International Advocacy 2001
UN World Conference Against Racism | UN General Assembly: Habitat II + 5 | UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 25th Session | UN Human Rights Inquiry Commission
UN World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance - Durban, South Africa, August-September 2001
ARTICLE: Reflections on the World Conference Against Racism - Hassan Jabareen, "On the Problems of Arab Identity: The example of Durban," Al Hayat, 4 October 2001 (translated to English)
NGO Forum and WCAR, August-September 2001: Adalah Board Chair Ghassann Agbaria, General Director Hassan Jabareen, Staff Attorneys Jamil Dakwar and Orna Kohn, and Advocacy Coordinator Anne Massagee participated in the WCAR and the preceding NGO Forum. Adalah representatives organized two panels ("Race, Politics, and Constitutionalism" and "Political Participation of Minority, Native and Indigenous Peoples") and participated in a third organized by Amnesty International; participated in press conferences; and presented the intervention of the Local Committee. They also disseminated Institutionalized Discrimination Against Palestinian Citizens of Israel, Adalah's report to the WCAR.
NGO Forum Declaration and Programme of Action
WCAR Declaration and Programme of Action (Arabic)
World Conference Against Racism (UNHCHR)
Preparatory Activities:
3rd Prep-Com, July-August 2001: Adalah General Director Hassan Jabareen, Staff Attorney Gadeer Nicola and Advocacy Coordinator Anne Massagee participated in this two-week international preparatory meeting for the WCAR held in Geneva, Switzerland. At this meeting, governments and NGOs reviewed the Draft Declaration and Programme of Action for the WCAR and suggested amendments and additions. They also participated in a press conference to raise the concerns of the Palestinian minority in Israel.
SANGOCO Visit, July 2001: Three representatives of SANGOCO, a South African NGO which organized the NGO Forum, visited Adalah and other Palestinian NGOs as part of their LAW-sponsored trip to Israel and the Occupied Territories. The visit included meetings with Palestinian NGO delegations to the WCAR; tours of unrecognized villages and Arab and Jewish towns; and meetings with family members of Palestinians killed in October 2000. Discussions focused on the situation of the Palestinian minority in Israel and the South African leaders' work against apartheid as well as the upcoming NGO Forum and WCAR.
Palestinian NGO Local Committee Meetings, May-August 2001: Adalah is a member of the Palestinian NGO Local Committee, which was coordinated by Ittijah: Union of Community Based Arab NGOs in Israel. Adalah's role in the Local Committee was to attend meetings, draft statements and proposed language for the WCAR Declaration, and lobby the UN and governments. The Local Committee also prepared a statement and an intervention about racism in Israel which they presented to the WCAR in South Africa.
The Local Committee's Statement on Racism in Israel (Arabic)
The Local Committee's Intervention on Racism in Israel
2nd Prep-Com, May 2001: Adalah Staff Attorney Gadeer Nicola and Advocacy Coordinator Anne Massagee participated in this two-week international preparatory meeting for the WCAR held in Geneva, Switzerland. They participated in press conferences and briefings, where they raised the issue of the Palestinian minority in Israel, and they met with numerous governmental and NGO delegates. They also attended a UN NGO Liaison Unit training program, and a Ford Foundation meeting of grantees worldwide held to discuss future WCAR activities. They drafted language for the governmental and NGO declarations, and also worked with other Palestinian NGOs to formulate an intervention, which was presented during the second week of the conference.
Arab NGO Networking Meeting, February 2001: Adalah Staff Attorney Gadeer Nicola attended this regional NGO preparatory meeting held in Amman, Jordan for the UN WCAR, where she presented a statement outlining the concerns of the Palestinian minority in Israel.
