Jerusalem, 10 December 2006
I am writing to you from Jerusalem on International Human Rights Day on the eve of the forthcoming European Council meeting to ask you to take urgent action to address the extremely serious human rights situation in Israel and the Occupied Territories.
The current truce in the Gaza Strip is extremely fragile but it provides an opening which the international community must seize to encourage dialogue towards a political solution. However, no political initiative will succeed if it does not address, as a matter of priority, the underlying human rights concerns.
Over the past week, I have led a mission of Amnesty International to assess the human rights situation in Israel and the Occupied Territories. We see a downward spiral of human rights abuses and entrenched impunity, sowing the seeds of a disaster with catastrophic consequences for ordinary people. Despair about the foreseeable future is fuelling violence and the radicalization of a predominantly young Palestinian population who see no prospects of a normal life.
The prognosis is of widespread violence, collapse of already failing Palestinian institutions and a worsening of the human rights and humanitarian crisis. (MORE)
http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGMDE150952006
Please also see:
Amnesty International in the Middle East (December 2006)
http://blogs.amnesty.org/blogs/israelot_dec06?open&day3
Letter Writing Marathon
http://blogs.amnesty.org/blogs/write4rights/pages
United Nations and the Middle East
http://www.un.org/apps/news/infocusRel.asp?infocusID=70&Body=Palestin&Body1=
I am writing to you from Jerusalem on International Human Rights Day on the eve of the forthcoming European Council meeting to ask you to take urgent action to address the extremely serious human rights situation in Israel and the Occupied Territories.
The current truce in the Gaza Strip is extremely fragile but it provides an opening which the international community must seize to encourage dialogue towards a political solution. However, no political initiative will succeed if it does not address, as a matter of priority, the underlying human rights concerns.
Over the past week, I have led a mission of Amnesty International to assess the human rights situation in Israel and the Occupied Territories. We see a downward spiral of human rights abuses and entrenched impunity, sowing the seeds of a disaster with catastrophic consequences for ordinary people. Despair about the foreseeable future is fuelling violence and the radicalization of a predominantly young Palestinian population who see no prospects of a normal life.
The prognosis is of widespread violence, collapse of already failing Palestinian institutions and a worsening of the human rights and humanitarian crisis. (MORE)
http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGMDE150952006
Please also see:
Amnesty International in the Middle East (December 2006)
http://blogs.amnesty.org/blogs/israelot_dec06?open&day3
Letter Writing Marathon
http://blogs.amnesty.org/blogs/write4rights/pages
United Nations and the Middle East
http://www.un.org/apps/news/infocusRel.asp?infocusID=70&Body=Palestin&Body1=