Al-Haq is an independent Palestinian human rights organization founded in 1979 and based in Ramallah in the West Bank. It monitors and documents human rights violations by all parties to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, issuing reports on its findings and producing detailed legal studies.
Al-Haq has been an affiliate of the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists for over 20 years, and is a member of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Habitat International Coalition, and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT). It also is part of the Executive Committee of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) and of the Steering Committee of the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations' Network (PNGO).[1]
Al-Haq and its counterpart, the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, were co-recipients of the Carter-Menil Human Rights Prize in 1989,[2] and of the Geuzenpenning, a Dutch human rights award, in 2009.[1][3]
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Al-Haq was an active participant in the World Conference against Racism held in Durban in 2001.[4]
Its case against the British government to end export licenses to Israel was dismissed by the UK Court of Appeal on November 25, 2008. Al Haq originally brought the case in November 2006 to "secure the implementation of the July 2004 [ICJ] Advisory Opinion on Israel's Wall."[5]
On 24 February 2009, Al-Haq, in cooperation with solicitor Phil Shiner of Public Interest Lawyers (PIL), has filed a claim for judicial review before the High Court of England and Wales challenging the government of the United Kingdom over its failure to fulfill its obligations under international law with respect to Israel’s activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.[6][7] The official title of the case is "Al-Haq v. UK Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs et al."
In April 2009, Al-Haq issued a position paper titled "Operation Cast Lead and the Distortion of International Law". The paper is a legal analysis of Israel’s claim to self-defence under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter as a justification for its military operation in the Gaza Strip.[8]
Jabarin has been prevented from traveling outside of West Bank since 2006. Shin Bet claim Jabarin is a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and that "his travel may endanger regional security" but refuse to disclose evidence on the grounds that it is classified. Jabarin has been detained on at least two previous occasions following convictions in Israeli courts on the charge that he has engaged in activity on behalf of the PFLP, once for nine months in 1985 and once in 1994.[9] Jabarin denies membership saying that he has worked for Al-Haq since 1987. Israeli and international human rights organizations sent letters of protest to Defense Minister Ehud Barak, asking that Jabarin be allowed to travel and accept the prize. Israel–Netherlands relations have been strained by the affair.
In 2009, Israel's Shin Bet prevented the General Director of Al-Haq, Shawan Jabarin, from travelling to the Netherlands to accept the Geuzenpenning, a prestigious Dutch human rights prize presented by the Geuzen Resistance 1940-1945 Foundation jointly awarded to Al-Haq and B'Tselem.[3][10] The Supreme Court of Israel were asked to review Jabarin's petition to reverse the travel ban which the petitioners stated "suggests he is being targeted for securing human rights for his people". Previous secret hearings by the Israeli High Court decided in the Shin Bet's favour.[10] The court heard the arguments and reviewed the evidence presented to it in two separate hearings on the 5th and 9 March 2009 and dismissed the petition upholding the travel ban.[11] In previous case in 2008, The Supreme Court concluded, after reviewing classified intelligence material, that a petitioner was at the same time among the senior activists of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine organization.[12] Al Haq issued a statement that stated "the Israeli High Court has yet again exposed itself as merely a rubber-stamp for the decisions of the military and intelligence authorities, rather than an independent branch of government".[13] Dutch Foreign Minister, Maxime Verhagen, in its official statement issued on 11 March 2009 wrote "[the Dutch Ministry] is very disappointed that the travel ban on the Palestinian human rights defender Shabwan Jabarin has not been lifted."[14]
In November 2010 Jabarin, who was Amnesty International's first Palestinian Prisoner of Conscience, was refused permission by the Israeli authorities to travel to Galway, Ireland to receive a "distinguished graduate award" at the 10th anniversary celebrations of the NUI's Irish Centre for Human Rights, where he had studied international human rights law from 2004 to 2005.[15]
In addition, the government of Jordan also denied Jabarin an exit visa and did not allow him to travel in its territories.[16]
In February 2011, Human Rights Watch appointed Shawan Jabarin to their Mideast Advisory Board. This was seen as a controversial appointment since Jabarin was labeled "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" by the Israeli Supreme Court, for the dual roles they claimed he held in both the terrorist organization PFLP, and the human rights organization, Al Haq. HRW’s decision to include Jabarin on its Mideast Board sparked criticism from Robert L. Bernstein, the founder of HRW, Stuart Robinowitz, a prominent New York attorney who has undertaken human-rights missions for the American Bar Association and Helsinki Watch (the predecessor to HRW) in Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and El Salvador, and Prof. Gerald Steinberg, the president of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor.[17]