Ref: /2021
Date: 12 Sep 2021
An urgent appeal to urge you to defend the rights of Palestinian refugees, and reject the attempts to politicize UNRWA.
The International Commission to Support Palestinians’ Rights (ICSPR) highly appreciates your keenness in the context of protecting human rights in the world, including the rights of Palestinians who have been subjected to a long-term Israeli occupation, since the Nakba (1948), when the heavily armed Zionist gangs worked to forcibly displace the Palestinians of their properties, in the largest process of displacement and ethnic cleansing in the last hundred years, and the resulting catastrophic repercussions, as the Palestinian people were dispersed to all parts of the earth, and they are still suffering as a result of the world’s lack of seriousness in dealing with the historical injustice they were exposed to.
the International Commission for Supporting Palestinian Rights (ICSPR) sent all the institutions of the international community Among them: UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences , UN Special Rapporteur on arbitrary detention , UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment , Secretary-General of the United Nations ,Secretary-General of the Organization of the League of Arab States , Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation , High Commissioner for Human Rights ,UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory , Director of the Red Cross Mission in the Palestinian Territories.
In light of the displacement of the Palestinian people by Zionist gangs from their homes in 1948, the United Nations established “The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees – UNRWA” in November 1948, pursuant to Resolution No. 302, as a temporary specialized agency, until a just solution to the Palestinian issue is found. UNRWA aims to provide aid to Palestinian refugees, and coordinate the services provided to them by non-governmental organizations and some other United Nations organizations.
UNRWA provides its services to about (5) million Palestinian refugees, in its five areas of operation (the West Bank, occupied Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon), in the fields of health, education and relief. According to the operational definition of UNRWA, Palestine refugees are those whose natural place of residence was Palestine during the period between June 1946 and May 1948, and who lost their homes and their livelihood as a result of the 1948 Nakba.
Palestinian refugees are going through growing challenges as a result of the decline in international funding to UNRWA in the wake of the American decision to cut off its funding and the decline in the services provided by UNRWA to refugees under the pretext of financial impotence.
Recently, UNRWA has been suffering from serious interventions aimed at redefining the refugee, liquidating and undermining the work of the international organization. According to the data, the United States of America and the UNRWA administration reached an agreement called the “Framework Agreement,” according to which UNRWA will be subject to severe conditions affecting the legal, humanitarian and political status of the Palestinian refugee issue, which includes reviewing the Palestinian educational curriculum taught in UNRWA schools, and even amending it in line with the American goals and the Israeli occupation, including the prosecution of staff members of the international organization, against the background of their exercise of their right to opinion and expression, which constitutes a departure from the mandate under which UNRWA was established.
These measures and decisions implemented by UNRWA are considered an unacceptable under its international mandate as a relief and work organization for refugees until they return to their homes from which they were displaced, and compensate them for the suffering of asylum and displacement. In addition, it is considered an infringement on the human rights system that guarantees the rights of opinion and expression.
We are addressing you today again within the framework of our follow-up to the situation of human rights and freedoms, and in this regard, we express our fear that “UNRWA” acts according to the plans to liquidate and undermine it, especially since its recent measures, including the Framework Agreement, come at a suspicious time, when the attack on UNRWA is escalating. In light of this, we invite you to defend the rights of the Palestinian refugee, by raising your rejection of all attempts to “demonize and politicize” the work of the organization, including rejecting the “Framework Agreement” that has been recently discussed, and we urge you to increase your funding to the UNRWA treasury, which is going through a stifling financial crisis that has been and will be negatively reflected on the refugee community in their five places of residence. We are addressing you out of our believe that your efforts will spare the refugees misery and frustration, which would threaten the security and stability of the region.
