[News] Human rights groups urge protection of Palestinian workers during COVID-19 pandemic

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://qudsnen.co/human-rights-groups-urge-protection-of-palestinian-workers-during-covid-19-pandemic/ 



  Human rights groups urge protection of Palestinian workers during
  COVID-19 pandemic

May 1, 2020
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ramallah (QNN) – The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council and 
the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network sent today a 
joint open letter to the International Labour Organization (ILO) on the 
occasion of International Workers’ Day, urging the latter to take action 
to protect the rights, livelihoods, and dignity of Palestinian workers 
during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following is the full text of the letter:

/We, the undersigned civil society organisations, trade unions, and 
individuals around the world, address this joint open letter to the 
International Labour Organization (ILO) on the occasion of International 
Workers’ Day, urging you to take action in the framework of your mandate 
to protect the rights, livelihoods, and dignity of Palestinian workers, 
women and men, and their families during and after the COVID-19 
pandemic. The ILO Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work has 
confirmed the essential role that ILO, one hundred years since its 
creation, must play for the achievement of ‘social justice, democracy 
and the promotion of universal and lasting peace.’[i]/

//

/We welcome the ILO’s recent statement calling on governments around the 
world to take action to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19 in 
the workplace. As stressed by the ILO, ‘It is only by implementing 
occupational safety and health measures that we can protect the lives of 
workers, their families and the larger communities, ensure work 
continuity and economic survival.’[ii] We also welcome the ILO’s 
Palestinian Decent Work Programme, as a serious effort to enhance 
employment and livelihood opportunities and realise fundamental 
principles and rights at work for Palestinian women and men.[iii]/

/

Around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated vulnerabilities 
linked to poverty, discrimination, conflict and occupation. In 
Palestine, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the forefront Israel’s 
regime of institutionalised racial domination and oppression over the 
Palestinian people as a whole, which amounts to the crime of 
apartheid.[iv] As highlighted in your latest 2019 report on the 
situation of workers of the occupied Arab territories, ‘the Palestinians 
themselves have little scope to improve their destiny. The Israeli 
occupation is stifling in every respect, dominating almost every aspect 
of Palestinian life.’[v] Throughout the occupied Palestinian territory, 
the Israeli occupying authorities have continued to indiscriminately 
target Palestinians’ livelihoods during the COVID-19 pandemic, including 
through attacks on farmers, shepherds, and fishermen in the Gaza Strip.[vi]

During COVID-19, the susceptibility of Palestinian workers to the 
pandemic has been compounded, with the Israeli occupying authorities 
continuing to prioritize economic considerations over the inherent 
rights and dignity of Palestinian workers. With the start of the 
outbreak, the Israeli occupying authorities allowed approximately 60,000 
Palestinian workers employed in Israel to temporarily reside in Israel 
for a maximum period of two months during the emergency situation, with 
Israeli employers mandated to ensure adequate housing, proper 
sanitation, and food for workers.[vii] Yet, workers have faced dire 
housing conditions, forced to sleep at construction sites or in 
greenhouses,[viii] while Palestinian workers displaying symptoms of the 
flu have been thrown at checkpoints without coordination to ensure they 
would receive treatment.[ix] At the same time, Israel has refused to 
test Palestinian workers for COVID-19, thereby failing to take adequate 
measures to curb the spread of the pandemic in the occupied Palestinian 
territory and undermined containment and mitigation efforts by the 
Palestinian Authority for returning workers. The Palestinian Health 
Ministry has found that workers, their families, and their contacts make 
up a majority of COVID-19 infections in the West Bank.[x]

“As we commemorate International Workers’ Day and the achievements in 
advancing labour rights across the globe, Palestinian workers employed 
in Israel and in illegal Israeli settlements continue to endure dire 
working conditions, receive lower wages than their Israeli counterparts, 
and are denied access to healthcare and other benefits, amongst other 
discriminatory policies and practices of the Israeli occupation.[xi] In 
particular, the Israeli construction sector, which is dominated by 
Palestinian workers from both sides of the Green Line and which has 
continued as an ‘essential service’ during COVID-19, is considered to be 
one of the most dangerous sectors for work-related accidents, as it 
lacks the necessary supervision by the Israeli government, whose 
responsibility it is to ensure that employers uphold Palestinian 
workers’ rights.

