Press Releases
- Denial of Family Unification
Joint written statement submitted by BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Union of Arab Jurists, Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l'amitié entre les peoples, Occupied Palestine and Golan Heights Advocacy Initiative, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Defence for Children International - Palestine Section:
The statement was submitted on behalf of 14 Palestinian and international human rights organizations and addresses the pressing issue of denial of family unification. As recognized within Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the family unit is the fundamental societal group, and as such is entitled to protection by States. In the context of refugees, family unification is crucial in restoring the dignity to the life of the individual and laying secure foundations for the integration, or reintegration, of displaced communities. To this end, human rights law acknowledges the need to strengthen the family unit, and this is reflected in specific State obligations to keep families together, as well as to reunify them if separated. In direct contravention of these legal obligations, from its occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank including East Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has consistently and deliberately enforced an arbitrary separation of Palestinian family members.
- Responsibility of private companies: the case of the Occupied Palestine Territory
Joint written statement submitted by BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights and Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l'amitié entre les peoples:
When a territory is non self-governed or is under military occupation, besides the well known and recognized States responsibilities and obligations under international law and international humanitarian law, the role and responsibility of private companies must also be considered and duly evaluated in light of the human rights abuses of the people living under occupation. This becomes even more important when private companies may be considered as accomplices to war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Russell Tribunal on Palestine at its second session (London, 20-22 November 2010) examined International corporate complicity in Israel’s Violations of International Human Rights Law, International Humanitarian Law, and War Crimes.