Mideast situation/Palestine question – Amnesty International Report 2005/ Human rights violations – AI report/Non-UN document (excerpts)

Amnesty International Report 2005

During 2004, the human rights of ordinary men, women and children were disregarded or grossly abused in every corner of the globe. Economic interests, political hypocrisy and socially orchestrated discrimination continued to fan the flames of conflict around the world. The “war on terror” appeared more effective in eroding international human rights principles than in countering international “terrorism”. The millions of women who suffered gender-based violence in the home, in the community or in war zones were largely ignored. The economic, social and cultural rights of marginalized communities were almost entirely neglected.

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Middle East and North Africa

Regional overview 2004

Grave and multiple human rights violations, including the killing of hundreds of civilians in armed conflicts and political violence, continued with impunity throughout the region. Political and human rights reforms were debated at national and regional levels, with significant input from civil society groups, writers and journalists. The League of Arab States adopted a revised version of the Arab Charter on Human Rights.

The political and human rights situation continued to receive international attention. In June the G8 summit of major industrialized states endorsed a US-sponsored “partnership” plan, the Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiative, which pledged support for “democratic, social and economic reform emanating from [the] region” and “effective guarantees in the areas of human rights and fundamental freedoms”. The Initiative was met with a mixture of scepticism and interest among governments and civil society. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), at a gathering held in parallel to a follow-up G8 meeting in December in Morocco, pushed for a more effective mechanism to achieve reform. The NGOs recommended that reform be genuine and inclusive and that the G8 take a strong stand, collectively and as individual states, on progress towards democracy in the region. They called for the G8 to participate in monitoring elections and put pressure on the region’s governments to stop harassing NGOs.

The European Union (EU) remained engaged with states in the region through the Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreements and through dialogue with Iran, Libya and the Gulf states. At the UN, the General Assembly adopted a resolution on human rights in Iran in November. In an advisory opinion, the International Court of Justice ruled that the construction by Israel of a fence/wall inside the occupied West Bank was unlawful under international law.

Armed conflict and impunity

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Increasing numbers of Palestinians were killed and homes destroyed by the Israeli army in the Palestinian Occupied Territories. Some 700 Palestinians died, including about 150 children. Most were killed unlawfully, in reckless shootings, shellings or air strikes on refugee camps and other densely populated areas throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli forces continued to carry out extrajudicial executions of members and leaders of Hamas and other Palestinian groups, in which bystanders were frequently killed or injured. Some 109 Israelis, most of them civilians and including eight children, were killed by Palestinian armed groups in suicide bombings, shootings and mortar attacks inside Israel and in the Occupied Territories.

Routine destruction of Palestinian homes, land and property in the West Bank and Gaza Strip was stepped up in the biggest wave of house demolitions in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the intifada (uprising). In May the Israeli army destroyed some 300 homes and damaged about 270 others in a refugee camp in Rafah, leaving close to 4,000 Palestinians homeless. In the West Bank, Israel continued to build a 600-kilometre fence/wall encircling and cutting off Palestinian towns and villages, despite the ruling by the International Court of Justice. The fence/wall and hundreds of Israeli army checkpoints and blockades throughout the Occupied Territories continued to hinder or prevent Palestinians’ access to their land, their workplaces and to education, health and other crucial services.

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Political violence and the ‘war on terror’

Human rights violations continued to be justified by the global “war on terror” as security forces across the region responded to attacks by armed groups they accused of links with al-Qa’ida. Dozens of people, including children, were killed in Saudi Arabia as armed groups carried out bomb attacks, hostage-takings and targeted killings of Western nationals. Bomb attacks claimed the lives of over 30 civilians and injured more than 100 others, most of them Israeli tourists, in Taba, in the Sinai region of Egypt. In Yemen, there were reports that hundreds of people were killed, most of them as a result of excessive force by the security forces, in clashes with followers of Hussain Badr al-Din al-Huthi, a cleric from the Zaidi community.

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Women’s rights and violence against women

Debate on women’s rights increased at official levels and within civil society. A new Family Code issued in Morocco significantly improved the legal framework for women’s rights. Women’s groups and NGOs continued to press for the increased participation of women in public affairs, and a more robust approach to violence against women.

In Iraq, Israel and the Occupied Territories, violence against women was directly linked to conflict, or was exacerbated by the easy availability of arms and the social disruption of war. Across the region, violence within the home and family was perpetuated by state inaction, inadequate or discriminatory legislation, and social prejudice. Women in Iran faced discrimination in the courts and, in at least one case in 2004, a girl under the age of 18 was executed after a flagrantly flawed trial.

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Refugees and migrants

In most countries in the region, there was no legal regime for the protection of refugees and asylum-seekers. Ratification of the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol remained limited, the only countries that were party to them being Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Morocco, Tunisia and Yemen.

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Palestinian refugees, one of the largest refugee groups in the world, continued to suffer hardship in their host countries, while their right to return remained unfulfilled. Many were prevented from receiving the assistance they needed because the resources of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) were overstretched. Palestinian refugees continued to undergo particularly severe hardship in Lebanon, where discriminatory policies undermined their ability to earn their livelihoods and effectively restricted their access to economic and social rights.

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