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PHRO Profile
The Palestinian Human Rights Organization - PHRO is an
independent Human Rights NGO, established in 1997 and recognized in
Lebanon under registration no. 36/AD. The PHRO works for promoting,
protecting and defending the rights of the Palestinian Refugees in
Lebanon. The PHRO is member of the International Federation for Human
Rights (FIDH) and of the Euro Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN).
PHRO raises the awareness of the Palestinian Refugees as to their rights
in the international law and encourages the community to translate this
knowledge into legitimate peaceful campaign to obtain recognition of
civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights in Lebanon. PHRO
is a supporter of United Nations (UN) Resolution 194, and appeals for
its implementation and the end of the Palestinian territories'
occupation.
PHRO's initiatives are carried out on local, national, regional, and
international levels. The PHRO works to raise the profile of the
Palestinian Refugees, to address the discrimination against them and to
raise the awareness of human rights principles amongst both the refugee
and host communities.
The PHRO's working standards are presumed from the International Human
Rights Norms, Arab League Pacts, the Barcelona Process, the Association
Agreement (AA) between the EU and the Republic of Lebanon and its
related Action plan, and on UN Resolution 194 which calls for the Right
of Return.
The PHRO conducts its work through the following major programs:
Searching, Monitoring and Documenting Human Rights Violations; Human
Rights Education and Raising Awareness; Advocacy; and Dialogue. A
briefing about the main interventions within each program are
highlighted below:
Human Rights Education and Raising Awareness
The PHRO plans, prepares and conducts training programs and
activities, often in collaboration with other NGOs and educational
organizations. Recent areas of focus include:
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Raising awareness of Human Rights, Refugees Rights, Women’s and
Child's Rights, Monitoring and documenting Human Rights Violations:
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Peace education: Concept of Dialogue, Conflicts Resolution and
Prevention
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Democratic Means of Governance: Extracts from the Constitution
(Elections, Work, Property …), Public Services, General Orders and
how to fight corruption.
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Peaceful and Legal Means of Civil Struggles: UN & EU mechanisms of
protection, organizing and administrating advocacy and lobbying
campaigns.
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NGO Management: Developing Strategy and Fundraising Skills.
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Training of Trainers: introduce skills and provide mechanisms for
trainers in the field of raising awareness in human rights, peace
education, democratic means of good governance, peaceful and legal
means of civil struggle, and advocacy skills.
Monitoring
Within this program, the PHRO’s network of human
rights monitors document individual and group human rights violations
cases in the Palestinian refugee camps and gatherings in Lebanon. These
efforts are a part of an overall aim to: 1) keep track of the pressures
exerted by the host state and the political parties which govern camps,
and 2) strengthen refugee voices in the face of refugee rights and human
rights infractions. The PHRO attempts to back cases and bring solutions
to alleviate daily suffering and to bring about change in the
socio-economic conditions of refugees. It is noteworthy to mention that
this program observes the violations that the Palestinian Prisoners
(males and females) suffer from within the Lebanese Prisons. Monitoring
reports are published individually and also feature in both the Arabic
and English and are available on the PHRO website. The Searching section
within this program is dedicated to conduct research on areas specific
to the current legal and socio-economic status of Palestinian refugees
in Lebanon, and to produce reports on its findings. Searching is carried
out through methods including fact-finding missions in the field,
interviews, and information from various actors and groups in both
Lebanese and Palestinian society in the country. The Searching reports
are disseminated widely to enhance the understanding of the situation of
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Advocacy
The PHRO’s advocacy program targets the local and international
community to raise their awareness about the Palestinian refugees
situations in Lebanon, particularly the social and economic rights, as
well as the discriminations they face. The PHRO always hold persuading
meetings at local and international decision making levels where we call
for resolving this dire situation and deprivation from human rights.
awareness of the discrimination facing Palestinian refugees in Lebanon
and resolve the. In particular, the PHRO advocacy efforts are directed
through:
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Awareness: The PHRO regularly hosts
foreign delegations visiting Lebanon and helps to educate them on
the situation of Palestinian refugees in the country. The PHRO also
conducts advocacy visits abroad to gain recognition at
decision-making levels in the EU, UN and the international
institutions of the discriminative aspects against the Palestinian
Refugees in Lebanon.
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Conferences, Seminars and Workshops: The
PHRO in cooperation and/or collaboration with Local, Regional and
International NGOs organises events to encourage networking between
representatives of partner NGOs, civil society, academia and
governmental bodies, with the aim to form solutions to ease the
plight of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.
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Persuading: The PHRO coordinates with
local NGOs and youth groups' advocacy activities which help to
further the awareness of human rights and civil rights issues that
affect Palestinian refugees. On an international level, the PHRO
appeals for support to have international law enforced in Lebanon
(as it is deemed to take precedent in the Lebanese Constitution) and
encourages the international community to have the Palestinian
refugee situation a continuing topic in any partnerships with
Lebanon. In addition, the PHRO encourages international human rights
organisations to play a larger role in supporting the quest for
civil rights of Palestinian refugees.
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Publications: The PHRO communicates the
situation of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon to the local and
international community through its Arabic and English publications
(Press Release, Reports, Executive Summaries, Concepts Notes,
Position Papers …etc)
Dialogue In order to narrow
the gap between the Palestinian and Lebanese societies, bring about more
integration of the two communities, and as a preparation towards holding
the Palestinian - Lebanese Dialogue titled “Truth leading to
Reconciliation”, the PHRO conducted over 4 successive days during
September and October 2005 a Palestinian Debate Meeting titled “What do
Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon Want?" where the participants whom
exceeded 120 representatives from Civil Society Organizations (Civil
Associations), popular and syndical Unions and Organizations/Committees
and Leagues, representatives from UNRWA, intellectuals, journalists and
clerics, as well as social and cultural figures and Members in the
Palestinian National Council took part in the meeting’s proceedings
which included two main topics:
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What do we want from and to each other as
Palestinians?
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What do we want from other parties?
The Palestinian Debate Meeting and the ongoing
dialogues and discussions with Parliamentary Blocks’ representatives
and Decision Makers and Influentials are part of an ongoing program
on “Dialogue towards conflict resolution” initiated by PHRO since
2004. As a first step towards resolving the tension between the two
communities, and since the PHRO assumes working with Youth, we
accomplished the project titled "The Lebanese and Palestinian Youth
Dialogue on Conflict Resolution" in partnership with two Lebanese
Associations where its initiatives were crowned by publishing an
Analysis Study about the challenges and difficulties that faced this
dialogue and methodologies to coping with it.
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