “justifying terrorism” and four other unfounded charges.

Peaceful civil and political activism and independent journalism are now criminalised in Algeria as never before in recent years. Before his arrest, Zaki Hannache estimated that the number of Algerians imprisoned for the peaceful exercise of their freedom of expression, assembly and association had reached a new record since 2019 (340 as of 9 February 2022).

Algerian courts ruled in favour of government petitions to suspend a political party in January and to dissolve a prominent rights group in October 2021. In the last two months, Faleh Hammoudi, member of the executive bureaus of union organisations SNAPAP and CGATA and president of the section of the Algerian League for Human Rights (LADDH) in Tlemcen, was sentenced to 3 years in prison, including for “running an unregistered organisation”, while Fethi Ghares, national coordinator of the Democratic and Social Movement (MDS), was sentenced to 2 years of prison.

An increasing number of individuals have been prosecuted under broadly worded terrorism charges - among them journalists Hassan Bouras, Mohamed Mouloudj and Abdelkrim Zeghileche, human rights defenders Zaki Hannache and Kamira Nait Sid, lawyer Abderraouf Arslane, and Slimane Bouhafs, an Algerian UN-recognized refugee forcibly returned from Tunis.

UN Special Procedures have consistently and increasingly raised concern about arbitrary arrests and unlawful use of force, unfair trials, the misuse of terrorism charges and the vague wording in counter terrorism legislation. The situation in Algeria warrants urgent action from the HRC.

The Council should not abandon Algerians struggling for their fundamental rights.

Thank you.

^[1] AfricanDefenders (Pan-African Human Rights Defenders Network), Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LADDH), Amnesty International, Autonomous General Confederation of Workers in Algeria (CGATA), Autonomous Union of Public Administration Personnel (SNAPAP), Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, Collective of the Families of the Disappeared in Algeria (CFDA), EuroMed Rights, Free Algeria, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), Justitia Centre for Legal Protection of Human Rights in Algeria, MENA Rights Group, SHOAA for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, and World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT).

In Egypt, the government is similarly using terrorism-related charges to retaliate against rights defenders. In an oral statement, CIHRS called for the United Nations and the international community to bolster their efforts in securing the release of rights defenders, journalists, and democracy activists who remain wrongly imprisoned in Egypt. In the same context, in an oral intervention, CIHRS condemned the exploitation of counterterrorism legislation and policies by the governments of Egypt, Algeria, and Israel, which function to harass and prosecute human rights defenders and others as these governments seek to silence and eliminate opposition. The organizations called on the Human Rights Council to stand against state abuse of counterterrorism legislation by taking effective steps to protect rights defenders and other peaceful dissidents who are unjustly targeted.

United Nations Human Rights Council – 49th Session

Item 4: General Debate

Oral Intervention

21 March 2022

Delivered by: Solafa Magdy

Egypt: United Nations' role in protecting civil society underscored by journalist and HRD Solafa Magdy

My name is Solafa Magdy. I am an Egyptian journalist and human rights defender.

Three years ago my husband photojournalist Hossam El-Sayyad and I were arrested by the Egyptian government. During my interrogation I was severely beaten by police officers. We spent the next year and a half in arbitrary detention. Throughout my detention, I was subjected to physical and mental assault.

Our only crime was carrying out independent journalism and defending the rights of women, minorities and others.

On the 13th of April 2021 we were released. It is not a coincidence that we were released soon after UN member states at this Council came together to condemn rights violations in Egypt and call for the release of journalists and rights defenders.

I speak to you today as proof that what you do here matters – that your words and actions as UN member states can have a profound impact on the lives of people.

But I also speak to you today as a reminder that thousands more Egyptian journalists, rights defenders and democracy activists like me remain imprisoned in Egypt, subjected to horrible abuses on a daily basis – for nothing more than defending human rights and democracy.

I call on you to continue to speak out on their behalf and to shine a light into the dark prison cells where they are being held.

Thank you.

49th session of the UN Human Rights Council
Item 3: Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism
Joint^[1] oral statement

15 March 2022

Delivered by Nada Awad

Counter-terrorism a tool of repression in the Middle East and North Africa

Governments in the MENA region continue to expand their use of counter-terrorism as a tool to repress and silence civil society and peaceful dissent.

UN Special Procedures have warned of Egypt’s “systemic problem in the abuse and misuse of counter-terrorism laws and practices.” The Counterterrorism Law (no.94/2015) and the Terrorist Entities Law (no.8/2015) have been used by Egypt to crack down on basic rights through their overly broad definitions and severe penalties. This state crackdown includes the specific targeting of human rights defenders (HRDs) through a sustained campaign of arbitrary arrest and detention on baseless “terrorism” charges.

