EU-ISRAEL:

Human Rights defenders Appeal to the EU-Israel Association Council to Act


Brussels 5 Dec. 2005

The EU should develop and implement a strategy to place respect for human rights and international humanitarian law by all parties involved in the Middle East peace process at the centre of efforts to put that process back on track.

The call comes from the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) in its second annual assessment of EU and Member States’ compliance with their own human rights commitments in their relations with Israel. The report, A Human Rights Review on the EU and Israel (2004-2005), is launched on the occasion of the EU-Israel Association Council which will be held on 12 December.

The Review shows that despite knowledge of Israeli violations of the human rights of Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories and discrimination against the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel, the EU tries to circumvent its human rights obligations in its agreements with Israel by concluding “practical arrangements” that allow it to maintain its internationally unlawful practices.

An EMHRN delegation of Israeli and Palestinian human rights activists are in Brussels 5-7 Dec. to meet a broad range of representatives of the EU Institutions and to present the review. The delegation will continue to London on 8-9 Dec. to present the review to representatives of British institutions.

A Human Rights Review on the EU and Israel (2004-2005) is published by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network, a network of 84 human rights organisations in the Euro-Mediterranean region – European, Arab, Israeli, Turkish – that are working to promote and protect universal human rights values.