Towards International Protection for Palestinian Refugees
Reinterpreting the Status of Palestinian Refugees International
Law"
Kalandia Camp, 24 March 2000
Some twenty activists in Palestinian refugee organizations and national institutions, many of them members of the BADIL Friends Forum, met at the office of the Union of Youth Activity Centers (UYAC) in Kalandia Camp to discuss a BADIL proposal for a renewed joint effort aimed at obtaining international protection for Palestinian refugees.
Susan Akram, Refugee Law expert at Boston University, presented the legal framework underlying this proposal. Her reinterpretation of international refugee law (1951 Refugee Convention and UNHCR Statutes) was met with much interest, and participants confirmed the urgent need for the inclusion of Palestinian refugees in the international refugee protection regime.
Dr. Nafe' al-Hassan (international law expert) noted that the exclusion of Palestinian refugees from international protection is rooted both in politically biased international decision making and in the fear, by Palestinian political forums, that the application of international refugee law would transform the Palestinian refugee case from a political issue to a humanitarian case. Dr. al-Hassan argued that such fear is not justified and reported about previous efforts at mobilizing for a Palestinian demand for international protection. He stated his belief that it is not too late to launch a renewed effort now, although Israeli-Palestinian final status negotiations are already taking place.
He emphasized the need to revive and re-structure the PLO
Refugee Department in order for this forum to take an active role
in strategizing for the protection of refugee rights and to make
the Palestinian refugee question an issue of international concern.
Jamal Shati (Head of the PLCRefugee Subcommittee) noted that
mobilization for Palestinian refugee rights must not remain limited
to awareness-raising about international law, because the refugee
community has become quite familiar with its rights as defined by
international law and UN Resolutions. He stated the urgent need for
the establishment of a mechanism, Palestinian, Arab, and
international, which can be
employed in order to pressure for their implementation.
Refugee grass-roots activists expressedtheir concern about the
weakness of the current regime for protection and assistance
composed of UN Resolution 194 and UNRWA, as well as their fear of a
future abolition of UN Resolution 194 as a result of combined
US-Israeli-European pressure. They encouraged BADIL to explore, in
conjunction with Palestinian and international experts, appropriate
international forums (UNHCR, European Human Rights Court, War
Crimes Tribunal, etc.), and to organize additional workshops on
this topic in order to build a broad basis of refugee support for
this initiative.
The legal analysis subject of this workshop is available as BADIL -
Information & Discussion Brief, No. 1 and No. 2.
Pope Visits Deheishe Refugee Camp
Address to Deheishe Camp (excerpts)
"You have been deprived of many things which represent basic needs of the human person: proper housing, health care, education and work. Above all you bear the sad memory of what you were forced to leave behind, not just material possessions, but your freedom, the closeness of relatives, and the familial surroundings and cultural traditions which nourished your personal and family life."
"The degrading conditions in which refugees often have to live; the continuation over long periods of situations that are barely tolerable in emergencies or for a brief time of transit; the fact that displaced persons are obliged to remain for years in settlement camps: these are the measure of the urgent need for a just solution to the underlying causes of the problem. Only a resolute effort on the part of leaders in the Middle East and in the international community as a whole-inspired by a higher vision of politics as service of the common good-can remove the causes of your present situation. My appeal is for greater international solidarity and the political will to meet this challenge.
Palestinian refugees world-wide rally for support of
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