Adalah Submits Report to UN HRC on Israel’s Lack of Compliance with Civil and Political Rights Covenant concerning Palestinian citizens
(Haifa, Israel) On 11 June 2012, Adalah submitted a report to the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UN HRC) to assist it in preparing a “List of Issues” for Israel in July 2012. The UN HRC is responsible for monitoring State Parties’ compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); Israel signed the human rights treaty in 1966, and ratified it in October 1991.
Adalah’s report provides information on ten urgent issues of discrimination against Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel and Israel’s lack of compliance with its commitments under the ICCPR. The ten issues are:
1. Lack of protection for the right of equality
2. Excessive use of force by police against demonstrators
3. The ongoing ban on family unification
4. Violations of the right to freedom of religion
5. The inferior treatment of the Arabic language
6. The demolition and evacuation of unrecognized Arab Bedouin villages
7. The lack of access to water in unrecognized Arab Bedouin villages
8. Violations of the freedom of opinion, expression and association
9. Infringements on the right to political participation
10. Violations of the right to choose one’s residence
The report also includes an appendix which documents 30 "New Discriminatory Laws and Bills," all enacted or introduced in the Knesset since the beginning of the current Netanyahu-Lieberman government in 2009. The list details legislation which serves to dispossess Arab citizens from their land; undermine the ability of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel and their parliamentary representatives to participate in political life; privilege Jewish citizens in the allocation of state budget resources; deny Palestinian citizens due process; circumvent the Supreme Court; restrict the funding and activities of human rights organizations and other civil society groups; and more.
For more information, read:
New Discriminatory Laws – June 2012 Update
See Adalah’s past work before the UN HRC
