65 groups urge UN High Commissioner for HR to ensure justice for Palestinians

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- Sixty-five Palestinian, regional and international organizations have called the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, to take concrete measures to ensure justice and accountability for the Palestinian people in the occupied territories.

In a joint letter sent to the new High Commissioner on Monday, the groups highlighted some of the recent alarming Israeli policies and practices imposed against Palestinians.

The letter underscored Israel’s 15-year-old closure and blockade of the Gaza Strip; Israel’s escalation in its military raids into Palestinian cities in recent months; and its closure as acts of collective punishment of Shuafat refugee camp and Anata town; as well as an aggravation in the Israeli occupation forces’ use of its ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy.

Furthermore, the letter underlined the increase of Israel’s campaign of mass arbitrary arrests and detentions, including in its arbitrary, coercive, and punitive administrative detention policy.

The groups emphasized that the human rights situation in Palestine should be at the top of the High Commissioner’s agenda, including by prioritizing the annual updating of the UN Database on Settlement Business Activities, as mandated.

The letter noted with concern, the repeated and unexplained delays regarding the update of the Database, which are unprecedented in the way the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has handled prior mandates, and are due to reported political pressure and interference exerted on the OHCHR.

It also highlighted Israel’s systematic efforts in silencing human rights defenders, voicing their opposition to Israel’s unlawful policies and practices and pushing for international justice and accountability, including by arbitrarily outlawing six prominent Palestinian civil society organizations.

The groups expressed their trust that such pressure will not derail the OHCHR from its commitment to human rights, justice, and accountability.

They also urged the new High Commissioner and his Office to recognize and acknowledge the root causes of the prolonged denial of Palestinian rights, embedded in Israel’s settler-colonialism and apartheid, prioritize the annual updating of the UN Database, as mandated under HRC Resolution 31/36, and ensure that appropriate resources are allocated so as to allow for continued development of the Database.

The sixty-five groups called the new High Commissioner to continue working with civil society organizations and human rights defenders in full transparency for the completion and continuous updating of the Database and address Israel’s institutionalized and systematic targeting of the Palestinian people, including the 15-year-long closure on the Gaza Strip, and Israel’s mass and arbitrary ‘shoot-to-kill’ and administrative detention policies, and Investigate and report, by means of country visits or otherwise, attacks against human rights defenders working on issues related to Palestine and facing intimidation or arbitrary legislative or administrative restrictions, and ensure their protection.