UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People

United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the

Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People

NGO ACTION NEWS. 23 October 2025

To access the links to all items listed, please click Here.

 

  • On 20 October, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights issued a press release to condemn the Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on 20 October, which killed 45 Palestinians, including 18 children and 8 women, and injured dozens of others. The NGO added that these renewed waves of airstrikes targeted civilian gatherings and temporary shelter sites without any military necessity or legitimate target, part of Israel’s policy of mass killings and deliberate targeting of civilians.

 

  • On 19 October, Gisha published an article to welcome the ceasefire in Gaza but warned that impunity for grave crimes risked their repetition, calling for accountability and an end to the Israeli occupation. The NGO added that civilians must be protected, human rights respected, including the right to freedom of movement, and the parties must respect the ceasefire not because of the agreement they signed, but because of their obligations under international law and basic morality.

 

  • On 17 October, BADIL released the position paper “The Decisive Plan: The Israeli Regime’s Blueprint for Colonial Expansion and Palestinian Subjugation”. According to the NGO, the paper exposed how Israel Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s “Decisive Plan”, presented in 2017, has been institutionalized by the Israeli regime as its operative strategy to impose full “sovereignty” over the West Bank.

 

  • On 17 October, Al Mezan issued a press release to mark International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, stating that Gaza was currently enduring a total collapse of humanitarian, economic, and social conditions as Palestinians continued to face extremely unsafe living conditions as public safety and sanitation services have all but disintegrated due to Israel’s systematic destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure. The NGO called on the international community to exert meaningful pressure on Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza and allow the entry of humanitarian aid through UN-led mechanisms, and to materially support the reconstruction of Gaza’s public and economic infrastructure, and the resumption of programs to combat extreme poverty in order to restore the livelihoods of Palestinians.

     

 

Africa, Asia and Europe

 

  • On 21 October, Law for Palestine published the article “Third State Submissions on the ICJ Opinion on Israel’s Obligations Concerning the Presence of the UN, IOs, and Third States in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”. The NGO informed that, following over six months of deliberations and drafting, the International Court of Justice was scheduled to deliver its Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of Israel in relation to the Presence and Activities of the United Nations, other International Organizations and Third States in and in relation to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, on 22 October 2025. In this article, the NGO collected and summarized the positions of third States presented to the ICJ, focusing on their submissions regarding Israel’s obligations under international law.

North America

 

  • On 21 October, J Street issued a statement welcoming a congressional letter led by U.S. Senator Schiff and signed by 46 Democratic Senators voicing opposition to potential Israeli annexation of the West Bank or Gaza. The NGO urged the U.S. government to make clear that any steps toward annexation were unacceptable and undermined progress made through the ceasefire, and to prioritize the pursuit of a renewed diplomatic effort to achieve a regional peace.

 

  • On 17 October, Human Rights Watch published the article “Ceasefire or Not, EU Should Keep Pressure on Israel to End Abuses”. The article informed that several EU governments have taken unilateral action in response to Israel’s escalating atrocities, helping generate pressure to reach a ceasefire. The NGO added that the EU should act to uphold international law as targeted sanctions and the suspension of the EU-Israel trade deal were also included in the annex to the September 2025 New York Declaration on the implementation of the two-State solution, spearheaded by France and Saudi Arabia. According to the NGO, while most EU states backed the UN resolution endorsing the declaration and several recognized a Palestinian state, few have acted on those commitments.

 

  • On 17 October, the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) published the webinar “The Starvation Regime and Plausible Deniability for War Crimes”. Ahmed Moor, FMEP Fellow, discussed with human rights attorney Sari Bashi and policy expert Bushra Khalidi about the current state of humanitarian aid in Gaza, the bureaucracy of restrictions – including the stated purpose of restricting aid – and whether international law continues to carry meaning after, according to the NGO, two years of genocide.

     

United Nations

 

  • On 30 October, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) will organize the virtual briefing “Safeguarding Human Rights, Ensuring Accountability and Ending the Unlawful Occupation of Palestine”. The briefing will feature presentations from the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territory Occupied Since 1967, Francesca Albanese; Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences, Reem Alsalem; Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, Ben Saul; as well as Commissioner of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, Chris Sidoti. The meeting will provide an opportunity to discuss the next collective steps and leverage the expertise of the invited speakers to inform action in the General Assembly. The event will be broadcast via UN Web TV.

 

  • On 21 October, the Head of the UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ajith Sunghay, called the escalating assault on Palestinians during the olive harvest season one of many Israeli aggressions designed to sever connection, to annex the land, to dispossess Palestinians, and facilitate the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements. He stated that two weeks into the start of the 2025 harvest, severe attacks by armed settlers against Palestinian men, women, children, and foreign solidarity activists have been reported.
    Mr. Sunghay added that direct land destruction was also escalating as settlers have burnt groves, chain -sawed olive trees, and destroyed homes and agricultural infrastructure, while new Israeli checkpoints and iron gates separated farmers from their farms, sometimes keeping farmers away until their crops failed.

 

  • On 20 October, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini called for the ceasefire in Gaza to be upheld. He added that UNRWA buildings across the Gaza Strip were transformed into shelters for displaced people seeking refuge and protection of the United Nations at the start of the war, and more than 800 people have been killed, and nearly 2,600 injured, in separate incidents affecting 300 UNRWA premises since the war began. Philippe Lazzarini further called for independent investigations into these breaches of international humanitarian law.

 

 

This newsletter informs about recent and upcoming activities of Civil Society Organizations working on the question of Palestine. The Committee and the Division for Palestinian Rights of the UN Secretariat provide the information "as is" without warranty of any kind, and do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, or reliability of the information contained in the websites linked in the newsletter.

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