The International Human Rights Clinic
"I have to say that the letter is written really well and that I discovered a lot of things I went through and did not know much about when I was very little. Thank you very much, I really appreciate it."
A client of the International Human Rights Clinic
The International Human Rights Clinic was established several years ago and is one of eight subject-specific Clinics at the CLEC. It works to promote and apply international human rights law to the realities of life in Israel and to the country’s legal system. It provides legal assistance to both individuals and organizations, advancing large-scale impact around the status and rights of the most vulnerable people in Israel today. The Clinic facilitates dialogue and exchange among Israeli human rights organizations, UN treaty bodies and Israeli policy shapers. It focuses on legal representation of diverse minority groups, such as Palestinians from East Jerusalem, asylum seekers and other stateless persons, Ultra-Orthodox women, and the LGBT community. The Clinic also publishes position papers and drafts bills that promote the civil, political, cultural and social rights of such groups.
Alongside helping individuals and groups to protect and utilize their rights, the Clinic’s goals are to arm students — the future generation of lawyers in the public and private sectors — with social sensitivity, knowledge on international human rights, and understanding of the relationship and gaps between “law on the books” and “law in action”.
Among the Clinic's recent achievements:
1. The Attorney General decided to attend the hearing on the International Human Rights Clinic’s appeal on behalf of a Givatayim resident blocked from the mayor’s Twitter account. The user was blocked due to tweets that criticized the mayor and the municipality’s policy of non-enforcement of the prohibition against parking cars on the pavement, which he considers to be life threatening. The Clinic position is that blocking a user due to criticism is a violation of their right to freedom of expression, the right to participate in public discourse, and even violates the right of the general public to access information. The Attorney General recognized that this was a precedent-setting issue with far-reaching implications, and therefore decided to submit his position prior to the hearing, to be held in October 2021, and attend the hearing..
2. The International Human Rights Clinic requested that the Population and Immigration Authority extend staying permits for Palestinians to stay in Israel as part of family reunification. Unlike the first national lockdown in March 2020, during the national lockdown that began in January 2021, the Population and Immigration Authority did not issue an announcement regarding the automatic extension of staying permits for Palestinians present in Israel within the terms of family reunification, and which had expired during the lockdown; other residency visas were however extended. The International Human Rights Clinic approached the legal advisor of the Population and Immigration Authority with a request to automatically extend these permits and notify to the general public. The Clinic request emphasized the dangers of staying illegally in Israel, and the stress of living in such uncertainty. Following this request from the Clinic and other parties, the Authority issued a notice regarding the automatic extension of staying permits until the end of March 2021.
3. The Palestinian Authority (PA) submitted its observations concerning the complaint, on behalf of Hisham Al-Sayed, submitted by the International Human Rights Clinic to the UN Rights of People with Disabilities Committee on the violation of the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. Although the complaint to the UN Committee was also submitted on behalf of Avera Mengistu, the PA only recently conveyed its observations concerning Mengistu. As outlined in our previous report, both Mengistu and Al-Sayed disappeared in Gaza. Mengistu and Al-Sayed both have serious mental health disabilities, which were the main cause of their decision to cross the border into Gaza in 2014 and 2015 (respectively). According to a video from 2016, it seems that Hamas is holding or held Mengistu and Al-Sayed illegally in incommunicado detention and refuses to provide any information on the matter.
In their observations, the Palestinian Authority argues that the Clinic’s complaint should be rejected outright, and it denied any knowledge concerning either individual. The PA further argues it has no legal obligation to provide information or help retrieve the missing men according to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities since it has no effective control over the territory. The Clinic submitted a response to the PA observations concerning Al-Sayed to further strengthen its legal position and urge the Committee to provide a legal solution to Al-Sayed’s situation. Currently, the Clinic is preparing its response to the PA’s observations concerning Mengistu.