65 human rights organizations have called on the new High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, to achieve justice for the Palestinians , as a result of the Israeli practices imposed against them.
In a joint letter to the High Commissioner, the organizations pointed out to Israel´s recent escalation of its military incursions into Palestinian cities, the use of collective punishment in the Shuafat and Anata camps, and the occupation forces´ deliberate "shoot-to-kill" policy.
The letter stressed the escalation of the campaign of mass arbitrary arrests and detention, including arbitrary, coercive and punitive administrative detention . Prioritize the annual update of the United Nations database on settlements.
The undersigned organizations expressed concern about the repeated and unjustified delays in updating the UN database on settlements, attributing this to political pressure and interference in the work of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The letter highlighted Israel´s systematic efforts to silence human rights defenders and express their opposition to illegal Israeli policies and practices, including through the arbitrary ban of six prominent Palestinian civil society organizations.
The organizations expressed confidence that such pressure would not deviate OHCHR from its commitment to human rights, justice and accountability, and urged the new High Commissioner and his office to recognize the root causes of the prolonged denial of Palestinian rights due to settler colonialism and apartheid in Israel.
It also called on the Commissioner to prioritize the annual update of the UN database, as stipulated in Human Rights Council resolution 31/36 and to ensure that appropriate resources are assigned to allow continued development of the database and to continue working with civil society organizations and human rights defenders to update and continuously update the database .
The letter called on the commissioner to take a stand on Israel´s institutional and targeting of the Palestinian people, including the 15-year systematic block of the Gaza Strip, its "shoot to kill", and administrative policies detention pursued by Israel, to investigate and report.
65 international organizations call for justice for the Palestinian human rights commissioner
