Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Encyclopedia
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) is an independent Palestinian human rights organization based in Gaza City, founded and directed by Raji Sourani
Raji Sourani
Raji Sourani is widely considered the Gaza Strip's foremost human rights lawyer. He is the 1991 recipient of the 1991 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, was an Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience in 1985 and 1988, member of International Commission of Jurists EXCO and IDAL EXCO, and...

. The non-governmental organization was established in 1995 by a group of Palestinian lawyers and human rights activists and receives funding from governmental, non-governmental, and religious sources.

Principles and philosophy

The Centre states on its website that its founding principles are to:
  • Protect human rights and promote the rule of law in accordance with international standards.
  • Create and develop democratic institutions and an active civil society, while promoting democratic culture within Palestinian society.
  • Support all the efforts aimed at enabling the Palestinian people to exercise its inalienable rights in regard to self-determination and independence in accordance with international Law and UN resolutions.



In its philosophy statement, PCHR repudiates the Oslo Accords as 'fatally flawed' and adds:
Moreover, the Oslo accords failed to address the essential elements of the Palestinian question -- the right to self-determination, the right to an independent Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem, the right of return for Palestinian refugees and the removal of Israeli settlements from the OPT. In light of this wide-ranging disregard for the human rights of the Palestinian people, the Centre resolved to continue its work to protect human rights from ongoing violations by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF).


The group has consultative and affiliative status with a number of Arab, European and United Nations' organizations and has received the 1996 French Republic Award on Human Rights and the 2002 Bruno Kreisky Award
Bruno Kreisky Award
The Bruno Kreisky Award is a biennial award created in October 1976 on the occasion of the 65th birthday of Bruno Kreisky. The laureates are rewarded for their achievements in the field of human rights...

 for Outstanding Achievements in the Area of Human Rights. The group has repeatedly called for a ban on capital punishment in the Palestinian territories, which is supported by a majority of Palestinians. The group has also released reports relating to violence in the Palestinian territories and Israel. Raji Sourani
Raji Sourani
Raji Sourani is widely considered the Gaza Strip's foremost human rights lawyer. He is the 1991 recipient of the 1991 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, was an Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience in 1985 and 1988, member of International Commission of Jurists EXCO and IDAL EXCO, and...

, director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, was denied a permit to exit the Gaza Strip to attend a human rights conference in September 2008.

Funding

According to the site's funding page, the following list comprises the Centre's major funding organisations:
  • International Commission of Jurists
    International Commission of Jurists
    The International Commission of Jurists is an international human rights non-governmental organization. The Commission itself is a standing group of 60 eminent jurists , including members of the senior judiciary in Australia, Canada, and South Africa and the former UN High Commissioner for Human...

    , Sweden Chapter
  • Ford Foundation
    Ford Foundation
    The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....

     (USA)
  • NOVIB (Holland)
  • Open Society Fund
    Open Society Institute
    The Open Society Institute , renamed in 2011 to Open Society Foundations, is a private operating and grantmaking foundation started by George Soros, aimed to shape public policy to promote democratic governance, human rights, and economic, legal, and social reform...

     (USA)
  • Christian Aid
    Christian Aid
    Christian Aid is the official relief and development agency of 40 British and Irish churches and works to support sustainable development, alleviate poverty, support civil society and provide disaster relief in South America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Africa and Asia...

     (UK)
  • Dan Church Aid
    DanChurchAid
    DanChurchAid is one of the major Danish humanitarian non governmental organisations , working with churches and non-religious civil organisations to assist the poorest of the poor.DanChurchAid carries out its work with the objective:...

     (Denmark)
  • Grassroots International (USA)
  • European Commission
    European Commission
    The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....

  • Ireland Aid
  • Kvinna Till Kvinna
    Kvinna Till Kvinna
    Kvinna Till Kvinna is a Swedish organization founded in 1993 as a result of the Balkan war. It supports women in war and conflict zones with a strong concentration on the Balkans, but is also active in the Middle East and the Caucasus...

