ACTION ALERT For
Immediate Release
August 13, 2005
Demand
the US Adopt the 'Pinheiro Principles' on Refugee Rights Without Exception
According to a recent release from COHRE,
the United Nations is expected to adopt a sweeping series
of principles that urge governments everywhere to ensure
all refugees and persons displaced due to conflict and natural
disasters are entitled to return to, recover and reside
in their original homes, lands and properties.
Prepared by the UN's Special Rapporteur
on Housing and Property Restitution, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro
of Brazil, the 'Pinheiro Principles' will provide the first
consolidated global standard on the housing, land and property
rights of the displaced. The right to return is now understood
to
encompass not merely returning to one's country, but also
to one's original home, should one wish.
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return
Coalition, welcomes these developments and urges the United
States government in particular to adopt the United Nations
'Pinheiro Principles' as they apply to all refugees.
Specifically, we call on the United States
government to stop supporting and funding Israel's denial
of the natural, historical and national rights of Palestinian
refugees to return to their homes of origin and to restitution
of all their confiscated and destroyed properties. Such
actions
by the US are at variance with International Law and
numerous United Nations resolutions including and starting with UN resolution
194, first adopted in 1948.
We call on all our members, supporters
and people of conscience to call and write to President
Bush, Secretary of State Rice, and your Senators and Representatives
to urge the US government to adopt the United Nations 'Pinheiro
Principles' which ensure that all refugees and persons displaced
due to conflict and natural disasters are entitled to return
to, recover and reside in their original homes, lands and
properties. Ask them to apply such principles to all refugees
without exception and to include specifically Palestinian
refugees, who today represent the largest and longest suffering
refugee population in the world.
Talking
Points 1.
Urge the US government to adopt the United Nations 'Pinheiro Principles' to ensure
that all refugees and persons displaced due to conflict and natural disasters
are entitled to return to, recover and reside in their original homes, lands and
properties.
2. To apply such principle to all refugees
without exception and to specifically include Palestinian
refugees, who represent the largest and longest suffering
refugee population in the world today.
3. The US government should stop supporting
and funding Israel's denial of the natural, historical and
national rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their
homes of origin and to restitution of all their confiscated
and destroyed property.
4.
Such actions by the US government are at variance with International Law and numerous
United Nations resolutions including resolution 194, first adopted in 1948 and
reaffirmed almost every year since then. 5. If successful,
such attempts by the US government would set a disastrous precedent in International
Law. CALL, EMAIL, AND FAX YOUR LETTERS TO *President
George W Bush The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington,
DC 20500 Email: president@whitehouse.gov Phone: 202-456-1414 Fax: 202-456-2461 *Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice U.S. Department of State 2201 C Street NW Washington,
DC 20520 Email: http://contact-us.state.gov/ask_form_cat/ask_form_secretary.html or
http://contact-us.state.gov/ask_form_cat/ask_form_foreign.html Tel: 202-647-4000
or 1-800-877-8339 (Federal Relay Service) Fax: 202-261-8577 *
Contact information for your Representatives and Senators, go to: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt?command=congdir House
members can be reached through the Capitol switchboard toll free at: 1-877-331-2000 Letters
in the US may be faxed online via: http://www.tpc.int/sendfax.html
Please cc your correspondence to Alerts@Al-Awda.Org
Text of the 'Pinheiro
Principles' in pdf format
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return
Coalition
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel: 760-685-3243
Fax: 360-933-3568
E-mail: info@al-awda.org
WWW: http://al-awda.org
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return
Coalition (PRRC) is the largest network of grassroots activists
and students dedicated to Palestinian human rights. We are
a not for profit tax-exempt educational and charitable 501(c)(3)
organization as defined by the Internal Revenue Service
(IRS) of the United States of America. Under IRS guidelines,
your donations to PRRC
are tax-deductible. |