On 28 February 2022, Al-Haq delivered a joint statement to the United Nations Human Rights Committee ‘the Committee’ during its NGO formal briefing on Israel’s fifth review of its compliance with its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The statement was delivered on behalf of seven Palestinian, regional and international organisations that have submitted a joint parallel report to the Committee detailing Israel’s violations and failed implementation of the ICCPR. The partner organization were Addameer, Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Habitat International Coalition – Housing and Land Rights Network, Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Community Action Center/Al-Quds University.

The statement noted that Al-Haq’s decades of monitoring and documentation of Israel’s violations reveal that such violations are neither accidental nor occasional. It further noted that Israel’s violations are “systematic and were carried out as part and parcel of its institutionalised regime of racial discrimination against the Palestinian people.” Moreover, the statement specified that Israeli discriminatory laws, policies and practices that form the foundation of its apartheid regime result in its gross violations, which are precisely carried out to inflect a climate of fear on the Palestinians to further intimidate, oppress and subjugate them.

The statement demonstrated that Israel has been using strategic and systemic fragmentation of the Palestinian people to ensure that they cannot meet, group, or exercise their collective rights, which further entrenched the apartheid regime. Further, the statement elaborated on Israel’s smearing campaign, intimidation, harassment, and delegitimization of human rights defenders and organisations advocating for Palestinian rights and working to hold the Israeli Apartheid regime accountable for its crimes. It showed that Israel has used several methods, such as, death threats, targeting with notorious Pegasus spyware, travel bans, deportation and punitive residency revocation. It further added that Israel’s shameless and baseless designation of six leading Palestinian civil society organizations as “terrorist organisations” is the latest example of Israeli perpetual policy of smearing and silencing any opposition to its apartheid regime.

The statement concluded that “the indisputable reality on the ground is that Israel has been imposing a regime of racial discrimination against the Palestinians, who are rendered fragmented, vulnerable and unable to effectively challenge this regime.” additionally, the statement urged the committee to recognise Israel’s apartheid regime imposed on the Palestinian people as a whole to be in violation of the ICCPR.

See Al-Haq’s and partners’ full joint submission here

See Al-Haq’s and partners’ joint statement to the Committee here

See Al-Haq’s and partners’ joint factsheet here