Adalah's Submission to Amman NGO Networking Meeting for the UN World Conference Against Racism - 5 February 2001
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UN General Assembly - Habitat II+5 - June 2001
Adalah Staff Attorney Jamil Dakwar participated in a special session of the UN General Assembly, which reviewed the implementation of the Habitat agenda. During the session, Mr. Darkwar and other NGOs raised concerns about the language of the Habitat Declaration, particularly adding and rephrasing the article on the right of indigenous peoples, minorities and populations under occupation and foreign occupation, and lobbied for the inclusion of the right to adequate housing as a basic human right. He also spoke on a panel organized by Habitat International Coalition (HIC) entitled 'Housing Rights under Occupation,' with NGO representatives from Kurdistan, Tibet, and the Occupied Territories. He also participated in drafting an NGO statement, spoke at a press conference and marched at demonstrations for housing rights.
HIC Press Release: Back to the Future - 7 June 2001
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UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights - 25th Session - April/May 2001
As a follow-up to our work before the UN CESCR in 1998 and 2000, Adalah Staff Attorney Jamil Dakwar presented an oral and written statement to the NGO session of UN CESCR outlining Israel's failure to uphold its obligations under the Covenant. Adalah's statement focused on the continuing effects of the Al-Aqsa Intifada on Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Adalah worked, for the first time, as part of a coalition of Palestinian and international NGOs (comprised of Adalah, Al Haq, Arab Association for Human Rights, The Association of Forty, BADIL: Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Center for Economic and Social Rights, Habitat International Coalition: Middle East and North Africa, LAW, and Palestinian Centre for Human Rights) which submitted a joint memorandum raising concerns about Israel's grave violation of the economic, social and cultural rights of Palestinians on both sides of the "green line" during the current Intifada.
The coalition also submitted a comprehensive chart, which catalogued Israel's violations of the Covenant, provision by provision, both in Israel and in the Occupied Territories. In response to the coordinated action of the coalition, the UN CESCR sent letters both to Israel and to the UN Economic and Social Committee (ECOSOC) stating its grave concern about Israel's violations of the Covenant. Adalah and other coalition members issued press releases covering the session and the UN CESCR's response. The UN CESCR will review Israel's 30-page report, submitted as a response to questions posed by the Committee in 1998 and 2000, at its August 2001 session.
Press Release: The UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights Condemns Israel's Violations of International Human Rights Law - 21 May 2001
UN CESCR's Letter to Israel - 11 May 2001
UN CESCR's Letter to the UN Economic and Social Council - 11 May 2001
Adalah's Statement to the UN CESCR, NGO Session - 23 April 2001
Memorandum to the UN CESCR Regarding Israeli Violations of Palestinian Rights - 23 April 2001
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UN Human Rights Inquiry Commission - February-March 2001
Adalah, upon request of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, assisted in organizing a meeting for Palestinian and Israeli NGOs based in Israel, with the UN Human Rights Inquiry Commission (HRIC) in Jerusalem. The UN Commission for Human Rights (CHR) established the HRIC at its Emergency Session on Israel/Palestine in October 2000 in response to the current Intifada. The three members of the Commission - Prof. John Dugard, Prof. Richard Falk, and Dr. Kamal Hossein were mandated by the CHR to investigate human rights abuses by the Israeli security forces against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories from 28 September.
Adalah Staff Attorney Jamil Dakwar and Advocacy Coordinator Anne Massagee participated in the meeting, where Adalah and other NGO participants raised concerns about wide-ranging human rights violations which have taken place in Israel and the Occupied Territories since the beginning of the recent Intifada, including excessive use of force, extra-judicial killings, denial of due process rights of detainees, torture during detention, and the failure of the police or Mahash (the Ministry of Justice Police Investigation Unit) to investigate the killings.
Press Release: Adalah participates in meeting with the UN Human Rights Inquiry Commission - 14 February 2001
Adalah's Statement to the UN Human Rights Inquiry Commission - 14 February 2001
Report of the UN Human Rights Inquiry Commission - Question of the Violation of Human Rights in the Occupied Arab Territories, including Palestine - March
2001 (CPAP)
Adalah's Response to UN Human Rights Inquiry Commission Report - 22 March 2001
