NGO Action News – 04 May 2018

This newsletter informs about recent and upcoming activities of Civil Society Organizations affiliated with the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. The Committee and the Division for Palestinian Rights of the UN Secretariat provide the information “as is” without warranty of any kind, and do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, or reliability of the information contained in the websites linked in the newsletter.

NGO Action News
4 May 2018 

Middle East

• On 3 May, on the occasion of International World Press Freedom Day, Addameer issued a press release to call on both Israeli and Palestinian authorities to “abide by their obligations under Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights” on freedom of expression and thought. 

• On 30 April, the High Court of Justice in Israel held a hearing on a petition filed by Israeli human rights organizations Gisha, Yesh Din, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and HaMoked. The court chose to hear the petition together with another petition filed by Adalah and Al Mezan. Both petitions argued for the revocation of Israel’s open-fire regulations allowing soldiers to use live ammunition of peaceful protesters at the Gaza border.

• On 29 April, HaMoked published a new report on “Childhood in Chains – The Detention and Interrogation of Palestinian Teenagers in the West Bank.” The report sheds light on Israel’s ongoing policy of violations of the rights of Palestinian minors arrested by Israeli security forces.

• Al-Haq announced its 7th semi-annual International Law Orientation Course for employees of international organizations and diplomatic staff in Ramallah, to be held from 7 to 9 May. The course is to include a field visit to Hebron to show the “on-the-ground reality of occupation.”

Europe

• On 4 May, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) published an article on “Gaza’s children trapped between ‘recovery and shock’.” It examines the psychological stress the recent violence at the Great March of Return has contributed among children in Gaza and highlights NRC’s psycho-social support initiatives.

• Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), U.K., announced the staging of a protest “Stand up for Gaza – Stop the Killing” in front of Israel embassy in London, planned for 11 May. The protest will take place as part of several activities planned in solidarity with Palestine in the wake of the “70 years of Nakba” commemoration and the Great March of Return.

North America

• On 28 April, Adalah Justice Project, Palestine Legal, US Campaign for Palestinian Rights and Jewish Voice for Peace conducted a workshop in Montgomery, AL, on “Reclaiming history: A workshop on the pursuit of historical justice from Palestine to Alabama.” The delegation of NGOs and lawyers visited Montgomery for the opening of the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice.

• On 23 April, Adalah- The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, together with U.S.-based partners Adalah Justice Project and the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, met with a dozen members of the U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C., to provide updates on the situation in Gaza and to call for effective intervention to end the “illegal closure,” and the “right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland.”

United Nations

• On 30 April, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Mladenov issued a statement on the convening of the Palestinian National Council.

• The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will jointly convene an international conference under the theme “The Question of Jerusalem after 50 years of Occupation and 25 years of the Oslo Accords” in Rabat, Morocco, on 26-28 June 2018. 

• To mark the anniversary of the 1948 war and subsequent uprooting and mass displacement of Palestinians, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) will convene the two-day Forum “70 years after 1948- Lessons to Achieve a Sustainable Peace” at the UN Headquarters, NY, on 17-18 May 2018.