UN EXPERTS URGE ISRAEL TO STOP HARASSMENT OF HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST ISSA AMRO

From: UNNews <UNNews@un.org>
Date: 13 Aug 2013 14:00:00 -0400
Subject: UN EXPERTS URGE ISRAEL TO STOP HARASSMENT OF HUMAN RIGHTS
ACTIVIST ISSA AMRO
To: news11@ny-mail-p-lb-028.ptc.un.org

UN EXPERTS URGE ISRAEL TO STOP HARASSMENT OF HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST
ISSA AMRONew York, Aug 13 2013 2:00PMA group of United Nations
independent human rights experts today expressed deep concern at the
alleged ongoing judicial harassment, intimidation and abusive
treatment directed against Issa Amro, a prominent Palestinian human
rights defender.

Mr. Amro, a founder of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) Youth
Against Settlements and Hebron Defenders, was arrested and detained 20
times in 2012, and six times in 2013, without being charged.

UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied
Palestinian territories, Richard Falk, said Mr. Amro appears to be the
victim of a "pattern of harassment" that includes an effort to
intimidate him ahead of his participation in June 2013 as an NGO
representative at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, where he
delivered two statements.

Over the past months, Mr. Amro also received a number of death threats
from settler organizations.

"Among the most insidious features of the prolonged occupation of the
West Bank has been the high degree of complicity linking the Israeli
military administration to the violence of the unlawful settlers
against Palestinian inhabitants," Mr. Falk said in a
<"http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=13626&LangID=E">statement,
urging the Government to ensure that settlers do not harass or
intimidate Palestinians with impunity.

The experts also highlighted an incident on 8 July 2013, when Israeli
soldiers allegedly beat Mr. Amro, taking photos of him on a stretcher
and threatening to shoot him. He was hospitalized more than five hours
later and summoned to the same police station the next day.

"I am very concerned for Mr. Amro's life, physical integrity and the
psychological toll that this is having on his health and family," said
the UN Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan E. Méndez.

He stressed that there is an absolute and non-derogable ban under
international human rights law on the use of torture as well as cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

More recently, on 25 July, heavily armed Israeli soldiers raided the
Youth Against Settlements Centre, and allegedly fired on Mr. Amro and
three other activists the next day.

"The right to freedom of association suggests that those exercising it
are specifically protected from threats or use of violence,
harassment, persecution, intimidation or reprisals," stressed the
Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and
of association, Maina Kiai.

"Those responsible for these unacceptable acts against Mr. Amro should
be held accountable, while members of the Youth Against Settlements
Centre should immediately be granted adequate protection."

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders,
Margaret Sekaggya, added that Mr. Amro faced an "unacceptable campaign
of harassment, intimidation and reprisals" that extended to other
human rights defenders who peacefully advocate for the rights of
Palestinians in the West Bank, including by cooperating with UN human
rights bodies.

The UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, Frank
La Rue, noted that during his visit to the West Bank in 2011, he had
been deeply concerned by the restrictions imposed by Israel on the
work of human rights defenders and journalists working in the occupied
territory.

"Intimidation through arbitrary arrests risks silencing important
voices that inform us about the real situation on the ground," he
said.

"We call on the Government of Israel to make sure that every
allegation of torture or of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of
Palestinians in Israeli custody is investigated in a thorough and
transparent investigation and that those responsible are held
accountable for their acts," the experts urged.

Independent experts or special rapporteurs are tasked with examining
and reporting back on a country situation or a specific human rights
theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff,
nor are they paid for their work.Aug 13 2013 2:00PM
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