HIC’s Housing and Land Right Network formally has submitted commentary on Israel’s periodic report to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) on that state party’s implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The current periodic review covers the period since Israel’s third periodic CESCR treaty review in 2014.

The report to the 64th CESCR Pre-Sessional Working Group (11–15 March 2019) covers “Israel’s Implementation of Covenant Rights and Obligations Related to Habitat.” The report provides a frame for coherence in the CESCR review of Israel, recall the consistency of CESCR questions and observation, without a corresponding state party effort. The 2019 review covers the last five years of presumed implementation of the Covenant, but reflects a pattern of breaches of the most fundamental nature. Still, many of these involve grave breaches of international humanitarian and criminal law norms.

The report follows the method embodied in the Covenant, first to establish the relevant Over-riding Principles to the particular ESC human rights. It focuses only on the habitat rights enshrined in Article 11 (housing, land, food, living conditions) but through the lens of self-determination and nondiscrimination

Then the report applies the theoretical rights and operational principles to interim developments inside the Green Line (1949 Armistice Lines) and in the oPt. It reviews recent legislative developments also through that lens and, on that basis of continuous and recent development, raises several issues and questions for the state party’s upcoming review.

Download the HIC-HLRN submission

Download HIC-HLRN’s cover letter to CESCR