Israel

• Plus de 100 fondations et donateurs mondiaux s'engagent à être solidaires de la société civile palestinienne suite à l'interdiction par Israël de six grandes organisations de défense des droits de l'homme.

  Les leaders philanthropiques exhortent les gouvernements à défendre la démocratie et les droits de l'homme en protégeant la société civile contre les politiques répressives.

• Progress and shortcomings from 44th Session of the Human Rights Council

  Joint Statement for the end of the 44th Session of the UN Human Rights Council

  The 44th session of the UN Human Rights Council began with China's imposition of legislation severely undermining rights and freedoms in Hong Kong. Within days, there were reports of hundreds of arrests, some for crimes that didn’t even exist previously. We welcome efforts this session by a growing number of States to collectively address China’s sweeping rights abuses, but more is needed. An unprecedented 50 Special Procedures recently expressed concerns at China’s mass violations in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Tibet, suppression of information in the context of Covid-19, and targeting of human rights defenders across the country. The Council should heed the call of these UN experts to hold a Special Session and create a mechanism to monitor and document rights violations in the country. No state is beyond international scrutiny. China’s turn has come.

  The 44th session also marked an important opportunity to enable those affected directly by human rights violations to speak to the Council through NGO video statements.

  Amnesty's Laith Abu Zeyad addressed the Council remotely from the occupied West Bank where he has been trapped by a punitive travel ban imposed by Israel since October 2019. We call on the Israeli authorities to end all punitive or arbitrary travel bans.

  During the interactive dialogue with the Commission of Inquiry on Syria, victims’ associations and families of victims highlighted the human rights violations occurring in detention centers in Syria. We welcome the efforts by some States to underline their demands and welcome the adoption of the Syria resolution on detainees and urge the Syrian government to take all feasible measures to release detainees and provide truth to the families, noting the important pressure needed by Member States to further call for accountability measures for crimes committed in Syria.

  Collette Flanagan, Founder of Mothers against Police Brutality, also delivered a powerful video statement at the Council explaining the reality of racist policing in the United States of America. We fully support victims’ families’ appeals to the Council for accountability.

  We hope that the High Commissioner's reporton systemic racism, police violence and government responses to antiracism peaceful protests will be the first step in a series of meaningful international accountability measures to fully and independently investigate police killings, to protect and facilitate Black Lives Matter and other protests, and to provide effective remedy and compensation to victims and their families in the United States of America and around the world.

  We appreciate the efforts made by the Council Presidency and OHCHR to overcome the challenges of resuming the Council’s work while taking seriously health risks associated with COVID-19, including by increasing remote and online participation. We recommend that remote civil society participation continue and be strengthened for all future sessions of the Council.

  Despite these efforts, delays in finalising the session dates and modalities, and subsequent changes in the programme of work, reduced the time CSOs had to prepare and engage meaningfully. This has a disproportionate impact on CSOs not based in Geneva, those based in different time zones and those with less capacity to monitor the live proceedings. Other barriers to civil society participation this session included difficulties to meet the strict technical requirements for uploading video statements, to access resolution drafts and follow informal negotiations remotely, especially from other time zones, as well as a decrease in the overall number of speaking slots available for NGO statements due to the cancellation of general debates this session as an ‘efficiency measure.’

  We welcome the joint statement led by the core group on civil society space and endorsed by cross regional States and civil society, which calls on the High Commissioner to ensure that the essential role of civil society, and States’ efforts to protect and promote civil society space, are reflected in the report on impact of the COVID-19 pandemic presented to the 46th Session of the HRC. We urge all States at this Council to recognise and protect the key role that those who defend human rights play.

  These last two years have seen unlawful use of force perpetrated by law enforcement against peaceful protesters, protest monitors, journalists worldwide, from the United States of America to Hong Kong, to Chile to France, Kenya to Iraq to Algeria, to India to Lebanon with impunity.

  We therefore welcome that the resolution “the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of peaceful protests” was adopted by consensus, and that the Council stood strongly against some proposed amendments which would have weakened it. We also welcome the inclusion in the resolution of a panel during the 48th session to discuss such events and how States can strengthen protections. We urge States to ensure full accountability for such human rights violations as an essential element of the protection of human rights in the context of protests. The current context has accelerated the urgency of protecting online assembly, and we welcome that the resolution reaffirms that peaceful assembly rights guaranteed offline are also guaranteed online. In particular, we also commend the resolution for calling on States to refrain from internet shutdowns and website blocking during protests, while incorporating language on the effects of new and emerging technologies, particularly tools such as facial recognition, international mobile subscriber identity-catchers (“stingrays”) and closed-circuit television.

