Lobbying the UN and International Community

Right of Return Advocacy (Switzerland): In December, BADIL participated in a series of public lectures, debates and workshops in Basel, Berne, Geneva, Zurich, and Lucerne under the title “The Palestinian Right of Return, A Human Right?” The speakers, which included Ingrid Jaradat Gassner (Director of BADIL), Susan Akram (Associate Professor, Boston University School of Law), and Ya’el Stein (Director of Research, B’tselem), addressed the history and scope of the refugee problem, the Palestinian position, Palestinian refugee rights under international refugee law and the Israeli debate on the right of return.

The rights-based approach (i.e., based on international refugee law) was well received by audience members, which included solidarity activists, professionals in the field of asylum/migration, academics, journalists and members of the liberal Jewish community in Switzerland, suggesting that the approach is a credible and convincing way to present the refugee issue to the Western public. The series of events was sponsored by the Palestinian Swiss Human Rights Forum Israel/Palestine, operating as a coalition of Amnesty International/Switzerland, Christian Peace Service/CFD, Centrale Sanitaire Suisse/CSS Zurich, OeME/Reformed Churches, Society for Threatened Peoples Switzerland, and Society Suisse-Palestine.

The speakers also met with Swiss parliamentarians to discuss the status of Palestinian refugees, including their status as refugees in Europe under international refugee law. While focused on day-to-day protection, clarification of the legal status of Palestinian refugees in Europe would reflect positively on efforts to reach a durable solution based on return. The parliamentarians responded positively to the initiative. BADIL, along with expert partner Susan Akram, also met with representatives of the Swiss Foreign Ministry to urge them to formulate a clear, rights-based position regarding the solution of the Palestinian refugee issue. The Swiss government has been a major contributor to humanitarian aid for Palestinian refugees.

53rd Anniversary of Resolution 194: On the 53rd anniversary of General Assembly Resolution 194 an open letter was drafted calling upon the entire United Nations system – including UN Secretary-General Mr. Kofi Annan, UN Member States and all UN agencies/organs (including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs. Mary Robinson) – to undertake the following measures to implement fully and forthwith the three fundamental, inalienable rights of the Palestinian refugees enumerated in Resolution 194 – return, restitution and compensation:

1. Convene an international conference on mechanisms necessary to implement the three fundamental rights affirmed in Resolution 194 – return, restitution and compensation.
2. Reinvigorate the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine (UNCCP) by nominating new states to comprise its membership. The current membership – composed of the U.S., France and Turkey – is completely inactive (and, in the case of the U.S., completely biased).
3. Make public the property and land records of the UNCCP for inspection by Palestinian refugees and others, for example to be used in designing a mechanism for securing the restitution rights of the refugees under Resolution 194.
4. Issue a definitive pronouncement that under international law, the ethno-national concept of a “Jewish state” (i.e., a Zionist state) is completely prohibited and therefore illegal because it necessarily involves discrimination in favor of Jews and discrimination against non-Jews.
5. Mandate the creation of an internationally supported return and restitution mechanism whereby Palestinian refugees would be fully restituted of their properties, with interest calculated from the date of taking.
6. Call for the imposition of comprehensive sanctions upon Israel until it agrees to implement the rights of the refugees under Resolution 194. This is a minimum requirement, since Israel’s admission to the United Nations was expressly conditioned upon its implementation of Resolution 194.

NGO Conference on International Protection: In an effort to redirect the attention of the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention back to their binding Article 1 enforcement obligations, the Palestine Center for Human Rights (PCHR) and the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment (LAW) decided to co-organize a "Civil Society & Human Rights Parallel Conference on the Fourth Geneva Convention" held in Geneva on 4-5 December. The parallel conference brought together human rights activists, jurists, academics, and solidarity groups, in order to ensure that the voices of the victims were not drowned out by the legally questionable governmental Declaration issued by the official Conference of High Contracting Parties on 5 December. The parallel conference called upon the signatory states to use their 5 December conference as an opportunity to take immediate and practical steps to enforce international humanitarian law in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories; protest against the decision to exclude non-governmental organizations from the official conference; and, reiterate its condemnation of the United States and Israel for boycotting the official conference.