Summary
Chilean human rights leader who arrived at Al-Haq in January 1994 to conduct an intensive evaluation of the organization, invited urgently by Fateh Azzam to help think strategically about al-Haq’s challenges and role in the transitional period as Palestinian government became a reality (Al-Haq: A Global History of the First Palestinian Human Rights Organization, PDF p.200).
Details
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His intervention came midway between the first real cracks appearing in al-Haq (around Madrid in 1991) and the 1997 crisis and near-collapse of the organization (PDF p.200).
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He identified for al-Haq the “main variables” that might impinge on human rights in the West Bank and Gaza: the Israeli-Palestinian agreements; tensions within the Palestinian community; possible changes in patterns of violations and in the participation of different perpetrators, including a hypothetical Palestinian authority; and possible developments in the NGO community, including the politicization of the human rights debate (PDF p.201-202).
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Many of his variables did in fact manifest in the occupied Palestinian territory (PDF p.202).
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In Welchman part 6 his January 1994 report is quoted at length: al-Haq was “the premier human rights organisation in the region”, whose professional standards were uncontested norms, rigorous fact-finding, objectivity and accuracy; he proposed “propositional” as well as “oppositional” agendas, and found the counterpart notion of staff responsibility and accountability absent beside internal democracy and participation (Al-Haq: A Global History of the First Palestinian Human Rights Organization, PDF p.216-220).
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The August 1997 review invoked his accountability finding as “even more evident”, and his recommendation of a comprehensive strategy toward the Palestinian Authority as the explanation of the staff polarization (Al-Haq: A Global History of the First Palestinian Human Rights Organization, PDF p.224-225).
Related pages
Al-Haq: A Global History of the First Palestinian Human Rights Organization, Al-Haq, Fateh Azzam