Bethlehem - BADIL Resource Center has released the tenth of a series of Information and Discussion Briefs aimed at contributing to effective protection, including rights-based durable solutions, for Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons.

Approximately 40 per cent of the Palestinian refugee population are children. Palestinian refugee children face gaps in day-to-day protection of their basic human rights and are denied durable solutions, in particular their right to return.

With regard to Palestinian children in the occupied Palestinian territories, for example, reports by human rights organizations and statements by UN human rights bodies and committees regularly raise concern about Israeli policies, such as demolition of homes, destruction of schools and infrastructure, and movement restrictions, which constitute violations of Palestinian children's rights to an adequate standard of living, health and education. More effort has yet to be made in addressing the particular vulnerability of Palestinian refugee children.

Moreover, governments have committed themselves under UN General Assembly Resolution S-27/2 of October 2002 (“A World Fit for Children”) to: “ensure that issues pertaining to the rights and protection of children are fully reflected in the agendas of peacemaking processes and in ensuing peace agreements ...; and involve children, where possible, in these processes.”

Almost 60 years into the Palestinian Nakba, assistance and protection activities of UN agencies, NGOs, governments and donors for Palestinian refugee children should therefore be effectively linked to the advocacy of and search for a rights-based, just and lasting solution to the Palestinian refugee problem. 

Brief No. 10 is divided into five sections including: an examination of general principles governing the assistance and protection of refugee children; an assessment of the current status of Palestinian refugee children under the Convention on the Rights of the Child; a review of the principles governing durable solutions; and assessment of relevant activities of UNRWA; and a set of recommendations.

The Brief can be downloaded from: http://www.badil.org/Publications/Briefs/Children-Brief-No10.pdf

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