  We welcome that the resolution on “freedom of opinion and expression” contains positive language including on obligations surrounding the right to information, emphasising the importance of measures for encryption and anonymity, and strongly condemning the use of internet shutdowns. Following the High Commissioner’s statement raising alarm at the abuse of ‘false news’ laws to crackdown on free expression during the COVID-19 pandemic, we also welcome that the resolution stresses that responses to the spread of disinformation and misinformation must be grounded in international human rights law, including the principles of lawfulness, legitimacy, necessity and proportionality. At the same time, we are concerned by the last minute addition of language which focuses on restrictions to freedom of expression, detracting from the purpose of the resolution to promote and protect the right. As we look to the future, it is important that the core group builds on commitments contained in the resolution and elaborate on pressing freedom of expression concerns of the day, particularly for the digital age, such as the issue of surveillance or internet intermediary liability, while refocusing elements of the text.

  The current context has not only accelerated the urgency of protecting assembly and access to information, but also the global recognition of the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. We welcome the timely discussions on ”realizing children’s right to a healthy environment” and the concrete suggestions for action from panelists, States, and civil society. The COVID-19 crisis, brought about by animal-to-human viral transmission, has clarified the interlinkages between the health of the planet and the health of all people. We therefore support the UN Secretary General’s call to action on human rights, as well as the High Commissioner’s statement advocating for the global recognition of the human right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment – already widely reflected at national and regional levels - and ask that the Council adopts a resolution in that sense. We also support the calls made by the Marshall Islands, Climate Vulnerable Forum, and other States of the Pacific particularly affected and threatened by climate change. We now urge the Council to strengthen its role in tackling the climate crisis and its adverse impacts on the realization of human rights by establishing a Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Climate Change, which will help address the urgency of the situation and amplify the voices of affected communities.

  The COVID crisis has also exacerbated discrimination against women and girls. We welcome the adoption by the Council of a strong resolution on multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination against women and girls, which are exacerbated in times of a global pandemic. The text, inter alia, reaffirms the rights to sexual and reproductive health and to bodily autonomy, and emphasizes legal obligations of States to review their legislative frameworks through an intersectional approach. We regret that such a timely topic has been questioned by certain States and that several amendments were put forward on previously agreed language.

  The Council discussed several country-specific situations, and renewed the mandates in some situations.

  We welcome the renewal of the Special Rapporteur’s mandate and ongoing scrutiny on Belarus. The unprecedented crackdown on human rights defenders, journalists, bloggers and members of the political opposition in recent weeks ahead of the Presidential election in August provide a clear justification for the continued focus, and the need to ensure accountability for Belarus’ actions. With concerns that the violations may increase further over the next few weeks, it is essential that the Council members and observers maintain scrutiny and pressure even after the session has finished.

  We welcome the extension of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Eritrea. We urge the government to engage, in line with its Council membership obligations, as the Special Rapporteur’s ‘benchmarks for progress’ form a road map for human rights reform in the country. We welcome the High Commissioner report on the human rights situation in the Philippines which concluded, among other things, that the ongoing killings appear to be widespread and systematic and that “the practical obstacles to accessing justice in the country are almost insurmountable.” We regret that even during this Council session, President Duterte signed an Anti Terrorism Law with broad and vague definition of terrorism and terrorists and other problematic provisions for human rights and rule of law, which we fear will be used to stifle and curtail the rights to freedom of opinion and expression, to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. Also during this session, in a further attack on press freedom, Philippine Congress rejected the franchise renewal of independent media network ABS-CBN, while prominent journalist Maria Ressa and her news website Rappler continue to face court proceedings and attacks from President Duterte after Ressa’s cyber libel conviction in mid-June. We support the call from a group of Special Procedures to the Council to establish an independent, impartial investigation into human rights violations in the Philippines and urge the Council to establish it at the next session.

  The two reports presented to the Council on Venezuela this session further document how lack of judicial independence and other factors perpetuate impunity and prevent access to justice for a wide range of violations of civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights in the country. We also urge the Council to stand ready to extend, enhance and expand the mandate of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission when it reports in September. We also welcome the report of the Special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967 and reiterate his call for States to ensure Israel puts an end to all forms of collective punishment. We also reiterate his call to ensure that the UN database of businesses involved with Israeli settlements becomes a living tool, through sufficient resourcing and annual updating.

  We regret, however, that several States have escaped collective scrutiny this session.

  We reiterate the UN Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard’s call to pressure Saudi Arabia to release prisoners of conscience and women human rights defenders and call on all States to sustain the Council’s scrutiny over the situation at the September session.