     – Sweden
  • Al Quds Association Malaga – Spain
  • Royal Danish Representative Office
  • Representative Office of Norway


The group has received funding from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is a United Nations agency that works to promote and protect the human rights that are guaranteed under international law and stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948...

 to support the establishment of a Women and Group Rights' Unit.

Actions

In their report titled "Impunity for US Peace Activist's Death" that contains eyewitness testimonies for Rachel Corrie
Rachel Corrie
Rachel Aliene Corrie was an American member of the International Solidarity Movement . She was killed in the Gaza Strip by an Israel Defence Forces bulldozer when she was standing or kneeling in front of a local Palestinian's home, thus acting as a human shield, attempting to prevent the IDF from...

's disputable death case, on 30 June 2003, PCHR declared they have "submitted more than 1200 complaints to the Israeli occupying forces regarding human rights violations since the beginning of the current Intifada. In no case in which PCHR has submitted a complaint, has any individual in the Israeli occupying forces, security services or other persons, been prosecuted or otherwise disciplined for any act perpetrated against a Palestinian or foreign national. PCHR asserts that the State of Israel should be aware that where it fails in its specific legal obligations to conduct full and fair investigations into human rights violations, and bring those responsible to justice in accordance with international law, victims of Israeli war crimes may seek alternative judicial remedies abroad, including under the principle of universal jurisdiction."

The PCHR condemned the Israeli government for allowing "Jewish settler groups to enter the yards of the al-Aqsa Mosque
Al-Aqsa Mosque
Al-Aqsa Mosque also known as al-Aqsa, is the third holiest site in Sunni Islam and is located in the Old City of Jerusalem...

 in occupied East Jerusalem
East Jerusalem
East Jerusalem or Eastern Jerusalem refer to the parts of Jerusalem captured and annexed by Jordan in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and then captured and annexed by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War...

" and for using excessive force against Palestinians attempting to "prevent the provocative entry of settlers into the Mosque."

In 2011 the PCHR criticized a decision by Hamas prohibiting a group of seven high school students from leaving Gaza in order to spend a year studying in the United States. The American nonprofit Amideast
Amideast
AMIDEAST is a U.S. non-profit organization that works to strengthen mutual understanding and cooperation between Americans and the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa...

 had awarded the students special scholarships for the program. A Hamas minister explained that "A 15-year-old girl cannot spend a year in America without a supervisor."

2011 saw further attacks by Hamas who criticised the Centre for releasing a statement with Israeli human rights groups calling for the appropriate treatment for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

The Centre has consistenly maintained its fearless stance and has been the leader in the fight to bring Israeli alleged war criminals to justice through use of the principle of universal jurisdiction. A number of promnent international cases have been taken, including that against Maj-Gen Doron Almog in the UK.

Criticism

NGO-Monitor
NGO Monitor
NGO Monitor is a non-governmental organization based in Jerusalem, Israel whose stated aim is to generate and distribute critical analysis and reports on the output of the international NGO community for the benefit of government policy makers, journalists, philanthropic organizations and the...

, an Israeli NGO watchdog group, has criticized the group for its regularly demonizing Israel, support for Lawfare
Lawfare
Lawfare is a recently coined word not yet appearing in the Oxford English Dictionary, a portmanteau of the words 'law' and 'warfare', said to describe a form of asymmetric warfare...

, use of Apartheid rhetoric and perceived disregard of human rights abuses committed against Israeli civilians:


While PCHR does an important job of describing intra-Palestinian human rights abuses, it is blatantly one-sided in its removal of the context of terror and disregard of human rights abuses committed against Israeli civilians. PCHR also supports "all the efforts aimed at enabling the Palestinian people to exercise its inalienable rights in regard to self-determination and independence," including calls for political, economic, and academic boycotts against Israel.


CAMERA
Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America is an American non-profit pro-Israel media watchdog group. The group says it was founded in 1982 "to respond to the Washington Post's coverage of Israel's Lebanon incursion", and to respond to what it considers the media's "general...

, a pro-Israeli American media watch dog, has criticized the group for "favoring Hamas over Israel" and "describing Israeli military operations as "war crimes"", and has questioned the accuracy of its casualty statistics.

External links

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