“As highlighted by the ILO, COVID-19 has exposed the fragility of 
economies across the globe, with the pandemic having the potential ‘in 
the longer-term [to] dramatically amplify cycles of poverty and 
inequality.’[xiii] It is therefore more urgent than ever to address the 
prolonged denial of the individual and collective rights of the 
Palestinian people as the root cause depriving Palestinians of an 
adequate standard of living, including the right to work. Notably, 
United Nations Special Rapporteurs have recalled Israel’s legal duty to 
ensure that Palestinians receive essential health services,[xiv] 
expressed concerns over Israel impeding efforts to effectively control 
and mitigate the impacts of COVID-19, and called for equal access to 
treatment and testing without discrimination.

Accordingly, we the undersigned civil society organisations, trade 
unions, and individuals call on you today, as Director-General of the 
ILO, to:

Send an urgent letter to the Minister of Labour and Minister of Health 
in Israel, calling on the Israeli occupying authorities to urgently 
provide Palestinian workers with their three months’ wages during the 
emergency period, as per Israeli labour law; to take all necessary 
measures, including with employers, to guarantee healthcare coverage for 
Palestinian workers during and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 
pandemic; to provide Palestinian workers staying in Israel with adequate 
housing, food, water, and sanitation, as essential to upholding their 
rights and mitigating the effects of COVID-19 amongst workers and their 
families upon return; and
Invite the 109th session of the International Labour Conference to hold 
Israel, the occupying power, accountable for its violation of 
Palestinian workers’ rights through the adequate supervision of the 
Committee of Experts to implement the recommendations of the report on 
the situation of workers of the occupied Arab territories and for the 
enforcement of the conventions it has ratified.
Yours sincerely,

*Coalitions*

The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC), comprising:

Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
Al-Haq – Law in the Service of Mankind
Aldameer Association for Human Rights
Defense for Children International (DCI) – Palestine
Hurryyat – Center for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights
Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC)
Muwatin Institute for Democracy and Human Rights – Observer Member
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)
Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies (RCHRS)
The Independent Commission for Human Rights (Ombudsman Office) – 
Observer Member
The Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO), comprising:

Agricultural Development Association (PARC)
Alrowwad Cultural and Arts Society
Arab Center for Agricultural Development
Democracy and Workers’ Rights Center (DWRC)
Early Childhood Resource Center (ECRC)
Health Work Committees (HWC)
Human Rights and Democracy Media Center – SHAMS
Land Research Center (LRC)
Ma’an Development Center
Musawa – The Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary 
and the Legal Profession
Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution (PCDCR)
Palestinian Center for Peace and Democracy (PCPD)
Palestinian Family Planning and Protection Association
Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS)
Palestinian Women’s Development Society (PWDS)
Palestinian Working Women Society for Development (PWWSD)
Psycho-Social Counselling Center for Women (PSCCW)
Sareyyet Ramallah
Tamer Institute for Community Education
Teacher Creativity Center
The Palestinian Businesswomen’s Association – ASALA
Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC)
Union of Health Work Committees (UHWC)
Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC)
Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling (WCLAC)
Women’s Studies Centre
Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) – Palestine
Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) – Ramallah
Organisations

/

/Asociación Alnakba, Venezuela
Asociación Árabe Guatemalteca
Asociación Comunidad Palestina, Guatemala
Asociación Salvadoreña Palestina
Association Belgo-Palestinienne (ABP)
Association France-Palestine Solidarité (AFPS)
Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
Cine Fértil, Argentina
Comunidad Colombo Palestina
Comunidad Palestina de Chile
Fundación Cultural Colombo Palestina
Habitat International Coalition – Housing and Land Rights Network
Instituto Brasil Palestina (IBRASPAL)
Juventud Chileno-Árabe por Palestina de Valdivia
Mouvement contre le Racisme et pour l’Amitié entre les Peuples (MRAP)
Mouvement International de la Réconciliation (MIR)
Organización Solidaria con Palestina (OSP-Chile)
Plateforme des ONG françaises pour la Palestine
The Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy (PIPD)
The Palestinian National Institute for NGOs (PNIN)
Unión Árabe de Cuba
Unión General de Estudiantes Palestinos (UGEP-Chile)
Unión Palestina de América Latina (UPAL)
Youth Development Association (YDA)/

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