  Despite calls by the High Commissioner for prisoners’ release, Egypt has arrested defenders, journalists, doctors and medical workers for criticizing the government’s COVID-19 response. We recall that all of the defenders that the Special Procedures and the High Commissioner called for their release since September 2019 are still in pre-trial detention. The Supreme State Security Prosecution and 'Terrorism Circuit courts' in Egypt, are enabling pre-trial detention as a form of punishment including against human rights defenders and journalists and political opponents, such as Ibrahim Metwally, Mohamed El-Baqer and Esraa Abdel Fattah, Ramy Kamel, Alaa Abdel-Fattah, Patrick Zaky, Ramy Shaat, Eman Al-Helw, Solafa Magdy and Hossam El-Sayed. Once the terrorism circuit courts resumed after they were suspended due to COVID-19, they renewed their detention retroactively without their presence in court. It’s high time the Council holds Egypt accountable.

  As highlighted in a joint statement of Special Procedures, we call on the Indian authorities to immediately release HRDs, who include students, activists and protest leaders, arrested for protesting against changes to India’s citizenship laws. Also eleven prominent HRDs continue to be imprisoned under false charges in the Bhima Koregaon case. These activists face unfounded terror charges under draconian laws such as sedition and under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. While we welcome that Safoora Zargar was granted bail on humanitarian grounds, the others remain at high risk during a COVID-19 pandemic in prisons with not only inadequate sanitary conditions but also limited to no access to legal counsel and family members. A number of activists have tested positive in prison, including Akhil Gogoi and 80-year-old activist Varavara Rao amid a larger wave of infections that have affected many more prisoners across the country. Such charges against protestors, who were exercising their rights to freedom of peaceful assembly must be dropped. We call on this Council to strengthen their demands to the government of India for accountability over the excessive use of force by the police and other State authorities against the demonstrators.

  In Algeria, between 30 March and 16 April 2020, the Special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, human rights defenders, issued three urgent appeals in relation to cases involving arbitrary and violent arrests, unfair trials and reprisals against human rights defenders and peaceful activists Olaya Saadi, Karim Tabbou and Slimane Hamitouche. Yet, the Council has been silent with no mention of the crackdown on Algerian civil society, including journalists.

  To conclude on a positive note, we welcome the progress in the establishment of the OHCHR country office in Sudan, and call on the international community to continue to provide support where needed to the transitional authorities. While also welcoming their latest reform announcements, we urge the transitional authorities to speed up the transitional process, including reforms within the judiciary and security sectors, in order to answer the renewed calls from protesters for the enjoyment of "freedom, peace and justice" of all in Sudan. We call on the Council to ensure continued monitoring and reporting on Sudan.

  ENDORSEMENTS

  International Service for Human Rights
  DefendDefenders (East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project)
  Center for Reproductive Rights
  Franciscans International
  The Syrian Legal Development Programme
  Egyptian Front for Human Rights (EFHR)
  CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
  International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR)
  International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA World)
  Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS)
  Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
  Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI)
  ARTICLE 19
  International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
  Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
  IFEX
  Association for Progressive Communications
  International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)
  Amnesty International

   

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  Current council members:

  Afghanistan, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Eritrea, Fiji, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Libya, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mexico, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Poland, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Senegal, Slovakia, Somalia, Sudan, Spain, Togo, Ukraine, Uruguay, Venezuela

  Civic space ratings from the CIVICUS Monitor

  OPEN	NARROWED	OBSTRUCTED	REPRESSED	CLOSED

   

• Solidarity protests with Palestinian people banned in at least 12 EU countries

  Protests banned on grounds of protecting ‘public order’ and ‘security’

  • Authorities have resorted to excessive force in multiple countries, including the use of pepper spray, kettling and the deployment of police dogs
  • Palestinian flags and scarves also widely banned
  • European and international NGOs urge the Commission to act on restrictions

  The European Civic Forum, Civil Liberties Union for Europe, CIVICUS, European Network Against Racism and Solidar are calling on the European Commission to address at the highest political level the unlawful restrictions on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression imposed by member states since the dramatic escalation of violence in Israel and Palestine last year.

  A new analysis, published by the European Civic Forum, shows that European governments have repeatedly cracked down on individuals and organisations expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people in marches, demonstrations and cultural activities.

  Six months on from 7 October, people in Europe have continued to take to the streets to peacefully protest against the violence, to show solidarity with the victims and to call for the respect of human rights and international law.

