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STORY: OHCHR / US SANCTIONS PALESTINIAN NGOS
TRT: 01:24
SOURCE: OHCHR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 05 SEPTEMBER 2025, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
FILE - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, Palais Wilson, UN Human Rights Office headquarters
05 SEPTEMBER 2025, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Thameen Al-Kheetan, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“The sanctions imposed by the US Government on three prominent and well-respected Palestinian human rights groups are completely unacceptable and should be withdrawn. They target Al-Haq group, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, in relation to their support of the work of the International Criminal Court on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory. For decades now, these NGOs have been performing vital human rights work, particularly on accountability for human rights violations. The sanctions will have a chilling effect not only on civil society in the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel, but potentially globally. The work of civil society in documenting violations and engaging with international accountability mechanisms is all the more important when international humanitarian and human rights laws are being violated systematically in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Sanctions against such human rights NGOs only deepen impunity, silence victims’ voices and encourage a climate of continued commission of violations and international crimes.”
3. Wide shot, Palais Wilson, UN Human Rights Office headquarters
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Friday called on the US Government to withdraw sanctions it imposed on three prominent Palestinian NGOs in relation to their support to the International Criminal Court.
“The sanctions imposed by the US Government on three prominent and well-respected Palestinian human rights groups are completely unacceptable and should be withdrawn,” said UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan.
He added that the sanctions target Al-Haq group, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, in relation to their support of the work of the International Criminal Court on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory.
“For decades now, these NGOs have been performing vital human rights work, particularly on accountability for human rights violations,” he added. “The sanctions will have a chilling effect not only on civil society in the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel, but potentially globally.”
“The work of civil society in documenting violations and engaging with international accountability mechanisms is all the more important when international humanitarian and human rights laws are being violated systematically in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem,” Al-Kheetan said.
The spokesperson added that “sanctions against such human rights NGOs only deepen impunity, silence victims’ voices and encourage a climate of continued commission of violations and international crimes”.
The High Commissioner urged the US Government to withdraw immediately these sanctions, as well as the ones imposed earlier on the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, and on multiple Judges and Prosecutors of the ICC.
