GENEVA (11 August 2021) \u2013 A UN expert today expressed concern over arrests, harassment, criminalisation and threats against human rights defenders in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, and called on Israel to make sure all Palestinian human rights defenders are protected.<\/p>\n
\u201cArrests and raids on the homes of Palestinian human right defenders form part of a wider crackdown against those defending the human rights of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,\u201d said Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.<\/p>\n
She said she was alarmed by the arbitrary arrest and detention of Farid Al-Atrash, a human rights defender and lawyer at the Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR). He was detained by Israeli military forces after he peacefully participated in a demonstration in Bethlehem on 15 June and was released on bail eight days later.<\/p>\n
Lawlor said she was also concerned about the forcible transfer of Palestinians living in the Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighbourhoods of Jerusalem. \u201cMuna Al-Kurd, Mohammed Al-Kurd and Zuhair Al Rajabi,human rights defenders at the forefront of protecting their communities against forced displacement, have been arrested and interrogated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She also cited the situation of Salah Hammouri, a Palestinian-French human rights defender and lawyer at Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, who is at risk of having his permanent residency permit in Jerusalem revoked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am shocked that members of the Health Work Committee, who provide health services to Palestinians living in remote areas of the West Bank, were arrested, interrogated and may be criminalised because of their human rights work,\u201d Lawlor added.<\/p>\n
The committee\u2019s director, Shatha Odeh and its former project coordinator, Juana Ruiz S\u00e1nchez, are being held in Damoun Prison and its accountant, Tayseer Abu Sharbak, in Ofer prison. They are being tried on charges of participating in what is described as \u201can illegal organisation\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI call on Israeli authorities to release all three human rights defenders immediately,\u201d said Lawlor. She also urged authorities to investigate allegations of ill-treatment against the two woman human rights defenders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe deteriorating health of Odeh and the solitary confinement of S\u00e1nchez are extremely worrying,\u201d she said. Odeh, who has chronic underlying health conditions, had initially been denied access to necessary medication and clean clothes.<\/p>\n
Lawlor stressed the importance of safeguarding Palestinian human rights defenders in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, especially those who are protecting their communities\u2019 rights to housing, healthcare and freedom of assembly and association.<\/p>\n
\u201cI call on the authorities to stop targeting these human rights defenders and allow them to carry out their legitimate and peaceful work free from any kind of restrictions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The expert\u2019s call is endorsed by: Mr. Michael Lynk,\u00a0Special Rapporteur\u00a0<\/em>on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967<\/em>;<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Ms. Melissa Upreti (Chair), Ms.\u00a0Dorothy Estrada-Tanck (Vice Chair), Ms. Elizabeth Broderick,<\/strong>\u00a0Ms. Ivana Rada\u010di\u0107,\u00a0<\/strong>and Ms.\u00a0Meskerem Geset Techane,\u00a0Working Group on discrimination against women and girls<\/em><\/a><\/strong>; Mr.\u00a0Fernand de Varennes,\u00a0Special Rapporteur on minority Issues<\/em><\/a><\/strong>; Ms. Reem Alsalem,\u00a0<\/em>Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences<\/em><\/a><\/strong>;\u00a0Ms. Tlaleng Mofokeng,Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health<\/em><\/a><\/strong>;\u00a0<\/u><\/em>Mr. Cl\u00e9ment Nyaletsossi Voule,\u00a0<\/em>Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association<\/em><\/a><\/strong>.<\/u><\/em><\/p>\n ENDS<\/u><\/p>\n Ms Mary Lawlor, (Ireland) is the\u00a0<\/em>Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders<\/a>. She is currently an Adjunct Professor of Business and Human Rights in Trinity College Dublin. She was the founder of Front Line Defenders – the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders. As Executive Director from 2001-2016, she represented Front Line Defenders and had a key role in its development.\u00a0Ms. Lawlor was previously Director of the Irish Office of Amnesty International from 1988 to 2000, after becoming a member of the Board of Directors 1975 and being elected its President from 1983 to 1987.<\/em><\/p>\n Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the\u00a0<\/em>Special Procedures<\/em><\/a>\u00a0of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.<\/em><\/p>\n For more information and\u00a0media requests<\/strong>\u00a0please contact Orsolya Toth (+41 22 917 9913 \/\u00a0<\/em>ototh@ohchr.org<\/em><\/a>) or write to\u00a0<\/em>defenders@ohchr.org<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n For media enquiries regarding other UN independent experts, please contact Renato de Souza (+41 22 928 9855<\/u>\u00a0\/\u00a0<\/em>rrosariodesouza@ohchr.org<\/em><\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n Follow news related to the UN’s independent human rights experts on Twitter<\/em>@UN_SPExperts<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" GENEVA (11 August 2021) \u2013 A UN expert today expressed concern over arrests, harassment, criminalisation and threats against human rights defenders in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, and called on Israel to make sure all Palestinian human rights defenders are protected. \u201cArrests and raids on the homes of Palestinian human right defenders form part […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"template-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[897,5663],"document-category":[1329],"document-source":[6590,4570,2025,4754,6221],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1741,2613,1961,2185,2285,1841],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[],"class_list":["post-256581","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","country-israel","country-palestine","document-category-press-release","document-source-special-rapporteur-on-minority-issues","document-source-special-rapporteur-on-the-situation-of-human-rights-defenders","document-source-special-rapporteur-on-the-situation-of-human-rights-in-the-opt","document-source-special-rapporteur-on-violence-against-women-and-girls-its-causes-and-consequences","document-source-working-group-on-discrimination-against-women-and-girls","document-subject-human-rights-and-international-humanitarian-law","document-subject-internally-displaced-persons","document-subject-jerusalem","document-subject-legal-issues","document-subject-prisoners-and-detainees","document-subject-women","entity-united-nations-system"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/256581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/256581\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=256581"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=256581"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=256581"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=256581"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=256581"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=256581"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=256581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}