With almost 75 years of history, the Palestinian refugee crisis is one of the longest-running in the world, and there is currently no sign of a viable solution. The inability of the international community to establish a clear strategy under these fluid circumstances has hampered responses to refugee crises. The international community has struggled to address the difficulties posed by large migrations and the fluidity of boundaries. Particularly when it comes to refugee protection policy, the UN Security Council has been split.
The Palestinian refugee dilemma, while primarily a political issue, is also a matter of legal distortion since Palestinian refugees are not afforded the same minimum international safeguards as other refugee groups worldwide due to legal loopholes. Given the intimate connection between refugees and human rights, international human rights norms are potent tools for strengthening, supplementing, and providing the current framework for refugee protection with the correct focus and direction.
This article explains the historical backdrop of the statutory distinction that makes Palestinian refugees distinctive, investigates the practical, legal, and political ramifications of that status, and suggests a structure and procedures meant to advance a rights-based resolution to the Palestinian refugee issue.
RefugeesRights
Article 1(A)(2) of the 1951 Convention elucidates that any person who is outside their nation of origin or place of regular residence and is unable or unwilling to return because of a justified fear of persecution owing to their ethnic background, nationality, political views, or affiliation with a particular social group qualifies as a refugee.
A majority of individuals define human rights as the unalienable rights that each individual has just by virtue of being a human. They are based on the fundamental ideas of equality, universality, and non-discrimination, and they are codified in national laws, treaties, and other norms that serve to define and ensure their full enjoyment. Each individual has a legal entitlement to human rights, even those who fall under the remit of UNHCR’s mandate.
The first of the refugees’ rights that is being violated is Article 3’s right to liberty and security of the person, which is significant in the context of how asylum seekers are treated within the nation that they have selected for refuge.
Women have always been exceptionally prone to becoming easy targets in the so-called refugee cycle, even though violence against women has existed since inception and taken on many harsher forms over the years. It’s outrageous to read what a Palestinian prisoner stated after following her release: she said the guards had twice used tear gas on prisoners while they were inside their cells and that she had received threats of rape. They reported being struck with sticks, having muzzled dogs set on them, and having their clothes, food, and blankets taken away.It has been acknowledged on an international and community level that violence against women, notably sexual assault and rape, hinders and undermines the enjoyment of legal, political, social, and cultural freedoms.
In certain scenarios, failure to safeguard people against the aforementioned kinds of violence additionally undermines or destroys their ability to exercise their fundamental right to life and personal safety, as well as liberty, security, and integrity.
The norm of non-discrimination included in various global and regional human rights treaties is critical to the preservation of refugees’ human rights and basic freedoms since they are especially vulnerable to bias as outsiders in the asylum country. Discrimination against refugees based on their status as such is prohibited by the basic tenets of international human rights legislation, including the right to equality before the law, equal treatment under the law, and non-discrimination. Furthermore, acts of discrimination based on nationality, ethnicity, religion, or socioeconomic status – factors that are frequently linked to refugee circumstances – would be prohibited under such legislations. OCHA reported that the continuing bombardment and the Israeli ground operation in northern Gaza and the fringes of Gaza City have been intensifying, violating the right to be protected from assaults. Since the 7th of October, Israeli strikes have resulted in the tragic deaths of at least 25,700 Palestinians.
All people, regardless of origin, have the universal right to return, according to recognition by international law. Fortunately, the premise of universal rights is not completely novel, one of its earliest international manifestations may be found in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).Since 1948, both the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council have repeatedly urged Israel to assist the return of Palestinian refugees and pay reparations.UNGA Resolution 194 clearly resolves that “the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the governments or authorities responsible”. Despite these repeated requests, Palestinian refugees have been routinely denied the right to return and forced to live in exile in insecure and hazardous situations beyond the borders of Palestine.
The right to asylum wherein which “Asylum is the protection which a State grants on its territory or in some other place under the control of certain of its organs, to a person who comes to seek it”.According to Art. 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR): “everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution”.“Asylum seekers and refugees who are under the jurisdiction of the UNHCRshould not be the victims of measures taken by Governments against illegal immigration or threats to their national security, however justified these may be in themselves,” the UNHCR said in 1986. Even so, the State is under no equivalent duty to offer refuge or permit entry into its territory. However, this does not imply that States are free to repatriate citizens at will. Given that refugees represent a special class of victims of human rights, granting asylum to them is a crucial component of protecting those rights.
International law views the violation ofthe right against torture and other harsh treatment of protected people in an occupied area as a war crime. International humanitarian law is violated when protected people are detained outside of occupied territory, as is the case with Palestinian detainees from the OPT being held in Israel. This is because it amounts to forcible transfer. Administrative imprisonment is one of the primary tools Israel uses to uphold its apartheid policy against the Palestinian people.
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[Ammarah Ishaq and Mohammed Salman Siddiqui are 3rd semester law students from University College of Law, Osmania University, Hyderabad. Having represented in several moot-court competitions, they share keen interests in researching and writing about contemporary concerns.]