The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is a United Nations body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world. The Council has 47 members elected for staggered three-year terms on a regional group basis. The headquarters of the Council are at the United Nations Office at Geneva in Switzerland.
The Manual on Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel,Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,commonly known as the Istanbul Protocol,is the first set of international guidelines for documentation of torture and its consequences. It became an official United Nations document in 1999;the most recent revision was in June 2022.
Israeli apartheid refers to a system of institutionalized discrimination in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and within Israel proper. This system is characterized by the near-total physical separation between the Palestinian and the Israeli settler population of the West Bank,as well as the judicial separation that governs both communities,which discriminates against the Palestinians in a wide range of ways. Israel also discriminates against Palestinian refugees in the diaspora and to some extent against its own Palestinian citizens.
Christopher John Robert Dugard is a South African professor of international law. His main academic specializations are in Roman-Dutch law,public international law,jurisprudence,human rights,criminal procedure and international criminal law. He has served on the International Law Commission,the primary UN institution for the development of international law,and has been active in reporting on human-rights violations by Israel in the Palestinian territories.
Richard Anderson Falk is an American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University,and Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor's Chairman of the Board of Trustees. In 2004,he was listed as the author or coauthor of 20 books and the editor or coeditor of another 20 volumes. Falk has published extensively with multiple books written about international law and the United Nations.
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights,with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and supporters around the world. The stated mission of the organization is to campaign for "a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments." The organization has played a notable role on human rights issues due to its frequent citation in media and by world leaders.
Julian Paul Assange is an Australian editor,publisher,and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. He came to international attention in 2010 after WikiLeaks published a series of leaks from Chelsea Manning,a former United States Army intelligence analyst:footage of a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad,U.S. military logs from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars,and U.S. diplomatic cables. Assange has won multiple awards for publishing and journalism.
Nils Joachim Melzer is a Swiss academic,author,and practitioner in the field of international law. From 2016 until 2022,Melzer was the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel,Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. He is a professor of international law at the University of Glasgow. From 2011-2013,he was Swiss Chair of International Humanitarian Law at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. Melzer has criticised the governments of the U.S.,the U.K.,Ecuador and Sweden over their treatment of Julian Assange.
Assange v Swedish Prosecution Authority were the set of legal proceedings in the United Kingdom concerning the requested extradition of Julian Assange to Sweden for a "preliminary investigation" into accusations of sexual offences allegedly made in August 2010. Assange left Sweden for the UK in 27 September 2010 and was arrested in his absence the same day. He was suspected of rape of a lesser degree,unlawful coercion and multiple cases of sexual molestation. In June 2012,Assange breached bail and sought refuge at Ecuador's Embassy in London and was granted asylum.
Agnès Callamard is a French human rights activist who is the Secretary General of Amnesty International. She was previously the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial,summary,or arbitrary executions appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council,and the former Director of the Columbia University Global Freedom of Expression project.
Israeli torture in the occupied territories refers to the use of torture and systematic degrading practices on Palestinians detained by Israeli forces in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The practice,routine for decades,was eventually reviewed by the Supreme Court of Israel in 1999,which found that "coercive interrogation" of Palestinians had been widespread,and deemed it unlawful,though permissible in certain cases. Torture is also practiced by the Palestinian authorities in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
In 2012,while on bail,Julian Assange was granted political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London,where he sought to avoid extradition to Sweden,and what his supporters said was the possibility of subsequent extradition to the US. On 11 April 2019,Ecuador revoked his asylum,he was arrested for failing to appear in court,and carried out of the Embassy by members of the London Metropolitan Police. Following his arrest,he was charged and convicted,on 1 May 2019,of violating the Bail Act,and sentenced to fifty weeks in prison. While in prison the US revealed a previously sealed 2018 US indictment in which Assange was charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion related to his involvement with Chelsea Manning and WikiLeaks.
Francesca P. Albanese is an Italian international lawyer and academic. On 1 May 2022,she was appointed United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories for a three-year term. She is the first woman to hold the position.
Women in the Israel–Hamas war refers to the experience of Israeli and Palestinian women as victims of violence,combatants,leadership partners,and as participants in informational campaigns during the Israel–Hamas war. The conflict has been marked by violence towards women,including reports of rape and sexual violence by Hamas militants. Following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7,2023,there were testimonies and videos indicating that Hamas employed methods of severe torture,including violence and sexual violence against Israeli women and children. Close to 100 Israeli women were taken hostage and held in Gaza,leading to efforts by Israeli women and organizations to raise awareness and promote their release. The UN Secretary-General and UN Women condemned the gender-based violence against Israeli women during the attacks.
Reem Alsalem is a Jordanian independent consultant and former civil servant. Since August 2021 she has served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls.
During the 2023–24 Israel–Hamas war,Israeli forces have committed wartime sexual violence against Palestinians women and men;including rape and torture. Two Palestinian women reported being raped by male Israeli soldiers while in prison. Palestinian men have also been raped and subjected to torture,and in some cases the torture has led to the victim's death.
During the Israel–Hamas war,Israel has systematically tortured Palestinians detained in its prison system. This torture has been reported by the United Nations,Human Rights Watch,Amnesty International,and several Israeli nonprofit organizations. The torture included sexual violence against both male and female Palestinian detainees;some of the victims were United Nations staff forced to confess to terrorism offenses. As of August 2024,at least 53 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli military facilities since the beginning of the war. Numerous Palestinian detainees have provided testimony of torture by Israeli forces,including during interrogations. There were further reports of the Israeli torture of accused militants. In response,Shin Bet officials stated they conduct militant interrogations within the Israeli legal framework,under which torture is considered legal under certain circumstances.
Sde Teiman is an Israeli military base located in the Negev desert near the border with the Gaza Strip. During the Israel–Hamas war,its use as a detention camp doubled and gained international attention for its systemic human rights violations against its Palestinian detainees from the strip.
Since the beginning of the Israel–Hamas war in 2023,the Israeli military and authorities have been charged with committing war crimes,such as indiscriminate attacks on civilians in densely populated areas;genocide;forced evacuations;the torture and executions of civilians;sexual violence;destruction of cultural heritage;collective punishment;and the mistreatment and torture of Palestinian prisoners. Humanitarian organizations such as Human Rights Watch,Amnesty International,B'tselem,the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry,the UN Human Rights Council,and human rights groups and experts,including United Nations special rapporteurs,have documented these actions.
Mariana Katzarova is a Bulgarian journalist who founded the charity 'RAW on WAR',which created the Anna Politkovskaya Award. She became the first United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Russian Federation in 2023.