  These protests are unfolding amid an increase in hate speech and hate crimes targeting both Jewish and Muslim communities in Europe. Palestinians, people of Arab descent, and Muslim people (and those perceived as such) have been disproportionately affected by these restrictions, with racial profiling sometimes being used as justification. With tensions and polarisation in society rising, it is all the more important that authorities act responsibly and ensure that everyone’s rights are respected and that people are allowed to protest freely and peacefully.

  An alarming pattern of restrictions

  In at least 12 EU member states, authorities have taken disproportionate measures, including the pre-emptive banning of protests based on apparent risk to “public order” and “security”.  Such cases have been documented in Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Poland and Sweden. In several member states, the courts have overturned protest bans.

  The crackdown has also included the use of excessive force in at least seven member states, including pepper spray, deployment of police dogs, physical aggression, and kettling tactics, perpetuating a climate of fear and intimidation and violating international human rights standards.

  Case studies from Italy and Germany reveal some of the disproportionate measures taken by authorities to quell protests supporting Palestine. In Milan, Italian police used batons to disperse pro-Palestine demonstrators who gathered despite an official ban on protests on International Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27 January. Other incidents of excessive force have been recorded in Austria, Belgium, France, Greece and the Netherlands.

  Restrictions on freedom of expression have also been imposed, targeting symbols associated with Palestine. The Palestinian flag and wearing the Keffiyeh, along with other symbols indicating support for Palestine, have reportedly been banned in countries such as Germany, Italy, and Spain, further limiting the ability of individuals to express solidarity.

  Several member states, including Austria, Germany and France have conflated legitimate criticism of Israeli authorities with antisemitism and silenced the voice of Palestinian and Jewish activists, for example by cancelling events. In Germany alone, 139 cases of cultural repressions (October 7th- January 31st) were documented, including instances where access to venues was withdrawn or events were cancelled, smear campaigns, and threats of defunding were made for expressing views on Palestine.

  Restrictions have been documented in the UK,[1] where the government has repeatedly smeared protesters and put pressure on the police to further restrict protests. Recently, the home secretary James Cleverly  proposed to further limit protest rights by increasing the minimum notice period of six days to support police with large-scale protests. Last year, then-home secretary Suella Braverman wrote to police chiefs, encouraging them to “consider” whether using the chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” could be considered a racially aggravated offence. In addition, she labelled the demonstrations in solidarity with Palestinians as “hate marches”. More recently, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, delivered an address in which he appeared to echo Braverman’s sentiments, later summoning police chiefs to Downing Street to criticise their handling of protests.

  “In the context of the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the plausibility of genocide and the new tragic developments on the ground in Gaza and across Israel/Palestine, people continue to protest and to urgently call for accountability and justice.

  “However, our monitoring shows that rather than listening to the people, European governments are repeatedly opting to limit civic space and to silence individuals and organisations expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people,” said Aarti Narsee, Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer at the European Civic Forum.

  In light of our monitoring, we strongly urge European governments to adhere to their international legal obligations and safeguard the rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. It is imperative that authorities refrain from resorting to excessive force and instead prioritise the preservation of democratic principles and space.

  We call on the European Commission to address these restrictions on peaceful assembly and expression in the Annual Rule of Law Cycle and make recommendations to member states to respect the right to peaceful assembly at all times, as per international law.

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  You can read the full analysis here.[2]

  [1] These examples do not appear in the full analysis, which focuses on EU member states.

  [2] This analysis forms part of the European Civic Forum’s submission to the European Commission’s Rule of Law consultation.

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  Signatories:
  CIVICUS
  Civil Liberties Union for Europe
  European Civic Forum
  European Network Against Racism
  Solidar

• Solidarity with Palestine repressed: Trends and case studies
  • Pro-Palestinian protests met with restrictions: bans, arrests, excessive force
  • Student pro-Palestine activism repressed, particularly in western countries
  • Activists, CSOs, journalists targeted with reprisals for expressing solidarity with Palestine

  On 7 October 2023, Hamas forces launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing over 1,100 people and taking more than 200 hostages. This was followed by Israel’s devastating military offensive on Gaza, in which more than 41,431 people, the majority of them civilians, have been killed. Gaza’s entire population of 2.1 million people now requires humanitarian aid. Almost all, including around a million children, lack adequate access to food, water, shelter and medical care. Some 60 percent of Gaza's buildings have been destroyed, including civilian facilities such as hospitals, schools and places of worship. Despite diplomatic efforts to broker a ceasefire, Israel continues its offensive.

  Palestine’s already constrained civic space has deteriorated, with many human rights violations documented. Israeli forces are deliberately targeting humanitarian aid convoys and killing aid workers: 304 have been killed so far, and more UN aid workers have been killed in Gaza than in any other conflict in the organisation’s history. Israel’s bombardment is also destroying civil society buildings and killing civil society staff. Suspensions of funding for UNRWA – the UN’s agency for Palestine – and civil society organisations (CSOs) have further impeded vital humanitarian efforts. 

