PCHR calls upon the international community to provide immediate financial assistance for UNWRA’s emergency appeal

Ref: 88/2003

The Palestinian
Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) calls upon the international community to
provide immediate financial assistance to the United Nations Relief and Works
Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). PCHR urges all member states of the
United Nations, in particular those of the Arab and Islamic world, as well as
private donors and organisations to take immediate steps to contribute to an
emergency appeal for US$103 million. 

In June, UNRWA
launched an urgent appeal for donors to contribute much needed funds in aid of
their development and emergency relief programs for Palestine refugees in the
Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). UNRWA provides employment opportunities for
thousands of refugees, as well as financial assistance, food aid and
educational, social and medical services.

 “The
Palestinian population has suffered so much in the last three years that their
distress will not quickly be reversed,” said UNRWA’s Commissioner-General,
Peter Hansen, at the appeal’s launch in Geneva. “The Palestinian economy has
been gravely damaged and poverty rates have tripled; hundreds of families have
been made homeless and thousands of people have been killed and injured. If the
international community wishes to encourage peace in the region it must
continue working to ease the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza and the West
Bank.”

On 23 July 2003, Mr. Hansen held a press
conference in Gaza City, to further express his concerns for the ongoing
humanitarian suffering in the OPT. Mr. Hansen stated that UNRWA has received
only US$3.5 million of the US$103 million necessary for the full implementation
of their development and emergency aid programs for the second half of 2003.

Due to the severe financial constraints UNRWA
has been forced to cease their assistance to approximately 31,000 refugees in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip and there are further fears that the agency may be
forced to dismiss approximately 8,000 refugees currently working under UNRWA’s
job creation program. 

In the last three
years, the already deplorable humanitarian situation in the OPT has
deteriorated rapidly, due to increased Israeli aggression and violations of
basic human rights, resulting in the collective punishment of the Palestinian
population. PCHR
stresses that the need for financial assistance is a direct result of the
Israeli government’s policies, which have resulted in the social and economic
suffocation of the Palestinian people. PCHR asserts that ignoring the plight of
the Palestine refugees provides de facto support for the policies of the
Israeli government, whose occupying forces continue to perpetrate violations of
international human rights and humanitarian law, including war crimes.

With this in mind, PCHR urges the
international community to take immediate steps to ensure the continuation of
UNRWA’s invaluable services, by contributing to the emergency appeal.    

PCHR calls:

· Upon member states of the
United Nations to immediately provide the financial assistance necessary to
fund UNRWA’s emergency appeal.

· Upon the High Contracting
Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War of 1949 to take all necessary steps to force the Israeli
occupying authorities to stop violations of human rights and grave breaches of
the Convention, including war crimes, against Palestinian civilians and property.

· Upon the international
community to force an end to the injustice and persecution which the
Palestinian people have been subjected to, including dispersion and forced
migration.

· Upon the international
community to take effective steps to pressure Israel to lift the siege imposed
on the OPT and allow the Palestinian people to exercise their right to
self-determination and control over their natural resources in accordance with
UN principles and international human rights instruments.