Ref:33/2012

On 3-4 April, the Palestinian Centre for Human
Rights (PCHR) participated, as an observer, in the UN International Meeting on
the Question of Palestine, convened in Geneva, Switzerland, by the UN
Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian
People. This intergovernmental body, currently comprised of 24 UN member
States, has been set in 1975 by the UN General Assembly resolution 3376 to
report on measures to implement Palestinians’ fundamental rights. Its mandate
has been since renewed on annual basis.

The theme of the meeting was “The
question of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention
facilities: legal and political implications”. Relevant topics included the
situation of imprisoned members of vulnerable groups – women, minors and sick
persons – and the urgency of their protection, and the illegal incarceration of
parliamentarians. Framed as a permanent status issue, the question of
Palestinian political prisoners was further analyzed in relation to past peace
processes and agreements, such as the cases of Namibia and South Africa. The
panel of experts, among whom Prof. John Dugard, former UN Special Rapporteur on
the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt),
addressed a vast audience of representatives of UN members and system entities,
civil society organizations and academic communities.  

Mr. Davide Tundo, a member of PCHR’s
International Unit, participated as an observer. On 5 April, Mr. Tundo also
participated in consultations of a Committee delegation with civil society
organizations active on the question of Palestine, at the UN office in Geneva.

In these events, Mr. Tundo has taken the floor
to address the absence of justice in the oPt and noted that the situation of
the Palestinian prisoners in Israel is reflective of a general disregard for
Palestinians’ human rights by the Israeli authorities.

In particular, Mr. Tundo stigmatized Israel’s
criminalization of civil and political life in the oPt, including through the
systematic recourse to administrative detention orders and forcible transfer of
“protected persons”, such as the recent case of Hannah Shalabi. These practices
violate a number of civil and political human rights and international
humanitarian legal standards, including the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949,
and may amount to war crimes under the Rome Statute of the International
Criminal Court.

Overall, as this judicial body is currently
unable to exercise its jurisdiction over the oPt, the need to uphold the
rule of law in the Israeli-Palestinian context is even more pressing.
Responsibility to implement international law and ensure victims’ rights in the
oPt is a moral and legal duty which requires UN states’ commitment towards the
persecution of Israel’s international crimes, both through the application of
the universal jurisdiction principle at a domestic level and other available
mechanisms within the UN system and regional fora.

PCHR believes that the enforcement of the rule
of law and accountability in the oPt is the best deterrence against future
violations. Palestinian civilians, the protected persons of international law,
deserve justice and the equal protection of the law.

PCHR therefore urges this UN Committee to
condemn in the strongest possible terms Israel’s violations of Palestinians’
basic rights, particularly of political prisoners in Israel, and call upon the
international community to enforce justice and the rule of law in the oPt.