The challenge of human rights in Palestine, University of Padova, 17 May 2023

Within the framework of the third Civic Week (15-21 May 2023), in preparation of the PerugiAssisi Peace March

For some years now, authoritative scholars and transnational NGOs, as well as several officials of international human rights organisations have been using the term Apartheid to describe the systematic network of discrimination, dispossession and oppression that the Israeli government imposes on Palestinians in the territories occupied since 1967, and within the State of Israel. In her first report, in addition to reaffirming the need to dismantle this system, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, also stressed the crucial importance of not neglecting the situation of Palestinian refugees and other profound violations caused by the failure to recognise the fundamental right of the Palestinian people to determine their own political, social and economic status, free from foreign occupation, control and exploitation. At the same time, the current Israeli government has acquired increasingly radical positions both with regard to the 'Palestinian question' and to the fundamental conditions for the maintenance of a democratic regime anchored in respect for the rule of law.

In this context of increasing difficulty, human rights defenders and international organisations engaged in Israel and Palestine face increasingly existential challenges to their own capacity for initiative, and to the realisation of their right to fight for the protection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms, as recognised in the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, the 25th anniversary of which is being celebrated this year. At a time when human rights and those fighting for their fulfilment are globally under attack, the seminar aims to discuss the ardous human rights challenge in Palestine and strategies to address it through the direct testimony of those living this challenge first-hand.

Programme

Choral welcome

Marco Mascia, President of the Human Rights Centre "Antonio Papisca", Coordinator of the Universities for Peace Network; Francesca Benciolini, Councillor for Peace, Human Rights and International Cooperation, Municipality of Padova; Giovanna Benucci, Association for Peace, Padova; Lamia Yasin, PhD candidate in Human Rights, Society and Multi-level Governance, University of Padova; Flavio Lotti, Coordinator of the Promoter Committee of the Perugi-Assisi March for Peace and Fraternity.

Speakers

Andrea De Domenico
Deputy Head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Palestinian Occupied Territories, OCHA

Issa Amro
Human Rights Defender, Youth Against Settlements Hebron

Online speech by
Chen Alon (co-founder) and Osama Eliwat (spokesperson) of the Israeli-Palestinian association Combatants for Peace.

Debate

Video recording of the Conference

The conference will be held in Italian and English with simultaneous translation.

The conference is promoted by:
Human Rights Centre "Antonio Papisca" and UNESCO Chair "Human Rights, Democracy and Peace" of the University of Padova; Department for Peace, Human Rights and Development Cooperation, Municipality of Padova; Association for Peace; Women in Black; Pandora Centre; Labiba Association; PerugiAssisi March Promoter Committee.

With the participation of:
CGIL Padova, Association for Cooperation and Solidarity A.C.S., Agronomists and Foresters Without Borders, Radié Resh Network, A.N.P.I, Palestinian Community of Veneto

This will be followed at 7.00 p.m. at the Teatro Ruzante - Riviera Tito Livio 45 - by the screening of the short film The Present (Palestine, 24 min., 2020, directed by Farah Nabulsi). Isaa Amro and Andrea De Domenico will be present. Organised by the Association L'Osteria Volante, Labiba and the PhD students in human rights at the University of Padova (ex mille lire call for cultural initiatives) as part of the EventONE 2023 festival.