GENEVA, September 21, 2020 – A coalition of 70 NGOs led by UN Watch has sent letters to governments urging them to speak out for the release of Gaza peace activist Rami Aman, including appeals to the foreign ministers of Australia, Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.
In advance of today’s UN Human Rights Council debate with the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, a quasi-judicial panel of experts, the letters urged countries to take the floor on behalf of Aman, a Palestinian peace activist who has been famously jailed by Hamas since April 9th for having organized a Zoom video call between Israeli and Palestinian peace activists.
UN Watch will also address the plenary of the 47-nation UNHRC in a joint statement in support of the 70 NGOs’ legal complaint with the UN to demand the release of Rami.
The UN recently published the NGOs’ written summary of the complaint as an official UN document, A/HRC/45/NGO/149. See the full list of NGOs in the annex to their complaint.
Rulings of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention are not legally binding, but are cited by judges worldwide and can exert pressure on governments to release those imprisoned without due process.
