Summary
Human rights worker who was program coordinator of Al-Haq in the early 1990s and is quoted by Welchman on the independence of the human rights defender and on the organization’s weekly meeting (Al-Haq: A Global History of the First Palestinian Human Rights Organization, PDF p.98, p.120).
Details
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In a piece for al-Haq’s “Human Rights Corner” in the local Arabic press, written two years after the Madrid Conference and just before the 1993 Declaration of Principles, he wrote that the decision of the human rights defender must be independent and not political, and that the credibility of non-governmental organisations depends entirely on integrity and commitment to equality and objectivity (PDF p.98).
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In the Introduction, Welchman notes al-Haq’s 2005 anniversary publication carried Azzam’s retrospective on the staff-run period and the 1997 crisis (PDF p.20).
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On the weekly meeting, despite the difficulties: “Even with all these other really difficult things, the weekly meeting was still going on, things were being decided, there was a sense of open discussion about the program, that was one of the main strengths of al-Haq” (PDF p.120).
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As al-Haq coordinator he presented the draft of The Right to Freedom of Assembly to the Palestinian Police director-general Ghazi al-Jabali “in order to provide him with a further opportunity to express his opinion and address the issues discussed herein”; no response was received (PDF p.136-137).
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He refers to “the all-important meeting of the field-workers” held every Wednesday, and recalls finding al-Haq “absolutely driven by developments on the ground” (PDF p.164-165).
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After returning from his LLM in the UK at the end of summer 1992 he took over as program coordinator, sought to review the board’s decision to terminate the Enforcement Project, and organized the staff vote that was for keeping it by a very narrow margin (PDF p.162).
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On the Arabic questionnaire’s use of martyrdom (istishhad): not to use the term in such contexts would be almost to pretend not to be a Palestinian organization, in the interests of appearing neutral to a Western audience (PDF p.168).
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In Welchman part 5, his introduction to A Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials (September 1993) noted Palestinian society had for decades suffered from the different security agencies under whose authority it lived, and asked of the Declaration of Principles’ provision: “so what is a ‘strong police force’?” (Al-Haq: A Global History of the First Palestinian Human Rights Organization, PDF p.194).
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His August 1994 introduction to the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment urged the incoming Palestinian authorities: “We must start now, not tomorrow”, concluding “If we sow respect for human rights, we will surely reap respect for duties, and respect for the Authority itself” (PDF p.194-195).
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He invited José Zalaquett urgently in January 1994 to help think strategically about al-Haq’s challenges and role in the transitional period (PDF p.200).
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On the killing of collaborators he recalls “very hot debates”, and calls al-Haq’s eventual public position “a soft correct position, not a strong one, but correct”; writing in 2005 he called al-Haq’s failure to take a clear public position on armed attacks against civilian Israeli targets a “serious gap to date in al-Haq’s honourable human rights record”, arguing “targeting civilians for any reason is a crime under international law” (PDF p.203, p.205-206).
Related pages
Al-Haq: A Global History of the First Palestinian Human Rights Organization, Al-Haq