“Meaningful action” needed to stop
Israeli settlement building, say UN experts
GENEVA (8 August 2019) – UN human
rights experts said the international community has a duty to stand by their
collective promise to protect the rights of the Palestinian people, and to take
decisive action to prevent Israel’s planned construction of a record number of
housing units in its West Bank settlements.
The experts refer in their comments
to the Civil Administration’s High Planning Subcommittee meeting held this
week, announcing the approval of around 2,400 housing units and public
infrastructure in 21 settlements and outposts. These approvals are intended to
formalize existing structures as well as provide initial permits.
“These settlement housing units are
clearly meant to solidify the Israeli claim of sovereignty over the West Bank,”
said Leilani Farha, the Special Rapporteur for the right to housing, and
Michael Lynk, the Special Rapporteur for human rights in the Palestinian
territory occupied since 1967.
“Building civilian settlements in
occupied territory is illegal, as is the annexation of territory. The
international community has spoken out against the Israeli settlements, but it
has not imposed effective consequences for the country’s defiance of
international law.”
The Israeli Government has already
approved approximately 3,700 settlement housing units this year. The approval
of a further 2,400 units will brings the total approvals for this year to
6,100. By comparison, the Israeli Government approved 5,600 housing units in
all of 2018.
“Israel’s actions indicate it plans
to remain permanently and advance a claim of sovereignty,” said the human
rights experts. “The Israeli Prime Minister made this clear when he said
recently that: ‘No settlement and no settlers will ever be uprooted.’ Should we
not take him at his word that Israel has no intention of complying with
international law?
“Criticism without consequences is
hollow. The international community has a wide menu of commonly-used
countermeasures to push recalcitrant states into compliance with their
international duties. If the international community is serious about its
support for Palestinian self-determination and its opposition to Israeli
settlements then, surely, the time has come for meaningful action.”
Occupying powers are forbidden
under the Fourth Geneva Convention from building civilian settlements in
occupied territory. The Rome Statute has defined the transfer, directly or
indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into
the territory it occupies, or the deportation or transfer of all or parts of
the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory, as a
war crime. The United Nations Security Council, in Resolution 2334 (23 December
2016), stated that the Israeli settlements constitute “a flagrant violation
under international law”.
The Israeli security cabinet also
announced last week the approval of approximately 6,000 housing units for
settlements, and 715 housing units for Palestinians living in Area C of the
occupied West Bank.
The human rights experts noted that
although the potential approval of housing units for Palestinians represents
some progress, it by no means addresses the need. Between 2009 and 2016 there
were more than 3,350 applications for permits with only 66 being approved. The
experts expressed grave concern noting that the housing crisis and low rate of
housing permit approval contributes to the coercive atmosphere facing
Palestinians in Area C. Furthermore, the discriminatory approval of housing
units, favouring Israelis and generally excluding Palestinians, would
constitute a violation of articles 2.2 and 11 of the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ratified by Israel on 3 October 1991.
The experts also noted the comments
of Israeli cabinet ministers, who have stated that the Palestinian housing
permits were issued in order to deflect international criticism of Israel’s
policies of house demolition and record approval of new settlement housing
units and to thwart the possibility of a Palestinian state.
ENDS
Mr. Michael Lynk was designated by
the UN Human Rights Council in 2016 as the Special Rapporteur on the situationof human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967. The mandate
was originally established in 1993 by the then UN Commission on Human Rights.
Professor Lynk is Associate Professor of Law at Western University in London,
Ontario, where he teaches labour law, constitutional law and human rights law.
Before becoming an academic, he practiced labour law and refugee law for a
decade in Ottawa and Toronto. He also worked for the United Nations on human
rights and refugee issues in Jerusalem.
Ms. Leilani Farha is the UN SpecialRapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate
standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context.
Farha is the Executive Director of the NGO Canada without Poverty, based in
Ottawa. A lawyer by training, for the past 20 years Ms. Farha has worked both
internationally and domestically on the implementation of the right to adequate
housing for the most marginalized groups and on the situation of people living
in poverty. Her most recent report to the Human Rights Council focuses on
access to justice for the right to housing.
The Special Rapporteurs are part of
what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. SpecialProcedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights
system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and
monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or
thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a
voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their
work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in
their individual capacity.
UN Human Rights, Country Page:
Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel
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other UN independent experts please contact
Jeremy Laurence, UN Human Rights –
Media Unit (+41 22 917 9383 / jlaurence@ohchr.org)
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independent human rights experts on Twitter @UN_SPExperts.
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