UN High Commissioner urged by rights groups to ensure justice for Palestine

A letter signed by 65 Palestinian, regional and international rights groups has been sent to the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, urging him to take concrete measures to ensure justice for Palestine and its people. Turk took up his new role earlier this week.

In their letter, the signatories highlighted some of the more recent alarming Israeli policies and practices imposed against the Palestinians. In particular, they emphasised Israel’s 15-year closure and blockade of the Gaza Strip; its escalation of military incursions in Palestinian cities; and its acts of collective punishment by the closure of Shuafat refugee camp and Anata, as well as the apparent “shoot-to-kill” policy adopted by the Israeli occupation forces. The occupation state’s increasing use of arbitrary mass arrests and detentions, including punitive administrative detention, was also stressed.

READ: Palestinian rights groups urge ICC to probe 2021 Israeli attack on Gaza

Noting that the Palestinian people have been denied their right to self-determination for decades, the joint letter emphasised that the human rights situation in Palestine should be at the top of the High Commissioner’s agenda. The annual updating of the UN Database on Settlement Business Activities, as mandated by the international organisation, should be a priority, said the signatories. They noted with concern the repeated and unexplained delays in this matter. This, they said, is unprecedented given the way that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has handled other mandates, arguably because of political pressure and interference exerted on the OHCHR.

At the same time, the letter highlighted Israel’s systematic silencing of human rights defenders and voiced the joint opposition to Israel’s unlawful policies and practices, including the arbitrary outlawing of six prominent Palestinian civil society organisations.