Middle East

• On 25 August, Al–Haq issued the “Semi-annual Field Report on Human Rights Violations, 2021”, in which it reported inter alia that, in the first half of 2021, Israeli forces had killed 302 Palestinians, demolished a total of 270 Palestinian public and private properties and that they and Jewish-Israeli settlers had committed a number of other violations including attacks.

• On 23 August, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights informed that it and Al-Haq had sent an analysis of the Draft Convention on the Right to Development at the request of the Intergovernmental Working Group on the Right to Development. The submission pointed out the interrelation between the right to development and the realization of human rights as particularly critical in the Palestinian context, including the right to self-determination, the elimination of foreign domination and belligerent occupation, the prohibition against discrimination and flagrant human rights abuses; the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including socioeconomic rights; peoples’ full sovereignty over their natural resources; and participatory decision-making in public affairs.

North America

• On 24 August, Americans for Peace Now issued a press release urging US President Biden to use the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Bennett to bolster the US administration’s role in advancing Israeli-Palestinian peace and underscore that the United States – like the entire international community – opposes West Bank settlement construction, insists on stopping settlement activity, on dismantling West Bank illegal outposts, built in violation of Israel’s own laws and regulations, and on the cessation of other measures aimed at de jure or de facto annexation of the West Bank.

• On 23 August, Human Rights Watch issued the report “Gaza: Israel’s May Airstrikes on High-Rises” in which it concluded that Israeli military’s airstrikes that destroyed four highrise buildings in Gaza City during the May 2021 fighting had apparently violated the laws of war and may amount to war crimes. The attacks had also damaged neighbouring structures, made several dozen families homeless, and shuttered scores of businesses that provided livelihoods to many people.

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.