Today, 24 June, the United Nations Special Committee to Investigate Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People met with Israeli, Palestinian and international civil society organisations in Amman. The Committee, established in 1968 by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, is mandated to monitor Israel’s respect and implementation of human rights law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). Al-Haq presented on the issue of settler violence.  

By providing the Committee with facts and figures from the past year, Al-Haq highlighted the climate of impunity enjoyed by perpetrators of settler violence and the need for access to justice for Palestinian victims. Al-Haq also addressed the obligation of Third States to intervene in order to bring Israel’s settlement enterprise to an end, as recommended by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon in a 2011 report to the General Assembly and in the report of the UN International Fact-Finding Mission on the Israeli Settlements, presented to the Human Rights Council in March of this year.

Al-Haq will continue to communicate with and make recommendations to the Committee throughout the coming year.