UN rights experts have denounced the Egyptian government’s arbitrary addition of rights defenders to “terrorist” lists in 2020. Among them are Zyad El-Elaimy and Alaa Abdel Fattah, who have been sentenced to five years in prison, and Mohamed El-Baqer, sentenced to four years in prison, by emergency state security courts.

In a context of escalated repression in Algeria, an increasing number of individuals have been prosecuted under broadly-worded terrorism charges - among them journalists Hassan Bouras, Mohamed Mouloudj and Abdelkrim Zeghileche, human rights defenders Zaki Hannache and Kamira Nait Sid, lawyer Abderraouf Arslane, and Slimane Bouhafs, an Algerian UN-recognized refugee forcibly returned from Tunis.

In a communication on 27 December 2021, UN Special Procedures warned that the definition of terrorism in Algeria’s Penal Code, further expanded in June 2021, has undermined “the rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression”, and imposed “disproportionate penalties for acts that should not be addressed by counter-terrorism legislation”. On 27 February 2022, authorities published a list of 18 national terrorist entities and individuals – the list does not comply with international human rights standards according to Special Procedures.

To maintain its apartheid regime over the Palestinian people, Israel has expanded the use of unfounded terrorist designations, including against six leading Palestinian organizations. Last week, HRD Salah Hammouri was again arrested. He is at imminent risk of deportation following Israel’s punitive revocation of his residency status based on the illegal criteria of “breach of allegiance”. The ceaseless prosecution of Salah Hammouri and Palestinian organizations are prominent examples of Israel’s systematic targeting of human rights defenders.

Special Rapporteur, what actions can this Council and UN member states take to protect HRDs in the Middle East and North Africa who are currently targeted by counter-terrorism laws? How can the international community overcome double standards that have hindered attempts to protect HRDs against the misuse of counter-terrorism by states?

^[1] CIHRS, WCLAC, Al-Haq, WILPF

On 10 March, CIHRS spotlighted the abuse of counterterrorism laws in the Middle East and North Africa, organizing the webinar “Terrorizing Human Rights Defenders: Counterterrorism as a Tool of Repression in the Middle East and North Africa” in conjunction with fourteen regional and international organizations. Addressed by Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, the seminar took up the implications of counterterrorism as a pretext for the suppression of basic liberties in Egypt, Algeria, Israel, and Bahrain. The implications of counterterrorism’s misuse include a shrinking public sphere and weakened civil society

Relentless assaults on civil society in Libya

In a dialogue with the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on Libya, CIHRS presented an oral intervention focusing on Libyan authorities’ attacks on independent human rights groups, noting that these groups are a principal reference for the FFM and their closure would likely undermine its work. In a statement issued jointly with the Aman Organization Against Racial Discrimination and the Libya Platform Coalition, CIHRS condemned the arbitrary restrictions placed by the Civil Society Commission in Tripoli on the work of rights organizations and journalists. The statement called on member states to renew the Fact-Finding Mission’s mandate and condemn those on all sides who violate human rights in Libya.

United Nations Human Rights Council – 49th Session
Item 10- ID with Fact-Finding Mission on Libya
Oral intervention

30 March 2022

Delivered by Karim Salem

Libya: Unprecedented attack on civil society

Mr. President,

Civil society organizations in Libya have been under unprecedented attack since 2011. Libyan authorities are planning to exterminate all independent human rights associations in the country. These associations are the main reference to the UN established Fact Finding Mission (FFM) and their closure would undermine the work of the UN body.

The closure of these organizations is part of a widespread and systematic plan to repress and control freedom of expression and association using the very restrictive laws issued during the Ghaddafi era.

To eliminate critical voices and threaten peaceful opposition, the executive uses a political understanding between the Internal Security Services (ISS), and radical Salafist armed groups such as the Radaa Special Deterrence Forces in the West and Tareq Ben Ziyad in the East.

Between September 2021 and March 2022, ISS arrested at least 35 bloggers, journalists, media professionals and peaceful protestors, mainly in Tripoli and Sirte. The charges against these individuals have a clear objective to defame and terrorize peaceful activists.

The peace process and legitimacy of upcoming elections in Libya are threatened by these irresponsible actions. We call on the Human Rights Council to renew the Fact Finding Mission on Libya at its next session and ensure it has the time and resources required to carry out its mandate.

United Nations Human Rights Council – 49th Session
Item 2: General Debate on the Oral Update Provided by the High Commissioner
Joint Oral Intervention^[1]

March 8, 2022

Delivered by: Hassan Kadno

Libya: Renew UN Fact-Finding Mission and end arbitrary restrictions against civil society

Madam President

Libya today is no longer a safe place for anyone, including human rights defenders, journalists, representatives of the judiciary, legislative and executive authorities, and above all, civilians and residents of Libya, whether Libyans or foreigners.

