Al-Haq welcomes the adoption of the Apartheid resolution against Israel’s apartheid regime over the Palestinian people by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) at its 41st Congress in Paris.  The resolution was passed with a unanimous vote on 26 October 2022 during the congress sessions. This Congress marks FIDH’s centenary since its formation, and is now composed of 188 member organisations, including Al-Haq, and has representatives from every inhabited continent.

Israel’s apartheid resolution, presented by Al-Haq, highlights how the violence perpetrated by both Israeli occupation forces (IOF) and illegally transferred settlers in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) are “rooted in a settler-colonial regime and an institutionalised regime of systematic domination and oppression over the Palestinian people, amounting to the crime of apartheid”. Drawing upon both the 1973 International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid and the 1998 Rome Statute, the Resolution highlights Israel’s long history of discriminatory laws, policies and practices, which “clearly segregate the Palestinian People and Jewish Israelis in order to ensure (…) Jewish Israeli domination”. Noting the growing recognition of Israel’s apartheid against the Palestinian people by “UN member States, parliaments, UN treaty bodies, UN human rights experts, and Palestinian, international and Israeli human rights organisations” the Resolution calls on third states to recognise the situation of apartheid and, in accordance with their obligations under international law, to “take positive and effective steps to end Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid regime”.

The congress also saw the re-election of Alice Mogwe for president of FIDH. Ms. Mogwe is founder and director of DITSHWANELO - The Botswana Centre for Human Rights. She has been a human rights activist in Botswana and its neighbouring countries in Southern Africa for many years before being elected President of FIDH in 2019. Al-Haq extends the warmest congratulations to Ms. Mogwe and wishes her every success during this new term as president of FIDH.

In addition, Al-Haq would also like to extend its warmest congratulations to our colleague Ms. Diana Alzeer for her election to Vice President of the FIDH. Ms. Alzeer has been with Al-Haq since 2018, working in a number of departments and is currently the Head of Strategic Outreach and Communication. Prior to this, Ms. Alzeer has been a long-standing Palestinian activist against Israel’s apartheid regime and in this role will further help the cause of Palestinian self-determination, the rights of women and human rights generally across the world. Ms. Alzeer will be one of the 15 vice presidents of FIDH, assisting in the fulfilment of the organisation’s principle of universality: the same rights, everywhere, for everyone. We wish her every success in this new role.

Al-Haq would also like to further congratulate all other elected members of the International Bureau and wish them the best of luck for this upcoming term. We hope that in these new roles they can further support, protect and promote human rights in both Palestine and across the world. To quote Ms. Mogwe, “While many of our friends are still unjustly incarcerated, we affirm our will to fight to preserve our rights and to acquire new ones. The world may seem hopeless at times, but to act is still the best way to hope.”