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Paris,
March 11, 2003
Palestinian
refugees in Lebanon are the victims of obvious discriminations.
Absence
of an appropriate legal status, prohibition to occupy dozens
of professions, lack of social security, impossibility to acquire
real estate, restrictions to the freedom of movement and to
the freedom of association, etc.: almost 400,000 Palestinian
refugees in Lebanon are constantly and obviously discriminated
against. 384,918 refugees are registered with the UNRWA, the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees
in the Near East. In addition, 10,000 Palestinians are alledged
to be living there without any identification paper, since they
are not registered with the organization.
The FIDH
mission report aims at highlighting and explaining the numerous
legal issues triggered by their situation. The report notably
focuses on the will, considered as « obsessive »,
of the Lebanese authorities to avoid long-term implantation
(« Tawtîn ») by the Palestinian refugees in
Lebanon. Moreover, this will has been explicitly affirmed in
the Lebanese Constitution.
The Palestinian
refugees' legal status is certainly remarquable in the sense
that, due to the existence of the UNRWA, which aims at offering
them a humanitarian assistance, they do not benefit from the
protection of the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the status
of refugees. Thus, the Palestinian refugees established in Lebanon
only benefit from a right of residence, kept to the strict minimum.
They are characterized by extreme vulnerability, in so far as
they do not enjoy any legal protection. Therefore, the Lebanese
authorities are able to pass laws that are increasingly discriminatory
against the Palestinian refugees, and they have not hesitated
to go forward with this since the time when their relationship,
cordial at the beginning, gradually deteriorated in view of
the absence of a perspective of global resolution of the Israel-
Palestine conflict.
This state
of discrimination against Palestinian refugees is contrary to
Lebanon's international obligations in the field of human rights,
especially article 26 of the International Covenant on civil
and political rights, and the provisions of the International
Convention for the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination.
Moreover,
the flagrant violations of its international obligations by
Lebanon have also clearly led to the complete abandonment, by
the Lebanese State, of the Palestinian refugees to their tragic
fate. Because their stay in Lebanon is supposed to be only “temporary”
(although many of them have been there since 1948), they are
being kept in a situation of organized exclusion and confronted
to a daily struggle for survival.
Therefore,
the FIDH calls for the Lebanese authorities, on the one hand,
to ratify the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the status
of refugees, and on the other hand, to abrogate all discriminatory
measures against Palestinian refugees established on the Lebanese
territory. It also calls for the international community to
urge Lebanon to ratify the above-mentionned Convention, and
to financially support the UNRWA, which is currently facing
some financial difficulties. Finally, it encourages the UNRWA
to register with its services the Palestinian refugees who are
not, in order to prevent them from remaining in even greater
distress.
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Lebanon