Responsibility to express : a study of local and international organizations working on human rights in Israel-Palestine.
Master thesis
Permanent lenke
http://hdl.handle.net/11250/187765Utgivelsesdato
2012-09-17Metadata
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Sammendrag
The study “Responsibility to express” seeks to answer the question “How can local and
international organizations contribute to the realization of a greater number of human rights
in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?” The objectives are: “To emphasize how the organizations
work to progressively implement or achieve the selected human rights and how they choose
what to focus upon”; “To examine what could be achieved with human rights work”; and
“To analyze how freedom of expression plays a role for local and international organizations
working on human rights”. Participants interviewed and observed are the Israeli organizations
Machsom Watch, Breaking the Silence and Amnesty International Israel; the Palestinian
Human Rights Monitoring Group and the Middle East Non-Violence and Democracy; and the
Temporary International Presence in Hebron, the UN Office of the High Commissioner on
Human Rights, and Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel. The field
work was conducted in Jerusalem August-October 2010, and in Hebron September-December
2011. The organizations focus on the military occupation; the separation barrier, military
checkpoints and permit system; demolition of Palestinian houses and building of Israeli
settlements; and the use of violence and arrests. The organizations work on collecting and
providing information by observing, documenting and reporting on the issues they focus on.
Israeli organizations focus on the Israeli policies in the territory, and Palestinian organizations
focus on internal issues in the Palestinian society and the occupation. The international
organizations work on human rights violations related to the military occupation and the
behaviour of the Israeli and Palestinian governments. The organizations meet internal
challenges within the organizations, and external challenges related to the society and
political situation. The goals of the Israeli organizations are to provide information and
contribute to debate about the occupation. The goals of the Palestinian organizations are to
focus on human rights internally in the Palestinian society and the Israeli occupation. The
local organizations aim to influence the civil society, while the international organizations
aim to influence the behaviour of the Israeli and Palestinian governments in addition to the
grass root level. All organizations aim to influence both locally and internationally. Freedom
of expression is important organizations working on human rights and the responsibility to
express is the motivation behind observing, documenting and reporting on the situation. This
study shows that local and international organizations work to provide information,
knowledge and experiences to create awareness locally and internationally to contribute to the
realization of a greater number of human rights in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.