From November 17-23, 2003, a delegation of three visited Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs).
This was a collaborative initiative organized by Forefront, and by the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT),
and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) in their joint program the Observatory for the Protection
of Human Rights Defenders.
The delegation’s goals were to advance the principles laid out in the 1998 United Nations Declaration on the
Rights and Responsibilities of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally
Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and to support the work of the UN Secretary-General’s
Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders. The delegation aimed to document the conditions and
challenges faced by local human rights defenders in Israel and the OPTs, i.e. a region crucial to world peace and
security which has experienced armed conflict and terrorism for many years, and where there further exist specific
circumstances of separation of territory and people, including by a highly-guarded wall with a “seam zone”. The
delegation also aimed, where appropriate, to explore possible recommendations for improvement of the work
conditions and overall situation of human rights defenders.
The delegation’s on-site findings show how complex, challenging, and risky the work of human rights NGOs is in
such a conflict-filled environment where all human rights are at risk, and the extent to which human rights
defenders themselves may be exposed to violations of their human rights.
The report highlights the considerable differences between the challenge of defending and protecting human rights
in the OPTs, on the one hand, and in Israel, a State with binding legal obligations under international human rights
law and international humanitarian law, on the other. Palestinian organizations work in the context of a fight for
independence and statehood military occupation, strict territorial closure, limitations on freedom of movement that
can be described as asphyxiating, and constant serious attacks on human dignity by the occupying force. Israeli
organizations work in a democratic environment, but exposed to armed resistance, with the risk of abhorrent
suicide attacks that create a climate of insecurity and a level of anxiety that eventually erodes people’s capacity to
be concerned about the plight of others. Yet, against these two different backgrounds and sets of circumstances,
the work of all these organizations appears equally important as the efforts of each serves to complement and
reinforce the efforts of the others.
This report exposes the grave impact that a purely military approach to security has on the enjoyment of human
rights. The wide range of activities that have to be carried out by those human rights NGOs concerned with the
situation of the Palestinian people provides clear evidence of the negative impact of such a traditional approach to
security on almost the entire gamut of human rights, especially where international humanitarian law is not
respected.
This report addresses issues of registration and funding for human rights NGOs in Israel on one side and the
Palestine National Authority (PNA) on the other. It also addresses the different ways in which human rights NGOs
monitor human rights practices. Attention is also paid to the way the work of human rights defenders is perceived
by the authorities and within their own communities.
Against such a background, the report shows that the dividing line is not between Israelis and Palestinians.
It is
rather between those who, on the one hand, are concerned about human dignity above and over any other
considerations and who attempt to promote transparency and accountability to international human rights
standards by whoever violates them, and by those who, on the other hand, seek to achieve security at the cost of
sacrificing the human rights of those perceived as a threat. The first group is embodied by the local human rights
organizations, which represent a variety of approaches to the conflict. The other group is represented by those
who try to exert control through increasingly repressive measures that eventually turn into an indiscriminate
punishment for an entire community, with a boomerang effect on their own community, and by a segment of their
opposition which exhibits no concern for human rights and perpetuates suicide bombings that indiscriminately
harm the civilian population.
Finally, the report addresses the crucial contribution that, in such a context, civil society and especially human
rights NGOs are able to make to peace efforts. It advocates for bridge-building among those who defend the
cause of human rights - both local NGOs and the international human rights community - as the best way to
counter and prevent armed violence and terrorism, to generate mutual respect and confidence, and to ensure
security and a lasting peace.
This report concludes that there cannot be any peace or security where human
dignity is being suppressed by force and international public law is being violated with impunity, and underlines
that it is thus crucial to place respect for human rights and international humanitarian law at the center of all peace
efforts.