The arbitrary restrictions imposed by the Civil Society Commission in Tripoli on the work of organizations and journalists, and systematic violations against them, continue. The assassination of blogger "Al-Tayeb Al-Shariri" in Misrata is one of the most recent examples of these disturbing violations.

The human rights situation in Libya remains deeply problematic, especially for migrants, who live in an extremely precarious security situation. During the period between January and June 2021, the Platform Coalition monitored at least 40 cases of extrajudicial killing, 51 cases of enforced disappearance, and more than 100 attacks and indiscriminate injuries against civilians, including 18 children.

Migrants, refugees and asylum seekers also face suffering from human trafficking groups across Libya and even at sea, and are systematically subjected to torture and other degrading treatment, including sexual violence, severe beatings, and extortion. Women in detention centers also suffer from sexual extortion, rape.

Recommendations:

We recommend that member states of the United Nations ensure that the mandate of the United Nations Independent Fact-Finding Mission in Libya is renewed, and that it obtains the adequate resources necessary to carry out its mandate.

We recommend member states to strongly condemn the perpetrators of human rights violations, and any attempts by Libyan authorities and foreign forces to disrupt the political process, including attacks on journalists and representatives of civil society, and to sanction the individuals and groups responsible for this.

Thank you, Madam President and members of the Fact-Finding Mission.

^[1] Al-Aman Organization against Racial Discrimination, the Libyan Platform Coalition, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.

Urgent need for mechanism to investigate crimes in Yemen

During the session, CIHRS and Mwatana for Human Rights jointly called upon the international community to take effective action countering the alarming escalation in attacks on civilians in Yemen, particularly after the Human Rights Council ended the mandate of the Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen (GEE), assigned to investigate crimes in the country. The two organizations urged the UN to form an independent, impartial body to investigate and report on violations of international law in Yemen.

49^th session of the UN Human Rights Council
Item 3 – General Debate on the promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development
Joint Oral intervention^[1]

15 March 2022

Delivered by: Mr. Osamah Al-Fakih

Yemen: Implications of impunity and urgent need for accountability

Thank you Madam President,

For the past seven years the people of Yemen have suffered from innumerable atrocities. This has been exacerbated by unmitigated impunity. Despite the horrors of the ongoing conflict, on 7 October 2021 the UN Human Rights Council failed to adopt the mandate renewal of the Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen (GEE).

Every state who abstained or voted against the resolution to renew the GEE needs to understand the immense human cost of that decision.

The abrupt termination of the GEE, the only international and independent investigative body reporting on violations and abuses in Yemen has seen a devastating escalation in hostilities and attacks against civilians.

Civilian casualties have almost doubled since October as compared to the preceding four months. This increase in violence has further deteriorated the humanitarian conditions in the country, worsening a human-made catastrophe that already threatens millions of Yemeni lives.

The international community cannot stand by and allow that vote to be the last word on accountability efforts for abuses and war crimes in Yemen.

We call on UN member states to establish an independent and impartial body that would investigate and publicly report on the most serious violations and abuses of international law committed in Yemen, while also collecting and preserving evidence and preparing files for possible future criminal prosecution.

^[1] CIHRS and Mwatana for Human Rights

Syria remains unsafe for the return of refugees

As part of the dialogue with the International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on Syria, CIHRS and the Syrian organization Basma and Zeitouna presented an oral intervention asserting that Syria remains unsafe for returning Syrian refugees. Returnees are subjected to crimes and violations including arbitrary arrest and detention, enforced disappearance and abduction, torture, sexual violence, and extrajudicial killing.

49^th session of the UN Human Rights Council
ITEM 4- ID with Commission of Inquiry on Syrian Arab Republic
Joint Oral intervention^[1]

18 March, 2022

Delivered by: Ralph Haddad for Relief and Development

Mr. President,

Syria: Appeal to monitor violations against displaced Syrians

According to the Refugee Protection Watch coalition cases have been documented in which returnees have been arrested, detained and tortured after return, including those who had settled their status with the Syrian government authorities in advance.

Over one fourth of returnees to government-controlled areas have reported not having enough access to information about the situation inside Syria before they returned, and two thirds of refugee returnees knew someone who had fled back to Lebanon, after their initial return to Syria.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have also reported the subjection of returnees to arbitrary arrest and detention, enforced disappearance, kidnappings, torture, including sexual violence; and extrajudicial killings after returning to Syria.

We call on the CoI to publish a comprehensive report on the human rights situation of Syrian refugee and IDP returnees. We also call on UN member states to maintain the position that Syria is not a safe destination of return and that any (future) returns must be safe, voluntary, informed and dignified.

States must also refrain from returning or deporting people back to Syria, abide by the principle of non-refoulement, and immediately end policies and practices that remove refugee status or deprive displaced Syrians of temporary protection status.

Thank you

^[1] CIHRS and Basmeh and Zeitooneh