Human Rights Organizations Start a Unified Campaign to Document War Crimes and Call on All Relevant Parties to Collaborate to Facilitate their Work

Since the first day of the latest Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, Human Rights Organizations: Ad-Dameer Organization for Human Rights, Al Haq Organization, The Palestinian Center for Human Rights and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, launched a unified campaign to document war crimes committed by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) during its 51-days onslaught on the Gaza Strip.
The four organizations recruited a crew comprised of 100 field workers, filed supervisors and data entry officers for field surveys and operations including filling forms, entering the data into their computerized databases in special forms to collect adequate information about victims including their death circumstances, house demolitions and the destruction of other civilian property.
Also these organizations prepared tens of copies of forms of collecting information about the violations in order to document fatalities by Israeli forces, and the injuries of children and women, the destruction of houses, industrial commercial facilities, and public facilities (schools, mosques, universities, governmental departments water wells, agricultural fields, animals and birds farms, targeting fishing boats, detainees and cars.
This campaign is being conducted at the same time as other field investigations and data and affidavit collection activities are undergoing.
The latter two activities aim at collecting data from the victims and eye-witnesses about their circumstances and the manner in which the IOF launched its attacks against civilians and civilian properties.
Meanwhile the four organizations are working on preparing files for suspected war crimes which occurred during the Israeli offensive in order to prosecute Israeli war criminals and bring them to justice.
These files will also be presented before the Independent International Commission of Inquiry, formed by the Human Rights Council in its 21st session,held on Wednesday 23 July 2014 in Geneva, Switzerland.
Human rights organizations emphasize that this work needs to be done in collaboration with the victims and witnesses and also with the relevant authorities so as to help the organizations to get the medical reports and maps and other necessary documents to support their documentation processes.
These data are essential to prepare such files of potential war crimes committed by the IOF.
The four organizations therefore call upon the relevant authorities and citizens to collaborate with them.
Finally Ad-Dameer Organization for Human Rights, Al Haq Organization, The Palestinian Center for Human Rights and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights reiterate their call on President Mahmoud Abbas to sign and ratify the Charter of Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court without any further delay, in order to be able to show and use hundreds of files before the Court and prosecute suspected Israeli war criminals.
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