  Over 130 journalists have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, and others have been attacked, injured and detained, while recurring telecommunications blackouts have limited people’s access to vital information and hindered the humanitarian response.

  The civic space implications go beyond Palestine. The CIVICUS Monitor, a collaborative research initiative that tracks the health of civic freedoms, has documented violations across the globe that restrict people’s right to express solidarity with Palestine. 

  In numerous countries – including Australia, Egypt, France, Kenya and Malaysia – freedom of peaceful assembly has been restricted for people wishing to gather to show solidarity with Gaza and demand a ceasefire. Restrictive measures taken by authorities include protest bans, arrests of protesters and organisers and excessive use of force. For example, in Sweden in May 2024, police used pepper spray and forcibly removed and detained protesters during a sit-in near Malmö Arena where the Eurovision Song Contest was taking place. In Kenya, protesters marching peacefully in solidarity with Palestine have been arrested and violently dispersed by the police, including in protests held in October 2023 and January 2024. In Malaysia, peaceful protesters have been hauled before the police for questioning after organising or participating in solidarity protests for Palestine.

  In Europe and the USA, authorities have repressed pro-Palestine activism by university students. At the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, police violently broke up a student encampment to demand that the university administration cut ties with Israeli-affiliated institutions. Police used batons, pepper spray, police dogs and bulldozers against protesters. Clashes broke out as protesters resisted eviction, with a protester and a police officer injured. Police detained 169 protesters.

  In the USA, at least 3,000 people – students and university faculty and staff – have been detained as a result of raids. CSOs have reported a troubling pattern of institutions scrutinising pro-Palestinian students for alleged ‘material support for terrorism’, despite a lack of evidence, and proposing discriminatory measures such as visa cancellations and deportations. Universities in the UK have been accused of collaborating with the police to monitor and potentially criminalise students taking part in pro-Palestine protests or expressing solidarity with Palestine on social media. On 19 November 2023, police visited a University of York student at home due to a social media post supporting Palestine. 

  People expressing solidarity with Palestine have been targeted with reprisals, including activists and journalists who have been dismissed or suspended from their jobs. In Canada for example, Global News dismissed journalist Zahraa Al-Akhrass October 2023, over social media posts expressing her critical views on Israel’s violence in Gaza. A month later, the University of Ottawa temporarily suspended Yipeng Ge, a physician, over social media statements that referenced ‘apartheid’ and ‘settler colonialism’. In Egypt, the BBC arbitrarily suspended Sally Nabil, its bilingual correspondent, in February 2024, after Nabil liked a tweet expressing solidarity with Palestine.

  CSOs have also been targeted. In October 2023, the Belgian Minister of Culture asked his administration to investigate two CSOs because they had published statements on the situation in Gaza. Even after they were cleared of wrongdoing, the minister stated that he wanted to keep the organisations under ‘heightened scrutiny’. In Germany, Berlin police deployed around 200 officers in December 2023 to conduct raids on homes and premises connected to members of Zora, a pro-Palestinian anti-fascist feminist collective. The raid was prompted by a statement the group posted on its Instagram account on 12 October that said ‘No liberation of women without the liberation of Palestine’.

  Recommendations

  • The Israeli government must immediately agree to a permanent ceasefire, a peace process and unimpeded humanitarian access.
  • States should respect the right of people to protest for Palestinian rights and refrain from violence, arrests and vilification.
  • University and police authorities should respect the right of students to protest peacefully.
  • Authorities should stop conflating legitimate criticism of the Israeli state with antisemitism and extremism.

  Additional resources:

  Recommendations for universities worldwide for the second semester of 2024: Safeguarding the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association on campuses in the context of international solidarity with the Palestinian people and victims - Gina Romero, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association (FoAA).

  Analysis by the European Civic Forum examines how European governments have repeatedly cracked down on individuals and organisations expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people in marches, demonstrations and cultural activities. See report, Restrictions on Palestine Solidarity (May 2024).

• The International Community Must Support and Protect Palestinian Civil Society

  بالعربية

  As a group of 242 regional and international organisations, we express our full solidarity with Palestinian civil society and human rights defenders as Israel continues to escalate its attacks to shut down critical human rights work and silence opposition to its occupation of Palestinian territory and apartheid over the Palestinian people as a whole. We urge the international community to take all necessary action to support and protect Palestinian civil society and human rights defenders and ensure the continuation of their invaluable work.