Ref: 25/2023

Date: 6 April 2023

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) has concluded its participation in the 52nd Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), which took place between 27 February 2023 and 4 April 2023.

PCHR participated in the session by making two oral interventions, one under item 3, which discusses the promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, and the other under item 7, which discusses the human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab Territories.

Dr. Fadel Almzainy, Director of the Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights Unit, delivered PCHR’s oral intervention under item 3, highlighting the Israeli blockade’s impact on the right to health, especially on the shortage of medicine in the Gaza Strip and the restrictions on patients referred for treatment outside of Gaza. In its intervention, PCHR called on member states of the HRC to exert pressure on Israel to implement the recommendations of the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights concerning health conditions in the Gaza Strip, which are stipulated in the Concluding Observations on Fourth Periodic Report of Israel.

Basel Alsourani, PCHR’s International Advocacy Officer, delivered PCHR’s oral intervention under Item 7, highlighting the escalation in settler attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, which led to the killing of 6 Palestinians since the beginning of the year. PCHR noted that the absence of accountability has encouraged Israeli officials and settlers, like Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gavir, to delcare their genocidal intentions publicly without fear for accountability and warned that the horrific events in Howara which took place on 26 February, will become the norm if impunity continues to prevail. PCHR called on the member states of the HRC to support the ongoing investigation by the International Criminal Court Prosecutor into the situation in Palestine and to urge him to expedite his investigation.  

PCHR has also submitted a written statement under item 7 entitled “Palestinian Children Continue to Be the Main Target of Israeli Occupation Forces” which addressed Israel’s excessive use of force policy, especially following its launch of a military operation codenamed “Break the Wave”, which led to the killing of 32 Palestinian children in the West Bank in 2022. PCHR noted that in its documentation and collection of evidence, the Israeli

occupation forces (IOF) used excessive and lethal force against Palestinian children in circumstances that may amount to willful killing, a war crime under the Rome Statute. Amongst other demands, PCHR called on member states of the HRC to condemn Israel’s excessive use of force policy against Palestinians and to support the mandate and finding of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel, and implement its recommendations.

At the end of the session, the Human Rights Council adopted two resolutions relating to Palestine submitted under item 7, one reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination (A/HRC/52/L.32),¹ and the other relating to the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan (A/HRC/52/L.42)². In the resolution relating to settlements, HRC member states expressed their grave concern “about all acts of terror, violence, destruction, harassment, provocation, and incitement by extremist Israeli settlers and groups of armed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, against Palestinian civilians, including children, and their properties.”

PCHR welcomes the adoption of the two resolutions, but stresses the importance of turning words into concrete actions. Countless resolutions have been issued in the HRC as well as the UN General Assembly by the international community, containing the strongest of condemnations, but without concrete actions to hold Israel accountable for its human rights violations and crimes against the Palestinian people.

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1. https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2FHRC%2F52%2FL.32&Language=E&DeviceType=Desktop&LangRequested=False ↩︎
2. https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2FHRC%2F52%2FL.42&Language=E&DeviceType=Desktop&LangRequested=False ↩︎