Press Releases

UN civil society conference endorses boycott, divestment, sanctions campaign until Israel complies with international law: Plan is 'navigator' for civil society actors committed to Middle East Peace

For Immediate Release

No. (E/21/05)

18 July 2005


International, national and regional social movements, organizations and coalitions should support the unified call of Palestinian civil society for a global campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) to pressure Israel to end the occupation and fully comply with international law and all relevant United Nations resolutions.

 

This was the conclusion of a UN civil society conference in support of Middle East Peace held in Paris last week. Palestinian, Israeli and international civil society participants identified the coming year to mobilize for and inaugurate the global BDS campaign.

 

The Chairman of the UN Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, which convened the conference, called the civil society Plan of Action a 'navigator' for those committed to Middle East Peace.

 

Civil society organizations agreed to anchor their work in human rights, international law, and the United Nations Charter and resolutions. These tools provide the only road map for the basis for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace.

 

They also emphasized the urgency of implementing international humanitarian law in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories and pressuring their governments to enforce the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the illegality of the Wall being constructed by Israel in the West Bank.

 

The adoption of a boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign followed a call by 171 Palestinian civil society organizations issued on the first anniversary of the ICJ advisory opinion on the Wall.

 

The conference included two plenary sessions and numerous workshops covering the current situation on the ground and actions by civil society. Participants included Palestinian, Israel and international NGOs, representatives of governments, intergovernmental organizations and UN bodies and agencies.

 



For more information on the civil society conference see the website of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People:

http://www.un.org/depts/dpa/qpalnew/committee.htm
 

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For information and/or endorsement of the Palestinian civil society BDS campaign, contact:

OPGAI c/o: [email protected];

Anti Apartheid Wall Campaign: [email protected];

ITTIJAH: [email protected];

PACBI: [email protected]

Coalition of Lebanese Civil Society Organizations: [email protected].