Addameer, Amnesty International, UN Special Rapporteur note concerns about arbitrary detention of Palestinian HRDs
Photo by PYM.
The Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) held an information session in Ottawa on August 22 featuring a representative of the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association who joined the forum virtually from the West Bank.
The Addameer website notes: “ADDAMEER (Arabic for conscience) Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association is a Palestinian non-governmental, civil institution that works to support Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli and Palestinian prisons. Established in 1991 by a group of activists interested in human rights, the center offers free legal aid to political prisoners, advocates their rights at the national and international level, and works to end torture and other violations of prisoners’ rights through monitoring, legal procedures and solidarity campaigns.”
The goals of Addameer include: “End torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment inflicted upon Palestinian prisoners; Abolish the death penalty; End arbitrary detentions and arrests.”
Addameer also documents that there are currently 9,900 political prisoners.
Amnesty International
Last month, Amnesty International commented: “Israeli authorities must end their indefinite incommunicado detention of Palestinians from the occupied Gaza Strip, without charge or trial under the Unlawful Combatants law, in flagrant violation of international law.”
“The organization documented the cases of 27 Palestinian former detainees, including five women, 21 men and a 14-year-old boy, who were detained for periods of up to four and a half months without access to their lawyers or any contact with their families, in connection with this law. All those interviewed by Amnesty International said that during their incommunicado detention, which in some cases amounted to enforced disappearance, Israeli military, intelligence and police forces subjected them to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.”
Amnesty International adds: “Amnesty International is calling for all detainees held under the Unlawful Combatants Law, including suspected members of armed groups, to be treated humanely and given access to lawyers and international monitoring bodies such as the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC). Those suspected of responsibility for crimes under international law must be tried in line with international fair trial standards, while all civilians detained arbitrarily without charge or trial must be immediately released.”
Human rights defenders
Front Line Defenders has noted: “People considered to be human rights defenders in the OPT [Occupied Palestinian Territory] include journalists, lawyers, medical workers, fieldworkers, international volunteers who act as independent observers and carry out human rights work and defenders working for economic, social and cultural rights.”
In July 2017, Addameer also highlighted: “Palestinians who organize and participate in protests and demonstrations against the Separation Wall and settlements are widely recognized as human rights defenders, due to their efforts to engage civil society in peaceful methods of resistance aimed at ending Israel’s violations of human rights and international law and its practices of land confiscation, house demolitions and movement restrictions on the Palestinian population.”
Administrative detention of human rights defenders
On July 24 of this year, United Nations Special Rapporteur for human rights defenders Mary Lawlor highlighted the concern about the arbitrary detention of Palestinian human rights defenders by Israeli authorities.
Lawlor says: “I call on the Israeli authorities to respect fair trial conditions, or immediately release the remaining two human rights defenders, as well as the dozens of other human rights defenders detained on account of their peaceful activities.”
Addameer
You can follow the work of Addameer on their website, Facebook page, X/Twitter as well as Instagram.
In April 2022, several United Nations Special Rapporteurs, including Mary Lawlor, called on the international community “to take immediate and effective steps to protect and sustain the six Palestinian civil society groups”, including Addameer, that were designated as “terrorist organizations” by Israel.
The statement by the Special Rapporteurs highlighted: “Applying anti-terrorism laws to well-regarded human rights defenders and civil society organisations – without persuasive evidence to substantiate these claims – seems to indicate a politically-motivated attempt by Israel to silence some of its most effective critics in violation of their rights to freedom of association and of expression.”
Peace Brigades International
Peace Brigades International (PBI) has called for a ceasefire, respect for international humanitarian law, a suspension of the supply of arms to Israel, and the release of all Palestinian persons arbitrarily detained by Israel.
Further reading: 1,358 Palestinian human rights defenders may have been killed over the last 10 months (PBI-Canada, August 17, 2024).
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