date : 10 Jun 2021
The International Commission to Support Palestinians’ Rights (ICSPR) during 2020
The International Commission (ICSPR) was able to continue its march despite the difficult challenges, especially in light of the Corona pandemic, the continuing crimes of the occupation and the state of division, and the impact they left on the human rights situation, where the Commission and its staff were determined to continue working at the same pace as the first three years, preserving the human rights discourse that has exceeded the threshold of traditional human rights work, by employing the universal language of human rights in a template that preserves the privacy of the rights of the Palestinian people, which made it a reliable source of information for others.
In addition, ICSPR continued, in a professional manner, to provide a new language and style, through which it contributed to the revival of part of the international solidarity movement with the rights of the Palestinian people. Within this framework, ICSPR continued adopting the suffering of the victims, to be their voice, fighting for the rights of the Palestinian people in a way that does not contradict the human rights system and national law.
ICSPR has supported the contributions of others, and worked creatively to promote national ideas dedicated to confronting American decisions regarding the plan of the deal of the century; It contributed to exposing the crimes of the occupation by conveying letters to the concerned special rapporteurs, and the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, who accepted and recorded a detailed report sent by ICSPR regarding the Israeli crimes against peaceful demonstrators. ICSPR was also involved in the work of the National Commission committees, so it took its prominent place in the Legal and International Advocacy Committee, providing qualitative contributions, as well as field action by implementing dozens of youth initiatives in the Great Return Marches spread on the borders of the Gaza Strip.
The commission was also keen to employ the tools of international law and judiciary to urge the international community to reject Israeli violence and terrorism, and to seek to hold its officials accountable for the crimes committed against the Palestinian people in general and the protesters in particular. ICSPR also played a pioneering role in the Legal and International Advocacy Committee of the Great Return Marches by sending hundreds of letters to the international community, which contributed to forming an international public opinion opposing the Israeli measures, launching dozens of international appeals, monitoring Israeli violations, addressing the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, and implemented legal activities such as the People’s Court and other activities in the field, published dozens of pictures of martyrs, and provided media coverage, and contributed to the formation of a significant work cell of a strong team that supports the marches in all languages and refutes the false Israeli narrations.
During 2020, ICSPR has worked diligently in order to reach its planned outputs, as it has mastered the following:
- Continued working with local and international partners and our network of ambassadors on international and local lobbying and advocacy campaigns, namely:
- An international campaign to expose the results of the ongoing Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip.
- A campaign on collective punishments imposed on the Gaza Strip by the Palestinian Authority, including issues of cutting salaries, and illegal deductions.
- A campaign of solidarity with the prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons
- A campaign for the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, a campaign on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, a campaign to oppose the recent US decision and measures related to Jerusalem.
All campaigns included sending letters to international and regional organizations, to a number of special rapporteurs, the Council of Europe, and the Human Rights Council, ICSPR also organized, through its ambassadors, 4 protests, 90% of them in European countries, and the rest in Arab countries, and each campaign included a set of planned activities, among them were issuing press releases, sending letters to international bodies, issuing reports and papers, and publishing videos.
The International Commission (ICSPR) maintained its membership with the Arab Organization for Human Rights, and the membership of the National Consultative Body. It has also built strong relationships with a number of local and international networks and organizations. Moreover, it has invested its relationship and the relations of its Chairman and Board members to build participatory relations with international human rights bodies.
ICSPR was able to continue managing its branches and offices in both the West Bank and Lebanon, and working on opening a new office in Brussels.
During the reporting period, ICSPR published 268 statements, positions, news and press releases, among them are 137 press releases, 112 press lines, and 12 press statements. In addition to organizing 7 central press conferences, included declaring the positions of ICSPR on urgent issues. ICSPR’s conferences received wide media coverage by local and international media.
ICSPR published 2586 posts on its Facebook page, during 2020, the content of 902 of them were designed in either video or infographic format.
ICSPR continued to work on its media platforms, especially its page on Facebook, in a stable manner and contributed to exposing Israeli-Palestinian human rights violations, as the rate of interaction on the page reached 102 thousand (102 K) interactions with our page during 2020.
ICSPR’s staff was hosted nearly 145 times during 2020, 102 times via different satellite channels, and 43 times over the various local radio stations.
In 2020, it developed 20 international documents, 13 human rights and legal briefing notes, and 7 international letters; It also sent to about 158 international and regional organizations and published on a large scale.
In 2020, ICSPR continued to share information with international and regional bodies regarding human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territories, especially the Gaza Strip, to the extent that it gained the confidence of many of these international and regional bodies, where ICSPR sent 20 international documents; 11 appeals and 9 reports; These documents were sent to 756 international and local organizations and individuals.
During the reporting period, ICSPR worked on developing and sending 9 letters and a special memorandum to local government authorities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
During the reporting period, ICSPR published 14 reports and research studies; 6 special reports and 8 Research studies, which gained widespread through the media, and also gained the attention of readers, where they were downloaded from ICSPR’s website about 3145 times.
Over the course of 2020, the ICSPR implemented 11 training programs; one long-term program (the fourth and fifth versions of the legal researcher program); 9 short-term programs, which aimed at improving and building the capacities of 326 young men and women.
In 2020, ICSPR carried out 26 meetings, workshops and specialized training in which about 1,120 interested persons participated, of whom 52% were youth and 38% of public figures; 10% of the responsible and international personalities.
During the reporting period, ICSPR’s programs published 62 position papers, facts and policies; 31 factsheets; 29 policy analysis papers; and 3 position papers, some of which attracted the attention of local and international news agencies, and provided sufficient and comprehensive information on urgent and important issues, as well as expressing the legal opinion and position of ICSPR towards some current issues.
In 2020, ICSPR has been actively involved in managing or attending dozens of participatory activities with the local community; including organizing meetings with local government bodies (executive – legislative – judicial) and international bodies; with the aim of addressing complaints it received; and informing these bodies of the most common patterns of violations.
For the third year in a row, ICSPR has maintained the implementation of the Palestinian Child Parliament program, as it has implemented 5 main activities with the participation of 150 children and 22 teachers and trainees.
ICSPR received 42 complaints in 2020, 75% of them were from employees of the National Authority in Ramallah for cutting their monthly salaries without legal justification. The remaining 25% were related to violations committed by law enforcement in the Gaza Strip. 31 complaints were handled through addressing the violating authority (the government in Ramallah – the governing body in Gaza). ICSPR has received responses to 12 complaints from special rapporteurs and contractual committee, Inter-Parliamentary Union, which addressed ICSPR, confirming that the information obtained from the complaints that ICSPR submitted, constitutes a very important tributary, contributed to the issuance of a number of international decisions, declarations and follow-ups.
