The report was submitted in response to the Committee’s call for additional information from civil society organizations regarding Israel’s implementation of the Covenant. The Committee will review Israel’s Fourth Periodic Report in March 2019 and adopt a “list of issues” in relation to Israel’s Report at that time.
Al-Marsad’s submission – prepared by the Cornell Law School International Human Rights Clinic – outlines multiple violations of the ICCPR by Israel with regard to the Syrian population in the occupied Syrian Golan, including: The Right to Freely Dispose of Natural Resources; The Right to be Free from Discrimination; The Right to Life; The Right to Freedom of Movement; The Right to Family; Cultural Rights: Education and Identity.
Since Israel’s last Universal Periodic Review in 2012, it has continued to implement policies that violate the basic human rights of the Syrian population in the occupied Syrian Golan. Al-Marsad’s submission covers six categories of Israeli violations during this period: (1) Illegal settlements and exploitation of natural resources; (2) Housing, planning and home demolition; (3) Landmines; (4) Revocation of residency; (5) Family separation; and (6) Education.
Al-Marsad has written to the 47 Members States of the UN Human Rights Council to provide them with a briefing on the deteriorating human rights situation in the Occupied Syrian Golan, in order to inform the discussion taking place during the thirty-fourth session of the Human Rights Council on 20 March 2017, that considers the report (A/HRC/34/37) of the Secretary General on human rights in the Occupied Syrian Golan.
Al-Marsad welcomes the opportunity provided by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to submit an alternative report containing information which is of relevance to its review of Israel’s Fourteenth to Sixteenth Periodic Reports on its implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.